1. Chernobylite Complete Edition
  2. News

Chernobylite Complete Edition News

Weekly Report #113

A reminder: the support action for Ukraine is ongoing. The proceeds from the sale of Chernobylite will be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross, and the campaign will continue until Sunday (6th of March). We also encourage you to take part in other charity events. Details can be found in the post below.



[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is home to many interesting places and objects that deserved to be immortalized in our game. Apart from the obvious ones like the nuclear power plant and the city of Pripyat, there is also the monstrous Duga over-the-horizon radar, more commonly known as the “Moscow Eye”. It simply cannot be overlooked: it’s huge, has a distinctive shape and is visible from miles away. Therefore, it’s worth taking a closer look at it.



Work on the new over-the-horizon radar system began in the 1950s. The regular radars of the era were unable to detect targets beyond the horizon, so with the threat of the Cold War looming, this new project was specifically designed to fill this gap. The first radar of this type was built near Mikołajów, codenamed Duga-1. A second, known as the Duga-2, was constructed nearby in 1971. Already in 1969, a decision was made to build further systems of this type in other regions of the Soviet Union. The most famous and most important of them is undoubtedly located near Chernobyl.



The antenna was built 9 km south-west of the nuclear power plant, while the transmitting antenna was located to the north-east of the plant. The receiving antennas consisted of two sets of masts - 12 masts 90 m high and 17 masts 135 m high. They weighed approximately 13,000-14,000 tons.



Numerous buildings with computer systems and command posts are also worth noting. About 1,000 soldiers were needed to operate the entire system. Two closed housing estates called Chernobyl-2 and Lubecz-1 were built for the crew.



The Chernobyl complex officially began its operations in July 1976 and continued working until April 26, 1986. The increased level of radiation caused by the disaster at the power plant not only endangered personnel, but also disrupted the operation of the radars. Therefore, in 1988, a decision was made to completely switch off the Chernobyl radar complex. The most important equipment and transmitting antennas were dismantled and removed. However, a complex of receiving antennas has been preserved. Currently, the radar antennas are falling into disrepair. Over time, the authorities decided to limit access to the antennas for safety reasons.



Our team saw Duga with their own eyes and thanks to that you can see her too - in our game. In fact, it plays a key role in one of Chernobylite’s missions. (Sashko is to blame!). An amazing building that still looks impressive today.



[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/

Together we say “NO” to war!

In light of the recent events in Ukraine, we wanted to express our deepest sympathies and solidarity with the victims of this conflict as well as all Ukrainians. We believe that wars belong in the realm of video games, not in real life. Nobody should be scared for their life, family or home. The situation is dramatic, and we can only hope that peace will come soon.

For years we’ve been traveling to Ukraine and met a lot of amazing people there. During the development of our game, we became very close to Ukrainians, their history and culture. The dreadful act of aggression towards our neighbor that we’ve been witnessing since last week simply broke our hearts. We couldn’t just stand aside and watch so we decided to do something that matters and not to leave our friends all by themselves. We hope you join us!

In this perilous time everyone should help as much as they can to support Ukraine and its people. Apart from voicing your support, there are other ways to help the victims suffering from war atrocities.



[h3]Income from the sale of the game for the Ukrainian Red Cross[/h3]
We decided to donate the weekly income from Chernobylite sales to the Ukrainian Red Cross to help the victims of the conflict. This goes for both PC (Steam, Gog, Epic Games Store) and consoles.

The charity sales takes place until Sunday, March 6.

[h3]Fundraising for charity[/h3]
Currently, there are many fundraising campaigns for charity. Look around in your immediate area to see which institutions can provide support. We also encourage you to follow the links below and make a donation for the good cause:

Polish Humanitarian Action Ukrainian Red Cross

[h3]Donations for those in need[/h3]
There are many charities and fundraising activities that you can get involved with. You can help, even from far away, for example by collecting donations that will be sent abroad to Ukraine. The Ukrainian citizens may soon be facing a catastrophic humanitarian situation due to the limited access to medical aid and lack of running water in besieged cities. That’s why it’s important to get involved now and do whatever humanly possible to support them. Every little helps. Let's show our solidarity together. Every action counts. Even the smallest one.

Chernobylite Team

Weekly Report #112

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
Without further ado, we invite you to read the third and final episode of the series, in which we share with you the backstage of creating the music in Chernobylite. We would like to thank Mikołaj Stroiński for his contribution to our entries so far. At the same time, we would like to welcome Krzysztof Chalusiak, our friend, sound designer and composer, who will talk about the process of creating songs for some famous missions in the game.

