Weekly Report #73
[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
We've been telling you about what's going on behind the scenes of Chernobylite's development for a long time in our weekly reports. Sometimes we show some concept sketches, we show step by step how we create 3D objects, we talk about the changes we made and what we followed, etc.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
There have been cases where changes to one element in the game have gone so far that it has turned into something much bigger. One of them, and perhaps the most important for the entire history of Chernobylite, concerned the fractal worlds. Their design changed several times until we finally worked out the shape you see today. The road the fractals traveled was extremely bumpy. And we have evidence for this.
[h3]The beginnings of the beginnings[/h3]
Before we show what has happened with fractals recently, we need to answer one most important questions: how did it start?
One of the first concepts assumed that after entering the fractal world, the player would walk on the surface of... inside a large sphere. On paper, it was even interesting: while exploring the new world, the whole level rotated together with the player. When he looked up, he saw the rest of the level upside down. However, at times everything broke in almost all possible ways and a few impossible - the player often got lost in where the “up” was at the moment and positioned himself sideways. Also, during testing, people had a hard time getting it all figured out, they got lost, and some people got sick. So at the end the project was thrown into the trash.
Another concept came with the launch of Chernobylite in Early Access. After entering the fractal world, the player was thrown into the very center of a large labyrinth, from where he was to get to the luminous pillars that unlocked parts of the plot.
Along the way, it was necessary to defend ourselves against a horde of soldiers who were to be something like Ariadna's protection or firewall. Again - in theory, everything looked fine. But in practice, the player felt as if he were participating in a Doom deathmatch, which did not fit the style of Chernobylite at all. But who knows, maybe we'll come back to this idea one day.
[h3]Connect the dots[/h3]
What does it look like today? Well, as you know very well, each fractal world is a simulation that can be entered with the help of Ariadna - a mysterious, and advanced technological device, created by Igor. However, to use it, you first need to find clues scattered throughout the game that will help you understand what happened to Tatyana: letters, photos, e-mails, newspaper clippings, and items such as a music box. All the evidence and clues go to the blackboard in Igor's room. After collecting all the necessary elements, Igor can see with his own eyes the secrets behind the disappearance of his loved one.
An important part of rewriting the plot and dialogue - as we have informed you many times - were the changes we introduced to the fractal worlds. It not only took a lot of work and time. This task was also a big challenge in terms of coordinating and connecting all the dots again. Also, because many assets for these tips were already done - we wanted to find a solution that wouldn’t require creating everything from scratch when redesigning the fractals. We had to modify a whole complex web of dependencies, linking the clues to Igor's relevant comments, and figure out how they translate into specific parts of the fractal plot.
Secondly, we had to pay close attention to aligning the fractal worlds with the places in the story where the greatest changes occurred and check for contradictions. In other words, we had to make sure that the information we convey through the simulation in Ariadna was consistent with the important plot points in the game, which are most often determined by confrontations and conversations with key characters in the game: Black Stalker, Semonov, Kozlow, etc.
Rewriting the script is relatively simple, but introducing changes in such a way that the entire intricate structure works together despite huge changes is not exactly easy. It’s especially true for the changes concerning not only the written content, but often also the place and time in the game, where we find clues that later activate the fractal simulation through Ariadna.
[h3]Evidence and clues[/h3]
The changes also meant a lot of work for graphic designers who had to rework (sometimes several times) such assets as letters, documents and e-mails to apply the changed content to them.
It was also a big challenge to avoid spoilers after we introduced changes to some characters, such as Boris and his backstory, and the relationships between him and the main character.
But perhaps the greatest challenge was the fact that the story is non-linear, and the main quests are arranged in such a way that you can complete them in almost any order you want. So we had to think about which quests we could add clues and evidence to, to be sure that the player would be able to collect all of them, no matter how the game was played.
The same goes for our companions - their role in fractal events had to be tailored to take into account that they may or may not appear in a specific playthrough, depending on the decisions made by the player.
[h3]Don't bore with the conversations[/h3]
The place and time of fractal events also changed. All this needed to be reflected both in the levels themselves and in the dialogues conducted by the characters. The narrative in fractal worlds in particular needed to have rethought its timing. Previously, dialogues were much longer and took place over the course of one scene. It quickly became apparent that forcing the player to watch two talking heads for too long is neither fun nor interesting. You could say it was simply boring.
The effect of the changes introduced by us (e.g. the division of one long level into several smaller ones) can be seen, for example, in the scene of the conversation between Boris and Tatyana, which takes place in the fractal world. Now the course of this sequence is more dynamic. Before that, the player simply stood in front of the café and could not do anything. Now he has to take a walk around to unlock all stages of the fractal and push Igor's investigation forward.
In the diagram below you can see an example of one of the investigations conducted by Igor. You can see how the rudimentary evidence and clues he has gathered lead him to solve one of the cases. What he sees with Ariadna and what he hears is up to them. What is this evidence and what does it mean? We won’t tell you, and we won’t show you - you have to figure it out yourself.
