Hellblade (PS4) - Ninja Theory

[Elandyll]

Ninja Theory brings Hellblade first on PS4.


The game will be about a Female Heroine, Senua, involved in what appears some quest that might lead her to nothing other than Hell itself. The setting is said to be "Mythological Celtic".
On their twitter feed, Ninja Thoery has described the game as

"a game that feels and looks AAA, but will be smaller, lower priced and delivered independently."

Hellblade is developped with the Unreal 4 engine, and the music in the trailer is "Just like Sleep", by Passarella Death Squad.

Hellblade Gamescom 2014 Annoucement Trailer {Ninja Theory PS4 Game} - YouTube

That girl is strangely familiar ...



Heavenly Sword
Hell Blade


Ninja Theory...


http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/...-ninja-theory/

Hi, my name is Dom Matthews and I’m the Product Development Ninja at Ninja Theory. It’s a great pleasure to be posting on PlayStation.Blog to tell you about our new game Hellblade, which has just been announced at the PlayStation Gamescom press conference.

For those who aren’t aware of Ninja Theory, we are the UK based developer that created DmC: Devil May Cry, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and PS3 exclusive Heavenly Sword.
Over the course of the last 14 years we’ve developed three key strengths that define our games: ninja-class combat, strong character stories, and a unique art vision. In our new digital game, Hellblade, we want to take these three key strengths to the next level. Hellblade will be an experience focused on delivering a deep character in a twisted world, with brutal uncompromising combat.

We’re calling Hellblade an “Independent AAA” game, by which we mean that it will be developed and published independently but with all the quality and production values of any AAA game on the market.
Why have we chosen to self-publish this game? Certain types of game are very difficult to make for AAA retail without being watered down or otherwise compromised for a mass audience. This is especially true of sword-based combat games or games of a distinctive style or unusual subject matter. We want to make a smaller, more focused game experience that is uncompromising in its combat, art and story, and deliver this digitally at a lower price.

The announcement trailer that we’ve just released is intended to give you a taste of the AAA quality that we’re planning on delivering, and to also introduce you to the Hellblade world, which is based on Celtic myth. The trailer is focused on Senua, Hellblade’s protagonist as she embarks on a very personal journey through a hellish underworld.
We have announced the game unusually early. This is a deliberate move: we want to share our development journey with you, the fans; to develop Hellblade right in front of your eyes so you can see just how we go about making games.

At the heart of this is http://www.hellblade.com/, where you can find the latest from development. Throughout the project we’ll be sharing developer diaries, concept art, design documents, tutorials and work-in-progress of the game being put together. If you hop over to Hellblade.com now you’ll see some concept art from Hellblade as well as an introduction video to the project. You’ll also see a lot more information about “Independent AAA”, and in the spirit of openness, we’ve posted a lot of documentation on a couple of Ninja Theory games that were planned, but never made it into production.

To finish my post, I want to say that it is incredibly exciting for me and the team at Ninja Theory to be creating Hellblade. Hellblade is being made for our fans. Fans of Heavenly Sword, Enslaved and DmC: Devil May Cry. If any of our games have found a special place in your heart, then our aim is that Hellblade will too.

Unusually early ... 2016 game I guess?

[Elandyll]

[ariakon]

That looks f***ing great, especially for those of us (ahem, me, ahem) who loved Heavenly Sword and always wanted a sequel.

[detective392]

Looks interesting. Need to see gameplay first.

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by ariakon

That looks f***ing great, especially for those of us (ahem, me, ahem) who loved Heavenly Sword and always wanted a sequel.

I too loved Heavenly Sword (with the weird Sixaxis sequences aside), so I am pretty stocked about this. The only thing that would make me want this even more is if Anna Torv was to be involved in some way


Additional Art work:

[Show spoiler]

[Elandyll]

The story of Ninja theory, which they just shared bit by bits in their tweeter feed, is very touching and I think emblematic of the hardships of many small studios today who wish to remain independent.

https://twitter.com/NinjaTheory

Here is a recap in chronological order (leading to the reveal of Hellblade)

After Kung Fu chaos (2003 - Xbox/ MS Published) we concepted a game called Kung Fu story.

Kung Fu Story never happened. At the time it was deemed to have limited appeal by publishers.

There is a pattern in AAA development. You have to go big or go home.

The required feature list for AAA games is massive and is just getting bigger.

