Hey Kenshi crew,

We’ve just released a new video: Kenshi: Meet the Makers. It's an informal look behind the scenes with Chris Hunt - creator of Kenshi and founder of Lo-Fi Games, and Nat Mikkelson - Lo-Fi’s Managing Director and Lead Writer on Kenshi 1 and Kenshi 2.

Simply put: the video is a short conversation to give you a little insight on our thinking, and a glimpse into the creators’ minds while Kenshi 2’s development continues behind the scenes.

You’ll find some chatter from Chris and Nat on how Lo-Fi Games began, where the ideas for Kenshi came from, and what it’ll mean for Kenshi 2 players to experience a game set 1000 years before the first one.

There’s some talk on who Kenshi is really for (and why you might need a twisted sense of humour to enjoy it), why Kenshi doesn’t make you the chosen one, and why we’re still keeping our cards close to our chest when it comes to Kenshi 2 details. There’s loads more in there, but it’s best if you just give it a watch.


We’ve translated subtitles to the video in the following languages:

• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Polish
• Portuguese (Brazilian)
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese
• Spanish
• Turkish

English subtitles are also available!


It felt like the right time to check in; to reflect on where Kenshi came from and what sort of world we’re building next. 

It’s also a rare chance to hear directly from Chris and Nat themselves. Their dynamic and shared vision is at the heart of everything we do at Lo-Fi Games, and this is the first time we’ve put them in front of the camera together.

If you’ve been with us since Kenshi 1, or if you’ve only just discovered the game, this video is a small glimpse into the mindset that’s shaped the world of Kenshi; from its humble beginnings to the many-legged monster it’s become. 


If you’ve not yet had the chance to play the first game, we’re currently on sale at 70% off on Steam, so it’s not a bad time to pick it up.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/233860/Kenshi/

Cheers for reading and watching. As always - a massive thank you to the Kenshi community, we’ll have a new Spotlight video for you soon. Remember to catch us in our Discord[discord.com], follow us on the socials[linktr.ee] and sign up to our newsletter[lofigames.com].

Catch you next time!

[discord.com][linktr.ee]

Well then sandblown strangers, how fares your journey? Here’s to hoping you find a rare pause to down your tools and take stock; a fleeting breath between berserker screams and the gnashing of cannibal teeth to ponder another year’s end. Perhaps you’ll hunker down by the fire’s crackle, cook up a cut of gutter meat, open a can of grog and lean into the warmth of your loyal bonedog’s embrace. But don’t linger too long - out here, peace is just a mirage, danger always rides the horizon and the only thing coming down the chimney is trouble.

Preposterous post-apocalyptic prose aside, we mean it - whether you’re “casual” Kenshi crew (is that a thing?), a hardcore wasteland warrior or a cherished member of the masterful modding movement, maybe it’s time to marinate in a little more delightfully difficult Kenshi-flavoured danger this December. And we would love a peek at your adventures…


Welp, you lot have done it again - you’ve gone and graced us with a veritable smorgasbord of delicious Kenshi delights. We’ve compiled a bunch of our favourite bits seen across the socials[linktree.com] and Discord[discord.com] in our latest Community Spotlight video, so sit back and enjoy. 

With thanks, as always, to the creators behind the content:

• Many More Beards by HoneyKnower
• MineBots by yukke
• ReHairCut by GS
• Agricultural Resource Mod by AGO
• Ghastly Deadlands by every single time
• Belt Slot Goggles by mura

• Commission for Andrew Mortos's DnD campaign by Ashlands Vibes (@CSkazitel)
• Kenshi Desert Crawlers[www.artstation.com] by Treb Linao
• Kenshi Sticker vibes[x.com] from 前名
• Gorgeous Kenshi Portraits[bsky.app] by Bananskiy
• Tower of Abuse by Equivalent_Field9356
• Another awesome fanmade Kenshi miniature by SparkBeforeMidnight
• Eyegore from Equivalent_Field9356

• Untitled Screenshot by 遥望群山
• Untitled Screenshot by insector
• Daily Tasks by mowenhao258
• Yes I play Rimworld, how could you tell? by GeforcePotato
• The Rusted Bastion by macuto2000
• My squad looks like they are in an anime intro while they are running by Battles_45Drifter
• 別掙扎了!!!你們全部已經被我一個人包圍了~(“Stop struggling!!! I’ve already got all of you surrounded all by myself”) from whu130154

[bsky.app]If you’ve mosied on over to Bluesky then make sure you come find us: our handle is https://bsky.app/profile/lofigames.com. We’ve been squatting a profile for a little while and waiting for just the right moment to start posting, so give us a holler and tune in ready for a little Kenshi 2 info in the not-too-distant future.

