Hi Stalkers!

We’ve already shared a lot of information about our game from behind the scenes, but there’s still a lot to uncover. We’ve been working on Chernobylite for a few years and our developers have many stories to share. Therefore, we prepared some new content for you.

Here comes the first part of the “World of Chernobylite” series! Check out how we approached the Zone re-creation and why we decided to place our base in Reactor No.5. Are most terrifying things always loud and epic? Chernobylite developers share their thoughts on this and on many other topics, including 3D scanning, choice of locations, approach towards exploration and gameplay. Hope you’ll enjoy!



If you haven’t played Chernobylite yet, you can buy it with 35% discount - on Steam, till September 12th. We’re a part of Feardemic’s Fear Fest 2022.

Save 35% on Chernobylite on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1016800/Chernobylite/

See more of our videos: {LINK REMOVED}https://bit.ly/3Hk1EpH




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Stalkers! Feardemic's Fear Fest 2022: Black Summer Edition is in full swing! Together with other publishers and game producers, we celebrate all things horror and provide an unforgettable experience for those who like their games filled with terror and dread.

Chernobylite could not pass on such an opportunity! To mark the occasion, our game will be available to you until September 12th at a promotional price of $19!

Dive in the dark zone today!



In the next episode of the series, where we present the profiles of our companions, we will look at what is probably the weirdest and most mysterious character in our merry bunch - Tarakan. It is not hard to get the impression that he’s some kind of local weirdo who is missing the fifth stave and who lives by conspiracy theories. In a way, this is true. However, when you look at him closely, you may discover that there’s more to Tarakan than meets the eye.



Originally, Tarakan was meant to be only a tool used to accomplish something that has been on our minds for a long time - blowing up the Duga radar. Aside from doing something spectacular, it was also an opportunity to put the player to the first morality test - giving them a choice between what was reasonably useful (PDA upgrade) and what was simply cool and pleasing to the eye (blowing up the radar). To achieve this, a mysterious, secretive gentleman with strange, ulterior motives was needed. Moscow Eye has always been the subject of many conspiracy theories, and this gave impulse to the creation of an ederly “tinfoil hat” individual who, quite surprisingly, was right about some things.



The concept of Tarakan's character has evolved over time. At first, he was supposed to be one of the many stalkers, almost indistinguishable from the rest. But we decided that someone as distinctive as Tarakan deserves an equally distinctive outfit. The tinfoil cap was out of the question at all. After all, we were creating a serious video game. The style had to fit in with someone who is, on the one hand, completely insane (with all his theories about conspiracies and the great forces behind them), and on the other hand, brilliant and resourceful. And so from the combination of a forest shaman based on Ukrainian fairy tales combined with the technomancer skills of an ex-electro worker and a former KGB agent, a technoshaman - Tarakan was created.



Exactly! We would almost forget to answer the question that pops up here and there in our community from time to time: why does Tarakan have such above-average knowledge of computers? Well, you could say that this is an extension of the concept of an easter egg and one of the craziest theories about Duga. We assumed that the colorful theory suggesting that the radar, contrary to its original purpose, was used to control people's minds had some truth to it, and so Tarakan would be one of the few people involved in this project on behalf of the KGB. We haven't over-developed this storyline in the game, but despite numerous changes, Duga is still able to map enemy brainwave locations, and Tarakan still has a relationship with it, just like with all related technologies. Oh, the whole secret of his knowledge. But how deep it goes - we leave it for you to discover.

Take care, Stalkers!




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Feardemic's Fear Fest: Black Summer Edition has begun! An event during which publishers and game developers celebrate all things horror and provide an unforgettable experience for all those who like games filled with terror and dread.

Chernobylite could not pass on such an opportunity! On this occasion, the game will be available to you until September 12th at a promotional price of $19.49/19,49€/£15.46!

Dive into the dark zone today!





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We continue our little series with real-life stories that we smuggled into the game.

As we mentioned, many of these stories can be heard during dialogues with comrades in the base. For example, Olga will at some point mention something about "cloud seeding" and how her mother witnessed fighter jets shooting silver iodide bullets into the clouds. Causing rainfall was a common practice in the countries of the former Soviet Union and beyond, but on the eve of the Chernobyl Disaster it took an especially dark turn. The main goal was to make the rain wash down the radioactive particles from the deadly cloud before it could reach Moscow. As a result, smaller towns and villages in Ukraine and Belarus suffered the most from ensuing contamination.



