Hellblade 2 developers are setting things on fire in the name of research

Hellblade 2 developer Ninja Theory has turned to practical effects to get the highest level of detail in its upcoming game as possible. 

A short behind the scenes video shared to the company’s official Twitter account (via Gamespot) shows members of the Hellblade 2 team setting what appears to be a piece of Senua’s clothing on fire with the caption: "Sometimes to create, you must first destroy"

It’s for a good cause though; as a follow-up tweet reveals, this is done in order to take high-quality photos of the clothing to use as reference when creating assets in the game.  “It's high-quality scans like this that will help us reach an amazing level of detail in our games,” the tweet reads along with a photo of a scan of the clothing which shows every wrinkle and scorch mark in the material. 

The studio’s Twitter account is full of short development insights like this, as is the profile of Melina Juergens, who is the person partially responsible for bringing Senua to life. Juergens previously shared a short video of themselves attending a costume scan at Ninja Theory. 

Despite being announced during E3 2019, Ninja Theory says that Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 is still yet to enter "full production," as of June 2021. According to the studio’s founder Tameem Antoniades, Hellblade was a very special game to the studio and so "[the team] wanted to do something extra special and so we're making our lives as difficult as possible in that pursuit." Perhaps that explains why Ninja Theory is happy for its office to smell like burning clothes for the rest of the day. 

Can’t get enough of these behind-the-scenes updates? Take a look at Ninja Theory’s new cloud forming technology for Senua’s Sega: Hellblade 2.