Hunt has described his impetus for creating the game as his dislike of the 'hand-holding' that other RPGs have when starting out. Hunt has described the world as 'sword-punk', and was specifically inspired by stories of wandering rōnin and the idea of a survivor travelling a wasteland. He worked by himself on the project until 2013, when he was able to hire a small team that helped him with the project. After five or so years of working his security job, Hunt was able to leave his part-time job and work on the game full-time after finding initial success with the game. Hunt worked as a part-time security guard in order to make ends meet for the first few years of the game's development. Kenshi was primarily developed by a single person, Chris Hunt, who began development around 2006–2008. Weather is a constant concern whether or not the player decides to construct an outpost, with some types (such as acid rain) causing ill effects. These factors come into play when players are constructing outposts. Zones in Kenshi are not just aesthetic, as they have specific qualities, such as soil types, terrain, and resource availability. These reactions to power vacuums can result in new locations spawning or in towns being taken over by new factions.

The game includes a world states system which creates reactions to deaths of notable people. Kenshi has many non-player locations, of sizes ranging from a single building to large cities. As part of the damage system, limbs can be severed or damaged individually, with the option to replace them with prosthetic limbs if available. The player can recruit characters from numerous different factions and species to join their squad, and can eventually build a town themselves.

Skills are leveled up through doing actions, such as leveling up thievery by stealing items, various combat skills by fighting, and the player can recruit other units to grow their squad.

The player starts out with no skills and struggles to survive in the early stages of the game. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, where it is incredibly difficult for life to survive. Kenshi is an open world role-playing video game with real-time strategy elements that has no linear narrative. Kenshi has a damage system where players and enemies can lose limbs after battles and have to permanently deal with the consequences

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