[robaroba.gg]You have until the end of the year to bag yourself a Kenshi sweater at 20% off at RobaRoba, so make sure you take advantage of the offer if you’ve not yet had the chance. 



It wouldn’t be winter without the loving embrace of Steam’s Winter Sale, and this year is, of course, no exception. Whether you’re a Kenshi fanatic and fancy gifting a Christmas copy to a friend, or if you just haven’t made the dip just yet, what better time than now?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/233860/Kenshi/

Well then, that just about draws us to a close. Don’t forget - if you send us your finest Kenshi content you might just find yourself in the next Community Spotlight. And do please give your Steam screenshots a name if you get a moment, it’s fun to do and helps us out!

Until next time, and remember: Sometimes you eat the Beak Thing, and sometimes, well, they eat you.

[discord.com][linktr.ee]

Hey Kenshi crew, it's that time again – welcome to Community Spotlight #18! We've got a fresh showcase of our amazing community’s creative output for you once more, and as a Halloween bonus: some Kenshi pumpkins.


Our favourite picks for mods, screenshots and fanart can be found every week on our social media[linktr.ee] before they’re added to these compilations, so do make sure to give us a follow if you’d like to see this kinda content on your feed.

A huge thanks to all the creators we’ve featured this time and in previous blogs; we really do appreciate your effort. If you’re a creator and you’ve not yet been featured, do keep sending us your content to be in with a chance.

• Comically Large Spoons from Schizophrenic Cat-Lon
• Support Drone (Belt slot/Backpack) from Lolulile
• Table figures from Lolulile
• GROUNDED 2: Combat Animations from Dig
• Leather Backpacks from AGO
• Swamp Turtle Harness from JaxiPaxi
• Gorillo Pelt Scarf from crunk ain’t dead
• Walking Backpack! from yukke
• Vengeful Dead from Gevurah

• Gorillaz homage from Tacka katterna!
• Untitled Shek piece[www.artstation.com] from Zona HLD 
• Untitled piece[x.com] from ASHLANDS VIBES aka @CSkazitel
• Do you carry the Holy Flame with you, brother? from Rin-te
• Fogmen horde in 32mm scale for Kenshi tabletop from SparkBeforeMidnight
• Somewhere in Cannibal Plains from ZCary
• Kenshitober day 1[x.com] from @Leikdaz22
• The Triplets Hiveless from dolokos.koss

• "Do you want to swap hats?” from Rakuen
• Untitled sunset screenshot from Leo
• Untitled pic from SomeLoneWanderer
• I am in a big trouble (or they are in a very small problem). from Whole-Relationship30
• My first playthrough city. Did I cook? from Odd_Cod_693Dust Bandits
• After over two thousand hours in this game, I realized that bulls have eyes. from TheBigSmol
• Untitled screenshot from Աnspøttǝđ
• Untitled outpost shot from Nova Dawn 

We’ve been on a pumpkin carving mission to celebrate Halloween this year, below are a few pics from the Lo-Fi crew’s efforts:

If you’d like to carve your own Kenshi pumpkins, you can grab our PDF[www.dropbox.com] with some super simple Beak Thing, Beep, Kenshi logo and crab stencils.

[www.dropbox.com]
[robaroba.gg]We've discounted our Kenshi sweaters by 20% until the end of the year! US customers: please place your orders by 10th November to ensure they arrive by Christmas. For non-US shipping estimates, please check with RobaRoba[robaroba.gg].

[center]

Grab yourself a Kenshi sweater[robaroba.gg]

[/center]
Kenshi is currently available at 60% off on Steam, so if you’re thinking of taking the plunge, now’s a good time.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/233860/Kenshi/


Thanks for reading Kenshi crew dem! As always - send us your screenshots, mods and fanart via our social media[linktree.com] and be in with a chance to be in the next Community Spotlight. Our Discord community[discord.com] is continuing to grow and we’d love to see you in there. Until next time!

[discord.com][linktr.ee]

Welcome back, Kenshi crew! Today we’ve got an absolute monster of a Community Spotlight: check the fresh, unbridled creativity coming from the mod community, a swathe of gorgeous new fanart, and a bunch of tasty screenshots from our favourite community photographers.

In case you weren’t aware, we pop all this content on our social media[linktr.ee] on a weekly basis before we compile it into these videos and blogs, so make sure you add us wherever you have an account. We’ve started posting regularly on Threads, so if you’ve made the venture over that way then give us a follow[www.threads.net].

