A reminder: the support action for Ukraine is ongoing. The proceeds from the sale of Chernobylite will be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross, and the campaign will continue until Sunday (6th of March). We also encourage you to take part in other charity events. Details can be found in the post below.



The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is home to many interesting places and objects that deserved to be immortalized in our game. Apart from the obvious ones like the nuclear power plant and the city of Pripyat, there is also the monstrous Duga over-the-horizon radar, more commonly known as the “Moscow Eye”. It simply cannot be overlooked: it’s huge, has a distinctive shape and is visible from miles away. Therefore, it’s worth taking a closer look at it.



Work on the new over-the-horizon radar system began in the 1950s. The regular radars of the era were unable to detect targets beyond the horizon, so with the threat of the Cold War looming, this new project was specifically designed to fill this gap. The first radar of this type was built near Mikołajów, codenamed Duga-1. A second, known as the Duga-2, was constructed nearby in 1971. Already in 1969, a decision was made to build further systems of this type in other regions of the Soviet Union. The most famous and most important of them is undoubtedly located near Chernobyl.



The antenna was built 9 km south-west of the nuclear power plant, while the transmitting antenna was located to the north-east of the plant. The receiving antennas consisted of two sets of masts - 12 masts 90 m high and 17 masts 135 m high. They weighed approximately 13,000-14,000 tons.



Numerous buildings with computer systems and command posts are also worth noting. About 1,000 soldiers were needed to operate the entire system. Two closed housing estates called Chernobyl-2 and Lubecz-1 were built for the crew.




The Chernobyl complex officially began its operations in July 1976 and continued working until April 26, 1986. The increased level of radiation caused by the disaster at the power plant not only endangered personnel, but also disrupted the operation of the radars. Therefore, in 1988, a decision was made to completely switch off the Chernobyl radar complex. The most important equipment and transmitting antennas were dismantled and removed. However, a complex of receiving antennas has been preserved. Currently, the radar antennas are falling into disrepair. Over time, the authorities decided to limit access to the antennas for safety reasons.



Our team saw Duga with their own eyes and thanks to that you can see her too - in our game. In fact, it plays a key role in one of Chernobylite’s missions. (Sashko is to blame!). An amazing building that still looks impressive today.



Take care, Stalkers!




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In light of the recent events in Ukraine, we wanted to express our deepest sympathies and solidarity with the victims of this conflict as well as all Ukrainians. We believe that wars belong in the realm of video games, not in real life. Nobody should be scared for their life, family or home. The situation is dramatic, and we can only hope that peace will come soon.

For years we’ve been traveling to Ukraine and met a lot of amazing people there. During the development of our game, we became very close to Ukrainians, their history and culture. The dreadful act of aggression towards our neighbor that we’ve been witnessing since last week simply broke our hearts. We couldn’t just stand aside and watch so we decided to do something that matters and not to leave our friends all by themselves. We hope you join us!

In this perilous time everyone should help as much as they can to support Ukraine and its people. Apart from voicing your support, there are other ways to help the victims suffering from war atrocities.



We decided to donate the weekly income from Chernobylite sales to the Ukrainian Red Cross to help the victims of the conflict. This goes for both PC (Steam, Gog, Epic Games Store) and consoles.

The charity sales takes place until Sunday, March 6.

Currently, there are many fundraising campaigns for charity. Look around in your immediate area to see which institutions can provide support. We also encourage you to follow the links below and make a donation for the good cause:

Polish Humanitarian Action
Ukrainian Red Cross

There are many charities and fundraising activities that you can get involved with. You can help, even from far away, for example by collecting donations that will be sent abroad to Ukraine. The Ukrainian citizens may soon be facing a catastrophic humanitarian situation due to the limited access to medical aid and lack of running water in besieged cities. That’s why it’s important to get involved now and do whatever humanly possible to support them. Every little helps. Let's show our solidarity together. Every action counts. Even the smallest one.

Chernobylite Team

Without further ado, we invite you to read the third and final episode of the series, in which we share with you the backstage of creating the music in Chernobylite. We would like to thank Mikołaj Stroiński for his contribution to our entries so far. At the same time, we would like to welcome Krzysztof Chalusiak, our friend, sound designer and composer, who will talk about the process of creating songs for some famous missions in the game.

