Threads of War News

[p][/p][p]In the first month of the war, Ukrainians were horrified by kilometer-long columns of enemy tanks advancing on Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other cities. Various rumors spread among the people, panic raged, and tens of thousands of men and women went to military enlistment offices to join the defense of their country.[/p][p]Amid all this madness, the Ukrainian army and volunteers did everything they could to stop the enemy. [/p][p][/p][p]In those days, the song “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow”, performed by Andriy Khlyvnyuk on Sofiyska Square of Kyiv, became a symbol of resistance. In 1914, it was the anthem of the Sich Riflemen, and in 2022 it was given a new life.[/p][p]So I decided to use it as the main theme for the first phase of the 2022 war - the liberation of Northern Ukraine.[/p][p]Like all other soundtrack melodies, it is performed in 8-bit style. In this track, alongside the main heroic theme, I composed another melody that intersects with the main one but conveys the chaos and tension of those days. In the background, I created an intense “clanking” sound of heavy military machinery.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[p]In the early days of autumn 2022, Ukrainians began receiving news they could hardly believe - as a result of a rapid counteroffensive, the entire Kharkiv region was liberated in a very short time. That’s 12,000 square kilometers![/p][p]For the musical accompaniment of this counteroffensive in Threads of War, I chose the song "The Cossack Rode beyond the Danube", reworked it into an 8-bit version, and titled it "The Cossack Rode beyond the Oskil".[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]When I work on adapting Ukrainian songs, I explore their history, contexts, arrangements, and underlying ideas. To my surprise, I discovered that this Ukrainian romance has a fascinating history. It was written in the early 1700s and, about a century later, gained popularity in the Russian Empire and Western Europe. The song was translated into German and French, becoming the basis for many musical works by renowned composers.[/p][p]One of them was Beethoven, who made the melody more lyrical. In the translation by Prussian poet Tiedge, the song was titled “Schöne Minka, ich muß scheiden” and is perceived as a folk song in Germany.[/p][p]Interestingly, this melody also became the foundation for at least two other Ukrainian songs:[/p]

• [p]"Hey, falcons" [/p]
• [p]"You've deceived me".[/p]

[p]In my variation, I aimed to make the melody slightly more heroic while preserving its lyricism. For the game, tracks need to be relatively long and avoid sounding monotonous. That’s why I combined the motifs of "The Cossack Rode beyond the Danube", "Hey, falcons", a melodic fragment composed by Beethoven in his variation of the romance, and my own musical themes - all in a single track.[/p][p]- - - - -[/p][p]The game will be released very soon![/p]

[p][/p][p]We’re planning to release our game soon, but we thought it would be a good idea to share the story of our war with people from other countries as well. So, if you’re fluent in another language and would like to help with the translation - we’d be truly grateful.[/p][p]We're especially looking for translations into:[/p]

• [p]Polish[/p]
• [p]German[/p]
• [p]French[/p]

[p]But we’d also welcome help with other languages.[/p][p]There isn’t a huge amount of text. However, a strong command of the language is important, as some dialogues need to convey a stylised “archaic” tone (for instance, a Cossack describing enemy tanks in the way he sees them).[/p][p]As a thank-you, we’ll include your name in the credits and provide two game keys.[/p][p][/p][p]If you can help, please write to andrey.kostyushko @ gmail.com (remove the spaces around the @).[/p][p][/p]

In honour of Ukrainian Vyshyvanka Day, I wanted to share a story about how I depicted the death of enemy soldiers in Threads of War.

Most of the enemies in the game are tanks. What’s the simplest way to show that a tank is destroyed? Create an explosion animation. Additionally, we leave behind charred remains for a while. If you played the demo version, you've seen what that looks like.

To add variety, we needed to come up with other types of enemies. So we added soldiers who crawl on the ground and shoot at us with anti-tank weapons. There’s only one way to destroy them — by running them over. But how should their destruction be portrayed?

• Explosion — illogical.
  
• Blood — doesn’t match the game’s style.
  
• Stylised black blood — unreadable.
  
• Breaking into pieces — crude.
  
• Some kind of pattern — no clear connection.
  

Eventually, we came up with a great idea.

There was a video at the start of the war, where a woman under occupation tells an enemy soldier to put sunflower seeds in his pocket so that they’ll grow after he dies. It went viral in Ukraine for several reasons — people under occupation do not accept enemy rule, the sentence implied that the enemy soldier would die soon regardless, sunflowers are considered "Ukrainian" flowers, and the image of an enemy’s death transforming into the growth of a flower is deeply poetic.

I took that idea as the basis and depicted the soldiers’ destruction as a sunflower sprouting. :)



It works beautifully with the Ukrainian embroidery theme and is deeply symbolic, like many other elements in our game.

Happy Vyshyvanka Day!

On the night of 24 February, most Ukrainians were sleeping peacefully until explosions shattered the silence outside their windows. From that moment, our lives changed forever.

I've tried to capture the anxiety of that night, disrupted by the sounds of air defence systems and explosions, in a reworked melody of "What a Moonlit Night":
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]About Creating the Game Soundtrack:[/h3]

My 12-year-old son Askold and I are developing a game about the first year of the full-scale war in Ukraine—Threads of War. We aim for the game to be engaging independently of its theme. At the same time, I want to reflect and communicate the feelings of war through visuals, specific game mechanics, and music.

To create the soundtrack, I decided to adapt well-known Ukrainian melodies into an 8-bit style reminiscent of late-1980s gaming consoles.

My objectives were:

• Preserve the beauty of the original melody.
  
• Convey the emotions and sensations of the first year of the war through arrangement and unique melodic elements.
  
• Adhere strictly to 8-bit style constraints: only four audio channels may play simultaneously (two square wave channels, one triangle wave channel, and one noise channel for percussion). Avoid effects like reverb or echo and refrain from using realistic instrument sounds—only authentic 8-bit tones.
  
• Maintain a track length of approximately 5 minutes for extended gameplay immersion, ensuring the composition remains varied and engaging throughout.

I hope you enjoy it!