We’d like to send a massive shout-out to all the creators listed below - thanks for being a beloved part of our wasteland! 

• Veil Hive from dfgrews
• Gurgler Armour Overhaul from CamelSpyd3r
• Concrete Block from MARH
• FALCON PUNCH!!! (combat animation) from rare player
• Buildable Resources (Cheat) - Iron and Copper from Snuggl
• Larger Map Pointer for Vanilla UI from  Cattrina
• Cangaceiro Hat - Chapéu de Cangaceiro from mezumo
• Hydraulic Knight Equipment from KEM26
• Caravans and Mercenaries from RyuHardGore
• Geckos Race and Armour Pack from Ninya
• 【2333】Bull armor from Bobby
• The Stack House from Hoser
• Iron Will Faction from IVASIK
• Atmospheric Water Generator from ikahurula
• Iron Wasp from ikahurula
• Racking Researchers from yukke
• HALF MAN　（ハーフマン） from AGO
• Multicoloured Fireworks from MARH
• BBgoat's Beastforge  from BBgoat
• ゲーミングヴェンジ / Gaming Venge from Momayo
• Mood Weather from crunk ain’t dead
• GrinderBots!!! from yukke

• Sketches 26[www.artstation.com] from Mark Makovey
• Emperor Tengu[www.artstation.com] from Max Bystrov[www.artstation.com]
• Congrats, You just killed your first high paladin. from una_garza aka Garza Muñoz
• Blood Transfusion from DavidHogins
• All my fellas from Rin-te
• ｢貴族なんてのは馬鹿ばっかりさ！！(Only stupid are in the nobles !!)｣ from Kanipan210
• I want YOU joint the Holy Crusade from Alfred
• EYEGORE from Vivovi300
• Untitled lineup fanart[x.com] from Gde Rodina Groma
• I just find resting murder giraffes way too cute[randomlymad.tumblr.com] from Um Abbas
• Tech Hunter[www.artstation.com] from Zahir Aghakhani
• Sketches-34[www.artstation.com] from Mark Makovey
• Post-Apocalypse Samurai[www.artstation.com] from Mykyta Kolpakov 
• Lord Phoenix, high paladin, Esata, Eyegore, Cat-Lon playing basketball in Venge from RENTURO
• Skirmish from n_k
• Some of my 32mm Kenshi miniatures from SparkBeforeMidnight
• Kenshi goats[www.furaffinity.net] from krutocap
• What is he thinking about? from Tacka Katterna!
• It's getting hot today 🥵from Tacka Katterna!
• Hit that one from BodIsLove
• FINE! I'LL JOIN YOUR STUPID SQUAD! from CSkazitel
• “…Sand, surrounded by Beak Thing...” from BenjaminPortilla120

• Meet the friendly local wildlife from samlish
• Untitled base shot from AKZ
• I just wanna drink my grog in peace from pinda013
• "As It Is" from SomeLoneWanderer
• Where should we go? from featherweight
• Avoid the Deathyards, roamer. The mist tends to.. swallow travellers up, shall we say? from SpiralDimentia
• this image goes hard, feel free to screenshot from maukuakki
• Make Money from Holic 
• Why does this game ball so hard? from therealkyebarnfield
• 神罚 from Mole
• Untitled shot from Werlley
• Untitled shot from Зеленофрукт
• I love Kenshi and making bases in it from Zawoka
• Untitled shot from Larrel
• Untitled shot from xQ
• I built a super town located in the southwest part of the cannibal area from Easy-Career-3199
• A raid just arrived at my front doorstep, shaking in my boots from sininenblue
• “I always make lots of screenshots to "document" the gang's journey. Here's some of my favourites” from Wybs
• Robobeep from Kip Carry
• Untitled shot from W i e b s t
• Untitled shot from макспро 2007

We’d like to take a moment to let our Chinese-speaking fans know that we’ve now got an account on Douyin[www.douyin.com]. So give us a follow and stay up to date with everything Kenshi and Kenshi 2. 


