Tatyana is not your typical damsel in distress. She is a fully independent character who haunts Igor in his dreams. But who she really is? An apparition? A hallucination? Igor's conscience? Or maybe a being from another dimension in human form? Whoever she is, we know one thing: she was one of the most fascinating characters we had to create.




Believe it or not, the concept of Tatyana as a mysterious ghost-lady in a red dress (colors changed over time) appeared in our heads much later than you might imagine. When we sat down to plan the game's plot and character development, we assumed at a very early stage that Tatyana had survived the Chernobyl disaster. Not only that, but she was also meant to establish cooperation with the NAR and conduct research for them on chernobylite and all phenomena produced after the explosion of the power plant. This was also intended to be the reason why Tatyana did not want to be found by Igor.

All of this, of course, had an impact on Tatyana's appearance. In the initial concept sketches, we depicted her as a woman in her 50s (assuming she survived the crash and was close in age to Igor) and dressed as a scientist.



The idea was... okay. Just okay. In the end, we gave up on it and decided to go in the direction of the concept of an apparition appearing in dreams. We found this idea much more enticing and appropriate for a horror game than any spy themes. There are also technical arguments: animating Tatyana's face during any dialogue would be more expensive than animating all the other characters and their animations combined. Not to mention that having her wear a face mask would completely undermine the emotional impact we wanted to deliver in the game.

Finally, one more curiosity. A demonic version of Tatyana, which was partly created by accident and partly by the graphic artist's creativity. It's a very cool effect that hasn't been used in the game. A real shame.



Take care, Stalkers!




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Summer is fast approaching. For many of you, this means holidays, more time to relax and have fun. And of course, playing video games ;)


The promotional price will include:

• Chernobylite: Enhanced Edition
  
• Autumn Dread DLC
  
• Blue Flames DLC
  
• Deadly Frost DLC
  
• Red Trees DLC
  
• White Rose DLC
  
• Zone Bard DLC
  
• Bundle Charity Pack
  
• Soundtrack
  
• The Art of Chernobylite

So if you haven't had a chance to play Chernobylite so far, now is the best time!

For now, we will set aside graphics from various locations around Chernobyl, but not forever! We'll revisit them later to show you how everything was originally supposed to look in the game. Today, as promised, we’ll take a closer look at the first concept art of the main characters of Chernobylite. Let's start with our main character.

We’ve covered Igor extensively in one of the reports from last year, when we showed his profile in more detail. Below you will find a link to the material.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3396294721353039208?l=english

In that report you had the unique opportunity to see the concept sketches, based on which the final version of Igor's appearance was created: in a stalker outfit, in a hood and with a gas mask covering his face.



However, it must be admitted that working on Igor's appearance was not easy. There were numerous ideas on how he should present himself to the players. These ideas were translated into numerous concept sketches, showcasing Igor in various situations: wearing a jacket, a coat, camouflage, with and without a hood. Even Igor's face underwent constant changes, with different versions featuring or without glasses, with a beard resembling Walter White or Gordon Freeman, or even longer










There was even an option for Igor without hair!



There were a lot of combinations, but in the end a consensus was reached. This is where the power of concept art lies: to be able to transfer all our ideas about a given element of the game on paper, and then be able to choose the best features and combine them into one.

Although, the example of Tatyana shows that even the most promising idea can end up in the trash. But more about that next week!

Take care, Stalkers!




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We continue to publish concept art of places in Chernobyl that were transformed into Chernobylite game. This week we're taking a look at the images from the Moscow Eye map.

The most obvious element that we focused on extensively was, of course, the radar - perhaps the most distinctive feature of the landscape. It's hard not to be impressed by how good this facility looks in all conditions. What do you think about it?









And that's it for today. We have even more materials for you, but we also want to know your opinion. What would you like to see next time? Another location from Chernobyl? Or perhaps, for a change, would you like to see how the appearance of individual characters changed before they were included in the game? Believe us, we have interesting stories in this case, too ;)

Take care, Stalkers!




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Before gray blocks will be placed on the map, on which textures will be applied, we have to plan the entire space on which the player will move. For e.g. design buildings, open and closed locations. Someone might ask, why do we spend so much time on this at all? After all, we are transferring a place that already exists in reality into the game anyway. So according to this logic, most of the work is already behind us, just put the buildings in the right places.

