Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Junior Jr.
Oct 4, 2014

by sebmojo
Buglord
COMING SOON TO PS4 AND PC



Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is an upcoming action-adventure game developed by Ninja Theory based in Cambridge, UK. Their previous games include Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and DmC: Devil May Cry. The game tells the story of Senua, a Celtic warrior who journeys into the hell of her mental illness.

RELEASE DATE TBA 2016

Steam Store Page

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL2RhY2vJes

Now there's a 360° version of the trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz2xpeGkcRU



This is the first ever Independent AAA game that combines a AAA quality game with "more focused game design, lower price point and open development process that defines indie games." That means a AAA studio is working on a game without a publisher (except for Sony, but not exclusively) but is given more freedom and creativity to make a unique game experience. There are only 16 members who work in Ninja Theory...so this truly is an Indie AAA game.

The inspiration for the game was based on a newly discovered Roman goddess back in 2003 near Baldock in Hertfordshire. A faceless Senua figurine was discovered alongside a collection of gold and silver treasure. (Source | Source) Tameem Antoniades, co-founder and Chief Creative Ninja of Ninja Theory, discovered the article and was inspired to make a viking-themed game based around the character. This was the brief he wrote:

quote:

"To create a character of intense realism, beauty, anger and history. A mystery that drives the action and story forward revealing more and more seductive details as she descends deeper into a vision of hell. She is a challenging female form, not sexy, not skimpy, not young, not skinny, yet stunning, compelling and believable."

The main feature of the game is experiencing Senua's psychosis and mental illness, so the dev team had to research on these conditions with the Wellcome Trust, a charitable foundation that researches on health. The gameplay is mainly over-the-shoulder action like in God Hand and Dead Space, there's a real-time combat system which can be developed live even when the game is running. There's even real-time performance capture made possible by 3DLateral's facial rigging, facial animation from Cubic Motion, and everything is completely rendered in Unreal Engine 4 with additional support from Epic Games.



The game will be coming digitally to the PlayStation Store on PS4, it will also be available on PC (Steam).

The graphics are incredibly photo-realistic, the dev team aren't just using photogrammetry, they've teamed up with 3Lateral, who've previously done face rigs for Grand Theft Auto V, so Senua can make every possible facial expression. Facial capture from Technoprops. Ninja Theory created their own skin shader to simulate realistic skin. IKinema provided realistic gameplay animation. Motion capture from Xsens. Epic Games helped out to make cinematic lighting. It's so realistic, they just broke the uncanny valley by pushing the tech to its limits.

An original soundtrack from Andy LaPlegua, the frontman from the aggrotech band, Combichrist.

Ninja Theory are also creating something extra as well as the game (an art book possibly). You can check out the official merchandise from the Ninja Theory store.



Playlist

Development Diary 1: The Announcement
Development Diary 2: Art Inspiration
Development Diary 3: Senua
Development Diary 4: Creating the World
Development Diary 5: Business of Creation
Development Diary 6: Camera, Controls & Combat
Development Diary 7: Creating Cover Art
Development Diary 8: Prototyping Phase
Development Diary 9: The Music
Development Diary 10: Capturing Performance
Development Diary 11: First Playable
Development Diary 12: The Mind of Senua
Development Diary 13: Creating the Story
Development Diary 14: New Perspectives
Development Diary 15: Binaural Audio Tests
Development Diary 16: The Face of Senua
Development Diary 17: A New Body
Development Diary 18: The Shoot Set Up
Development Diary 19: Atmospheric VFX
Development Diary 20: Movement & Control
Development Diary 21: Making a Virtual Human | Real-time performance capture
Development Diary 22: Combat Revisited | Part 1

-

More Information:

http://www.hellblade.com/
http://www.ninjatheory.com/

Junior Jr. fucked around with this message at 08:57 on May 11, 2016

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Sindai
Jan 24, 2007
i want to achieve immortality through not dying
Well I sure hope NT figures out how to design fun action gameplay this time around. It's, what, at least their fourth try?

Stick Figure Mafia
Dec 11, 2004

I really enjoy the development diaries for this.
And oh who cares if it has lovely gameplay I just hope it gives us a batshit goofy story and characters like Heavenly Blade again.
Either way I'll probably just watch it all on youtube like I did that game.

PaletteSwappedNinja
Jun 3, 2008

One Nation, Under God.
Why doesn't this studio just make walking simulators or Telltale ripoffs or something? They're clearly better equipped to do that than poo poo out another middling action game.

Tenzarin
Jul 24, 2007
.
Taco Defender
Heavenly blade was fun that first playthrough.

Junior Jr.
Oct 4, 2014

by sebmojo
Buglord
You can now watch the trailer in 360°. Pre-orders are yet to be announced.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK
Sep 11, 2001



Stick Figure Mafia posted:

And oh who cares if it has lovely gameplay

apparently everyone who didn't their previous games

  • Locked thread