If you haven’t yet made the leap into Kenshi’s harsh wastelands, then now’s not a bad time to grab a copy of the game. Kenshi is 60% off on Steam right now, so give our store page a share and tell your friends!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/233860/Kenshi/


Thanks for reading folks! If you’ve got a screenshot, mod or fanart to share then make sure to tag us with it for a chance to be included on our social media[linktree.com] and in the next Community Spotlight. If you’ve not yet joined our growing Discord community[discord.com] then for Okran’s sake come join us! 

https://discord.com/invite/R6258etsHE
https://linktr.ee/Kenshigame

Hey Kenshi crew, how you doin’? First up - in case you missed it, we recently posted a blog with a little Kenshi 2 news and a brand new Kenshi Free Camera mode. Check it out if you’ve not had the chance. So why are we here again so soon? Well, we’ve a pretty big milestone to celebrate:


We’re overjoyed to announce that we’ve sold 2.3 million copies of Kenshi. Not only that - more of you folks bought yourself a copy of Kenshi in 2023 than in any other year. Wild.

We celebrated with tees for the crew

So here’s a massive thanks to everyone who’s helped us on this journey. You might not be aware, but we’re an entirely independent company and we don’t have the deep pockets of investors or publishers to help us spread the word at all. We’re therefore especially thankful for all the recommendations and reviews from fans, the work from content creators and all the publications kind enough to cover us. We couldn’t have done it without you.

• PC Gamer - One of the most strange and cruel survival sandboxes I've played has sold 2.3 million copies
  
• GamesIndustry.biz - Lo-Fi Games' Kenshi sells 2.3m units[www.gamesindustry.biz]

To celebrate our 2 million milestone we’re launching these animated avatars for you to get your mitts on with any Steam points you might have lying about.

To grab your Steam avatars, head to the Steam Points Shop and click on 'Avatars' on the left-hand side menu under “Profile”. At the top of the shop you should see your ‘Steam Points Balance’ and a search bar next to it, use this to search ‘Kenshi’ and the avatars should appear.

Alternatively, you can head to your profile, click ‘Edit Profile’ and on the left-hand side, you should see ‘Steam Points Shop’. Once you click this, you’ll be brought to the store page, and you can use the search bar to find the avatars.


You’ve still got until the 21st April to submit your screenshots using our new Free Camera Mode in our #KenshiFreeCam Contest. Head on over to our previous blog to check out the rules of entry.


It’s been a while since we put together a Community Spotlight but don’t worry, we hadn’t forgotten about you lot. We’ve still been highlighting your work over on our social media[linktr.ee], gathering all your screenshots, artwork and videos and mods ready for this update. FYI - you can expect future Community Spotlight posts to come out at a rate of around once every three months, give or take.

With thanks to all the contributors included in this video:


Mods

• Native Stylise from Bob
• The Great Factories from Jorahm
• Hireable Merchants! from Don Fuego
• Simple Hillshade Map from FajrAl

Screenshots

• "TIME FOR CRAB!" from CrowX8
• "Relaxing" from Lohroc
• The fog looms over them from Ziutek Kraksa
• The East border of Shem from ArdynVolaris

Fan Art

• "sleep at work" from Ledsen-katt 
• "Doodles" from 5kinjo6
• "2000 yard view" from Missnöjd_KAtt
• "Narko help me" from Lambbda

Mods

• The Outbreak from MrGredy
• Canine Variation (Boneyard Wolves & Colors) from Mogwai
• GNOMES! - THE INVASION from Entoco
• Defiance Belts from Spherix

Screenshots

• This base looks too good not to visit... or rob from @sqkVzp0HOwrnIwU
• Where you place your base can work in your favour from TsukasaKun
• We love the structure of this base! from Gary_FX
• You should be wary of old men in a profession where men usually die young from De Grote J

Fan Art

• "Lost in the dunes, forever."[www.artstation.com] from Gabriel E. Stokkan[www.artstation.com]
• We think this fan art is brilliant! from (·ω<Bird Coconut
• "Hiver thought he was Ryan Gosling." from  Missnöjd_KAtt
• The most dangerous creatures, even when they are made out of clay from Bum_Nuggler

Mods

• Beam Things from Momayo
• Healing Toilet (Outhouse) from OusRP
• Hell Survivor Armor from AGO
• Replace Piped Weapons from ikahurula

Screenshots

• That’s a lotta crabs from Mr Bombastic
• Red sky at morning from N’sane
• Dangerous adventures await[www.instagram.com] from Rock3Game
• What did they do to deserve that? From raisin_object
• The onset of night from maukuakki

Fan Art

• Kenshi minis[discord.com] from Colonel Sanders
• Is Beep the strongest warrior? from TTomRP
• This is how Swampers sort things out from Missnöjd_KAtt
• Would you ever try to befriend a Beak Thing? from Office Worker
• Gonzalo has used some great colours in this piece.[www.artstation.com] from Gonzalo Castelli Art

And finally

And last but definitely not least, we’d like to thank all the content creators who helped us test an early version of the Free Camera Mode. Take a look at what they were able to achieve with these tools in our previous blog post.

