Chernobylite Complete Edition News

Stalkers!

Stalkers! You can now win a Chernobylite key, DLC's and an awesome Survival Kit inspired by the game!

All you need to do is to discover your inner Michelangelo.

Join the All in! Games Discord and head to the contest channel for more details: https://discord.com/invite/5NzG2XkHmA

[h3]The Survival Kit includes:[/h3]

• 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.
  

Before we get to the main course, we have a special announcement! The editors of the Polish edition of the IGN nominated several Polish games to compete for the title of the "Best Polish Game" of 2021. Needless to say, Chernobylite is one of these games.

But this is just the beginning! Each nominated game also has a chance to win an audience award in that category. And at this point we count on your help! Please vote for Chernobylite! Voting lasts until June 5. Thank you for all the votes!



[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
Frequently we’re getting a lot of questions from you about the world of Chernobylite itself. For example, why did we decide to divide our game into several smaller areas rather than designing a fully open world. To fully understand our decision, you need to go back to the very beginning. In the next reports, we will be presenting the origins of the idea for dividing the Zone and how we translated this idea into something interesting to the players.

As you probably know, the idea for Chernobylite came from our earlier project - Chernobyl VR Project. We got very interested in Chernobyl, more and more the longer we were traveling there to collect data. We decided that this is a great place and the virtual tour itself is not enough - it was worth making a game there. Furthermore, we had a lot of scanned materials, over time we gained experience with photogrammetry so it would be a shame to waste it all without doing anything else with all this background.



In addition, the very fact of creating a horror game in Chernobyl triggered the imagination of players more than a psychological thriller, the action of which was set in a psychiatric facility (in Get Even, we used a public facility for the mentally ill, founded in 1838 in Owińska and operating until World War II). So we already got the amazing foundation and a location. After that, there was the question how to transfer the Zone to the game.



The scans we did in Chernobyl offer a surprising quality comparable to what can be seen in AAA games with a lot less workload. But it’s not only rainbows and sunshine with photogrammetry, there are some limitations and obstacles with this technology. One of them is the huge amount of memory used - each scanned wall of a building is another texture, the meshes are very complex and many other elements that together weigh a lot. If we decided to include huge locations in the game, they would take up an awful lot of memory space and impact the performance really badly.



In addition, we ourselves - as game developers, but also as players - were a bit tired with the open worlds, where we spend most of our time running around huge maps back and forth, while the actual gameplay takes only a small percentage. All this resulted in the decision to divide our game into specific stages and focus on the essence of the game - on the gameplay that we would refine as much as possible.



But it's not that the idea just suddenly came out of nowhere. It took us a while to think about how to convince the gamers, who are used to open worlds, that what we are doing makes sense. In the end, the solution was brought to us by... reality. When we enter one of the highest floors of the unfinished reactor in the power plant, we can see practically the entire area of ​​Chernobyl and Pripyat. While standing there admiring the beautiful view, we asked ourselves a question: what if the player had such a view every day, and from this perspective they could choose the place they would like to go to? They could also see directly how their actions affect the whole world, without having to run from one end of the map to the other.



This solution also allowed us to circumvent certain technical limitations that usually result from open worlds. But we will tell you about this and the benefits for players of splitting the map in the next section.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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

[h3]Will you join us? Let us know in the comments or on Discord.[/h3]



[h3]Follow our official channels to stay up to date:[/h3]
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter

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

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
In last week’s report we talked about the weather in Chernobylite. You can read about why the game has four weather conditions and how they affect the "decor" of the Zone and the overall atmosphere in the post below:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3199255277322232884

But as we mentioned, there is another weather phenomenon in the game just as important: the dark Chernobylite Storm.



The Chernobylite Storm occurs when a player remains at a given level long enough. In an instant, the sky darkens, lightning starts striking the ground, creating flames in these places. The Chernobylite storm is not only an unusual atmospheric phenomenon, but above all a warning - here comes the Black Stalker, in all his glory. He moves from place to place, wielding a powerful weapon that can cause considerable damage. He has one goal: to get rid of the player.



Okay, everyone knows that. But no one really knows what the story is behind the Chernobylite storm. Why did it arise, how did its concept change, and how does it relate to the Black Stalker? We will answer all these questions today.

From the design side, we set ourselves two goals: to make the player feel the Black Stalker's breath on his neck all the time and to emphasize that the only place that is truly safe is the base. In general, the idea was for our nemesis to be constantly present in the gameplay and for the player to reasonably manage the phases of the day.

