Demon’s Souls was filled with rubber ducks during development

Much like the original PlayStation 3, the Souls of the demon remake on PlayStation 5 is a moody, atmospheric game with very little light or joy. But this was not always the case.

Bluepoint Games staff frequently used a rubber duck model to assess aspects of the Souls of the demon motor during development, according to technical artist Collin Harris.

“We used a rubber duck to test various technologies and effects,” Harris wrote on Twitter yesterday alongside a video showing several of the toy animals scattered around a test environment before a giant duck head peeked through the background fog. “Obviously, things quickly got out of hand.”

Talk to GamesRadar, Harris said there had been so many rubber ducks in Souls of the demon that they chose the “nuclear option” to completely remove the model from the game rather than accidentally leaving one for players to find.

“I can assure you that I have personally deleted all instances of duck-based placeholder content,” Harris added on Twitter.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some leftover nonsense that still lurks in the shadows. Observant players have noticed several goat heads with bulbous eyes hidden in the Souls of the demon credits, perhaps in homage to a similar easter egg in the remake of Bluepoint by Shadow of the colossus. Guess the rubber ducks were just too obvious a gag to keep in the game, but at least the devs got a kick out of it.

“It was fun while it lasted, and I’ll forever live on as one of my favorite game developer memories,” Harris said. GamesRadar.