GREETINGS!
On this day, 19 years ago, the nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk sank into the Barents Sea taking the lives of all 118 personnel on board. Here at Jujubee, we would like to commemorate this tragic event by presenting a small journey of a Polish indie studio trying to recreate the past and tell the story of those brave men as accurately as possible. If you haven’t played the game we highly encourage you to do so as potential spoilers may be present in this post. Without further ado, welcome to the past, ladies and gentlemen.
Before we even set our foot on the submarine we’ve decided a short prologue would be a good starting point. And what better place to start the game then from the beautiful Moscow itself?
This scene below is quite symbolic knowing what will eventually happen in a couple of hours, so we wanted to give it the significance it deserved. The last opportunity to witness the beautiful horizon and the Russian armada heading out to perform their scheduled practice maneuvers. Please, take it in.
We are quite meticulous in our approach to achieve the most realistic representation of the submarine, so here we’re showcasing one of our, let’s say, technical documents. Bringing back this vessel with all of its sections and individual rooms took a lot of work, but that’s a comfortable price to pay if you want to achieve this level of accuracy and realism.
Speaking of realism, we wanted the player to have the opportunity to fully explore the vessel, so about 90% of rooms are open for the curious people out there. Rooms may seem identical (they were built this way), but we wanted to give some personal touch to the people who lived in those quarters, so a player might expect someone playing a video game whilst using a second chair to set his feet comfortably. The crew was working shifts, so the player could encounter some personnel simply resting after a tough night.
We had done a lot of research on the technology that was used in early 2000 as well. Even though we remembered some bits and pieces of what was being used back then, nothing beats quality research. Here’s the computer room which is basically a trip down the memory lane for the player (spot anything fancy?).
Here we pay a short visit to the Torpedo Room where the explosion that ultimately sank Kursk happened. At 11:28 local time that explosion changed the crew’s routine practice maneuvers into a fight for survival.
Portraying Kursk in its damaged state raised a couple of visual and gameplay questions: What could withstand the initial explosion? Would fire spread dramatically? How long until the whole vessel would be flooded completely? What were the chances of reaching the emergency compartment? When working with realism these questions have to be answered and it all has to flow well with the gameplay.
Throughout our entire development history KURSK was definitely the biggest project we’ve made and it took about 3.5 years to successfully complete it. We’ve been able to recreate the events from August 12, 2000 and KURSK became the first documentary adventure game that taught us many things about game development.
Thank you for reading our Anniversary Post, it really means a lot to us! KURSK the game was released on November 7, 2018. Intrigued by the game? Launching the Anniversary Post also means we’ve got a discount for anyone interested in trying the game out!
Check out the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/860620/KURSK/