Chernobylite Complete Edition News

Weekly Report #177

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
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!

[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!

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Weekly Report #176

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
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 ;)

[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!

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Weekly Report #175

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
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.

[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!

[h3]Do you like Chernobylite? Give us a review.[/h3]

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Weekly Report #174

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
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" :)

[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!

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Weekly Report #173

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
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.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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 ;)

[h3]That's it for today![/h3]
Take care, Stalkers!

[h3]Do you like Chernobylite? Give us a review.[/h3]

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