Oct 7, 2022

Chernobylite Complete Edition - Pablo

Hello Stalkers!

In some of our previous publications we’ve been comparing the real world Chernobyl and its surroundings to what you can see in the game. Throughout this process we devoted a lot of space to the most famous locations near the famous power plant, e.g. Pripyat, Duga radar, the "Azure" swimming pool, and even the "Energetik". But there is also one other location that plays a fairly important role in Chernobylite. For some reason it didn’t gain the notoriety it deserved. And it’s a shame, because Kopachi is a unique place and its history is worth knowing.

It’s a small village located near Chernobyl, southwest of the Pripyat River basin. Before the Chernobyl power plant disaster, it was inhabited by just over a thousand souls. Kopachi was also one of the first towns to be evacuated from the contaminated zone. Residents hoped to the end that they would return to their homes one day, but that wish never came true. The village was buried due to high levels of contamination.

When we talk about burying, we mean houses and streets. The radiation level in the village was so high that the houses and farm buildings became unusable in any form. Almost every building was made of wood. Radioactive dust was clogged in every crack in a fence, beam, or any crossbar. Therefore, leaving them posed a threat to the surrounding animals. Therefore, the authorities decided to demolish every house in Kopachi, and bury their remains and the contaminated topsoil in hastily dug pits.

This solution wasn’t without flaws. The contaminants from the buried structures penetrated the groundwater and caused the radioactive isotopes to spread further into the ground.

The only buildings that lasted were a local kindergarten and another brick building with a war memorial, which until today are looked after by the employees of the power plant. There are a number of mounds bearing the international symbol of radiation in this area. As you can guess, digging in them would be ill advised. These mounds are all what’s left from most of the buildings within Kopachi.

This is the story of a place buried under tons of earth.

That's it for today!

Take care, Stalkers!

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Sep 30, 2022

Weekly Report #143

Chernobylite Complete Edition - Pablo

Hello Stalkers!

In our reports, we sometimes sneak in threads about ideas that looked good on paper but missed our game for various reasons. This was the case with Shadow which was literally supposed to be a real shadow, but bringing it into the game like that was only painful. Also with ideas for the fractal world, the appearance and purpose of which changed many times. However, if we think back and see our notes from years ago, we find a whole lot of ideas that were eventually thrown out of Chernobylite before its release on EA. We will only present you the examples that we still remember about ;)

When describing Sashko's silhouette, we noticed a rope dangling at his belt. As we wrote, the rope was to be more than just a decoration - with it the player was supposed to climb buildings etc. We also mentioned that this was one of the very, very many metroidvania elements that we wanted to have in our game. In addition to the rope, Igor was supposed to have in his inventory, among others explosives and even an acid neutralizer! However, at some point, these things got way too much, making the gameplay unreadable. In the end, we stayed with a few things that really fit the game and did not require such a large amount of work, such as a lockpick.

Another element that did not appear in the game are mini-games. They were boring, generic and very costly from the production point of view. We are a small studio and we wanted to stick to the principle of "less but better". If we remember correctly, these mini-games include a card game, as well as a hacking option. The latter even appeared briefly in Early Access.

When planning, we threw out the possibility of building rooms in the base - the player, instead of free building, could only decide on a specific type of already furnished room. In the end, we felt that having a lot of freedom in building a base just seemed more fun. And it was the right decision, which is confirmed in the photos from your bases :)

Another element of the game that did not survive the planning stage is the "crisis" system. From time to time there would be problems in the base that had to be solved by performing a special mission, crafting or trading. There were a lot of reasons why this element did not survive to the end: from creating unnecessary time pressure, to strong punishment of the player (e.g. by the death of a companion) and strong schematic problem-solving. Instead, we preferred to focus on more quality story missions than do half-hearted activities of this type.

The last thing is a would-be weapon in our arsenal: the slingshot. The idea was that the player had to craft different balls that would have different effects when hit. The most over-the-top idea ever! Probably, even if we had several times more programming and animation resources, we would not have made this element at a decent level.

