--- title: Kena: Bridge of Spirits | daily.dev description: Josh Grier, COO of Ember Lab, discusses how the studio built Kena: Bridge of Spirits' animated-film visual style, drawing from their animation background and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/kena-bridge-of-spirits-o9pquftiw twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Kena: Bridge of Spirits | daily.dev og:description: Josh Grier, COO of Ember Lab, discusses how the studio built Kena: Bridge of Spirits' animated-film visual style, drawing from their animation background and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/kena-bridge-of-spirits-o9pquftiw og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/O9PquFTiW.png og:image:alt: Kena: Bridge of Spirits og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Kena: Bridge of Spirits **[80 LEVEL](https://daily.dev/sources/80lv)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Josh Grier, COO of Ember Lab, discusses how the studio built Kena: Bridge of Spirits' animated-film visual style, drawing from their animation background and inspirations like Miyazaki and classic Zelda. He covers the asset pipeline from concept art to in-engine implementation, the switch from Unity to Unreal Engine 4 and its benefits for VFX-trained artists, and key rendering techniques like the Deadzone Regrowth system and crafted lighting. For the Nintendo Switch 2 port, the team focused on optimizing HLODs, billboards, LOD thresholds, and texture memory budgets while preserving the emotional impact and character expressiveness of the Rot companions. The sequel, Kena: Scars of Kosmora, is being developed in Unreal Engine 5. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Unreal Engine's Role In Animation Of The Wingfeather Saga](https://daily.dev/posts/unreal-engine-s-role-in-animation-of-the-wingfeather-saga-u5pwx5zys) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Reimagining Previs and Layout for 'KPop Demon Hunters' with Unreal Engine](https://daily.dev/posts/reimagining-previs-and-layout-for-kpop-demon-hunters-with-unreal-engine-4dtzsotdp) · Unreal Engine · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Creating a Horror Game Mixing a 2D Retro Style & Live-Action Cutscenes](https://daily.dev/posts/creating-a-horror-game-mixing-a-2d-retro-style-live-action-cutscenes-df1binkr6) · 80 LEVEL · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Dune Awakening's creative director on copying Hollywood, in-game advertising, and why style beats photorealism](https://daily.dev/posts/dune-awakening-s-creative-director-on-copying-hollywood-in-game-advertising-and-why-style-beats-ph-zhrfbbim8) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#performance](https://daily.dev/tags/performance), [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#unreal-engine](https://daily.dev/tags/unreal-engine) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/kena-bridge-of-spirits-o9pquftiw) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Kena: Bridge of Spirits","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/kena-bridge-of-spirits-o9pquftiw","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/kena-bridge-of-spirits-o9pquftiw"},"datePublished":"2026-04-23T15:40:02.298Z","dateModified":"2026-04-23T15:40:26.252Z","description":"Josh Grier, COO of Ember Lab, discusses how the studio built Kena: Bridge of Spirits' animated-film visual style, drawing from their animation background and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/80c4234e311e0ea8fb8dc3e0502e4e51?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/80c4234e311e0ea8fb8dc3e0502e4e51?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"80 LEVEL","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"80 LEVEL","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/78eebcd76c154e6bbfd565fed7dc4093","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/kena-bridge-of-spirits-o9pquftiw","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"performance,game-development,unreal-engine","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"80 LEVEL","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/80lv"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Kena: Bridge of Spirits"}]} ```