Another scary anecdote takes us more to the Far East. Our good friend Olivier mentions something that he heard in passing. “Did you know that the medical data collected after the nuclear attack on Japan was classified? (...) An American diplomat I met told me about it. He said the US military was surprised by the lethality of the radioactive fallout. After all, the Americans put over $ 20 billion into the Manhattan Project. After an amazing victory, they could not publicly admit how dangerous their weapons were to civilians. Even the US troops that helped the Japanese rebuild were sick. So the Americans confiscated all medical records - both American and Japanese - and kept them secret."

However, it's not just medical data. Information about the terrible effects of nuclear weapons, especially the effects of radiation and accompanying diseases, was censored by Americans and reached the wider public only to a limited extent. During the first post-war years in the USA, no photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the bombing were included in the publications, because the army was very careful about it. Some of the photos appeared for the first time in September 1952 in the magazine "Life", causing considerable consternation and shock to the readers. Some people admited that although they knew, like all Americans, about the bombing of japanese cities, they did not imagine the extent of the destruction and the enormity of human suffering. If you would like to learn more on the subject of the medical effects of an atomic attack on Japan, please refer to the document "Medical Effects of Atomic Bombs the Report of the Joint Commission for the Investigation of the Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan".

Moving on to a different story: have any of you ever heard of Pamir? Well, it's basically a nuclear power plant on wheels that got Mikhail quite excited in one of the conversations with the protagonist of Chernobylite. “Imagine a convoy of huge trailers. One with a reactor, one with a gas turbine, the third with a control room, and the fourth with staff."

Pamir-630D (as the full name sounds like) was supposed to be a Soviet mobile nuclear reactor. We kid you not! In the years 1976-1985, the Institute of Nuclear Energy of the Academy of Sciences of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic conducted research and in the early 1980s, two prototypes were built, which at that time represented the world's only "nuclear power plant on wheels".



In appearance, the Pamir-630D was a set of two multi-tonne trailers suspended on a military tractor MAZ-796. Behind a solid metal wall a 630-kW reactor and a turbojet device were placed. The other two vehicles were equipped with a "Minsk" control computer and a cabin that could accommodate 28 people. All-terrain vehicles were designed to take the Pamir-630B anywhere in the far north, traversing the tundra and swamps with ease. The installation was supposed to be operational at the lowest ambient temperature. The creators of Pamir have implemented the most compact single nuclear loop program. Unlike most other small nuclear power plants, the coolant was not water and steam, but a dissociated gaseous "nitro" based on dinitrogen tetroxide. According to the designers' vision, the device was to work continuously for 2,000 hours. As a result, one of the two Pamirs ran for 3,000 hours, although its capacity was lower than planned. Nuclear fuel inventory would last for a few years.

Despite quite decent performance, the project was scrapped. There were two reasons. The first was the Chernobyl disaster, which led to the cancellation of the government-approved small-scale power generation program. Belarusians, who also felt the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion, have stopped testing the Pamir in their territories. The second reason was quite prosaic: funding problems. The design of mobile nuclear devices may have looked good on paper, but ultimately no country in the 1990s had enough money to build them.

More real-life stories from Chernobylite are coming in the next reports ;)

Take care, Stalkers!



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Although the story told in the game Chernobylite is mostly a work of fiction, it centers around a real-life event that shaped the faith of the world: The Chernobyl disaster of 1986. However, those of you interested in history will be able come across references to other historical events scattered across various dialogues and notes. In one of our earlier reports, we mentioned the island of Nazino (also known as "Cannibals Island"), which was mentioned by Tarakan. But there are more references like this. Today we’re going to present to you the most interesting of them.

The vast majority of such stories can be heard during conversations with our companions in the base. For example, Tarakan tells the story of his mother, a chemical engineer, who was involved in the construction of a power source at the Mayak Plant in the Urals in Ozyorsk (known as Chelyabinsk-40). “The Rat King has ordered hundreds of thousands of mice. The poor little creatures kept digging. They dug, dug, dug! When the big hole was ready, they built the device. (...) Then it was lost. She turned to stardust. "



What happened? On September 29, 1957, the cooling system of a tank containing tens of thousands of tons of dissolved nuclear waste malfunctioned. The accident resulted in an explosion (non-nuclear) with a force comparable to a detonation of 75 tons of TNT! Over 200 people died of radiation sickness, 10,000 were evacuated, and 470,000 were exposed to ionizing radiation. It was the first nuclear disaster in the USSR and, until the explosion of the Chernobyl power plant, the largest.

