Visual Identity & Development of Kena: Bridge of Spirits

Introduction 

Before we discuss the Switch 2 version specifically, Kena: Bridge of Spirits has been widely praised for its “animated film” quality visuals. How did your team initially approach building that signature art style, and how did your background in animation influence your pipeline?

We started as an animation studio, so our visual style and cinematic quality have always been a focus for us. Since that’s what we knew best, our animation and storytelling strongly influenced our pipeline, setting the direction of where we wanted to take the game. We started narratively, identifying what kind of story we wanted to tell, and we very much knew that in the medium of games, the story and character had to go hand-in-hand with the gameplay. Our animation background helped us develop and refine our gameplay experience by crafting exciting and punchy animations in combat, as well as memorable and satisfying experiences with the Rot companions who play a big role in both gameplay and the charm of the world. 

While crafting the look and feel of Kena and her world, we drew inspiration from many sources. We’ve always been drawn in by Miyazaki’s beautiful and mysterious worlds and characters in his animated films, as well as the memorable and nostalgic quality of the worlds and characters in the classic Zelda games. We’ve also spent a lot of time in Japan, which had a big impact on my brother and me. In a way, the style developed out of our attempt to recreate the feelings we had from some of our earliest memories and experiences, hopefully creating something similar for a new generation.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits Development

Can you walk us through your asset pipeline from concept art through modeling, texturing, and final in-engine implementation, both in terms of the game as a whole and the port?

Absolutely! Seeing the progress from concept art to final implementation was one of my favorite aspects of developing the game. We worked with a team of very talented concept artists who brought so much creativity to the table as we refined exactly what our characters and environments should look and feel like. After settling on overall style, personality, and visual details, our concept artists pass along carefully crafted artwork to our 3D modeling team and work alongside them to get the 3D models in line with our concepts. This step is so exciting to see two-dimensional art start to come alive from all angles! Texturing adds the final detail work to get the assets looking top-notch. Once the model is rigged and implemented, it’s ready for level art and/or animation to get started. I never get tired of seeing assets go through this full pipeline from initial idea to finished product in the game world.

For the porting process, asset development is more about optimizing the model and rigging for the new platform while still preserving the visual language of the original asset. The rigging is especially important for us due to our key-frame animation. This helps us maintain the handcrafted animation that brings the characters to life. 

You transitioned from early prototyping in Unity to shipping in Unreal Engine 4. What were the biggest advantages that UE4 brought to your rendering and production workflows? Did that remain true for this version?

Unity was a good place to get started, but when we shifted over to Unreal, we gained a lot of artist-friendly tools that empowered our team members who were trained in VFX to build a richer, bigger, and more complex game. At the time, the sequencer tool was especially impactful for our animation pipeline and cinematic storytelling. The Switch 2 port continued to use the same tools we built originally, and Unreal’s architecture helped smooth the onramp to a new platform.

Is the sequel being made in Unreal Engine 5?

Yes. We’re developing Kena: Scars of Kosmora in UE5.

From a rendering perspective, what techniques or shaders were most critical in achieving the game’s cinematic look, particularly for lighting, foliage, and character materials?

A focused effort on crafted lighting was a huge part of achieving the game’s cinematic look. We leveraged the game's linear nature to conceal lighting and atmospheric transitions as players traversed through caves or structures. This allowed the lighting to help shape the emotional beats of the narrative experience.

Healing and restoration are major themes of the game, and we spent a significant amount of time developing our “Deadzone Regrowth” system. The process involved writing masks to a render target, allowing us to transition corrupted areas into beautifully restored forests. Upon defeating enemies and restoring an area, deadzone assets would wither away while lush foliage dynamically regrew in their place, bringing life back to the environment. During these transitions, all foliage assets were influenced by our wind system, helping us cap off challenging combat encounters with satisfying, cinematic moments of restoration.

Kena on Switch 2

Bringing Kena to Switch 2 required noticeable visual adjustments, such as tuning down elements like hair simulation and anti-aliasing, we're assuming. What were the biggest technical challenges when optimizing the game for the platform?

One key area of focus was maintaining the personality of the Rot. The Rot are such a critical part of the experience and tied to the core of the game. Their character assets and behaviors were a key area of focus as we optimized for Switch 2. Their expressiveness and animations were critical for building a strong connection with players, so we spent a lot of time making sure the simplified version of the Rot for Switch 2 maintained their charming personalities. 

How did you approach deciding which visual features to scale back versus preserve in order to maintain the overall artistic vision on less powerful hardware?

Our goal was to deliver as high a bar of visual quality as possible. In places where we needed to scale something back, our guiding star was emotional impact, both in terms of character and world. While that may shift slightly depending on the exact context, we always leaned toward the side of preserving the feeling we hoped to achieve while exploring Kena’s world, as opposed to a perfect visual match.

What changes, if any, were required in your content pipeline to support the Switch 2 version—particularly in areas like LODs, texture memory, and asset streaming?

To support the Switch 2 version, we focused on improving efficiency across the existing content pipeline rather than introducing major changes.

We pushed our use of HLODs (Hierarchical Level of Detail) further, combining distant meshes into proxy assets to reduce draw calls and improve rendering performance. We were deliberate in how we batched assets to preserve visual quality while keeping memory usage predictable.

We also increased our use of billboards, particularly for distant environmental elements, to reduce geometry costs and streaming overhead without noticeable visual impact.

With additional development time, we revisited areas that had been constrained during the initial release - refining LOD thresholds, tightening texture memory budgets, and improving asset streaming behaviors. Overall, the work was about applying more discipline and optimization across the content set to better align with performance and memory targets.

The game maintains its strong visual identity even on new hardware targets. How do you ensure consistency across platforms while still adapting to different performance constraints?

It is definitely a balance, but the short answer is always comparing results back to the root of our initial goals. While migrating to different platforms, it’s impossible to recreate everything exactly the same due to varying constraints. Instead, by focusing on the aspects of the game and style that resonated with players, and that we originally sought to create, we’ve been able to make the right calls to preserve the spirit of the game, even as accommodations have to be made.

Conclusion

As a relatively small team, how do you structure collaboration between artists, engineers, and designers to maintain such a high level of polish?

Great question. I think that was part of our secret sauce that made Kena: Bridge of Spirits successful. By having a small core team, we were able to quickly communicate, iterate, and be on the same page creatively throughout the process. It also all goes back to working with the right people and building trust. By having a talented group of artists, designers, engineers, and production with a shared passion and collaborative language, we were able to work with one mind.

Looking back on both the original launch and subsequent ports, what were the biggest lessons learned about building scalable pipelines for a visually ambitious game?

Archival and documentation processes. So many decisions are made throughout the development process that it’s important to maintain an accurate history of developing ideas and goals - something to refer back to as the inevitable process of game development shifts from initial plans. This is especially true as our team and scope have grown.

Josh Grier, Chief Operating Officer at Ember Lab

Interview conducted by David Jagneaux