Old Documents

A mission in which we make our way through small underground corridors to get important documents from Tarakan's closet. As Krzysztof explains, when writing music for this mission, he wanted to emphasize its claustrophobic nature:

“The first of these songs starts playing as soon as Igor enters the underground complex. The composition is based on interpenetrating, stretched sounds of synthesizers that dynamically change their sound and pitch. The delicate, yet strongly processed percussion accents enrich the texture of the piece. Operating synthesizers on several layers allowed me to build a sense of constant movement and change. This effectively builds a mood of uncertainty and emphasizes the mysterious atmosphere of the underground complex”.



“We get to hear the second track when Igor triggers the Tarakan trap. The pulse of this composition is much more concrete and systematic. The piece is based on bass sounds that set the rhythm for the composition. These are supported by arpeggiator, dynamically changing the harmonic and sonic values ​​that rise and fall, emphasizing the tension accompanying Igor. Additionally, the players can still hear some sounds from the previous composition playing in the background. That was deliberate. It allowed me to successfully keep the coherence of both tracks and to progress from one sound to the next one in a natural way”.

Mikhail In Trouble

What kind of music is best to illustrate the rescue mission of our slightly unhinged companion? Well, one with a hint of psychedelia. After all, during this mission Igor ends up in a building filled with a strange gas, which most likely caused Mikhail to hallucinate.

“In the first composition, which starts playing as soon as Igor descends to the ground floor of the building, I only used a few synthesizers because I wanted to emphasize the dynamism of the second song. The first composition is based on an undulating, blurry synthesizer and its sound evolves over a very long period of time. Together with the synthesizer, there are strongly voiced percussion sounds that emerge from time to time".



“The second composition uses a wider palette of colors and it’s easy to see that a lot more is happening there. There are more synthesizers in this track and although it continues the ideas from the previous composition, I also added some new sounds and textures. I wanted the player to experience the music progression when advancing the mission. The second composition begins in a dramatic moment when Igor damages his gas mask.”

Difficult Truth

As Krzysztof explains, composing this piece was quite an interesting challenge. Without revealing too much of the plot, this piece was about emphasizing the character of… a particular location. What is it and where is it located? You have to discover it for yourself!



“The foundation of the piece are misty synthesizer sounds that intertwine with one another, generating a slow pulse. Their ambivalent color and harmonic composition create an aura of mystery and correspond well with the character of the place. By adding short, rhythmic sounds, I wanted to make the piece more dynamic. By making it digital, I emphasized the technological aspect of the place discovered by Igor”.

Old Hideout

For this particular mission, it was crucial to focus on the stage where Igor was about to unravel the mystery of Tarakan. The accompanying piece at this point has a clear, perceptible pulse that reflects the feeling of tension experienced by the protagonist.

by Fritz Fantom

“The foundation of the composition is based on the rhythm built up by several synthesizer bass sounds and processed recordings of falling clock hands” - Krzysztof explains - “the layers of these sounds interpenetrate one another, maintaining a specific pulse. In addition to shorter bass sounds, the piece is characterized by synthesizers with longer, resonating motifs. Their sound dynamically changes timbre, which effectively harmonizes with the sense of unease built up by short bass splashes”.

That's it. We hope you learned something interesting. We especially hope that this insight will encourage people who would like to create music for games in the future. Let us know in the comments if you would like to read more similar material in the future.

[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/

Chernobylite is coming to Steam Deck!



Stalkers! We’re happy to share that Chernobylite has passed Valve’s review and will be available on Steam Deck, launching on February 25.

Enter the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone anywhere.

[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/

Weekly Report #111

[h3]Hello Stalkers![/h3]
A few weeks ago, we showed you some pictures of the newly created map, which will be introduced in one of the next DLCs. This is the map showing the distinctive looking cooling towers of units 5 and 6 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. We visited those locations personally to get the reference materials, as you can see in the post below.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1016800/view/3123809822937640079

A bit has changed since then and we decided that it was worth showing to what extent.
This isn’t just idle talk: previously you could only see the outline of the board; a skeleton on which its next elements were just applied. Today, we can say that the map began taking some shape.



Obviously, there is still a lot of work ahead of us, but we can already say that the results are satisfactory. We hope you think so too.

[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/