If you want to see yourself in one of our Community Spotlights, be sure to share and tag us with your work on our social media channels[linktr.ee] and Discord server[discord.com]. Catch you next time.

https://discord.com/invite/R6258etsHE

[linktr.ee]

1.0.68
Added free camera mode for screenshots and videos. Toggle with ;

If you experience any issues after the update, please read this post on how to report crashes or bugs[www.lofigames.com] and make a post in the Lo-Fi Games forum, ensuring that you’re nice to our lovely moderators.

https://discord.com/invite/R6258etsHE

[linktr.ee]

It’s 1st April again. Fancy some Kenshi hashish[www.instagram.com]? Wanna find the Hive Queen a date[lofigamesofficial.itch.io]? Kenshi Team Racing[lofigames.com] anyone? 

This year we’re changing things up and giving you something real: how do you feel about a cheeky little Free Camera Mode Kenshi update? How about some Kenshi 2 news, a new screenshot and a Lo-Fi Q&A?

We got you fam. First up:


Well, we’re not saying just yet. 

I once read that it’s bad practice from a marketing perspective to say “it’s ready when it’s ready”, but honestly, that kinda sums it up. Anything else until we’ve a release window for you is just sugar-coating, and we’d rather not do that. Besides, when have we behaved how devs are supposed to do?

We reckons that “it’s ready when it’s ready” is the best approach. So bear with us because the wait will be worth it. 


It's been a long while since we updated you on Kenshi 2. We had a bit of a change of tack and switched focus to getting all our ducks in a row for the betterment of Kenshi 2’s development rather than constantly drip-feeding you content, bit-by-bit.

The reality is that every time we put something out on Kenshi 2 it requires a lot of back and forth, double checking, and long, cross-departmental discussions on whether to reveal it or not. 

We need to ensure we’re not spoiling too much, that the reveals fit in with our long term plan, and that the content looks as close to the end product as possible so people know we're giving this prequel the love that it deserves. This is hard when you’re working with a team of perfectionists consistently improving their work. It pulls us away from development and it can ultimately risk ruining our best reveals before they’re ready. 

Discovery will play a huge part of the Kenshi 2 experience, and while it’s a lot of fun for us to show off new stuff, it kills the joy of finding it in-game. We put a lotta love into our creations and we ain't gonna ruin it for clicks. So we’re gonna keep schtum on the majority of Kenshi 2’s content until we have a lot more mega-polished stuff to show you.

Having said all that, we’ll still be sharing a few teases and updates as we go…


Since your last major Kenshi 2 update we’ve hired a Producer. We’ve hired Korean, Polish, Turkish and Italian translators. We’ve hired a Community Manager, and very recently we hired an Executive Assistant (which means Chris and Nat have much more time to work on the game). 

We have come a long way: 33 people are currently working on Kenshi 2 at a consistent, solid pace. We’re making some massive leaps into territory previously unknown to us and building a whole load of new systems that take time to perfect.

While we’ve grown the company, we’ve tried to only hire in areas where we feel it will benefit the thing that matters most: making the best game we possibly can. It’s also rather important that we stay afloat; it’s a tough old world out there right now, and overhiring risks being a short term solution that creates difficult and not-insignificant long term problems. We’re trying to keep it sensible. 

To recap: we’ve already shown you river raptors[lofigames.com], sexy customisable gates, environment shots with lovely new building models, the modder-friendly district divider tool, our new approach to localisation, and an early version of just one of Kenshi 2’s Hiver models (every Hiver sub-race will have its own model). Oh and let’s not forget the hit video Kenshi 2: Furniture Alignment Mode (woo).

As some of you already know, we’ve made some major changes to our still-evolving FCS dev tool, some of which we’ve released to Kenshi 1 players to use, though many upcoming functions will only work with features exclusive to Kenshi 2.


We’ve already revealed that Kenshi 2 is being made in Unreal Engine, but what we haven’t told you is that we’re actually making it in the all-singing, all-dancing video game makey machine that is UE5. 

We shifted to UE5 just over a year ago, which…to put it mildly…was a big job in itself, but you’re probably best hearing that from some of the others…



CT: I’m Craig, I lead the programming team here at Lo-Fi.

NM: I’m Nat. I wear multiple hats running business direction and leading the narrative design and writing.

MR: I'm Mohamad, lead artist for Kenshi2 planning and supervising asset creation and assisting Chris with art direction.