During another conversation, Tarakan mentions an explosion, flames, and sirens. Initially, Igor thinks he means the explosion of the Chernobyl power plant, but Tarakan says he means Kharkiv 1972. “The KGB and military geniuses tried to extinguish the fire of a natural gas mine with a nuclear device of less than a kilo-ton of power. The idiots blew everything up! A column of radioactive dust was created, many kilometers high... The inhabitants of the nearby villages thought it was the end of the world."



In 1972, Kharkiv did experience a massive explosion. How did it happen? Let’s start from the beginning:In December 1963, while drilling well No. 11 in the Urta-Bulak gas field in southern Uzbekistan, control of the 2,450-meter well that had led the Soviets to gas fields was lost. The pressure of the gas pushed the drill bit and more than 2 kilometers of pipes to the surface, the drilling platform overturned and a fire ignited the gas. When conventional methods of extinguishing the fire did not work, the military stepped in and began firing artillery rounds in hope that one of the projectiles would hit the hole and stop the gas leak.

The situation was getting more and more dramatic. Not only the nearby towns were at risk, but also other wells in the nearby gas fields. So there was nothing left but to using the atomic bomb. The custom device was created under the watchful eye of scientists. Two holes with a diameter of 35 centimeters (primary and spare) were drilled, and a 30-kilogram atomic charge was introduced into one of them. On September 30, 1966, an explosion extinguished the fire. The opening was permanently sealed. It was a success. Or so it would seem.



Over the next several years, a similar "experiment" was conducted several times. One of them was held in July 1972 southwest of Kharkiv. It was Tarakan who mentioned this event. And so, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, and even Kharkiv itself, were convinced that something went wrong - you could feel the explosion under your feet, and the explosion polluted the area. The last attempt to extinguish a shaft fire with an atomic bomb took place in 1981.

Mikhail, in turn, tells the story of a cargo train that traveled through Ukraine and Belarus for three years, with carriages filled to the brim with meat. Mikhail, of course, stole some of this meat and kept for himself "because it may be useful one day". It is worth taking a closer look at the context of the entire story. When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere. Radioactive elements found their way into the organisms of animals, either through the water they drank or the grass they ate, and these were then produced by contaminated milk, meat and preserves.



But in this period meat was a valuable resource in the Soviet Union. By the decision of dignitaries, slaughterhouse workers were required to grind contaminated meat together with "good" meat and make sausages. There were tons of dangerous meat in the freezers in Ukraine and Belarus. In 1987, 317 tons of radioactive frozen food from the Gomel plant were put into the wagons. The original plan was to export the goods to Georgia, but it was not adopted. As a result, as Kate Brown describes in her book "Chernobyl. Survival Instructions", wagons filled with meat circulated the countries of the USSR for three years! In the end, the refrigerating units in the wagons collapsed, the terrified electricians refused to repair, and the issue of toxic meat was publicized. Eventually, the meat ended up in a contaminated town, where it ended up in a concrete-poured ditch. The place of "burial" was fenced off with a fence and warning signs.

That's all for today. But you have nothing to worry about - the series will continue in the next reports ;)

Take care, Stalkers!



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There is not much time left! This little fluffy exclusive plush Black Stalker is still looking for home! We need your help! More information can be found in this link. This is the ONLY chance to get this awesome plush! Hurry up!

Don't forget to come back to our report once you visit it ;)



We return to our series, in which we look at the silhouettes of our comrades from the base. Audience favorite Mikhail stars in today's episode. Everyone knows him as a mad mercenary with an explosive temper and a bad tongue. But there is much more under this mask.



The idea for the Mikhail character was quite unusual, because it was inspired by the guides from the zone. They are often people for whom time has long stopped. Their lives are filled with experiences from years ago with a small touch of conspiracy theories. Of course, there is a lot of exaggeration in their stories, but tourists have fun hearing them. We decided that it would be excellent material for a character.