Old Documents

A mission in which we make our way through small underground corridors to get important documents from Tarakan's closet. As Krzysztof explains, when writing music for this mission, he wanted to emphasize its claustrophobic nature:

“The first of these songs starts playing as soon as Igor enters the underground complex. The composition is based on interpenetrating, stretched sounds of synthesizers that dynamically change their sound and pitch. The delicate, yet strongly processed percussion accents enrich the texture of the piece. Operating synthesizers on several layers allowed me to build a sense of constant movement and change. This effectively builds a mood of uncertainty and emphasizes the mysterious atmosphere of the underground complex”.



“We get to hear the second track when Igor triggers the Tarakan trap. The pulse of this composition is much more concrete and systematic. The piece is based on bass sounds that set the rhythm for the composition. These are supported by arpeggiator, dynamically changing the harmonic and sonic values ​​that rise and fall, emphasizing the tension accompanying Igor. Additionally, the players can still hear some sounds from the previous composition playing in the background. That was deliberate. It allowed me to successfully keep the coherence of both tracks and to progress from one sound to the next one in a natural way”.

Mikhail In Trouble

What kind of music is best to illustrate the rescue mission of our slightly unhinged companion? Well, one with a hint of psychedelia. After all, during this mission Igor ends up in a building filled with a strange gas, which most likely caused Mikhail to hallucinate.

“In the first composition, which starts playing as soon as Igor descends to the ground floor of the building, I only used a few synthesizers because I wanted to emphasize the dynamism of the second song. The first composition is based on an undulating, blurry synthesizer and its sound evolves over a very long period of time. Together with the synthesizer, there are strongly voiced percussion sounds that emerge from time to time".



“The second composition uses a wider palette of colors and it’s easy to see that a lot more is happening there. There are more synthesizers in this track and although it continues the ideas from the previous composition, I also added some new sounds and textures. I wanted the player to experience the music progression when advancing the mission. The second composition begins in a dramatic moment when Igor damages his gas mask.”

Difficult Truth

As Krzysztof explains, composing this piece was quite an interesting challenge. Without revealing too much of the plot, this piece was about emphasizing the character of… a particular location. What is it and where is it located? You have to discover it for yourself!



“The foundation of the piece are misty synthesizer sounds that intertwine with one another, generating a slow pulse. Their ambivalent color and harmonic composition create an aura of mystery and correspond well with the character of the place. By adding short, rhythmic sounds, I wanted to make the piece more dynamic. By making it digital, I emphasized the technological aspect of the place discovered by Igor”.

Old Hideout

For this particular mission, it was crucial to focus on the stage where Igor was about to unravel the mystery of Tarakan. The accompanying piece at this point has a clear, perceptible pulse that reflects the feeling of tension experienced by the protagonist.


by Fritz Fantom

“The foundation of the composition is based on the rhythm built up by several synthesizer bass sounds and processed recordings of falling clock hands” - Krzysztof explains - “the layers of these sounds interpenetrate one another, maintaining a specific pulse. In addition to shorter bass sounds, the piece is characterized by synthesizers with longer, resonating motifs. Their sound dynamically changes timbre, which effectively harmonizes with the sense of unease built up by short bass splashes”.

That's it. We hope you learned something interesting. We especially hope that this insight will encourage people who would like to create music for games in the future. Let us know in the comments if you would like to read more similar material in the future.

Take care, Stalkers!




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A few weeks ago, we showed you some pictures of the newly created map, which will be introduced in one of the next DLCs. This is the map showing the distinctive looking cooling towers of units 5 and 6 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. We visited those locations personally to get the reference materials, as you can see in the post below.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3123809822937640079

A bit has changed since then and we decided that it was worth showing to what extent.
This isn’t just idle talk: previously you could only see the outline of the board; a skeleton on which its next elements were just applied. Today, we can say that the map began taking some shape.











Obviously, there is still a lot of work ahead of us, but we can already say that the results are satisfactory. We hope you think so too.

Take care, Stalkers!




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Two weeks ago, we introduced you to the first part of our Chernobylite music series.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3118181596900049384

You enjoyed the material and this makes us very happy. Today, as promised, we present to you the second installment of the series. This time we looked at exploratory melodies, characteristic of the locations visited by Chernobylite’s protagonist - Igor. Again, we give the floor to composer Mikołaj Stroiński, but also to Sound Designer Krzysztof Chalusiak from our studio, who contributed significantly to the creation of the soundtrack.