Years of development experience has been lost in developers who haven't been able to go big.

In 2004 we decided to go big. With Heavenly Sword (PS3 / Sony Published).

But at the time, not many people thought we could make a big game.

We were independent and within days of running out of money when Heavenly Sword was signed.

After HS we we're out in our own again. This is when we began to think about Enslaved.

We signed Enslaved with Namco Bandai. We improved efficiency massively in making Enslaved.

If we could have made an Enslaved sequel, we would. But we didn't own the IP.

DmC launch trailer. This was a personal project of mine that still shoots adrenaline through my body whenever I see it. (Dom)

We had released 3 AAA games. 79, 82 and 86 meta critic. But no IP.

After DmC, digital was rising and bets on AAA were few and far between.

After DmC we wanted to test our next-gen capabilities. We did this in a video short internally called Beautiful Corner.

We also wanted to test our hand at mobile development, so a small team made Fightback.

We learned a lot and it's safe to say that the mobile market is tough.

We also prototyped online melee combat. We took the concept around to publishers but it wasn't picked up.

We then prototyped a next-gen title, aiming to hit the AAA required feature list. This game was called Razer.

I'm finding this quite cathartic.

We just showed the Razer trailer, which received a great round of applause.

And a gameplay pre-vis video for Razer.

In Razer players would come together to battle a monster that has taken over the planet.

Razer didn't survive the greenlight process

We'll be sharing all of the Razer materials, including all design documents, online next week.

The conditions of the AAA market mean that creativity can be restricted.

People will always want to play creative games.

We will make a game that feels and looks AAA, but will be smaller, lower priced and delivered independently.

We will be announcing our Independent AAA game here at Gamescom. Today.

We owe a lot to our publishers and are working on several projects with publishers. This isn't a "stick it to the man" talk.

We're going to lift the curtain on development. Sharing as much as we can with you.

End of the talk. Thanks for reading.

[Groo The Perverted]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

That girl is strangely familiar ...



Heavenly Sword
Hell Blade


Ninja Theory...

Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Ninja Theory: Hellblade Has Nothing to Do With Heavenly Sword

When Hellblade was revealed at gamescom 2014 last week, a lot of people thought the same thing we did; Heavenly Sword 2. Not only does Hellblade’s protagonist Senua look like Kai from Heavenly Sword, people also pointed out that both games have similar names, too; Heavenly/Hell Sword/Blade. Speaking to Joystiq, Ninja Theory’s Dominic Mathews has said that its upcoming title has nothing to do with its previous project.

It’s a brand new IP. Senua is a new character. It’s not tied to Heavenly Sword at all. I saw someone describe the name as someone just putting Heavenly Sword into Thesaurus.com and going, oh it’s Hellblade. It’s not something where we’ve gone, yeah, let’s make people think it is this. We really like Heavenly Sword. We loved making that game. So it’s actually more just we like making female protagonists that look in a certain style. And we like swords. And we like hell. It’s more that. I know it might appear like we’ve just gone, let’s just stick it in a thesaurus…

When asked if Hellblade was a spiritual successor to Heavenly Sword, Mathews was quick to deny that as well.

No. I wouldn’t say it’s the spiritual successor to Heavenly Sword, because that has certain expectations. I think it’s safer to say if people enjoyed Heavenly Sword, then the aim is they’ll enjoy Hellblade, too. If we said it was the spiritual successor, there would be an expectation there is a story link or a certain type of gameplay or level design. It’s a new IP. It’s a brand new game. It’s brand new characters. It’s a brand new world. It’s not linked at all. But if you like Heavenly Sword, like Enslaved and like what we did, then the aim is you’ll like this, too.

So, to be perfectly clear, this isn’t Heavenly Sword 2, neither game’s protagonist has anything to do with the other, the game’s title is not another take on ‘Heavenly Sword,’ and Hellblade is no spiritual successor. It’s a new IP. Capiche?

[Elandyll]

Hellblade is now hitting the Prototyping phase, after the concept phase.

http://www.hellblade.com/?p=17595
Here are the phases the game will go through:

Concept
Prototype
Vertical Slice
Consolidation
Production
Polish
Mastering

There is a -lot- to read, so I won't copy / paste the whole thing, but let's just say that it makes for a fascinating read for anyone interested at an in depth look at a Videogame production cycle.