At the very beginning of designing the game, we placed a watch in the upper right corner that counted down the time until the appearance of the Black Stalker. Also, this character was very powerful to make the encounter with him suitably traumatic. Unfortunately, this design choice was very poorly received by the players, because it only gave the feeling of a "time limit", after which the antagonist appears and murders the player. Among the critics, there were a lot of supporters of slow exploration for whom this solution was unacceptable. One thing is worth emphasizing here: it was not a time limit. It was a feature that was not fully understood.



Therefore, we decided to modify it a bit. We weakened the Black Stalker and threw the watch away in favor of something more immersive - that is, a brewing Chernobylite Storm. Its occurrence can be predicted by observing the sky, and even slowed down with a special device built on a map. Everyone liked this solution much more because it was unique and visually attractive. The Black Stalker, on the other hand, could be defeated, escaped, or heavily delayed.



[h2]WARNING SPOILERS[/h2]
But the question is, what does the storm have to do with the Black Stalker? Well, you have to remember that Black Stalker was treated with chernobylite, so he can only move freely between places where its concentration is high - i.e. a power plant and a storm. Such conclusions could be reached by collecting information about the Black Stalker. It is thanks to them that you can understand how the Chernobylite world works.



[h2]Chernobylite nominated for Digital Dragons awards[/h2]
We are extremely proud to announce that our game - Chernobylite has been nominated for four Digital Dragons awards this year:

• Best Polish Game
  
• Best Polish Game Design
  
• Best Polish Game Art
  
• Best Polish Game soundtrack
  

Thank you for the recognition and nominations. The award ceremony will be part of the Digital Dragons conference this Monday, May 16th! Wish us luck and keep your fingers crossed!



[h2]Meme contest[/h2]
We have a contest for you where you can win game keys and an Autumn Dread Pack on PC, PS4 / PS5 or Xbox One / Series. Details can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Hurry up. We are waiting for your applications by Sunday.

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

[h3]Will you join us? Let us know in the comments or on Discord.[/h3]



[h3]Follow our official channels to stay up to date:[/h3]
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter

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

Stalkers!

We have a set of free keys for Chernobylite for you to win! Solve our riddle to get it.

Join the All in! Games Discord and head to the contest channel for more details: https://discord.com/invite/5NzG2XkHmA

[h3]Follow our official channels to stay up to date:[/h3]
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter

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

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
We really enjoy doing two things on our social media: replying to comments from our community (it's about you!) and posting screenshots from Chernobylite. In the latter case one thing needs to be clarified: we don’t just shoot some photo in a random place and call it a day. If that was the case, we would post new photos on social media 15 times a day.

Taking pictures in a game is a very complex process with things like setting the right frame, positioning the camera, lighting, etc. You know, just like in real photography. But doing it in the game gives us the advantage of setting the right mood with the help of the weather.



As you know, there are four types of weather in the game that appear randomly on the maps: sunny, cloudy, rainy and foggy. And someone might consider it extravagant. Surely It was enough to give some sunlight and that's it, so what are all these goodies for? Probably the best answer to this question comes from our level designer, Sebastian Nowak. “We didn't want to stay in one static light, mainly because the Zone itself is also changing. When wandering through the Zone, we feel certain emotions - this place can both delight on a beautiful, sunny day and scare when it is cloudy, dark, and raining. Foggy places make it a complete horror movie."



It's hard to disagree. For example, Kopachi looks fabulous when the rays of the sun break through the branches of the trees.



And Pripyat Central in the fog looks like the Silent Hill. (Fog has also an additional advantage: we’re less visible to enemies).



The weather sequences are of course not just for show, but also serve a certain purpose. The Zone was never supposed just to “look nice”, but also to affect the player's imagination in a specific way. "We wanted to add it to the game, so that we could admire the Zone, graphically absorb how beautiful it looks, but at the same time feel the terror and the history behind it. To do this, we have prepared four weather scenarios: two a little brighter and two somewhat darker. The idea was for them to appear in sequence, eliciting the feeling of anxiety about what the next day would bring."



But it is not everything. In addition to these four basic weather zones, there is another additional one - the chernobylite storm. It is directly related to game story and the nemesis of the main character, Black Stalker. But we will talk about him next time.



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

[h3]Will you join us? Let us know in the comments or on Discord.[/h3]



[h3]Follow our official channels to stay up to date:[/h3]
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter

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