Well, it's partially true. However, photos from the Zone alone are not enough to build a good map. It is also necessary to create the right atmosphere, which consists of e.g. weather conditions or lighting. In a game that is supposed to be part horror, this is especially important.

In this and subsequent reports, we will show you concept art of places that have appeared in the game. Based on the photos taken in the Zone, we have created graphics presenting the locations in various weather conditions. The idea was to gain information on how they might look in the game environment and what tools to use (e.g. lighting) to achieve specific effects, and finally choose those options that best suited the style of Chernobylite. Now you will be able to see for yourself that the choice was not easy.

For starters, we present you graphics from the map Pripyat Port. Below you will find a few shots from the city...













...but most of them are views from the port to the lake.











Write in the comment which graphic you like the most :)

Be with us next week, because then we will take you for a walk under the big radar.

Take care, Stalkers!




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As we promised, today and in the days to come, we are again looking behind the scenes of Chernobylite. This time, however, we want to show you materials that bridge the gap between an idea and making this idea a reality in the game.

Concept art is an essential first step in developing visuals and storyboards in the entertainment industry. Everything you see in movies, comics, and video games is the result of bringing ideas drawn on a piece of paper to life. Or in a graphics program. Concept artists give producers a snapshot of what the design will look like before it's finished. These graphics may concern, for example, the appearance of the environment, characters, or even individual items, as well as specific scenes.

A lot of concept art was created for Chernobylite. Over the last few years, we have presented you only a small fraction of them. Today we decided it was time to show something much more.

We will begin by presenting you with projects of some small objects. The point is to give you a foretaste of what awaits you in the near future. And it will be something to watch.

But to the point! Igor's portal gun project is the first on our list. The idea was for Igor to open a portal to another dimension with it, making a movement similar to cutting something in the air, like a piece of paper. Therefore, the original concept of the portal gun was to literally resemble such a cutter. The pictures below show that we are moving in the right direction. One of the earlier projects in particular seems interesting: Igor was supposed to wear on his back a device driving this "cutter". Old school in all its glory. The design evolved until it reached the form you can find in the game today.





PDA is another interesting project. We looked for inspiration in the design of mobile computers, walkie-talkies and old anti-shock mobile phones. On their basis, the first PDA project was created, which over time gained the appropriate shapes and functions visible on the screen.



Here’s a fine example of an idea that was interesting on paper but ultimately didn't make it into the game. The loot boxes were supposed to have a digital lock. The player's task was to find the code to the lock. Simple.



Finally, an interesting fact that you may have heard about before. As you may remember, in the report about Sashko, we mentioned that the rope on his belt wasn't there by accident. Originally, we planned to add the ability to climb the ropes that were hung in the Zone by Sashko. This gameplay element has been abandoned by us. As proof that we planned something like this, you will get this photo from us, where you can see the rope attached to the window.



As we mentioned, this is only a foretaste of what we are preparing for you in the coming weeks. The theme of the next post will be "nice views of the environment" :)

Take care, Stalkers!




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We have never hidden the fact that when creating Chernobylite, we were inspired by games, movies and TV series. We wrote about it a few weeks ago. So if you haven't had a chance to read this material yet, we encourage you to do so 🙂

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3700313061239297399?l=english

Today we would like to spend some time with one game in particular. To be more specific, it's not about the game itself, but about its... title.

Although the well-known title of the GSC World game is in fact an acronym that reads "Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers and Robbers" (this is how all people residing illegally in the Zone are defined), for the players it has become a single word; a synonym for someone with a hood and a backpack, sometimes with a gas mask on the face, who roams the Zone in search of loot. Stalkers are also present in our game. We even gave the main antagonist the appropriate nickname, Black Stalker. But where does this word come from anyway? We took a closer look at this matter. It turns out that the matter is not as obvious as it seems.



If you look at the timeline, you can see that the word "stalker" has come a long way from being born. And contrary to appearances, it was not created in the heads of designers from GSCW. This word appeared, for example, in the film "Stalker" by Andrei Tarkovsky from 1979. The main protagonist, the titular Stalker, earns his living by guiding people through the Zone, an area where the laws of physics do not work the same as in the rest of the world. The zone was created as a result of an unknown event 20 years before the action of the film.



