Ninja Theory’s Project Mara is set exclusively in a ‘photorealistic’ apartment

Ninja Theory has released a new developer diary for Project Mara, an experimental game it is making alongside other projects including Hellblade 2.

Announcing the game in January 2020, Ninja Theory co-founder and chief creative director Tameem Antoniades described Project Mara as “a real world and grounded representation of mental terror.”

In the studio’s latest developer diary (above), he discusses the new art creation process behind the game, which he says is laying the foundation for all of the studio’s current and future titles.

“Project Mara is a very special project for us because although it’s quite a concise project, we’re attempting to do lots of things that we’ve never attempted before,” he says.

“One of those things is to capture reality obsessively, so the game is set in one location, an apartment, a real-world location, and the art team’s goal is to recreate this apartment perfectly.”

Antoniades adds: “We’re aiming for an experience that feels real, that doesn’t feel like a game and doesn’t feel like a movie, but something altogether different.”

Cambridge, UK-based Ninja Theory was acquired by Microsoft in 2018.

In addition to Project Mara, it’s working on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 and The Insight Project.

The former was the first Xbox Series X game to be revealed, while the latter is an exploratory project designed to treat mental suffering and encourage mental wellbeing within an immersive game experience.

Further reading

Ninja Theory’s Project: Mara is ‘a real world representation of mental terror’

Experimental project “could become a new immersive storytelling medium”