Sorry Timothee Chalamet, but it seems ballet is still relevant, even in the very modern creative field of video game design. An indie developer is using Unreal Engine 5 to design a video game with a combat system based on traditional dance moves.
To make the dark hack-and-slash Tsarevna: Age of Tales, the team brought in a real-world ballet dancer and used motion capture to take her movements into Epic's game engine.
Watt Studio is a relatively large indie developer based in Belgrade with a team of around 30 people. Founded in 2018, its first project was previsualisation for the movie Invasion, before it went on to make the puzzle adventure Hannah's Day, which was released in 2024.
Its next game is inspired by Slavic folklore. Tsarevna was a title for a Russian princess in the time of the tsars prior to the 18th century. As shown in the behind-the-scenes video above, the character Tsarevna Swan performs movements based on those of a prima ballerina from the Bolshoi, who was filmed performing pirouettes, steps, turns, strikes and transitions. These movements were use to create the combat choreography, generating energy lines to damage enemies in the game.
"Combat is built on more than just attacks, dodges, and status effects," the developers say in a blog post on Steam. "At its core lie the physics and fluidity of the human body. A step, a turn, a breath, a fleeting moment of balance right before a graceful movement transforms into a devastating blow.
"For us, ballet isn't just a beautiful visual layer, nor is it limited to aesthetic poses and elegant silhouettes. It is the very foundation of how our heroine perceives the world and fights. Her movements must feel graceful yet lethal. Precise yet brutal".
Tsarevna is slated for release in 2027. You can wishlist the game on Steam.
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