The Journey of MARRAS - From Prototype to Project
Featuring on this blog post: visions from Finland. Courtesy of Karhukuvat
This post aims to illuminate how MARRAS evolved from a mere concept to a full-fledged project, highlight the motivations behind its creation, and illustrate how seemingly minor decisions can have profound impacts on the trajectory of video game development and life in general.
A Journey Unfolding
I began working on MARRAS in January 2024, though it would be more accurate to say I was working on something that would eventually morph into MARRAS. My initial venture was to prototype a shoot 'em up game using Godot, an engine I was only familiar with by name, known for its node-based structure. I chose Godot because I was seeking an intuitive platform that would facilitate rapid prototyping. My philosophy in game development has always been that the more iterative the process, the better the end product. At that time, I consciously focused solely on programming, acknowledging my identity primarily as a programmer, albeit not one of great skill in my estimation.
Reflecting on the time before January 2024, I must admit I hadn't engaged with game projects for several years. The reason was simple: I had lost my joy for it. My previous experiences in game development had left me disillusioned, growing sour from the stress and the focus on aspects I could not control. I had set unrealistic expectations for both myself and others, which led to a sense of futility in game creation. I realized there was indeed no purpose in fostering negativity or neglecting those around me or myself. In that period, I didn't just lose my passion for creating; I lost a piece of myself as well.
Coming back to January 2024, one evening I found myself tinkering with Godot, trying to figure out what it was all about. After spending some time with documentation and watching a few beginner tutorials, I started to build features of something I had familiarity with—a shoot 'em up. To save time and get a feel for how things were working with the game engine, I used ripped sprite sheets from games that shall remain unnamed. Something sparked inside me when I made a player ship move on the screen and engage the first tank enemies with their glorious 32-direction turret animations. Pressing the "run project" button in the game engine's HUD felt exciting after a very long time. I wanted to share what I had done with others right away.
And so I did. As you can imagine, there wasn't much excitement shared by others since I was prototyping with temporary assets. It still had an impact. The biggest push came from an anonymous person who said I was wasting my time ripping assets from other games instead of modeling them in Blender myself. I'm a programmer, not an artist, I thought. I can't even draw, and my artistic brain had lost hope before my teenage years. Sleeping on the idea that I could at least try learning Blender one night led to me modeling a doughnut the next day.
The next couple of months were mostly spent learning the new tool and finding the most efficient way to produce assets for the game. The decision to use pre-rendered 2D sprites instead of going 3D was based on two things. I could cut more corners and streamline my graphics pipeline by modeling the assets and rendering them out as 2D sprites. I also wanted to do something that's very rare and counterintuitive nowadays—I wanted to create a high-resolution, pre-rendered game with an isometric feel. You might ask why an industrial setting with robots? Because fantasy settings were too hard for me to pursue right now, and gritty industrial themes with military vehicles and robots are always beyond cool!
The time I spent in 2024 on graphical assets compared to other game development-related things (mostly programming) can be seen from the Git commit history. Most of the time Blender was used for the trial-by-fire type of learning. Contributions to the project can be split as follows:
JAN: Godot tutorials, getting the feel of how the stuff works with it.
FEB: Starting to tinker with an STG prototype without a bigger destination.
MAR/APR: Learning Blender. Creating the first "real" assets for the game.
MAY-Oct: Adding core features to the game when I had enough graphics. Creating graphical assets when not adding new features.
Nov/DEC: Lots of cleanup in both code and graphics. More mixed workflow with creating assets and adding features to the game.
The green squares indicate I was active with Godot, while the dark gray ones show I worked purely on graphical assets in Blender.
End of the Year: Reflect, Decide, Cleanse, and Prepare for What Lies Ahead
Believe it or not, the project's future was not a foregone conclusion at all. It was around the end of the year during the holiday period when I finally decided to commit to the project. The reason for hesitation was that it would be part of my life for several years and would require time away from other things I love, mostly consuming entertainment created by others. I also tend to form an emotional attachment to my projects, which can be wearing sometimes. Working solo on one large project over a long period is rewarding but often lonely. It's a marathon where discipline matters more than motivation. It's not always fun; I don't always enjoy it, but the more I do it, the more I feel it's an integral part of me, and I must continue.
Perhaps the biggest reason to "go all the way" with the project was you, the reader of this lengthy post. Your enthusiasm and encouraging words work like high-octane fuel for my creative motivation. It validates that I'm doing the right things and shows that someone else finds value in what is being created. Thank you a million for being part of this journey! I also feel very fortunate to be able to contribute to the shoot 'em up community this way. In a way, I find that it's now my turn to give something back to the world.
By working on this project, I have found my passion for creating once again. I have realized that the piece of myself I once lost was not something full and perfect—far from it. I feel that I have regained what I lost, and with that, I have realized how rough and unfinished I am as a person. MARRAS is becoming a symbol of my personal growth. Instead of fostering negativity, I feel I'm sharing joy and excitement about something that feels important and has a purpose. MARRAS is not just a game I'm doing for myself; I'm doing it for you too.
I promised to tell you about the next steps. I want to keep blog posts bite-sized, but I'm already way beyond the length I originally planned for this text. Because of that, I'll split the current status, next steps, and the future of the project into the next post, which I'll write later. Here's something to think about while waiting:
I'm planning to add a footer section to every post with a status report about MARRAS, like what I've been working on since the last report. I'm also thinking about including data like Steam wishlist numbers if you're interested in that. I don't have issues being open about this kind of stuff, especially since I don't have publisher shackles limiting my actions. Please comment, for example on Twitter, about how you feel about it. But now, back to working on the game. Have a wonderful end of the week!
Shooting games never were and never will be dead.
-M