Finally, we would like to remind you: Red Trees is available to everyone! Perfect for those who want to fully feel the autumn atmosphere.

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

But this is not the end of surprises on our part! Season 3 is coming to your hands soon, and with it all new content!

That's it for today!

Take care, Stalkers!

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Sep 23, 2022

Weekly Report #142

Chernobylite Complete Edition - Pablo

Hello Stalkers!

In the next installment of our series, in which we present to you the profiles of our companions, we will take a look at the crazy - but somewhat less explosive than Mikhail - Sashko character.

We first meet Sashko in a mission, during which we are presented with a choice: upgrade our PDA or blow up Duga's radar. The entire meeting was planned by Tarakan, but carried out by Sashko, who was Tarakan’s protege at that time. Such a division made sense to us from the storytelling perspective, because we really wanted Tarakan to be this mysterious fella who doesn't come out of the shadows right away. Plus, it would be hard for a senior scientist to climb onto the radar and mine it, wouldn't it?

In our minds, Sashko was supposed to be a young, strong and capable "Cossack" - this is how in some parts of Poland we refer to people who are fearless, crazy and rarely think about the consequences of their actions. We also treated Sahsko's “Cossackness” literally in terms of the hairstyle or general appearance, inspired by real, historical Cossacks.

Sashko is a complete opposite of the protagonist in almost every way. To get to the power plant Igor constructs a strange machine, prepares a plan, hires mercenaries to help and politely obeys all their orders. Igor is a diplomat in many ways. Sashko, on the other hand, is running away from his past, at least part of it. He has his own moral compass that guides him, but more often than not, Sashko acts impulsively. Generally committed to constant play and risk, even though on a mission to find his brother, he chronically suffers from a lack of meaningful life goals. Many players identify with him because the vision of being completely free in an empty and deserted city full of danger seems very exciting.

With regards to the appearance of Sashko, we can distinguish three elements: the sporty look of the parkour (hence the light mask in which you can breathe freely), Cossack-patriotic elements (hairstyle, embroidered coat of arms of Ukraine on the T-shirt) and... ropes that contrary to appearances, were very important to us. Even before entering Early Access, we had a lot of metroidvania elements in the game (only the lockpicks and the Chernobylite burner remained, but more on that in one of the next reports). One of them was the system of ropes that the player was supposed to use for climbing and traversing, and which Sashko hung around the zone, making it his playground. The mechanics never made it into the final game, but the rope and its proper colors are still visible at Sashko's belt.

Before we conclude, we have very important information for you! If you like our game and the atmosphere of Chernobyl in general, be sure to check out this new project from our friends from polish studio Vimagineo :)

“Chernobyl Again” is an adventure game created for VR headsets that takes place in the 3D-scanned Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

If you want more info about it, check it out by yourself on this link.

That's it for today!

Take care, Stalkers!

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Sep 16, 2022

Weekly Report #141

Chernobylite Complete Edition - Pablo

Hello Stalkers!

It's time for another portion of real life stories that we smuggled into the game. Today we will start with anecdotes about the local flora. One of them is presented to us by Olga - who is the walking encyclopedia when it comes to facts about the Red Forest. During the conversation, she mentions that a few years ago she was showing a forest to a group of American researchers, who noticed something interesting. “I showed them around the Red Forest and everything. They were taking measurements and one guy told me that the trees had barely changed since the Incident. I hadn't really thought about it until now. But it really does feel like this whole place is a snapshot of the past. Like a butterfly caught in amber. That's probably due to the radiation. It almost wiped out the microorganisms living on the forest floor. There's almost no decay, so the trees don't rot like they normally would. I mean, they are decaying, but extremely slowly."

That's true. The microbes that naturally break down vegetation have almost become extinct due to radiation. Their lack caused the forest to “freeze over time”, taking on a red color for many, many years. A fascinating biological phenomenon with a hint of romanticism.

