Ninja Theory has had several projects in the works for a while now, the biggest of which likely being the follow-up to its universally acclaimed narrative-driven gem Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. However, the team is also working on two other projects: The Insight Project and an experimental horror game known as Project Mara.
If a new developer diary is anything to go off, it seems the latter is shaping into something pretty special, with the footage highlighting the advanced graphics that will be front and center throughout the game. According to Ninja Theory’s Chief Creative Officer, Tameem Antoniades, the title will be a concise but innovative project for the studio, with it using a series of ambitious, state of the art visual techniques.
Shown off through the diary, it seems Ninja Theory’s goal is to seamlessly recreate a real-life apartment within Project Mara, revealing that the game will be entirely set within this one location. According to Antoniades, its aim is to “capture reality obsessively,” with the art team undertaking the process of perfectly replicating the materials within the apartment so they look as authentic as humanly possible. To do this, the team captured images of materials under several different lighting conditions while also using a custom-built scanner created by the game’s technical art director, Matt Stoneham.
Ninja Theory used this to create shaders and other art assets, making for some mindbogglingly realistic textures. The video then highlights a number of examples, showing a carpet, a wooden wall with small signs of wear and tear, and a piece of leather with tiny etchings only viewable up close. Antoniades claims that the next challenge was marking authentic dimensions for the apartment itself, with the team contacting 3D scanning specialist Clear Angle to create realistic references for the location.
With the scan, Ninja Theory’s artists then had to utilize their textures across the in-game apartment, with the video showing details such as small hairs added to corners of rooms and tiny puddles of water underneath taps. Highlighted through comparison shots, it’s baffling just how lifelike this new project is turning out to be, with Ninja Theory clearly playing around with some incredible technology. When the title was announced back in January last year, the team claimed it would be a “grounded representation of true mental terror.” It seems it could follow in the footsteps of Hellblade and focus on a protagonist’s battle with mental illness, which the team has proved it can tackle with care and respect through prior titles.
Project Mara is currently in development.
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