Daisy Ridley's Star Wars stunt double helped rebuild Hellblade's combat

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Games run into problems during production all the time. So it shouldn't be surprising that Hellblade from Heavenly Sword and DmC developer Ninja Theory would likewise hit some snares. What is surprising is how the team got around the obstacles impeding their progress:

Rather than rebuild problematic animations from scratch, Ninja Theory hired Chloe Bruce, the stunt double for Daisy Ridley on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Cali Nelle, a stuntman whose work can be seen in films like Kingsman: The Secret Service, for motion capture work. This wasn't a game built for mocap, but the team is working to incorporate it with the help of some very talented people.

Faced with a combat system that felt clunky and mechanical, but lacking the time or number of animators it would take to completely retool the gameplay (just two animators handle everything heroine Senua does), Ninja Theory instead turned to Bruce and Nelle. The final results of the experiment haven't been shown just yet, but judging from this behind-the-scenes look at the mocap sessions, it looks like things will be far more smooth and exciting.

Hellblade will be self-published by Ninja Theory on PS4 and PC later this year.

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Sam Prell
Sam Prell
Former News Editor

Sam is a former News Editor here at GamesRadar+. His expert words have appeared on many of the web's well-known gaming sites, including Joystiq, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, and G4 Media, among others. Sam has a serious soft spot for MOBAs, MMOs, and emo music. Forever a farm boy, forever a '90s kid.