What you need to know
- Ninja Theory is sharing a new series of developer diaries about the development of the upcoming Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
- The first in this series shows how the team has used new technology to digitally recreate Iceland, while also discussing the challenges the team faced with the outbreak of the pandemic years ago.
- Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is currently in development for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Windows PC.
Out of the many games currently in the works at Xbox Game Studios, one of the most exciting for fans of story-driven games is Ninja Theory’s follow-up to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice.
First announced at the Game Awards 2019, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 takes place in Iceland. Kicking off a new series of developer diaries, Ninja Theory is discussing the development of the game, which uses Unreal Engine 5. In the first of these developer diaries, Ninja Theory discusses some of the challenges faced by developing through the pandemic that began in 2020, and how the team had to adapt. You can check out the full video below.
Ninja Theory scanned Iceland using drones, gathering data for photogrammetry. When the team eventually did visit Iceland, they spent 11 days traveling to 21 different locations around the country.
Outside of visiting Iceland, the team also talked about how they spent time carving different bones and totems, which were then scanned into the game.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is currently in development for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. There’s no release date right now, but like all Xbox first-party games, it’ll launch day one into Xbox Game Pass.
Windows Central’s take
I’m always a big fan of developers going deep into how they are building their games, so this stuff is interesting to watch. Hopefully we get more diaries on a regular basis, as well as getting to see just how Hellblade 2 is coming along.