CT: In short, a lot! There’s been significant efforts in our department to help make production easier for everyone else as well as improving/reworking existing systems and of course the big one, [REDACTED].

Without diving into the nitty gritty, the switch from Ogre to Unreal has forced us to revisit most of the systems from the game and configure them for a whole new GUI and asset pipeline. We’ve taken this as an opportunity to improve on what we already have, make it easier to configure, fix some really fundamental issues and add entirely new features that just weren’t possible in the first game.

To give one example, in Kenshi 1 we scattered the world with natural resources that the player could mine. We had a set number of resources that could be mined, you could reduce the amount of copper in a region to none or add some iron where there was no iron before but that’s really the limit, just playing with the numbers. Since revisiting this system not only have we made all our code more modular and easier to maintain but we’ve also made it possible for modders to create their own types of resources - so you can add things like gold mining, work that into some new crafting recipes, add new items like gold bars, make gangs of NPCs target you if you’re carrying large amounts across the map, tonnes of possibilities!

At the same time we’ve made this feature much easier to quickly iterate on and configure for artists. Instead of faffing with some numbers in FCS, reloading the game, checking the results and going back to FCS you can now fiddle with the numbers to your heart's content right in the editor and see changes in real time.

We don’t want to spoil everything for you, but hopefully this gives you an idea of the attitude we’ve been taking to development and what kind of changes you can expect to the existing systems from Kenshi 1.

NM: Narrative is becoming easier and easier as the years go by. The most difficult part was over with years ago - that’s the foundations; world building, fleshing, map, general plans for content, working structure. That part is super hard and horrible, makes me want to vomit. The last couple of years have been refining, refining, refining. Content’s been flowing easy now. This is the most fun part of narrative design where the game starts to make itself and everything comes together. We’ve also had a few new features added for us over the years which means our toolkit lends us all the more creativity to push boundaries with. 

MR: Kenshi is a massive game with a wide range of assets from buildings to characters, different biomes and environments, furniture... the list goes on. Unlike most sequels or prequels where assets can be reused, we had to start almost everything from scratch. This was firstly because lore dictated certain changes (Kenshi 2 is set 1000 years before Kenshi), and secondly due to our change of engine; UE uses different shading and rendering technology(PBR), which means textures work in an entirely different manner.

The past couple of years have been largely spent creating a huge amount of assets so Chris can focus on game design, which really is the most important part of the project. As is standard practice in the industry, we began with creating basic untextured blockouts and placing them around the world, filling it out and making it into something rich and believable. After several rounds of feedback and amends we went on to begin fully texturing the assets.

In general we have a good balance of progress across all asset categories and we now have something that’s actually playable. Some assets, such as furniture, are mostly made as blockout at this point as they’re needed for building layouts, whereas our buildings get fully modelled and textured as we progress from one region to another.


MR: A significant part of our decision to move to Unreal Engine 5 was for future-proofing; we didn’t want to be building Kenshi 2 in an engine that might see less support in the future. That being said, there are a few new features exclusive to UE5 that we can use to enhance visuals and performance. 

A lot of UE5’s features are actually still in their experimental phase right now, some of which we’ve already begun to use whereas others we’re keeping an eye on for later stages of development.

We’re using UE5’s World Partition system[docs.unrealengine.com] to help with the performance and scalability of Kenshi 2’s massive open world. We’re planning to use the much-hyped Nanite[docs.unrealengine.com] to enable us to have a higher polycount with improved performance where needed, Lumen[docs.unrealengine.com] which gives us dynamic illumination and realistic reflections, and UE5’s Machine Learning Cloth Simulation[docs.unrealengine.com] to bring parts of our characters' clothes to life.

UE5 has something called GPU Lightmass Global Illumination[docs.unrealengine.com], which will allow us to dynamically bake shadows in real-time. This is particularly useful for the much-improved base building elements where we don’t know where people will place their assets.


CT: The switch from UE4 to 5 was a big leap for us which also necessitated a change in physics engine. We’re now using Epic’s new Chaos physics engine. With any big change in tech there’ll always be teething issues and this was no different.

Thankfully we’re over this migration hurdle, I can’t see us having to do anything like this in the future that’ll cause as much disruption.

NM: Team expansion. We’ve gone from 4 people - not really thinking about much other than making a cool game - to 33. There’s been big changes - business-wise - to how we work as a company and it’s required a lot of adapting and growing.


CT: I think I’m most proud of all the improvements we’ve made for the other teams. Looking at how development practices have developed since the first game is really eye opening.

