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SPINE at Gamescom & 'Future Games Show' New Trailer Premiere

[h2]Hello, Tensor citizens![/h2]

Brace yourselves—it’s time for the big guns.
The new SPINE trailer is dropping at the Future Games Show! 🚀

Mark your calendars: August 21st, 10 pm CEST.
Clear your schedules, and get ready to feast on some serious Gun Fu action!
We’re unleashing a storm:
💨Parkour
😈Boss fights
✨And, oh yeah, a couple (dozen) other surprises.

The link’s right here, custom-made for you. Smash that notification bell like it owes you money!

👇 Click the image, and let’s get it 👇




We're also joining the Business Zone of Gamescom 2024!

All of these days will be filled with chatting with industry peers & journalists, showing them what we're cooking! For sure we'll gonna have a couple of very busy days



Don't worry if you miss anything—we’ll keep you posted, and bring back a very special artifact from this event for our community😏

So be sure to subscribe!


See you there and stay Gun Fu!

SPINE Development Blog: Here's the story...

Cinematic. Dynamic. Depth.
These three words define the SPINE and its narrative.
In this blog, SPINE screenwriter Svetlana Stakhneva takes us through the challenges our team faced and the choices made to tell an important story. No spoilers!

[h3]Inspiration and Themes[/h3]
Our favorite films include Tarantino's work, The Matrix, Equilibrium, and the John Wick series. Every time we rewatch them, we ask ourselves:
What if we weren’t just viewers but participants?
What would it feel like to be a badass movie hero, winning brutal fights and taking part in cinematic shoot-outs? Not just firing cool guns and punching bots in the face but actually being in the film.

That's why, when developing SPINE's narrative, we strive to tell a true action story set in a cyberpunk world, inspired by the best examples of the genre—from the original Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell to Black Mirror.



The main theme of SPINE is the impact of technology on society. The game's world is dystopian, reflecting our kitchen-table conversations about how AI will change our lives.
Can we trust it? How will the state react to the inevitable changes?

No one will give you ready-made answers, but we’ll give you ground for thinking, immersing players in a world where these questions are integral to the plot.



[h3]World Creation[/h3]
The world of SPINE is built on a foundation of reflection and analysis. Every detail, from locations to characters, is created with the central themes and issues we explore in mind and to capture the game's cinematic feel.
Tensor City’s streets are infused with technology yet remain intimate and relatable. We aim to portray a realistic dystopian future where technology is ingrained in daily life, and dictatorship tries to hide behind a colorful but false facade.



We establish the idea that technological progress doesn’t carry a negative connotation. Problems start when technological advantages are used by the wrong people. That’s why our world, despite its technological advancements, is drowning in violence, where everyone fights for survival every day.



Each element of the world, whether a high-tech neighborhood or a godforsaken slum, tells its unique story of ups and downs, reflecting the complex relationship between humans and technology.


[h3]Characters and Their Motivations[/h3]
If you read our previous Development Blog about SPINE’s Art Direction, you already know that much of the game's art direction is based on contrast. We follow the same principle in the narrative.

Redline embodies both our fears and hopes. Her relationship with the tactical combat implant, Spine, is a metaphor for how we learn to trust technology and AI. This dynamic runs throughout the story, allowing players to see how technology can become both an ally and an enemy.



On the opposite side is Tensor, the artificial intelligence that controls the city. This character is the quintessential fear of technology that can spiral out of control. But Tensor isn’t alone—he’s supported by the brutal dictator, The Judge, who is willing to do anything to maintain power. These characters aren't just antagonists; they reflect our fears and the real world's challenges.



But that’s just one interpretation. Some might say that Redline is the actual red line of resistance in a world dominated by a gray, bureaucratically boring Judge, and that's an equally appropriate characterization.

The characters in SPINE are living individuals whose traits and motivations are drawn from real life. We hope this makes them relatable and creates a deep emotional connection with players.

[h3]Plot and Narrative[/h3]
As we said at the beginning, we want to give players the opportunity to become action movie heroes. And if SPINE’s gameplay fully reflects the ‘action’ part, the other game elements must create the ‘movie’ feeling.

Here, movie language plays a crucial role in our development. It’s not enough for the camera to simply capture beautiful cinematic angles on the action. Its behavior must have a meaning that complements the scene and the whole story. Light and color must convey the atmosphere and feelings of the protagonist, while the environment and level design speak between the lines.