Moscow Eye

This piece was probably the most complex. Mikołaj wanted to give it - as he says - a specific energy; something that captures the pace between pauses and movements. "There aren't too many sudden changes and intense pulse in the music” - says Mikołaj - “because the world in the game is very addictive and beautifully made. So I didn't want the player to rush, but to get to know this world, admire it and think about it. Of course, the ‘Moscow Eye’ has a pulse. Its goal, after all, is to gently push the character forward and support the development of the plot."

In short: the idea was for the player to admire the world created in the game, and not just to rush ahead with a weapon in their hand. By analyzing the screenshots and recordings of the game that players created, we came to the conclusion that this kind of relaxed exploration of the Zone was thoroughly enjoyed. And the music supports that.



Okay, but what does this music actually sound like? ”The song contains electronic and synthetic sounds, because such sounds can be associated with the Chernobyl disaster and the resulting radioactive pollution” - Mikołaj explains - “Hence, the severity of sounds, which I combined with a developed sound-design as my personal artistic choice, to which I was inspired by the game and the history it contains. The minor chords emphasize the hopelessness and the hardships awaiting the player."

Kopachi Village

While the Moscow Eye is mostly filled with buildings and various structures made of concrete and metal, Kopachi is quite the opposite. How to convey the atmosphere of a place where we’re surrounded mainly by trees and rocks with music? According to Mikołaj, the piece he composed in the first part contains a lot of free space to capture a feeling of longing and loneliness. It was crucial.



"The sounds are in a way similar to those in ‘Moscow Eye’ music - says Mikołaj - “for the reasons mentioned above. There are some extra sounds that create uncertainty and a state that I would call the ‘fear suburb’. After all, Chernobylite is a horror game, and apart from situations where the player is supposed to be very afraid, there are also instances in which he should at least feel uncomfortable. As with the songs above, I used acoustic guitar sounds to ensure the continuity of the soundtrack."

Bad Feeling

The second exploration track for Kopachi and also much darker. Mikołaj explains that in this case, the sound-design and harmony are intended to deprive the player of all hope, emotionally putting him in a state of madness and fear.



“Hence, for example, the repetitive sandy sound of the synthesizer and the greater harmony chromatics - including the emphasis on the major seventh interval” - says Mikołaj - “The pulse is fairly slow, because the in-game situations in which ‘Bad Feeling’ occurs are not intended to make the player panic or motivate him to run."

Pripyat Residential

Pripyat Residential is the newest location that we added to the game quite recently in the "Ghost Town" update. Our composer and sound designer, Krzysztof Chalusiak, wanted exploratory music to create a sense of communing with Pripyat, in which there are still some secret places and things to discover. It was about capturing the feeling of the space of an abandoned city, a city that speaks to you in its own, mysterious language.



“I chose to use the ethereal sounds of synthesizers because they capture the atmosphere of the abandoned concrete blocks of the city of Pripyat” - says Krzysztof - “The varied timbres of the synthesizers build closer and further planes of the composition, thus constituting the foundation of the whole. Apart from the misty synthesizers, I used themes based on short percussion sounds that added dynamism to the composition and diversified its texture. The additional filtering through a clear echo emphasized the ambivalent atmosphere of this location. Keeping the composition in the higher register was a deliberate measure, I didn’t want the piece to overwhelm the player. At the same time, the transition from a lighter composition to a track more focused on bass tones makes a much greater impression."

This was the second episode of our Chernobylite music series. The third and last one will be released in two weeks. It’s going to be a fresh batch of insights and information. It’s worth the wait, we promise.

Take care, Stalkers!




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Crossbow - a weapon that uses elasticity to fire special arrows. The invention was used in antiquity - in Mediterranean countries from the 4th century BC. (the long reload time meant that it was not considered an effective weapon, except for sieges), and in China probably as early as the 5th century BC.

About 200 C.E. the Chinese army had 50,000 crossbowmen who fought with mass-produced bronze crossbows. Of course, the crossbow was constantly being improved. For example, the Chinese army used an automatic crossbow (it fired 20 arrows in 15 seconds) as a defensive weapon on the Great Wall of China.

