Snow Buries Memories. Not Projects.
All images courtesy of Karhukuvat
Hello again, dear friend.
It’s been a while. Longer than I intended, if I’m honest. But strangely, it hasn’t felt that long at all. Since the end of summer 2025, a lot has happened, and most of it demanded that I step back completely: from Marras, from the internet, from anything that even faintly taxed my mind or energy.
I actually began drafting this very blog post on Friday, November 21st, the day the first snow finally arrived in southern Finland. Just as the snow settled, I realized I still needed time to sort out a few things in my personal life before I could return properly to the project, to the blog, or to any kind of online presence.
Today, though, I finally feel ready.
In the sections below I’ll give a quick summary of what’s been going on since autumn, where things stand with Marras development, and what the road ahead looks like. The first part is mostly personal reflections, some honest thoughts about life’s bigger upheavals and what it means to keep working on a passion project as a hobby when everything else feels unsteady.
The second part collects the key feedback notes from AGDG Demo Day 64. And at the end, you’ll find the current state of the project and for the first time a rough timeline for the future.
Thank you for sticking around. Let’s catch up.
Disclaimer
The following section gets quite personal.
I share these thoughts openly because I believe vulnerability around common human experiences can help others feel less alone, but I also understand that not everyone wants or needs to read about someone else's emotional journey.
If you're here mainly for game development updates on Marras and would prefer to skip the more introspective parts, feel free to jump ahead to the Demo Day feedback or the current roadmap sections.
No hard feelings either way. Take care of yourself ♡.
The Heavy Season: Ending a Long Relationship, Selling Our Home, and Starting Over
The past half a year have been among the most emotionally demanding of my life.
It began with the end of a long-term relationship, one that had shaped years of my daily reality, routines, dreams, and sense of home. That kind of ending is already a profound loss. It brings waves of grief, confusion, anger, nostalgia, and eventually (slowly) acceptance. You don’t just lose a person; you lose a shared version of your future, a version of yourself you had become used to.
Almost immediately after, practical life demanded attention: the house we shared had to be sold.
The house wasn’t move-in ready for a new owner. It required a huge amount of work, repairs, painting, decluttering, staging, decisions about what to keep and what to let go of. Every task felt layered with emotion: fixing something we once planned together, packing away memories, erasing traces of a life that no longer existed. It was exhausting on every level, physically draining, financially stressful, and deeply heartbreaking. Then came the search for a new place to live, the moving process itself, and trying to build a new everyday rhythm while still processing everything else.
Through it all, I was trying to recover emotionally, trying to rediscover who I was outside of that relationship, to feel steady again, to believe that joy could return. Some days it felt impossible. Other days, tiny signs of progress appeared: a moment of lightness, a decision made just for myself, a night of better sleep.
I came through it, not perfectly, not quickly, but one small step at a time. That period taught me more about resilience, patience with myself, and the importance of allowing grief to take the time it needs than almost anything else in my life.
Where That Leaves the Project (Marras)
Developing a game is an incredibly demanding. It requires not only time but also a huge amount of mental and emotional resources. Because of that, it’s essential not to push too far and risk burning yourself out completely.
For me, game development is one of the purest and most rewarding forms of self-expression. I genuinely love it deeply. And precisely because I care about it so much, I’ve had to learn to protect myself from excessive strain. At times, that has meant stepping back from the project for a while to regain balance and perspective.
The fact that people have shown genuine interest in Marras brings a sense of responsibility. It means I have a duty to myself and to those who care about the project. To make sure it moves forward in a healthy, sustainable way and eventually succeeds. That requires strong self-awareness, good self-leadership, and above all, the ability to grant myself grace when things don’t go perfectly.
So I’ve given myself time. Time to rest, recharge, and return with fresh energy.
And now I’m back.
AGDG Demo Day 64 Feedback Notes
One fun moment amid the heavier stuff was joining the AGDG Demo Day 64 event. A 4chan /agdg/ tradition where indie devs share builds and the community plays and streams them. While watching folks tackle the Marras demo during the streams, I grabbed a couple of beers and jotted down these raw feedback notes. Once again, my greatest thanks for everyone that played the demo and provided the feedback. Without the feedback the game would never be as good as it is growing.
Sound
Add/improve sound effects (SFX)
Current build lacks proper SFX → destruction and impacts feel weightless.
Gameplay & Mechanics
Reduce or tune the delay when switching to/from focus shot
Current pause feels too long; add a visual startup effect for the focus laser to make it feel intentional.Fix safe spot in Boss 1 – Pattern 3
After destroying left-side parts, hugging the right edge makes the boss slide off-screen, leaving only static pink bullets.Make Boss 1's final phase (after all parts destroyed) more interesting/shorter
Current pattern drags on without increasing difficulty → feels like the fight is already over.Fix bug: Player can repeatedly lock onto midboss/boss while it’s exploding upon defeat.
Improve target/damage feedback (“note to self: add target indicators”)
Examples:Tank mini-boss: rapid shot appeared to do nothing until focus shot revealed the reticle.
Body flicker (blue/gray) blends with player shots and is hard to notice in periphery.
Suggestion: use a different color (e.g., orange) for “taking damage” state before final red flash.
Visual / Effects
Prevent boss hit/explosion effects from spawning outside the boss body
Off-screen explosions resemble shining pickups (DDP bee icon style) and are initially distracting.Redo player death animation
Current large single-sprite death causes visual bugs (e.g., smoke screen persists after death). For some systems, the animation won’t render due to improper asset design (sprite size). On the bottom line, I don’t personally like it, and I know I can do a much better job with it.Hitbox size and position
Adjusted (was previously lower than expected; now better aligned with player focus area).Player ship visibility
Improved with overlay shader effect + better hitbox visibility.
UI / Settings
Fix losing focus on settings pop-up dialogs
If focus leaves the dialog and mouse cursor is hidden, player can’t reselect buttons → soft-lock.
Observations (Positive / Design Notes)
Lock-on + destructible boss parts feel like they will be a core part of boss score play → lean into this.
Current State and Next Steps
Game development on Marras has always been woven into my daily routine, especially now that life feels steady again, with no major crises pulling me under. I’m not rushing the project, but I also don’t plan to let it stretch on forever. A huge part of my process is honing the most efficient workflows: delivering high-enough quality without wasting time or resources.
Here’s my rough roadmap right now:
End of 2026: Features complete
End of 2027: Content complete
2028: Polish, marketing, and release
2029: As usual, plans will fail. Release may take until 2029. It is my personal hard deadline.
The feedback I’ve received from Demo Days (and from everyone who’s played, watched streams, or dropped a comment) has been incredibly valuable. It’s already helping shape the game into something much better for players.
I’m planning more developer-preview-style demo releases in the future. I haven’t set any hard limits yet on how much gameplay content those previews might contain. I’ll decide that as things progress and as the project feels ready for wider eyes.
At some point later in development I’ll also set up a “dead man’s switch” mechanism. If something unexpected were to happen to me, at least the source code and assets would be automatically released so the project doesn’t simply vanish into the digital void.
And finally. I want to say this directly:
Your presence here, whether quiet or loud, has meant more to me than you probably realize. Even on the hardest days, knowing people were waiting, watching, and rooting for Marras gave me strength to keep going.
I’m genuinely excited to pick the journey back up now that I have the energy again. Thank you for staying with me. Let’s make something special together.
-M