If you play carefully, you will realize that not only the characters but also their surroundings are telling the story. Pay attention to the camera's behavior, and you will notice that even the camerawork has a certain message.

All these elements should create an emotional experience. We want each player to live alongside the characters, sharing their pain, joy, and fear.



Let's take a small, spoiler-free example of a game mission.
Imagine, we want to convey the message that Redline is losing her last hope. It's like she's trying to grab onto a branch of a tree, but the swamp is inexorably trying to pull her down.

Then, all the elements of the game will work on it. On a level design part, the location itself prevents her from getting through it. Like the heroine, the player can't see the end, gets confused, and doesn't understand where to go. The light interferes with orientation, and the environment design pressures morale, increasing the sense of loss. Combat encounters don't allow for fast movement, no matter how much the player wants to, he has to wade through crowds of enemies.

Even the music on the location is visceral as if it's against the player. And, of course, the boss is the cherry on top of the feelings we want to evoke.

We use every tool and method to create a powerful and engaging narrative that holds attention while being a nail-biting cinematic action at the heart. That's why we’ve also opted for a linear plot in SPINE, giving us more control over story development and player experience.



[h3]Dialogs and Player Interaction[/h3]
Dialogs in SPINE aren't just a way to convey information to players. We believe they should reflect the characters' personalities, social status, and beliefs.

At the same time, we strive to keep the dialogs short and informative, so it don’t slow down the game's pace. That's why we fill them with emotions and humor, specific to each character. After all, it's hard to live in such a gloomy world without a sense of humor (and a gun behind your back).

Take Capo, one of the mafia big shots, whose concept art we already showed you in the previous Development Blog.



This flamboyant character loves music, high art, and performing. He is not very good at it but that doesn’t stop him. He speaks metaphorically at times but lacks literacy because he grew up in a slum.

He acts and speaks like he's on stage. His voice is melodic because he is a singer and actor at heart. He’s quite smart, which eventually makes him an important person in the Mafia, but his gang doesn’t always understand him, so he sometimes has to switch to a much clearer language. He may suddenly quote a song during a conversation and stuff like that.

In other words, Capo’s manner of speech is based on the context of his entire backstory and the environment he lives.

[h3]Challenges and Solutions[/h3]
Developing a narrative for SPINE is a constant challenge. We must consider many factors, from other departments' requirements to technical constraints. It's a team effort, where each idea goes through many stages of discussion and refinement. Sometimes this leads to compromises, but ultimately, it helps create a richer, more engaging story.

We encourage all team members to enrich the narrative, such as asking character artists to come up with their own additions to characters during the concept art stage of their development. In this way, the narrative, like a ball, jumps from one person to another, taking on a new life, being filled with details and emotions. The main thing here, of course, is not to lose the big picture. If the team is properly guided, the narrative begins to form the game's unique identity and draws players deeper into the world.

We’ve also started working with our community, asking for their input and involving them in the game’s creation. Recently, we held a contest on our Discord server (hop in, by the way) to get ideas on the name of the fight club in the game. We enjoyed this lively interaction with our players and plan to continue this practice to make our world more dynamic and exciting.

[h3]Future and Narrative Development[/h3]
The development and expansion of the SPINE universe are matters of the future. Right now, of course, we are focused on the game itself, but we already have great things happening and expanding the SPINE universe like the Webtoon Series SPINE: Bullet Dancers.

This year's partnership with Story Kitchen also promises to expand the SPINE universe, with a potential screen adaptation of our game on the horizon. But for now, we’re rolling up our sleeves and working hard to give you the coolest action story possible in our upcoming game!



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

SPINE Development Blog: Art of Gun Fu

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

As passionate gamers, we don't just develop games, we are part of the gaming community, and we are passionate about talking about the inner workings of game development. This passion, which we share with many gamers, fuels our desire to create games that truly resonate with gamers.

That's why we decided to tell you more about the development progress of SPINE’s various aspects in this blog.
Let's start with what all players see — our visual style, art direction, and of course, Redline's character art.



When creating Redline's appearance, we were primarily focused on the kind of character we wanted to play - not perfect, but appealing. Redline is an unusual girl — brave, courageous and determined. She's not afraid of risk because she's confident, even overconfident at times.
More often than not, however, she gets lucky and gets away with it. We wanted the image to match the main character herself - to be bright and rebellious but not trendy and neat. Life in the Old City is hard, so it would be wrong to create an image of a girl fixated on her appearance.

