Female Hero of Killzone Dev's New PS4 IP Inspired by Game of Thrones' Ygritte

Killzone developer Guerrilla Games' has shared new insight into the inspirations for Aloy, the female main character for its upcoming new IP, Horizon: Zero Dawn. In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine (via GamesRadar), game director Mathijs de Jonge said Guerrilla drew inspiration for Aloy from other strong female leads in franchises such as Terminator and Game of Thrones.

"We felt we had quite an original composition and combination of elements with the robots and the nature, so we also felt like it needed an original and strong character to go with that," de Jonge said. "One of the directions we were very interested in was a character like Sarah Connor in Terminator, Ripley in Alien, or, more recently, Ygritte from Game Of Thrones; very strong female characters. That's where we started."

Horizon was announced during Sony's E3 briefing last month. The ambitious-sounding game has a full day/night cycle and players will get to explore forests, mountains, and "atmospheric ruins of a bygone civilization." Oh, and there are also robot dinosaurs.

PlayStation president of Worldwide Studios recently said that, in the early stages of Horizon's development, the company wondered if having a female protagonist--which was always Guerrilla's plan--might be "risky." Because Horizon was such a major project, Sony even conducted focus tests to see how people would react.

Horizon is not the only AAA game in development with a female lead, as DICE's Mirror's Edge Catalyst casts players as the free-running hero Faith. In addition, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Dishonored 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops III give you the option of playing as a woman.