Hello Stalkers!
Winter has come and is holding on. The climate gave way to us, so we’re trying to suggest to the team to add the snowman-building option to Chernobylite - from mud? From metal? From stones? Sky's the limit!.
Of course, we reckon with the fact that nothing will come out of it. As you know we’re currently not adding new stuff to the game, but we’re mainly focusing on polishing what is already in it. This means more or less that we are in the final phase. Plus, don't forget that we’re also preparing console versions.
A lot of work is still ahead of us, but it’s always getting us closer and closer. We hope you’ll enjoy this report thanks to which you will, traditionally, learn more about Chernobylite. By the way, at the end of it, we included a specific material about something you’ve been asking for a long time*.
Enjoy!
* no, it's not about "The Heist"
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016800/announcements/detail/3043838585268106022
Looking through the surface of the water
Speaking of the polishing mentioned at the beginning, let’s have a look at the water. For a long time we have been trying to reproduce the outside world in the Chernobylite as faithfully as possible. That's why we were a bit bothered that the water in the game was too ... cloudy.
It’s not that the water in Chernobyl is or isn’t of top quality - we didn't drink it or bathe in it, so we don't know that. It’s more about the fact that the water reflection effect did not fully meet our aesthetic expectations. It’s definitely too dark, and the water looked artificial in some places. In order to fix this, we've made some tricks in our editor thanks to which the reflections work smoothier, use less resources and, what’s important, reacts with light better.
You can see the effect on an example from Pripyat Port. Here's the water before the changes:
And here is the water after the changes:
How is a hatch made?
Let's stay with the graphics. While improving collisions to map objects so that the game would work more optimally and take up less memory space, we found a few things that are worth showing to future 3D graphic designers.
This example was taken from working on a metal hatch. You can see in the picture below that it all starts with assembling the model. Maybe you can see some similarities to a game from childhood, when you cut out paper into certain shapes and assembled into a specific object (remember those sticky fingers thanks to a cheap glue?).
And here you can see the texture work. Note the differences in the appearance of the hatch before and after putting it into the game engine.
Achievements!
Traditionally, we fight with the significant bugs - the ones you ‘ve reported on Steam and on Discord. Thank you all for your support!
We don’t forget about small novelties that are to make the game more enjoyable. At this point, it’s worth informing that we’re finishing the work on the quick save prototype and we're also working on something nice for trophy hunters - the achievement system. :)
Of course, the picture for this achievement will change. We'll try to make sure it doesn't end up looking like the picture below.
Hear your stalker (all over again)
We've been flooded with suggestions for some time now to fix this and that. A lot of these voices are about… well, voices.
You've talked about how they are a bit unnatural, stiff, maybe a bit superfluous and indistinct in places. The fact is, not all of the characters' voices sound as if we want them to. So we decided to re-record ALL lines. And not only that - we've also improved every line of dialogues in the game. The effect is satisfying... as you can see for yourself.
We’ve recently posted a video on our social media with a gameplay piece from a version of the game that is not yet available to you (but will be soon!). This way, we were able to show you how the characters' new, re-recorded lines sound like. You may notice that not only do the characters sound different, but they have also some lines changed in order to make things feel more natural.
Under normal circumstances, we would record voice-overs in a studio, as we did with Get Even. However, due to the pandemic it would be difficult and complicated to organize. So we decided to record online via Google Hangouts. Wojciech Rutkowski reveals the secrets of working in new conditions. - Our writer Łukasz was at each recording session and was responsible for leading the actors during the sessions. We recorded all dialogues between the main characters and Igor with two actors at once, so that the interactions between them in the dialogue sound natural. The actors recorded their lines in their home studios with professional microphones.
In our opinion, it turned out great! Let us know what you think!
By the way - you can see a new indicator on the linked video, which shows the direction from which the player is visible to the opponents. We wrote about him in one of the previous reports. We tried to make it more noticeable, but not too invasive at the same time.
That's it for today!
Take care, Stalkers!