The description of the character is somewhat at odds with the image of the Stalker shown in the book "Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the book the film was based on. While in the film the stalker was a person who showed curiousity around a forbidden place, in the book we deal with people who illegally take various items from the Zone and sell them profitably on the black market. Sounds familiar?

There’s just one thing that you have to remember: the background of the story in Chernobylite and similar titles is a disaster at a nuclear power plant, not the arrival of aliens, as was the case in the book.



To make it even more interesting, we will say that the authors of "Roadside Picnic" did not create the word "stalker" just out of nowhere. Their favorite childhood book came to the rescue: “Stalky & Co” by Rudyard Kipling's (1899). Its main character, Arthur Lionel Corkran, was nicknamed "Stalky". "Stalky" in the school vocabulary means someone clever, prudent and cunning, and Corkran was just such a person. Well, stalkers staying in the Zone must be cunning and cunning in order not to be caught by the services.



Let's go even further into the past. Here we move seamlessly from cultural references to linguistics. The words "stalk" and "stalking" were already present in many Indo-European languages. Their spelling and pronunciation may differ, but they are similar in meaning. And we go all the way to 1424, where the word "stalker" was probably used for the first time. Specifically, it is in the Stockholm legislation, which defines a deer poacher in this way.

What you have read is just a shortened version of the "stalker" story. If you are interested, we invite you to watch the video on our channel, in which we look at this issue in much more detail.



Finally, a short preview of what awaits us in the near future. Next week we will return to topics strictly related to Chernobylite. We've managed to collect some materials over the last few weeks, so there will certainly be plenty of topics. Be with us next week, we'll show you some drawings ;)

Take care, Stalkers!




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As you may have noticed, we took a short break, so there was no report last week. But it's not because we ran out of inspiration or materials that we would like to show you (we have a lot of them, so don’t worry). Rather, because we were getting ready for an important day.

37 years ago, a tragic event took place in Chernobyl, which resonated widely around the world and the effects are still being felt. Today, it provides food for historians, scientists and urbex enthusiasts, as well as fans of pop culture, in which Chernobyl also left its mark.

This place is especially close to us, because it is where the idea for Chernobylite was born. A story about searching for a lost loved one, a desire to survive, alliances, betrayals, paranormal phenomena - all these elements and much more can be found in our game. However, what is most important to us is that with Chernobylite we give players the opportunity to explore the Exclusion Zone.

We want as many people as possible to see this place as it really is. That's why we've launched a special sale where Chernobylite: Enhanced Edition and all DLC are available for purchase at 55% off. More details can be found in the text below:



But our activities are not limited only to the game. We also share our passion on our social media. Including our YouTube channel, where small but significant changes took place a few months ago. Since then, not only videos related strictly to the game (e.g. behind the scenes) appear on the channel, but also interesting documentaries on topics related to Chernobyl.

And if you don't have enough videos about Chernobyl, check out our TikTok channel, where we provide knowledge about this place (and not only) in a much condensed form. It's modest for now, but believe us, we have ideas for more.



We hope you like what we do for you. Stay with us, in the next report we return to the world of Chernobylite to present it again from a side you don't know.

Take care, Stalkers!




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Construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant began in the 1970s. The first reactor was commissioned in 1977, and by 1983 four of the six planned reactors were operational.

April 26, 1986. On that day, an experiment was carried out in the refurbished unit no. 4. The duration of the experiment was planned only for a minute. However, when the test began at exactly 1:23 a.m., it led to a chain reaction that resulted in the destruction of the anti-radiation dome and the building of the fourth block. An uneven race against time has begun. Every minute of delay meant further spread of radioactive substances. Dozens of fire brigades were sent to the site, and over a hundred firefighters put out the fire. The entire local population was evacuated - first within a radius of 10 km from the crash site, in the following days it was extended to 30 km. Pripyat overnight became a "ghost town". The effects of this catastrophe are felt to this day.

37 years have passed since these events. A whole lot of publications have been written about what happened in Chernobyl during this time - historical and scientific articles, reports, analyses. Over the years, the story of Chernobyl has also penetrated into pop culture. The Exclusion Zone aroused the imagination of people who learned about this place from movies, TV series and even video games.