Some of you got the impression that Mikhail was supposed to be something of a comedy relief, somewhat inspired by one character from a popular video game series. And that's the truth. In fact, more such comedy reliefs have been created (Tarakan, Evgenia), and this is due to the lack of appropriate design discipline. Unfortunately, players have painfully pointed it out to us after the premiere of the game in Early Access. Comedy relief is something that is used either at all or to a very limited extent in horror games or movies. That's why we decided to tone down the humor a bit and make our heroes more scary and less fun. The changes affected Mikhail the most: he turned from just an eccentric character into a Chernobyl original with a difficult past.



There is one last point that should be clarified. Lots of people pointed out that Mikhail looked almost no different than the spirits of the liquidators. Why? The answer is simple: resources. The liquidator was our first and base character. In the beginning, all in-game characters were "liquidators" - we used the character model as a placeholder. Over time, we replaced almost all characters with the target models, except Mikhail, because we thought this suit would fit in his case. Time was running out, resources were dwindling, and we were absolutely convinced that it was better to make another enemy and fix more bugs than create another character from scratch.

Fortunately for us and to the delight of the players, Mikhail makes up for the shortcomings in his appearance with a character that he has just enough.



Take care, Stalkers!




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This little fluffy plush Black Stalker is looking for a home! We need your help! More information can be found in this link.



While doing research for the report on another of Igor's companions (Olga), we came across something interesting. On one of the forums there was a discussion about the relationship with the characters and how it affected the mood in the base and the game itself. From reading the previous reports, you know that it generally pays to live in harmony with your companions and to cultivate good relations with them. But there was also something in this discussion that caught our attention. One of the users asked a question: have we thought about adding the possibility of establishing closer relationships (i.e. romance) with companions, which would have an impact on relations with other people in the base?



Well, basically we didn't want to add a romance option, as it would interfere with Igor's original goal of getting Tatyana back. Plus it wouldn’t translate well into horror. But at some point we went the other way, i.e. from love to anger. We designed mechanics of conflicts that would arise, depending on various players' decisions, for example: who gets more food or who benefits more from choices made during missions. In extreme situations, one character could even kill another as a result of a conflict!



The mechanics looked great on paper. Even the prototype gave hope that some inaccuracies could be easily repaired (e.g. lack of legibility of who has a conflict with whom, why and how to counteract them) and provide a unique solution for the game. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with such ambitious ideas, we hit the wall and eventually the concept went to the bin. The reasons for this were insufficient processing capacity (in other words: there were simply not enough of us, and we had to prioritize tasks) and balance problems. Ultimately, there are fewer companions in the game than we originally assumed, and the eventual conflict was supposed to reduce the team by two characters - one who died and the other from which it was banished from the group. It seemed to be far too harsh and frustrating punishment for the player, regardless of the stage of the game.



But it's not just that. The would-be mechanics of a conflict between comrades is a great example of how a brilliant design that works well on paper, falls apart during the implementation phase and stumbles on problems like "conflict is a fight, fight requires space where these conflicts are to be exposed in the base and since the player can build anything anywhere, there may not be room for the conflict", or permutations: each character is unique, so it is assumed that for example Mikhail cannot kill Olivier the same way he would kill Tarakan. So each character has to kill in four different ways, and with five companions, this gives 20 possibilities. Each of them is a separate, complex, dynamic cutscene that must look spectacular.



Plus, there were a million other issues along the way. For example, it would be good if a fight between two companions didn’t end in death right away. Maybe such a conflict should have several phases, in which the characters push each other once or twice so that we can react in some way, and only in the final phase one dies? This alone adds 20-40 potential cutscenes again. Suddenly, it turns out that this super mechanic has more animations than the entire game. In the end, the idea ended up in the trash. Real shame. But that's the job: sometimes you have to make concessions, otherwise we would need a few extra years to make the game.



On the other hand, the question is: would players be able to see all these 20 permutations and 60 potential cutscenes on the first try? Very doubtful. So, rather than polishing one feature that a small percentage of players would see, we preferred to focus on delivering just a very good game as a whole. And I think it was a smart choice.

Take care, Stalkers!




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Stalkers!

Celebrate Chernobylite’s birthday with us—take part in our fan art contest and win free keys for the game and a survival kit.