At the same time, Redline is characterized by self-expression through appearance — spikes on the jacket, patches, brightly colored hair.
We didn't want to make another plastic beauty, although this image is still popular in many other projects.
We think that Redline turned out to be alive and real. Such a girl can go against the whole world for the sake of what is important to her.

This is our approach to all aspects of character design. Characters' appearance should reflect their personality, history, and beliefs. At the end of the day, Redline is fighting the system, and that is the most important trait of her as a character.



There is a contrast between the people of the Tensor system and those who fight against it. Redline has many enemies, but the main antagonist in the game is the leader of Tensor's security forces, the Judge. It was important to develop them in parallel because their differences define each of them in many ways.

The Judge epitomizes the system: rigid, morally questionable, and seeing a selectively bright future. Despite his conservative nature, he embraces the latest technology, as seen in his implants and his own Spine. His image reflects formality, restraint and strict adherence to self-made traditions.
Redline is a passionate artist who protests against injustice and inequality in society. Young and energetic, she represents a future of personal freedom and lack of control.

The difference is noticeable:
the Judge's minimalist and slightly sinister outfit is in stark contrast to Redline's bright and joyful clothing. Her design uses bright reds and blacks to give the image a dynamic feel, while the Judge's colorless costume emphasizes his role as a villain in a soulless authoritarian system.
This way, the visual elements complement the narrative.



But inspiration doesn't just come from ideas and concepts.
Since we have a very diverse team of people of different ages and cultures, we thought it would be interesting if each of our artists brought some small details to the visual design of the game. Thus, environment art and characters were filled with features that make them lively and unique.

For example, that's how weighing scales from someone's childhood appeared in the Market you've seen in our latest gameplay teaser, the costumes of one of the opponents have details of Korean police equipment that the artist saw while on vacation, and so on. The world of cyberpunk is a post-cultural world, and it becomes much more beautiful and exciting when elements from different cultures are mixed in.



When talking about our world and surroundings, we can't help but mention our visual inspirations. Cyberpunk is a rich genre that includes Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Deus Ex, Cyberpunk 2077, Detroit: Become Human and many other amazing works. All of these projects are very inspiring to us, but we wanted to move away from the usual retrofuturism and make our visual language more modern, drawing on current trends in fashion, industrial and graphic design.



When we were thinking about the story, we decided to make it unique and realistic at the same time. We thought about what the near future would look like and how it would be different from what surrounds us today. We didn't want to create a world full of flying cars and cybernetic implants like in science fiction movies. Our main reference points were still action movies like John Wick and Equilibrium.

Since we are making a game about action movie experience, and Gun Fu is an action genre that originated in the East thanks to John Woo, eastern culture is one of the most important sources of inspiration. It's helpful that our team had a lot of experience creating games in that setting, and we tried to transfer it to SPINE.



The main goal here was to create a coherent world and set the visual style's boundaries and rules. The game's original concept included many elements, but not all of them have stood the test of time. For example, initially we decided to go with an active floor design with lights, panels, graphics and animation imprinted on it. However, we were not able to carry this into production, although the special attention to floor design is still present in SPINE.

By removing that feature, we added another — great visual details mixing graffiti and digital imagery. We want the characters and environments to work together — the characters to be distinguishable and the environments to not look pale. And if teams work separately, this is a challenge that can't be met.



So we had a lot of discussions and brainstorming sessions about art design - and as a result, detailed guidelines covering all these topics were born. The character guidelines include details such as the proportions of color palettes for different social groups, the nature of geometric shapes for costumes, weapons, even tattoos, makeup and accessories.



They helped us a lot in making choices during the development process, while having enough material to create sequels and expand the SPINE universe in the future. It's probably this attention to detail and world-building that has allowed us to create a successful series of games in the past and has brought SPINE to the attention of our current partners like Story Kitchen.
[hr][/hr]
This material is based on an interview with Art Director Alexander Nemov & Lead Character Artist Olga Ivanova for the Creative Bloq website.