The Farm 51 team also had the opportunity to visit the Exclusion Zone many times, and the materials collected from this place (thousands of photos, hundreds of hours of recorded videos and countless with local residents) were used to create the Chernobyl VR Project and, of course, Chernobylite. Over the years, we've been sharing this content with our community on Steam and on our YouTube channel. One such example are videos comparing real-life places with their virtual counterparts.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/2981928041998541762
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/2981928042027375970
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/2983057384609610019

Chernobyl is a special place for us, just like Chernobylite is a special game. Thanks to it, players can not only experience the adventure, but also visit the Exclusion Zone and see it for what it is. We want as many people as possible to have this opportunity. On this occasion, we have prepared a surprise for all players.


The promotional price will include:

• Chernobylite: Enhanced Edition
  
• Autumn Dread DLC
  
• Blue Flames DLC
  
• Deadly Frost DLC
  
• Red Trees DLC
  
• White Rose DLC
  
• Zone Bard DLC
  
• Bundle Charity Pack
  
• Soundtrack
  
• The Art of Chernobylite

So if you haven't had a chance to play Chernobylite so far, now is the best time!

We invite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel, where we will regularly publish videos dedicated not only to Chernobylite, but everything related to it.



If we were to use the simplest of comparisons, we would say that Chernobylite resembles a large building made of many bricks. The bricks symbolize the elements that make up the game, such as graphics, music, 3D models, and also the less obvious ones like day and night mechanics and crafting. However, before these “bricks” were even created, we first had to have an idea for them. And we had to look for them.

Of course, the trips to Chernobyl and the experience with Get Even were quite important in laying the foundations for the new project. However, like any self-respecting game development company, we drew inspiration from many other sources. Including games. After all, we're all gamers.



We were looking for key references primarily in three main areas of the game: setting, story and survival. Let's start with the setting. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to make a game set in the very center of the Exclusion Zone, which we would be able to explore with our companions or compete with them. In this case, the most obvious associations fell on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - a game that popularized the word "stalker" and the image of Chernobyl as a gloomy place overrun by radioactive mutants and mercenaries. This atmospheric title was an important element in the search for an identity for Chernobylite, but not the only one. We also drew inspiration from the Metro series, from which we took some ideas (e.g., acquiring resources and crafting weapons and ammunition from them) and the Fallout series (exploring post-apocalyptic radioactive areas, interacting with the surrounding world).





In addition, there are also paranormal, terrifying phenomena and the fact that we are dealing with a place where time has stopped in the 80s. In this case, we looked to the Stranger Things series for a change, which was also very helpful when creating monsters in the Zone. You can read more about it in the material below.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/5639086788836370509


In the case of history, it is easy to guess which game series we used. Just read this description: the main character ends up in a ghost town in search of a loved one. In this place he is tormented by memories and voices from the past, experiences paranoia, hallucinations, and sometimes he visits other dimensions. Sounds familiar? For many of you, it certainly is. After all, Silent Hill (especially the second part) is the best and most important game ever, and for us too. As fans, we finally had the opportunity to put into practice the lessons we learned from Akira Yamaoka's work years ago.



The last element, survival, was much more difficult. Over the years, a whole lot of games have been created for which survival is the core, but we were looking for something special. In Chernobylite we have the main character who must survive in an unfamiliar environment, with danger around him, and to make matters worse, he must provide for the companions he meets along the way, who also have their own goals to achieve. While looking for the perfect solution, we came across a game that is in line with what we wanted to achieve in Chernobylite. This War of Mine from our compatriots is very much focused on survival in the best sense of the word: it focuses on real problems, flesh and blood people, cooperation and resource management. You have to work both day and night to survive. It's not easy, but no one said it would be. In Chernobylite, you also have to work hard during the day to be able to take care of the health (physical and mental) of your companions at night.




You already know what games we used as references when creating Chernobylite. Of course, if we disassembled the game, there would be a few more titles that helped us better understand the mechanics we wanted to add to the game, and even expand them a bit. However, it was these productions that formed the real basis for us. And the result of this research and consideration is a unique game that you can play today.

In the next report we'll come back to one of these games again because we want to draw your attention to its… title. What does this have to do with Chernobylite? Find out in the next report :)

Take care, Stalkers!




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