But why are we talking about all this? Because we are preparing a surprise for you in the next DLC we are preparing. A dozen or so reports ago, we showed you the graphics of a crafting table.



We asked you what can be produced on this table. There were different answers, but among them, only one was correct:



Yes! We have a new weapon for you in the upcoming DLC - a fast-firing and extremely quiet crossbow! Thanks to it, you will be able to silently kill your opponent while sitting in the bushes.



The crossbow is still in production and tested, but we can already say that it looks great, and has a good feeling when firing.




Although we still need to improve it, especially in terms of the power of the shot. Because recently it turned out that by accident we created the most powerful weapon in the world.



We also need to work on the accuracy…



Take care, Stalkers!




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Soon after the full version of Chernobylite was released, we were surprised to see that many of your opinions about the game specifically mentioned the soundtrack. You praised it a lot, above all for its excellent rendering with the atmospheric sounds of the desolate Chernobyl Zone. At the same time, we started receiving questions about whether the game soundtrack would be made available sometimes in the future. Today we’re able to fulfill this wish: the soundtrack is available for purchase on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1847400/Chernobylite_Soundtrack/

However, we decided that it was definitely not enough to throw a soundtrack for you and nothing else. That is why we wanted to share something completely new and special: an insight into how the key musical themes for Chernobylite were created. And who would be more qualified to tell you about this process than the composer himself, Mikołaj Stroiński? Let’s dive right in.

Preludes to the Darkness

This is the theme you can hear right at the base. Delicate guitar strings calm us down and help us focus, build and plan Igor’s next moves. What’s interesting, Mikołaj had the pleasure to compose four pieces for an acoustic guitar for this particular part of Chernobylite.



"The need came more from the outside: players were attached to the so-called temporary music (from Early Access - perm.), which was based on an acoustic guitar. I never intended to treat this situation as an obstacle - quite the opposite. A composition for a solo instrument requires a responsible composer who can use the sounds of a given instrument as widely as possible. In such cases, my goal is usually to compose something musically interesting without distracting the player." Mikołaj also admitted that after creating these four songs, he subsequently had to use the guitar sounds in many other places in the game to ensure the coherence of the soundtrack.

Tatyana Theme

Chernobylite wouldn’t be Chernobylite without Tatyana and her trademark instrument - the violin. Both this, and the fact that the violin sounds were used in Early Access, meant that Tatyana's theme had to be composed for this instrument.



”This theme is divided into 5 short phrases that can be played in any order while keeping the musical sense” - says Mikołaj - “Tatyana appears randomly in the game and if she played the same phrase every time, it could seem trivial and quickly get boring. It is worth noting that the phrases have been composed in such a way that they always match any exploratory music playing in the background at the same time. As for the melody composition itself - to help stand out from the background of exploratory music, Tatyana's theme is built on broad musical intervals hence drawing attention to itself. The default harmony under the melody would be based on a simple relationship between the tonic and the dominant, which corresponds to the harmony of simple Russian songs."

Heist, start

More specifically, it's about the end-game theme, when Igor and his crew try to get to the power plant for the second time. As Mikołaj says, he had composed a piece consisting of four stems up to this point. Stems are groups of tracks ripped together into one file, such as, for example, all the drums, guitar, bass and vocal parts. They all loop in the game engine, but turn on and off in various combinations, depending on the moment of the game and the size of the space the player is currently in.



”So in the beginning, when the player traverses the forest and moves along the railroad cars, it is a fairly open space and three layers are “playing". When he enters the car and the situation of concentration occurs, the number of layers is reduced to two. After killing (or bypassing) the enemy soldiers, you exit into a very open area of ​​the yard and the game engine turns on all layers, which also emphasizes the success of defeating the enemy. Around the yard, we face the task of opening the electric lock and the optics return to a more focused one. This is followed by another limitation of the reproduced layers of the work”.

Final Walk Amongst the Fractals

Igor's last visit to the fractal world required creating the right atmosphere. Mikołaj admits that in order to achieve the intended goal, he spent a lot of time programming and preparing appropriate sounds.



