The developers of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 are burning things in order to more carefully simulate what burned things look like in games. Or something like that. Ninja Theory tweeted about burning pieces of fabric in the name of experimentation, which should give us some idea of what’s going to appear in the next Hellblade game — things are going to be set on fire, possibly including (but not limited to) Senua herself.
Ninja Theory is at the moment working on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, the sequel to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. It was originally announced in 2019 and was revealed to be coming to then-unknown Xbox Series X, but we weren’t given any kind of a release window. We don’t even really know what the game’s going to contain. We know the unwell heroine Senua will return, but nothing much else besides that, but knowing that this is what Ninja Theory is working on is what ties this tweet to the new Hellblade game.
The tweet showing the burning says, “Experimenting with textural effects on clothing.” It’s not exactly clear what they’re burning, but it looks like a leather bodice similar to what Senua would be wearing in the game. But given that the trailers make it look as though Senua will be battling even worse demons than she did in the first game, it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s taken a bit of fire damage to her jerkin.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is projected to be launched on the Xbox Series X/S, which has very high graphics quality depending on the TV it’s hooked up to. This means that it’s likely the easiest way for the developers to make things like burned fabric look realistic is to use actual burned fabric. A follow-up tweet shows off the scan of the burned fabric and how it would look in the game, saying, “It’s high quality scans like this that will help us reach an amazing level of detail in our games.”