Next up is the extraordinary Mikhail, who will always give us a lot of history. For example, how he collected radioactive berries and mushrooms and sold them in the European Union. A customs officer even told him how he once searched the truck that triggered radioactivity detectors. He was sure he was going to find some kind of dirty bomb, but to his surprise the cargo containted berries harvested in Pripyat.

Journalist Kate Brown described the smuggling of blueberries from the Zone in her book, “Chernobyl. Survival Manual”. In one of the chapters, she describes how she and a Ukrainian friend decided to check the turnover of undergrowth fruits 30 years after the disaster. Officially, radioactive berries are used as dyes. Sellers claim that they are mixed with the "good" ones (although most of them are still contaminated to some extent), so that they pass inspection and are sent to Poland to processing plants. From there, in the form of finished products, they go to fairs and store shelves all over Europe. The same is the case with mushrooms.

“The Poles have been consuming radioactive products from the local forests since 1986. Thanks to the lifting of trade restrictions, they send the fleece contaminated after Chernobyl to European markets, to wealthy buyers from abroad. From Europe, the berries travel on. A nuclear safety specialist told me that a truck with a "radiant mass" in a trailer was stopped at the US-Canadian border. Fearing that it was a "dirty bomb", border guards checked what it was. They were relieved to find berries from Ukraine. Because they were within the acceptable standard, the border guards allowed the truck to enter the States."

We go back to Olga again, who in conversation with Igor recollects the times when she worked in the Chernobyl power plant. There she heard a rumor that the KGB was trying to... breed fish in the cooling tanks of a nuclear power plant. Serhia Plokha took a closer look at this rumor. In his book, “Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy”, he reported that two months before the accident, “Soviet Life” - an English-language magazine filled with propaganda for foreigners - quoted in an article by the chief engineer of Chernobyl, who boasted that the plant's cooling pond was used for fish farming.

Since we are on the subject of fish, it is worth mentioning one more rumor that circulates around the Zone. Well, contaminated water is believed to be a nutrient medium for overgrown catfish and other fish with radioactive mutations. This makes the rivers and lakes near Chernobyl one of the most popular fishing spots in the world.

The last but extremely interesting anecdote comes from the reliable Mikhail (how many stories does he have?). He mentions how, as a child, he and his aunt went to Slavutych (a city near Chernobyl built after the disaster) to see how Anatoly Kashpirovsky tried to heal radiation liquidators using hypnosis.

Kashpirovsky is a Russian psychiatrist and psychotherapist who gained widespread fame in the late 1980s. At that time, he conducted hypnosis sessions (teletherapy) on state television, which were very popular. Many viewers believed that TV broadcasting did help combat many diseases and ailments, from hair loss to cancer. However, as it turned out, hypnosis had nothing to do with it. In an official statement, the USSR Ministry of Health called this phenomenon "collective psychosis" - some of the allegedly healed people were sent to hospitals with symptoms of mental illness.

After he was banned from teletherapy, Kashpirovsky continued his "career" promoting his controversial methods of treating people. In 1990, he worked all summer with the inhabitants of Sławutycze and Pripyat to help the victims of the Chernobyl disaster. For this purpose, he used hypnosis to cure, among others, liquidators from the effects of radiation. If you want to read more about the case, we refer you to the book by Kate Brown we mentioned.

That's it for today!

Take care, Stalkers!

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Sep 10, 2022

The World of Chernobylite Part 1 - Zone as our inspiration

Chernobylite Complete Edition - All in! Games || Lukash

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}

Will you join us? Let us know in the comments or on Discord.

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Sep 9, 2022

Weekly Report #140

Chernobylite Complete Edition - Pablo

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!

Hello Stalkers!

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.

That's it for today!

Take care, Stalkers!

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Sep 2, 2022

Weekly Report #139

Chernobylite Complete Edition - Pablo

Hello Stalkers!

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 ;)

That's it for today!

Take care, Stalkers!

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