Horizon Zero Dawn is a 2017 action role-playing game by Guerrilla Games, set in a post-apocalyptic America where large robotic machines dominate the land. Humans live in tribes at different levels of technology, and the player follows Aloy, a young huntress searching for her past. Combat mixes ranged weapons, a spear and stealth, while a skill tree and an open world offer side quests and new abilities. To make the setting believable, developers consulted anthropologists about how a world decays and robotics experts about machine designs. Influences included Jared Diamond's non-fiction and the Studio Ghibli films Nausicaä and Princess Mononoke.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.