SPINE News

[h3]Hello, Tensor Citizens![/h3][p][/p][p]Throughout this whole Development Blog series, we’ve always described SPINE as cinematic, where every level feels like a short action movie. But here’s the question: how do we make it feel that way without taking control away from you?[/p][p][/p][p]In today’s devblog, we’re diving into one of the boldest design challenges we’ve taken on in SPINE development: building what our Game Director, Dmitry Pimenov, calls an "action movie within a game." The result is our Intellectual Camera System. It doesn’t just follow the action. It shapes the scene, supports the flow of combat, and knows when to get out of your way.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]🎬 Action That Stays Playable[/h3][p]Let’s face it: cinematic games often shine the brightest when you’re not even touching the controller. But that’s not how we wanted SPINE to feel.[/p][p]From day one, our goal was to make every dramatic moment fully playable — from rooftop duels and train fights to every takedown. You’re not watching the movie. You’re making it happen.[/p][p][/p][p]So we decided to treat our in-game camera like a real object, not just a functional viewfinder. One of our favorite moments? When Redline finishes a wall run and spins into a close-quarters takedown, the camera slides into a low over-the-shoulder angle, just like in a classic Hong Kong shootout. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]"From the start, we wanted players to feel like they’re part of a live-action scene, not just watching it happen, so the camera had to feel like it was breathing with the action, like a real piece of cinema gear."
— Dmitry Pimenov[/p][p][/p][p]Our Intellectual Camera System has momentum. It always reacts. For some cases, we even mocapped real camera movement with cinema professionals to capture that realistic feel — the tiny shakes, the imperfect movements, the breathing parallax. All of it adds life.[/p][p][/p][h3]🎥 What Is the Intellectual Camera System?[/h3][p]At its core, it’s a smart system that constantly evaluates what’s happening and picks the best way to show it. We calculate enemy visibility, choose a tactical environment that is useful to the player at the moment, try to avoid obstacles, and frame key actions like you would in a real movie.[/p][p]Here’s a glimpse of what it considers every frame:[/p]

• [p]Which shoulder gives the clearest view?[/p]
• [p]Is the player surrounded or flanking?[/p]
• [p]Will the camera clip through geometry if we rotate here?[/p]
• [p]Should we push in slightly to emphasize a finisher?[/p]

[p][/p][p]It’s all about keeping the action readable, responsive, and cinematic at the same time.[/p][p]Players always have the option to override. The moment you nudge the right stick, full manual control returns. But internal testing shows most players don’t even think about it — they just feel that it's working. Many of them forget about camera controls, immersing completely into the cinematography of our combat.[/p][p][/p][h3]🎯 Balancing Style and Control[/h3][p]To get it right, we partnered with a real director of photography. He helped us break down why movie cameras feel alive, and we baked that logic into gameplay.[/p][p]We simulate natural camera behavior, including inertia, subtle movement lag, slow push-ins, and realistic positioning, just like in real life.[/p][p]
[/p][p]"Even the imperfections of a real camera add this feeling of authenticity. A slight parallax, a low angle, a moment of instability — that’s what makes it feel alive." — Dmitry Pimenov [/p][p][/p][p]We spent a lot of time tuning the field of view, zoom behavior, and blend timings. When do we take control away from the player? How can we avoid this? All of this was tested across dozens of combat scenarios.[/p][p][/p][h3]🧠 Built from the Ground Up in Unreal Engine 5[/h3][p]We don’t rely on stock camera systems. Everything is built by us, using Unreal Engine 5’s Blueprint system.[/p][p]That means our combat and boss designers and animators can jump in and prototype directly. The camera logic is fully modular — we have different behaviors for boss fights, group encounters, scripted events, staged combat encounters, and finishers.[/p][p]For example:[/p]

• [p]During boss fights, the camera focuses on telegraphing bosses’ attacks, and gives extra breathing room for the arena.[/p]
• [p]With multiple enemies, it prioritizes tactical information and threat visibility, and dynamically adapts to flank movements, blending seamlessly into various abilities and finishers.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Blueprints gave us speed and flexibility. Our animation software, Cascadeur, gave us great character movements. Unreal gave us the tools to bring everything together, from logic blocks to visual polish.[/p][p][/p][h3]🎞 Inspired by the Greats[/h3][p]The system wouldn’t exist without the games that inspired us. Uncharted 4’s prison fight. Sifu’s grounded takedowns. Marvel’s Spider-Man and its smart post-effects. We studied all of it.[/p][p][/p][p]And then we started to ask questions: what if we place the camera in the middle of our combat design? What if it moved like it knew what you were about to do, and what you wanted to see?[/p][p]That’s how we ended up with advanced camera movement blending, dynamic shoulder swaps, reactive FOV shifts, and finisher cameras that frame Redline like she’s in a high-octane action flick.[/p][p][/p][h3]🔜 What’s Next?[/h3][p]We’re still tuning. Still testing. Still adding new scenarios. Every new boss, every new level gives us more opportunities to refine how the camera moves, reacts, and supports you.
So the next time you land that slow-mo headshot, know that the camera saw it coming.[/p][p]Want more behind-the-scenes?[/p]

• [p]SPINE DevBlog: Spinemations[/p]
• [p]SPINE DevBlog: Bosses[/p]
• [p]SPINE DevBlog: Cinematic Narrative[/p]
• [p]SPINE DevBlog: Art Direction
  
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I walked into SPINE at Summer Game Fest 2025 with high expectations. The neon-soaked streets of Tensor City seemed to offer a rich, vibrant world, and developer Nekki provided a glimpse of what it’s like to play as Redline—a graffiti artist turned revolutionary—in their upcoming cyberpunk action game. And I’m intrigued. After spending 20 minutes with this stylish gun-fu brawler, I walked away thinking Nekki has crafted something special—a game that doesn’t just pay homage to John Wick’s balletic violence but elevates it into an interactive art form.