[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!
We've been telling you about what's going on behind the scenes of Chernobylite's development for a long time in our weekly reports. Sometimes we show some concept sketches, we show step by step how we create 3D objects, we talk about the changes we made and what we followed, etc.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
There have been cases where changes to one element in the game have gone so far that it has turned into something much bigger. One of them, and perhaps the most important for the entire history of Chernobylite, concerned the fractal worlds. Their design changed several times until we finally worked out the shape you see today. The road the fractals traveled was extremely bumpy. And we have evidence for this.
[h3]The beginnings of the beginnings[/h3]
Before we show what has happened with fractals recently, we need to answer one most important questions: how did it start?
One of the first concepts assumed that after entering the fractal world, the player would walk on the surface of... inside a large sphere. On paper, it was even interesting: while exploring the new world, the whole level rotated together with the player. When he looked up, he saw the rest of the level upside down. However, at times everything broke in almost all possible ways and a few impossible - the player often got lost in where the “up” was at the moment and positioned himself sideways. Also, during testing, people had a hard time getting it all figured out, they got lost, and some people got sick. So at the end the project was thrown into the trash.
Another concept came with the launch of Chernobylite in Early Access. After entering the fractal world, the player was thrown into the very center of a large labyrinth, from where he was to get to the luminous pillars that unlocked parts of the plot.
Along the way, it was necessary to defend ourselves against a horde of soldiers who were to be something like Ariadna's protection or firewall. Again - in theory, everything looked fine. But in practice, the player felt as if he were participating in a Doom deathmatch, which did not fit the style of Chernobylite at all. But who knows, maybe we'll come back to this idea one day.
[h3]Connect the dots[/h3]
What does it look like today? Well, as you know very well, each fractal world is a simulation that can be entered with the help of Ariadna - a mysterious, and advanced technological device, created by Igor. However, to use it, you first need to find clues scattered throughout the game that will help you understand what happened to Tatyana: letters, photos, e-mails, newspaper clippings, and items such as a music box. All the evidence and clues go to the blackboard in Igor's room. After collecting all the necessary elements, Igor can see with his own eyes the secrets behind the disappearance of his loved one.
An important part of rewriting the plot and dialogue - as we have informed you many times - were the changes we introduced to the fractal worlds. It not only took a lot of work and time. This task was also a big challenge in terms of coordinating and connecting all the dots again. Also, because many assets for these tips were already done - we wanted to find a solution that wouldn’t require creating everything from scratch when redesigning the fractals. We had to modify a whole complex web of dependencies, linking the clues to Igor's relevant comments, and figure out how they translate into specific parts of the fractal plot.
Secondly, we had to pay close attention to aligning the fractal worlds with the places in the story where the greatest changes occurred and check for contradictions. In other words, we had to make sure that the information we convey through the simulation in Ariadna was consistent with the important plot points in the game, which are most often determined by confrontations and conversations with key characters in the game: Black Stalker, Semonov, Kozlow, etc.
Rewriting the script is relatively simple, but introducing changes in such a way that the entire intricate structure works together despite huge changes is not exactly easy. It’s especially true for the changes concerning not only the written content, but often also the place and time in the game, where we find clues that later activate the fractal simulation through Ariadna.
[h3]Evidence and clues[/h3]
The changes also meant a lot of work for graphic designers who had to rework (sometimes several times) such assets as letters, documents and e-mails to apply the changed content to them.
It was also a big challenge to avoid spoilers after we introduced changes to some characters, such as Boris and his backstory, and the relationships between him and the main character.
But perhaps the greatest challenge was the fact that the story is non-linear, and the main quests are arranged in such a way that you can complete them in almost any order you want. So we had to think about which quests we could add clues and evidence to, to be sure that the player would be able to collect all of them, no matter how the game was played.
The same goes for our companions - their role in fractal events had to be tailored to take into account that they may or may not appear in a specific playthrough, depending on the decisions made by the player.
[h3]Don't bore with the conversations[/h3]
The place and time of fractal events also changed. All this needed to be reflected both in the levels themselves and in the dialogues conducted by the characters. The narrative in fractal worlds in particular needed to have rethought its timing. Previously, dialogues were much longer and took place over the course of one scene. It quickly became apparent that forcing the player to watch two talking heads for too long is neither fun nor interesting. You could say it was simply boring.
The effect of the changes introduced by us (e.g. the division of one long level into several smaller ones) can be seen, for example, in the scene of the conversation between Boris and Tatyana, which takes place in the fractal world. Now the course of this sequence is more dynamic. Before that, the player simply stood in front of the café and could not do anything. Now he has to take a walk around to unlock all stages of the fractal and push Igor's investigation forward.
In the diagram below you can see an example of one of the investigations conducted by Igor. You can see how the rudimentary evidence and clues he has gathered lead him to solve one of the cases. What he sees with Ariadna and what he hears is up to them. What is this evidence and what does it mean? We won’t tell you, and we won’t show you - you have to figure it out yourself.
[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!