Chornobyl Liquidators News

As you may have already noticed, our project has undergone many changes recently. We've managed to significantly improve the mechanics, we've expanded the gameplay with new elements, and we've also ensured that the historical and factual compatibility of the world presented is maintained. What we have not mentioned so far is the fact that extensive work on the game's storyline has been going on in parallel. This is because we decided to create an elaborate, poignant story depicting the dramas of people caught up in events that would go down in the annals of history in an infamous way. Often against their will, placed in unfriendly circumstances, they had to make decisions that would affect the fate of many people. Choices affecting those closest to them and those they did not know at all. Situations from which there is no good way out, each with dire consequences. All this fell on the unwitting participants of those events, crushing their consciences. With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy for us contemporaries to pass judgement and evaluate the behaviour of others. However, we must ask ourselves, how would we have behaved in such extreme situations? Would we have carried the burden of the decision? Would we be able to look ourselves in the eye years later?



When creating the storyline of Chornobyl Liquidators, we decided to give players the opportunity to make moral choices, which are also storyline choices. For each of them will be reflected in the storyline. Each will have an effect. These choices will affect the story to a greater or lesser degree, but you can be sure that each of them will be a Conrad-like choice. None of the decisions will be easy and will leave a scar in the players' hearts. Ultimately, the sum of our decisions will lead to one of many endings, none of which will be unequivocally bad or good. Instead, each will be bittersweet... like life.

The last few months have been a period of extremely intense and hard work for us on the project. As the work progressed, the vision and concept of the game changed, requiring a revised approach and the implementation of new gameplay elements. The production team was also reorganized to meet the new challenges. At a certain stage, it became obvious that the game Chornobyl Liquidators not only had great potential in terms of gameplay but also a lot to offer in terms of story. This opened the way for us to show the story as it would be in the real world while providing an immersive narrative from the player's point of view.
The result is a story in which fictional characters, modeled on real people, become embroiled in historical events. Events that terrify and heartbreak, force you to think and reflect, and evoke emotions you may never have felt before. In 1986, human tragedies were combined with extraordinary heroism, and the joy of reliving the day gone by was blended with the fear of the day to come.
To give you a foretaste of what you'll be able to see and feel during the gameplay, we've created an atmospheric trailer for you, consisting exclusively of the game's content. Let us know in the comments if you enjoyed the trailer and what you think of the atmosphere of the upcoming game Chornobyl Liquidators!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Due to the mentioned changes, the introduction of an entertaining story, the addition of engaging mechanics, and due to the new visual quality of the game, we have decided to remove the Chornobyl Liquidators demo for the moment. The demo in its previous version was nowhere near the current look of the project and could have confused many of you about the final look of the game. In the meantime, you'll have to be patient while waiting for the demo to return in a new, updated version.

Recently, there have been lively discussions in our team about a certain issue. A matter which, for many, is probably trivial, but for us, extremely important. Namely, we were faced with the problem of what transcription we should use in our game. Until now, this issue has not been raised in relation to the Chornobyl disaster, and all translations have been made from Russian. This is probably an aftermath of the time when Ukraine, and by implication the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, were part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, where Russian was forcibly used. Today, however, in independent Ukraine, the beautiful Ukrainian language can be used without hindrance. There is therefore no need to refer to the Russian language. What is more, Ukrainians themselves are trying to make international opinion aware of the difference between the two languages, which is not at all obvious outside the circle of Slavic culture. Therefore, as a team we unanimously decided to use a transcription from Ukrainian for the translation.

In the face of Russian aggression and attack on the territory of independent Ukraine, many may interpret our gesture as a political act or as a manifestation of conformism resulting from political correctness. We, however, hold political correctness in deep disregard, and our decision is based solely on common human decency.

"Follow only such a rule as you might wish to make a universal law."

Immanuel Kant

The first consequence resulting from our decision will be to change the title of the game from "Chernobyl Liquidators" to "Chornobyl Liquidators".



As you probably noticed, we have also removed 'simulator' from the name. This is related to the transformation of the gameplay, which has evolved in the production process over the past months. This reflects the fact that we want our game to be more than just a simple simulator, but also to tell the story of the people who, often against their will, were caught up in the events of the Chornobyl disaster. People who were confronted by Soviet totalitarianism with decisions that were not only difficult but also affected the fate of others. Decisions based on truly Conradian choices.

We hope that we can count on your support and that you will like our new development direction!

Today we would like to introduce you to the latest changes to one of our core mechanics. Namely, the change to the fire extinguishing system.

As you are well aware, the previous system was far from perfect. It caused a lot of problems not only for the players but also for us, the developers. However, thanks to the irreplaceable LMG programmers, we managed to create a completely new, realistic, and at the same time intuitive firefighting system. We hope you will enjoy it.

But let's get down to business.

Our firefighting system allows you to conveniently control the space you want to fill with fire. And it is based on a grid scheme made up of fields and vertices. To create a fire focus, we choose the size of the grid and locate it in the desired place. We can use automatic matching of the grid points to colliders on the map, or we can lay out them manually. This allows us to quickly, but also optimally, set the height of each grid point as required.

Once the grid is ready, we move on to setting the temperature areas. By increasing the temperature of a given vertex, we increase the temperature of the surrounding fields. The temperature of individual fields is an average value relative to all surrounding vertices.

The fields take the form of invisible triangular colliders, which are responsible for detecting collisions with the water jet. The collision between the field and the water jet causes a gradual decrease in the temperature of the field in question. At the same time, the temperature of all its vertices is reduced. Consequently, extinguishing a particular field causes the temperature of neighboring fields that share vertices with it to decrease. In this way, we can create realistic fire outbreaks, with temperatures adapted to the fire sources and changing dynamically as they are extinguished.



From a gameplay point of view, this also gives players a choice in the way they approach the problem of extinguishing the flames. After all, one can fight the fire by extinguishing the periphery of the fire, or deal directly with extinguishing its source.



What do you think? Which way will be more effective?

On 26 April 1986, at 1:23 a.m., the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shaken by the first explosion. The pressure of steam built up in reactor No. 4 blows up and knocks away the safety cover weighing 2,000 tonnes. Air enters the reactor. The heated reactor components begin to melt and burn, and the steam reacts violently with them. Significant amounts of highly explosive hydrogen and oxygen are released and ignited. A second, more powerful explosion occurs, destroying reactor block No. 4 and spewing huge quantities of radionuclides into the air, including the extremely dangerous Caesium-137. A deadly cloud begins to build up over the resulting crater, which will soon cover much of Europe.

Today marks the 37th anniversary of the largest nuclear disaster in history, known as the Chernobyl Disaster. It occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, part of the Soviet Union's energy system. As a result of the accident and the destruction of reactor No. 4, radioactive isotopes were then released into the atmosphere on an unprecedented scale. The whole world held its breath for a moment, and the effects of the accident reached far beyond the borders of the USSR.

To show you how the Zone has changed in these 37 years, we decided to prepare some rather unusual graphics for you. Namely, we have combined screenshots of locations from our game with photos of actual places located in the Exclusion Zone.











At the same time, we would like to inform you that we are back to publishing regular developer updates so that you can keep up to date with the progress of Chernobyl Liquidators. And we assure you, there is a lot to look forward to!

If you haven't yet added 'Chernobyl Liquidators' to your wish list, now is the best time. And if you are not yet sure if this game is for you, you can check it out by playing the demo on the Steam platform.

Enjoy!