SPINE places players in control of Redline, a red-haired artist whose life is turned upside down when she receives a sentient spinal implant. This isn’t just any cybernetic enhancement—the implant, simply called Spine, becomes her combat companion in the fight against the oppressive Tensor AI regime that controls her city. The premise immediately evokes The Matrix and Neo’s journey, but Redline’s story feels distinctly her own, rooted... Read more

[h2]Hello, Tensor Citizens.[/h2]

You’ve probably seen our latest trailer — and yes, SPINE’s gameplay looks sharper than ever. That’s thanks to how far we’ve pushed our Freeflow Combat system and polished our animations.

In this devblog, we sat down with our Head of Animation, Evgeniy Khapugin, to crack open the animation vault. From real stunt choreography to our in-house Cascadeur toolkit, here’s how we bring SPINE’s Gun Fu combat to life.



[h3]Motion Capture Meets Gun Fu[/h3]

SPINE is built to feel like a blockbuster action movie — fluid, fast, and grounded. To get there, we heavily rely on full-body mocap recorded with Xsens suits. For regular in-game actions, we often step into the suits ourselves. But for complex fights and stunts, we bring in professional stunt performers and martial artists who choreograph entire sequences combining martial arts and gunplay.
Evgeniy:

“We don’t capture moves in isolation. We record full fight scenes to preserve the momentum between strikes, dodges, and gunshots. That’s what gives SPINE its cinematic rhythm.”

We shoot mocap at over 120 FPS to catch every small detail, like a recoil twitch or a shift in balance mid-strike. The data stays mostly true to what’s captured, but we tweak the timing, impact, and arcs to hit just right in gameplay.


[h3]Freeflow Combat in Action[/h3]

SPINE’s Freeflow Combat System means every move — from melee to dodging to firing — has to transition smoothly. Animators blend the raw mocap data into responsive, gameplay-ready animations. It’s not just about cool-looking moves; it’s about keeping you in control without breaking the flow.
Boss fights especially push the system. We animate entire attack patterns, use visual telegraphs for timing, and fine-tune everything so combat feels fair but still intense.



[h3]Cascadeur & Custom Tools[/h3]

A key part of our workflow is Cascadeur — a physics-based animation tool Nekki has been building internally for over 15 years. It lets us polish mocap data precisely and add motion exaggeration without losing realism.
Evgeniy:

“One of the most useful tools in Cascadeur is animation unbaking — it simplifies mocap curves like Maya’s ‘Simplify Curve,’ but does it smarter. I also switch between Cascadeur and Maya depending on what I need.”

So our animation team uses Cascadeur extensively, but not strictly tied to it. Sometimes, there is a need for some flexibility, and we freely move animations between Cascadeur and Maya.
For example, Evgeniy has built scripts based on Richard Lico’s Space Switching animation principles. Whether cleaning up a weapon swing, adding impact shake to a hit, or adjusting an arm arc, he has a tool for it. We also use the Animbot plugin for Maya and MotionBuilder when needed — our pipeline is flexible by design.



[h3]UE5 and Smart Rigs[/h3]
SPINE runs on Unreal Engine 5, which gives us the graphical muscle and animation systems needed for cinematic gameplay. However, when it comes to animation, we work outside UE5 first.
Our character rigs are inspired by MetaHuman — we’ve streamlined them, cutting out unnecessary joints and constraints to allow for more customization. We also use a unified skeleton rig across characters, which makes retargeting and prototyping fast and efficient.



[h3]Why It Matters[/h3]
Every animation in SPINE, from a kick to a reload, is crafted with purpose. There are no floaty hits or canned reactions. It’s all about tight, cinematic combat that feels as good as it looks.
SPINE is deep in development, and animation is one of the most significant pieces of the puzzle. We’re constantly recording, refining, and testing to ensure that every moment hits just right.

Thanks for sticking with us — and keep that wishlist counter climbing.
Want more behind-the-scenes? Check out our previous dev blogs:

• SPINE DevBlog: Bosses
• SPINE DevBlog: Cinematic Narrative
• SPINE DevBlog: Art Direction

Don’t want to miss the next part of the blog?
Hit that follow button on our Steam page.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1731290/SPINE__This_is_Gun_Fu/

[h3]We’re excited to share the brand new gameplay trailer for SPINE![/h3]

This trailer showcases our unique take on a freeflow combat system designed to make you feel like the star of a true gun fu action movie. And that's not all. We’ve got two surprises for you:

• SPINE is now targeting Nintendo Switch 2
• Plus, we're introducing a brand new Hardcore Mode

Don’t miss it — watch the trailer now!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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