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

SPINE Q&A: Ep. 1

Our city operates on the principles of open dialogue.
That's why we asked you on our socials to send us any questions you want to know about SPINE. The result was unexpected — we received more than 300 Qs across Discord, X (formerly Twitter) & YouTube.
It took us a little time to process such a number, but we selected the hottest one and addressed them to SPINE producer Dmitry Pimenov.

This is our first Q&A episode, so let's get down to business!

  • Can we expect Redline voice lines? Or is she a silent protagonist?
    Originally posted by Dmitry
    Absolutely!
    Since we initially agreed to treat our action game as a real blockbuster movie, the voice acting for the main character holds immense importance for us. Currently, we're actively casting an actress for the role.

  • Will we be able to customize or have more outfits?
    Yes, definitely!
    Stay tuned for more updates on this.

  • Does the AI that helps Redline have any other use other than narrative purposes?
    The city, where everything unfolds, is governed by an AGI called Tensor, and Redline has her own sentient AI combat assistant — Spine. The theme of AI-human interaction lies at the core of our narrative.

    As designers, we believe that if you want to tell a story in the game, use everything that the game can afford for that. So expect Spine to work on all levels: narrative, gameplay, and the ability progression system of the main character.

  • Are there multiple playable characters?
    We're highly focused on narrating the tale of Redline. She's the character we've always wanted to tell a story about: charismatic, adventurous, with a 'act now, think later' approach.

    However, we created the SPINE universe so we'll be able to tell more stories of various characters across different timelines.
    For instance, you can check out our webtoon, which is an indirect prequel and tells the story of slightly different group of characters: Bullet Dancers

  • Will Shiva still be in this single player version of SPINE, and if so what will be her role since Redline is now the protagonist? Will Micki and the others from the comic make an appearance in the game too?
    You'll definitely meet some familiar characters as the story unfolds.

  • It will be an open-world game? The style with fighting and gunshots reminds me of Oni, an old PC game that I love.
    It's great that many people remember Oni, which was one of the inspirations to us!

    No, we won't have an open world. Instead, our focus is on providing our players a very intense, emotional game with a strong storyline, which is not watered down by excessive playtime and grind.
    As gamers ourselves, we are tired of lengthy prolonged games and are now seeking more unique gameplay experiences, that we'll be happy to deliver.

  • How much of a focus will the game have on the story?
    Let's put it this way: SPINE is focused on action movie feeling of cool combat with guns and camerawork. Everything else is pure narrative and storytelling :)
    The story is always crucial for capturing that movie feeling as well, especially as we plan on expanding our universe.
    I hope that answers your question.

  • Does SPINE story take place in the same universe as Vector?
    Maybe ;)

  • Animator here, I want to know if you'll tune the animations further.
    She animates smoothly but her attacks lack impact, the transition frames could be sped up while lingering on the anticipation and follow through frames + secondary animation with physics for her coat and body.
    Oh yeah! That's a great and very insightful question.
    I'm glad that people are diving deep into animations and bringing up these questions.

    With our previous trailer, we wanted to start collecting more feedback from gamers and initiate a dialogue with our community early on. One of the topics that the community has raised is the fluidity of the combat moveset and the responsiveness of character controls. We're directly addressing these issues right now and will fix them this summer. Redline will become more responsive and agile, and the pace of the game will even out and speed up.

    As for secondary animation, it depends on the character model, which we plan to fine-tune in the coming months (we're transitioning to an updated animation skeleton right now). Things like this (physics simulation etc.) will be improved all the way until the game's release.

  • Will we be able to upgrade our combat skills, and level up our character? And also will we be able to customize our guns?
    We think this is a very important topic of our design, so we will definitely talk about it in more detail soon.

  • Will there be accessibility settings to simplify the game for disabled people?
    One of our core game design philosophies in developing SPINE is to make the beat 'em up genre more accessible and interesting to everyone, as we feel like these types of games are often overlooked by many players.
    That's why we want to take special care of this aspect and welcome input from our players.
    What accessibility options do you expect from modern action games?
    Please share your thoughts in the comments.

  • Is SPINE going to be playable on the Steam Deck?
    Yes, since I have a personal interest in it — it's one of my favorite gaming devices right now. I also play early dev versions of SPINE on it from time to time.

    We'll pay special attention to comfortable game performance at release.


