Hellblade Dev Shows Off Photorealistic Graphics For Project Mara

Ninja Theory became a major developer thanks to the success of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. Since then, the studio has focused on two projects: the upcoming sequel Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 and a psychological horror game dubbed Project Mara. While Project Mara's exact nature remains enigmatic, Ninja Theory has released a new video that shows off some of the tech powering the game's photorealistic graphics, and the results are quite interesting.

In the video above, Ninja Theory co-founder and chief creative Tameem Antoniades explains how the studio decided to recreate a real physical location for Project Mara, which takes place entirely inside one apartment. In order to achieve the desired levels of photorealism, the studio's artists jury-rigged a scanner to capture high-quality references of real-life materials. In a similar move, the studio hired a specialized firm to scan the interior of the apartment to make sure they recreated every detail.

According to Antoniades, Project Mara represents a substantial "shift" in the way that Ninja Theory approaches art. Instead of creating objects, the artists at the studio are now more focused on creating "systems that can create that object, and infinite variations of that object." This involves the use of procedural generation to recreate nuances such as the way dirt and dust collect in a corner of the apartment, or drip spatter on the back of a kitchen sink.

While the above images are quite impressive, we still don't have a release date for Project Mara, or for the hotly-anticipated Hellblade 2. The voice actor behind Senua recently teased some kind of Hellblade announcement, so we might know sooner than later.