For instance the dialogue condition system in the first game, there was no way of editing existing conditions, having different kinds of logic or any way of duplicating existing setups. Now we’ve got templates, nested And/Or logic and it’s easier than ever to do bulk operations to refactor existing work. It means we can write more curated and reactive encounters for players and quicker iterate on what they’ve already put together.

Everything is easier now, writing dialogue, creating new types of buildings, incorporating new systems, the whole development pipeline flows so much faster than it did before.

Our team isn’t only responsible for sculpting the guts of the software which you’ll be playing but also helping all our colleagues do what they do best and create this immense world for you to dive into. We can build the most intricate generative systems in the world but it’d all be nothing if that artist core wasn’t there to hold it all together.

NM: I’m really proud of the world and unique societies we’ve created and how they’ve slotted together in balance. I’ve learned a lot since Kenshi 1 and I feel like Kenshi 2 is way more fleshed out from those lessons learned. Colton has also been a huge asset in how some of those ideas have evolved together and it’s great to have talented brains to bounce ideas.

MR: I’m proud of what we’ve achieved for such a small studio with relatively limited resources. A game as big as Kenshi needs a lot of assets, which can obviously be quite challenging with a very small team, so we tried to come up with clever pipelines and sets of assets that can be reused in different ways but ultimately end up with a significantly different final look.


CT: Personally I’m currently working on some backend tools to help our localisation team manage commonly used terminology as well as reworking our deployment pipeline to be more configurable and cross platform.

The latter is very much us limbering up for making the Kenshi 2 update cycle more robust and help free up our own machines for other development work. Instead of me needing to build the game on my own computer and stop whatever else I might’ve been doing, we’ll be able to offload the heavy lifting onto some server and crack on with something important and not staring at a progress bar.

NM: We’ve created a really cool narrative system which I won’t spoil, but I will say that at any chance I get, I will talk my friends’ ears off about this genius creation that is super cool and they have no idea what I’m talking about but you’re gonna love I hope. Our QA, Chris, has helped hugely in testing out this monstrosity and I feel like myself and Colton have entered some kind of FCS matrix where we have finally become one with the dialogue system. The most fun part of my job is where I get to really challenge my technical brain to bend our software and push it to its fullest potential. I love finding hacks and cheats within it.

MR: Aside from day-to-day asset creation, in a broader context we are trying to finalise some of the asset creation workflow in order to speed up the asset creation process, this will allow us to streamline our work and have the remaining assets to be made in a more productive way. Not only does it allow us to have a better understanding of what assets and to what limit we can develop, we can also have more assets added with our limited resources.


CT: As much as I do enjoy making the other teams run as smoothly as they can I’m itching to get back into adding some new features to the game itself. I’ve had some concept art come through as some modular bridges that Mohamad’s team is currently putting together and I’m really excited to get to work on the tools that’ll make all those separate models a fully modular set of reusable bridges that we can quickly plonk down anywhere in the world.


CT: Gotta be exploring our new world and [REDACTED] without a doubt.

As a programmer I don’t get a full view of things like narrative or new places in their full in-depth context, so playing the final game in full and getting to meet all the new characters and visit all the strange new places is going to be a real treat.

We get feature requests through every so often related to some of these like “we’d like to a dialogue condition to check if a character is wearing shoes” or “check if a character has a particular item” which are simple enough for us to add but open up so many new possibilities for sort of specific interactive narratives that the writers are able to craft. I’ve just done a quick count and we’ve just about doubled the amount of conditions and effects that the dialogue system is capable of!

And this is just dialogue, the amount of things that just were not possible in Kenshi 1 is growing bigger every day. You think those overhaul mods are big? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

I’m equally if not more excited what the community will cook up with all our new features. We’re bound by our budgets and lore considerations, I want to see what you mad lads will do with it all!

NM: I can’t wait to see people playing our stuff, talking about it, getting pissed off by it, just enjoying it. It’s also a little frightening as sharing your writing makes you feel really quite vulnerable, but seeing people immerse themselves and escape to our world that we’re so proud of will be amazing.

MR: What I like about Kenshi is customisation. Being able to customise and make our own world is the best experience I can personally expect from a game. With that in mind and knowing all the planned assets, I'm very excited to have unlimited ways of making things for my own playthrough. People who played the first game understand my point, however, I think the experience and scale of what we as players can experience in Kenshi 2 will be significantly different and unique.


CT: So much, but I wouldn’t want to ruin Dan’s marketing plan by spilling all our beans now. All good things come to those who wait ;)


Okay that was a lot of text. How about something a bit more visual? Here’s a screenshot…as a treat.