  • During your development, what would you say was the biggest roadblock?
    Our main roadblock is always our animation ambitions.
    Our team of animators is amazing, and we have some cool tools like Cascadeur, which increase the performance and quality of our animation production.
    But that leads to us having hundreds and hundreds of animations. There's always something to mocap, block out, or polish, and our technical design team is flooded with content to integrate into our game

    But our goal is to make SPINE another demonstration that smaller teams can achieve AAA-quality animations with the help of Cascadeur!

  • How long it takes this game to complete and will there be anything for replayability?
    We strongly believe that gamers want more unique and emotionally engaging gameplay experiences.
    That's why we're creating a game that will guarantee you a few weekends full of action and fun, with some replayability features that I think are expected in our genre — such as a Hardcore Game Mode and New Game Plus.

  • The game looks amazing so far and has hit my interests!
    But my question is why make a gun fu game? What brought you to this type of game?
    In short, when you work a lot with animation-based games, you always want to add more features to your next game which would emphasize the animations.
    That's why we decided to work more with in-game cameras. And camerawork leads you to the idea of taking inspiration from famous action movies. In the past, we worked for more than 10 years with martial arts animations and we really wished to work with firearms as well.

    Sum it up — and you have an idea of a Gun Fu game. Gun Fu is an incredibly fun genre of action, so the idea of it immediately resonated with all of our teams.

    However, this topic also deserves a more in-depth discussion, so expect a devblog about it.
  • How do you learn to design and animate these beautiful martial arts-inspired fight choreographies, and how do you suspend the audience's disbelief of their realism when they involve guns?
    I assume you research a lot of martial arts and also use camera trickery.
    You're right, we're looking for inspiration everywhere.
    We watch movies together every week, deconstructing a lot of references. Additionally, our lead animators worked for a long time on our previous games, which featured parkour and martial arts, and some of them are even practicing martial arts themselves.
    We also work with actual movie specialists — stuntmen and one talented director of photography. These collaborations give us some amazing insights, and we can't wait to share with you more information on that later.
  • I know this is early to say, but are you planning to release physical version of the game in the future?
    Indeed, it's quite early to answer that question, as this depends on our publishing approach which is not set in stone at the moment.
    As a gamer myself, I'm well aware of the importance of having a physical copy of the game, being able to smell the disc's plastic packaging, and truly owning the game instead of ‘renting’ it, if you know what I mean.
  • When it's gonna be released?
    We're not able to announce a release date just yet, but we have plenty to share to keep you immersed in the world of SPINE while we all eagerly await that moment.
  • Can we expect some artbooks or guide books or whatever like these?
    We love the way the game's art turns out. Besides, we have a ton of it — so we would be happy to share it with you in one form or another and we will definitely consider the idea of an art book, in some “fan kit”, for example.

    Thanks for the idea!
  • Will there be a demo before the game release?
    We're considering it.
    The way we design the game — it's going to be a rollercoaster of gun fu emotions, so I guess the demo featuring the first gameplay missions would work quite well and leave you wanting more.
    However, the final decision will depend on our publishing approach, which hasn't been finalized yet.
  • I've no questions, I hope y'all are ok and have a good work-life balance.
    That's all. Keep up the good work.
    Thanks! Sending love to all of our community.
    Don't forget to rest and play cool video games!

[hr][/hr]
Thank you so much for so many insightful questions.
Stay tuned, because we have many more insights into SPINE development progress that we can't wait to share with you and 2nd episode of our Q&A, of course.

Stay Gun Fu!
SPINE Team


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

SPINE goes to Hollywood!

[h3]Hello, Tensor citizens![/h3]

We’re thrilled to team up with Story Kitchen for a Live-Action Feature Film adaptation of SPINE.
This team is known for the Sonic The Hedgehog movie, Tomb Raider on Netflix, and an upcoming live-action adaptation of Sifu, on which they're working with John Wick's creator, Derek Kolstad.

Once our new partners said:
Originally posted by author
When we first learned of this upcoming game from Nekki, we lost our collective minds and had to find a way to partner...SPINE, with its main character, ‘Redline’, could not be more badass!
We immediately realized that it was a match made in heaven and our teams shared the same rebellious spirit. We’re very humbled by this faith in our game, and sure as hell, this Live-Action Adaptation will be a great addition to our SPINEverse.

So stay tuned for more updates to come!

And one last question:
What is your perfect fan cast for the main role of our Gun Fu Waifu – Redline?