The Survival Kit includes:

• 1 game code,
  
• 1 glowing stick,
  
• 1 chernobylite crystal,
  
• 1 creepy doll,
  
• 1 gas mask,
  
• 2 A2 posters and 1 A2 game map,
  
• 1 Art of Chernobylite album,
  
• 1 Game Feature booklet,
  
• 1 T-shirt that glows in the dark,
  
• 1 bag,
  
• 1 branded metal ammo box,
  
• old documents, badges, and pins.

Join Discord and head to the contest channel for more details: https://discord.com/invite/mehRmzY

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Remember: Chernobylite and all DLCs are available for purchase at a discount of -30%. The offer is valid until the end of the week.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1016800/Chernobylite/

After celebrating Chernobylite's 1st anniversary it's time to get back to work. We continue with our mini-series in which we present to you the profiles and purpose of our companions. On today's episode: Olivier and Anton.



If you’re familiar with the game, you know very well that Olivier will become our companion at the base, while Anton one will sadly die at the hands of the Black Stalker in the prologue. Before the tragic events happen, they both assist Igor in reaching the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. You may wonder why we decided to create such a long prologue featuring completely random and strange characters? Some might say that we made this stage to give the game a strong start, others that we just wanted to show off our writing skills. However, the truth is quite different.



The power plant, Anton and Olivier were mere tools to introduce the player to the collection of mechanics and premises. The player had to clearly learn that he is in Chernobyl, that the main character is a scientist who avoids fighting, but can sneak up to his opponents. For this, it was necessary to implement unique features, for example: allowing the protagonist and Tatyana to teleport. In order not to get us lost in all this, for the sake of convenience, we have created a "visualization": a visual storyboard outlining the concept with a mixture of text and photos from the Internet.



Our inspiration was spying motives straight from Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid in the most Chernobyl place possible (i.e. a power plant), covered with a thick layer of the most generic hard SF motif, i.e. the Einstein-Rosen bridge.

A lot of things like that had to fly out for production reasons (e.g. a great shootout at the end of the crossing of the power plant, something that could not be done with one programmer assigned to this task) or for creative reasons (Black Stalker, as our nemesis needed to be introduced much earlier and in a more controllable environment). Instead, we've added more exposure space right before entering the power plant, and threw in some dream sequences to make you more attached to Tatyana.

But the very characters we meet in the prologue? Anton died at the hands of the Black Stalker, not random soldiers, and Olivier remained a spy/mercenary. The rest is history.

Finally, we would like to remind you that this little fella is waiting for his home! The plush Black Stalker can be yours, just follow this link for more information.



Take care, Stalkers!




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365 days - this is how long it has been since Chernobylite left Early Access. On this day one year ago we gave you the full version of the game with a lot of fixes and a lot of new stuff in it, including the long-awaited part: "The Heist". You, in turn, gave us a total of over 7,000 reviews with a “Very Positive” rating, for which we would like to thank you very much.

However, it's not like we just released the game and completely forgot about it the very next day. Over the past 12 months, we've been bringing you additional new content: a new map, weapons and gameplay mode, new monster types, tons of skins, and dozens of new missions and side quests to complete. All this to encourage you to return to the Zone. But we're not going to stop there. We have a lot of other surprises for you to celebrate Chernobylite’s 1st Anniversary.



For a good start, a completely free digital short story entitled "Chernobylite Short Story: The Arrival", in which you can learn some more about Sashko Horobets, one of Igor's companions. Is this the beginning of a larger series? It is up to you. Let us know in the comments section if you liked it!



Here comes another surprise! Together with Makeship, we have launched a fundraiser to create a limited edition of a Black Stalker plushie. The campaign will last until August 25 and is the only opportunity to get this little, sweet, plush friend. Whoever wants to hug him, put your hand up!



We also have a surprise for those who haven't had a chance to play our game yet. From August 1st to August 7th, Chernobylite and all DLCs will be available at a 30% discount! Don't hesitate! Jump into the Zone to get to know her again!

And finally, one last surprise: As you may have noticed there was no contest in the previous report. It was a deliberate move to whet your appetites a bit. Because today it's not one but first five people who will be able to win the Chernobylite keys! All you need to do is answer the following question correctly and as promptly as possible:

How many villagers can you meet in the village in Red Forest, including Olga and the gate guard?

We will announce the correct answer and the list of winners on Monday, August 1st.

Take care, Stalkers!




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