Please note - this is not representative of final quality and is prior to us adding UE5’s Lumen lighting features. We have brightened this night-time shot a little in post to bring out the detail in the rocks. That's the only edit.


We know that sometimes it can be a pain trying to get a perfect angle when recording videos or taking a screenshot in Kenshi. Clipping can drive you mad, character close-ups are near impossible and the camera sticking to the ground can be a right faff. And what if you just want to move the camera vertically? 

Well we’ve a small update to address the above problems that also adds a handy lil rule of thirds overlay grid for getting those perfect shots.

We’d like to set some expectations here: this isn’t an all-singing AAA photo mode with a ton of filters, facial expression controls or time-of-day changes. As we’ve said many times before - we’re spending our time pretty much exclusively on Kenshi 2 right now. But these little additions and fixes helped our internal team creating Kenshi content, so we thought we’d pass them on to the community. 

If you’re wanting to go a little further with your shots and add some depth-of-field et al, you could always (at your own risk) give the impressive post-processing injector ReShade[reshade.me] a go. Just be aware that any performance issues experienced using ReShade fall outside our remit.

If you experience any issues after the update, please read this post on how to report crashes or bugs[www.lofigames.com] and make a post in the Lo-Fi Games forum, ensuring that you’re nice to our lovely moderators.


We asked a few Kenshi content creators to give an early version of the Free Camera Mode a go and they were kind enough to oblige. While we had some pretty high expectations for the content we were blown away by what they delivered in such a short amount of time. Check it out below:

Warning: Some spoiler content in videos

Cool Kid Croc

Paganacho

Twisted Logic Gaming LLC


To celebrate the release of the Free Camera Mode, we’re holding a screenshot competition. Three lucky winners will each win one of our lovely Beak Thing Hoodies[robaroba.gg].

Screenshots must be unmodded, fit into one of the below categories, and be submitted before the 21st April. Winners will be announced on 29th April on our social media[linktr.ee].


Landscape - Whether you’re setting off on a new adventure or heading to a familiar place, go ahead and capture the amazing landscapes that you go through to get to your destination. 

Action - From swords, bows and martial arts, we want to see your squad in action. This category is a great opportunity to try out the ‘camera rotate’ feature, as adding a tilt to your photos can help create a sense of motion.

Character - It’s time to show off your best character. For this category, you should showcase one character. They can be stealing, training, drinking, etc. but your main character needs to be the focus of the photo.

To enter your screenshots, share them on X (Twitter), Instagram[www.instagram.com], Threads[www.threads.net], Facebook [www.facebook.com]or in our Discord[discord.com] and please state in your post what category you’re submitting to, along with the hashtag #KenshiFreeCam. Feel free to tag our accounts[linktr.ee], especially if you’re submitting photos on Instagram as this will make it easier for us to find your submissions.

Winners will be hand-picked by the Lo-Fi team, whose judgement will hinge on creativity and category suitability.

All submissions must adhere to our competition terms and conditions[lofigames.com] and the Official Kenshi Discord Server[discord.com] rules found in the “📏rules-and-faq📏” channel.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/233860/Kenshi/

One last thing - Kenshi is 67% off on Steam until April 8, so if you’ve not yet bagged yourself a copy, or if you have a friend you’ve been trying to get on the Kenshi train, now’s a good time to give them a poke. 

Thanks for reading and as always - a big thank you to our community. That’s all for now. Be sure to come and say hello in our Discord[discord.com], follow us on the socials[linktr.ee] and sign up to our newsletter[lofigames.com].

https://discord.com/invite/R6258etsHE

[linktr.ee]

1.0.67
Added free camera mode for screenshots and videos. Toggle with ;

If you experience any issues after the update, please read this post on how to report crashes or bugs[www.lofigames.com] and make a post in the Lo-Fi Games forum, ensuring that you’re nice to our lovely moderators.

https://discord.com/invite/R6258etsHE

[linktr.ee]

FCS 2.14.1 was causing a few issues for some users, this hotfix should address those bugs. 

If you experience any issues after the update, please read this post on how to report crashes or bugs[www.lofigames.com] and make a post in the Lo-Fi Games forum, ensuring that you’re nice to our lovely moderators.

• Fixed issue causing fonts to increase to 825 instead of 8.25 in regions where commas are used in place of decimal points
• Fixed NPCs accusing you of trespassing when committing any other type of crime outside
• Fix for a bug where guards wouldn't investigate alarms

https://discord.com/invite/R6258etsHE

[linktr.ee]