”Due to the fact that the world of fractals is a kind of afterlife, beyond time and full of unbridled energy, I started by creating sounds to support this energy - very intense, but set in a background, which gave it depth. For example, I recorded audio files and reversed them so that they would play backwards with high intensity. The imposition of a quick ostinato on the synthesizer has become the basis for a harmony that communicates a summary of the events contained in the game's plot and something great, unattainable and uncontrolled. The melody on the strings and the "howling organic sound" tells about the longing for another human being, but in a timeless, not intimate way, reflected in the fractal world. I gave the piece a broad "Hollywood" sound with adequate music production."

Hope you enjoyed the first part of the musical tour of Chernobylite. In the next installment, we will tell you more about the music accompanying the visits to some other locations.

Take care, Stalkers!




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With the Lunar New Year upon us, the year of the tiger is on the prowl. Luckily, you won’t have to deal with any supernatural tigers in the Zone, there are enough monsters as it is. It’s best you hunt them before they hunt you.

Do just that by taking advantage of Steam’s Lunar New Year sale before February 3 and save 20% on Chernobylite today!




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Chernobylite won Best Atmosphere in New Game Network’s Game of the Year 2021! In addition, it also won runner-up in the Best RPG category. We’re thrilled that Chernobylite continues to gather praise for the faithfully reproduced, hyper-realistic environment and immersive experience it has to offer!

Have you experienced the Zone for yourself yet?




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Our weekly reports focus primarily on how Chernobylite was developed. However, this time we're going to tell you a bit about how the game actually works. In this context, it only makes sense to start with the most obvious: weapons. After all, the survival nature of Chernobylite requires you to defend yourself in all possible ways.

Before we move on to the main course, we would like to remind you that we are waiting for your feedback! Details can be found in the post below:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3118180956263447368

Soon after the release, we began reading your comments and opinions about the game. Some of you emphasized the fact that we managed to reproduce a "good feeling while shooting". We also have received praises for the realism of using particular guns in the game.

What if we told you that it was all an illusion? ;)

Of course, it's not just any random magic, but a general rule that applies to game development says that games do not equal reality. This is especially true for the shooting mechanics. We learned this lesson ourselves 10 years ago, when we visited a shooting range as part of our research for Get Even. We immediately noticed that some aspects of operating a weapon simply cannot be transferred into our game on a 1:1 scale. Hence the feeling of “realism” in gunplay could only be reproduced on an artistic level.



Take for example the way Igor holds a gun. Visually, it looks really cool. In reality, however, it is very impractical - after several minutes of such running, his hands would hurt as hell.




Another example: the lock of a regular rifle is usually on its right side. When the empty cases are ejected, the shooter cannot see them.



In many games you will come across a popular design solution where the lock is positioned on the left side of a rifle, so that the nice effect of ejected shell-cases is clearly visible. If this solution was applied to real world weapons, each shot could have ended with a shell-case hitting you in the teeth. Or eyes. Or your face in general.

In our game, we managed to make it as it should be. But at the same time, we took care of the appropriate visual effect for our game, even though it’s not 100% real, is phenomenal.




Another thing worth mentioning is that all external conditions, such as wind or bullet drop, have a huge impact on the accuracy and range of any firearm. It’s quite common to miss the target because we didn’t account for these conditions. In-game however, this is simply considered a bug that needs to be fixed.



Of course, weapons can't just look good. In general, the idea is to skillfully balance all its elements so that the whole thing makes a good overall impression. Take, for example, the Nagant, known simply as the Revolver in Chernobylite. In the game, you reload it just like in real life. It looks badass, and you can have the satisfaction of reloading your weapon, but the animation itself is long and the process can be irritating.



Therefore, for balance, we had to make the revolver deal more damage than the AK. Of course, it doesn't make the slightest sense, because the AK projectile has much more kinetic energy and generally causes more havoc to the body due to its shape. But it also doesn't really matter, because in reality even a single shot from both a revolver and an AK ends up being fatal for the target. That is why in games the damage is very rarely realistically reproduced. And the sight of Igor absorbing half a dozen bullets like a sponge without dying on the spot should come as a surprise.



We hope that this short post helped you to learn a little bit more about how Chernobylite weapon design and gunplay works. But it's not over yet - we have more educational materials that we want to share with you in the near future. Stay tuned.

Take care, Stalkers!




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