Now as per the game itself, I guess I was probably too optimistic in hoping for a late 2015 release. Let's just hope that we will see the game sometime in 2016 (gameplay hopefully shown at E3 2015 in some form).

Unfortunately, still plenty of time for the game to be cancelled at some point down the line if things do not go as well as planned for NT. Crossing fingers!

PS for Groo: Of course they would deny the obvious similarities between projects... Heavenly Sword is a fully Sony owned IP, and Hellblade is an IP meant to be multi platform from the ground up (even if it will debut on PS4 -and probably PC-).

[Elandyll]

Development Diaries so far:

Diary1: The Announcement

YouTube

Diary2: Art Inspiration

YouTube

Diary3: Senua

YouTube

Diary4: Creating the World

YouTube

Diary5: Business of Creation

YouTube

Diary6: Camera, Controls & Combat

YouTube

Diary7:Cover Art

YouTube

Diary8: Prototyping

YouTube

[ariakon]

I love how they keep decrying the comparisons to Heavenly Sword and yet the more they show of the game the more I think of it as a heavily Western-focused Heavenly Sword...

[owa]

It looks great and I think it's a bonus it is by the guys that did Heavenly Sword. If it is similar, that's a major plus in my book. Too bad it's not a sequel though since Heavenly Sword was one of my favorite games. Really looking forward to checking this one out. It is surprising it is independent.

[Derb]

Looks great.

If it is a digital release, I would hope they'd offer a limited physical release or some collector's edition.

[Zivouhr]

Looks cool.

[Elandyll]

PS Access Interview: All you need to know about Hellblade

YouTube

[Elandyll]

Development Diary 9: The Music

YouTube

There were no Dev videos in March, partially due to GDC and losing two important team members (Their character Artist and their Art Director - but they hired a new Art Lead with Hugues Giboire who worked with them previously on none other than -Heavenly Sword-), but they have two new noteworthy blog postings in March:

Enemy Art: A New Direction
http://www.hellblade.com/?p=18004




And

Vertical Slice (they have finished the Prototyping phase)
http://www.hellblade.com/?p=18032


And for April:

The Importance of Anatomy
http://www.hellblade.com/?p=18046

...The anatomy of a character tells a story. Senua isn’t a typical Heroine like Wonder Woman but instead is a warrior. It is important to convey that Senua’s body has been forged through a lifetime of travel of combat. She is a fighter, wielding a heavy sword, so as a result her back, arms and shoulders are strong with defined muscle. But she isn’t a body builder, so her muscles are not entirely symmetrical, nor does she have well defined muscle all over her body. Her wielding of a sword with one arm needs to be justified with visible hard-working muscle, but at the same time kept within the realms of realism.

At this point it still looks very unlikely that we will see the game release before early/ mid 2016, but we might see the "Vertical Slice" at E3. Crossing fingers.

[detective392]

Is this a PSN only game? 5th developer diary made it seem like it. If it is, I'll be skipping it.

Hoping we get a disc version as it looks and sounds good. Should also be getting gameplay at E3.

[Elandyll]

Being from an Indie dev, and published (apparently) as an episode game, I'd say there is a 99% chance it will be Digital only, at least at first.

If the game is really good, and they secure a publisher, we may eventually see a Retail release of all the episodes down the road, but I wouldn't necessarily count on that.

[Elandyll]

Gameplay reveal planned for June 10th, right before E3 (and I'm sure they'll be also featured in the Sony presser).
Very excited by what I'm seeing and their approach. Unless it's a total mess (or insanely expensive), I definitely plan on supporting them at launch.

https://twitter.com/NinjaTheory/stat...77187122360322

Also, new dev diary entry (and posting the 10th as well):

Dev DIARY 11: First Playable

http://www.hellblade.com/?p=18115

In our new Development Diary we show the process behind the creation of the Hellblade first playable:

YouTube

Dev DIARY 10: Capturing Performance

http://www.hellblade.com/?p=18063

As a studio we strive to create believable characters that you as a player care about. Fundamental to our approach is using performance capture to bring our characters to life.Today we are sharing a new development diary video focused on Hellblade’s performance capture approach.

YouTube

[Elandyll]

Just confirmed today that they are right on schedule for delivery, and they will show Gameplay tomorrow

https://twitter.com/NinjaTheory/stat...84078148829184

#Hellblade gameplay and more coming tomorrow!

[detective392]

Sweet, looking forward to some gameplay. Thought it would be at the Sony E3 conference though.