{"id":13364,"date":"2024-10-05T17:20:51","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T17:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/making-a-game-in-kyiv-during-a-russian-invasion\/"},"modified":"2024-10-05T17:20:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-05T17:20:51","slug":"making-a-game-in-kyiv-during-a-russian-invasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/making-a-game-in-kyiv-during-a-russian-invasion\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a game in Kyiv during a Russian invasion"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"GSCGSC Game World<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The area surrounding the reactor – including Pripyat’s famous abandoned ferris wheel – have been recreated in the game<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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“I would say that maybe half of our studio is currently working under the constant threat of being killed,” says Evgeniy Kulik.<\/p>\n

Evgeniy is a technical producer on Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, an upcoming video game developed by Kyiv-based developer GSC Game World.<\/p>\n

It’s a title fans of the original, released in 2007, have been awaiting for some time.<\/p>\n

But it might not have happened at all, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

BBC Newsbeat spoke to Evgeniy about how Stalker 2’s developers kept going, losing colleagues to war, and why the studio feels it’s so important for them to complete the game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"EPAEPA<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The nuclear reactor at Chernobyl was encased in a new protective shelter in 2019 to prevent radiation leaks<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The Chernobyl power plant was the site of the world’s worst-ever nuclear accident.<\/p>\n

In 1986, when the country was under the control of the Soviet Union, there was an explosion at the nuclear power plant 90 miles from Ukrainian capital Kyiv. <\/p>\n

At least 31 people were killed in the immediate aftermath and the blast created a fire that burned for 10 days, sending a plume of radioactive smoke across Europe.<\/p>\n

A 30-mile exclusion zone was set up around the nuclear reactor to keep people out, although the Ukrainian government had begun to admit tourists into the area before Russia’s invasion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The original Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, was set on an alternative timeline where a second nuclear disaster had struck, creating an array of mutant creatures and other unnatural phenomena.<\/p>\n

Players took the role of a character tasked with exploring the post-apocalyptic setting and navigating the various factions fighting for control of the wasteland.<\/p>\n

The decision to set the game at the site was controversial – one developer has said “the blood was still warm and it flowed in our veins” – even 30 years later.<\/p>\n

But the game was a big hit, and Stalker 2 was first announced in 2010 – with the intention to build on the original’s survival gameplay style.<\/p>\n

In 2018, GSC Game World announced that it was working towards an April 2022 release date.<\/p>\n

But just two months before that arrived, Russian troops and planes began to cross the border with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

War had begun.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘We load guns with one hand and make a game with the other’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\"AlastairAlastair McKevitt<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Lead producer Mariia Grygorovych made plans to get the Stalker 2 team out of Kyiv in the lead-up to Russia’s invasion<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Stalker 2 is now due to come out on PC and Xbox in November, but a documentary about the making of the game was released this week.<\/p>\n

It shows members of the development team talking about the dawning realisation that Russia was about to invade. <\/p>\n

Lead producer Mariia Grygorovych remembers commissioning buses to wait outside the company’s offices in Kyiv, ready to transport employees and their families to Ukraine’s western border.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, just over 180 made the journey when the invasion began, with 139 choosing to stay behind and help the war effort.<\/p>\n

Some have joined the military while others have continued to work on Stalker 2 in between their duties.<\/p>\n

Those who evacuated eventually set up a second studio in Prague, in the Czech Republic, rebuilding motion capture and audio studios from scratch.<\/p>\n

It also features members of the team who stayed in Ukraine talking about fighting for their country while continuing to work on the game.<\/p>\n

“We load our weapons with one hand and make our game with the other,” says one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GSCGSC Game World<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The team drove cross-country to reach the Ukranian border with Slovakia<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Rejecting Russia<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Speaking to Newsbeat during the Gamescom expo in Cologne, Germany, Evgeniy tells Newsbeat much of Stalker 2’s large Russian fanbase was unsupportive during the early days of the war.<\/p>\n

After the conflict broke out, the game’s subtitle was altered to Heart of Chornobyl, to reflect the Ukrainian spelling of the name.<\/p>\n

Russian voiceovers and subtitles have also been removed, and GSC has refused to release the game in Russia.<\/p>\n

The developers have blamed Ukraine’s opponent for regular attempts to hack its servers.<\/p>\n

“We tried to get some support from those people,” says Evgeniy. “But instead we received a lot of negativity. <\/p>\n

“So we decided to join up with the sanctions, let’s say.” <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GSCGSC Game World<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Stalker takes its name from the bandit-like characters who venture into its so-called Anomalous Zone<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Ukraine has tried to keep cultural events going during wartime – it won Eurovision in 2022<\/a> and its largest music festival<\/a> made a comeback this summer.<\/p>\n

Evgeniy feels the same applies to Stalker 2.<\/p>\n

“We would like to remind the world that Ukraine is capable of doing great games once again,” he says.<\/p>\n

“Games are part of the culture as well, just like music, movies, arts, books, and so on.<\/p>\n

“So, yeah, it is an important work to the world.”<\/p>\n

Evgeniy says the studio also owes it to staff who’ve upended their lives to move, or who’ve joined the military, to see their work through.<\/p>\n

And the studio also wants to honour friends and colleagues who’ve died, such as Volodymyr Yehzov, a developer who was killed while defending Bahkmut from Russian troops.<\/p>\n

“All those people really worked hard to make this happen and we should really push forward to make this happen and appreciate their effort,” says Evgeniy.<\/p>\n

“To make this happen in the memory of those people.”<\/p>\n

War Game: The Making of Stalker 2 can be viewed <\/i>on YouTube<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to Newsbeat live <\/a>at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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