It has been one year since Ninja Theory first announced that it was working on Project: Mara, a new game aiming to raise the bar for psychological horror with new experimental mechanics. We've heard very little about this game since then, but in an update posted this week, we began to get some new details as well as a look at the level of detail Ninja Theory is putting into its graphics.
In a new developer diary for Project: Mara titled ‘Capturing Reality', we learn that Mara is set in a real-world apartment, which the Ninja Theory team has meticulously captured and re-created in engine. It is described as Ninja Theory's “most ambitious and realistic game setting ever”.
At this stage, the Project: Mara art team is working on creating systems that can create an object and infinite variations of that object. Tools like this will be used in other Ninja Theory projects as well and pave the way for much more realistic game worlds.
As we can see from the video, the in-engine footage matches up with real-life photography very well. Of course, in-engine and the look of the final game are two different things, so we can't judge the graphics just yet. We don't know when Project: Mara will be releasing but it is just one of several games being juggled at Ninja Theory, with the others including Bleeding Edge, The Insight Project and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2.
KitGuru Says: Project: Mara is starting to take shape and sound much more interesting. Hopefully before the end of this year, we'll know more about what to expect from this particular game.