Video gaming in Ukraine began to emerge in the 1990s and is slowly growing. Subsequently, in the 2000s, several major video game series would start to appear. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Despite its large size, studies of the Ukrainian video game industry only began in the second half of the 2000s. [5] In part, this has been caused by the classes of Ukrainian developers, especially with regard to the value of its projects. But it was not a mystery that the creation of video games in Ukraine is cheaper than in the United States and Western Europe. In the country, various orders were performed, except for sounding and animation with the capture of the motion of actors. The reason for this was called market requirements and the lack of desired technologies. The volume of the Ukrainian video game market in 2013 became the largest history, 300 million US dollars. However, most of the profits are abandoned by foreign publishers. Some editions are called video games by the main cultural export of Ukraine to the west. [6]
Major video game developers in Ukraine include GSC Game World, Best Way, Action Forms, 4A Games, N-Game Studios, Мeridian'93, Frogwares, Boolat Game Development Company, Dereza Production Studio, Persha Studia, Cyber Light Game Studio and Deep Shadows. The largest number of development studios are based in Kyiv.
In 1993, Meridian'93 studio was created. It was they who created the first commercial Ukrainian game - Admiral Sea Battles devoted to marine battles. Dmitry Prokopov developed a concept game, wrote a script and worked on graphics. The creation of the concept was also participated in by the programmer Andriy Doroshchuk, and Viktor Sylak who also engaged in graphics. Music was written by Andrei Vasylenko. All of them then worked on over two subsequent team projects: Ancient Conquest and Submarine Titans. [7] [8] And Doroshchuk, Sylak and two more programmers from the team, Gregory Podgorny and Artem Kulakov, as part of The Creative Assembly Australia, even took part in the development of such strategies as Medieval II: Total War and Stormrise. [9] [10]
At the exhibition in Hamburg, where the developers went to present their game, they met representatives of the German company Koch Media (later it created a special Deep Silver label for video games). As a result of cooperation, the Germans were engaged in a publishing house and distribution agreement of Meridian'93 products in the West. In particular, they distributed Admiral Sea Battles in Germany. [11] The release took place on September 30, 1996.
In 2001, the first part of the series Cossacks - European Wars, developed by GSC Game World. The idea to create the game Cossacks appeared in 1997, when Age of Empires was released, the development of the game began in 1998. The 17th-18th centuries were chosen because the Middle Ages would most likely be chosen to continue the Age of Empires and the Cossacks would emerge as its logical continuation rather than a competitor. Initially, there was to be a confrontation between Ukraine and Russia in the Cossacks, and there were to be 4 nations in total: Ukrainians, Russians, Europeans, and Ottomans. The game was to be sold on the domestic market. After the MILIA exhibition in Cannes, where the demo version of the Cossacks received good reviews from reputable people involved in the creation and publishing of video games, it was decided to increase the number of nations to 16 and publish the game around the world. In order to be able to reproduce thousands of units on the map, a 2D version of the graphics was selected. The following year saw the continuation of the series - Cossacks: Back to War.
In the middle of the decade, the following games appeared: Sherlock Holmes, Vivisector: Beast Within, Cossacks 2: Napoleonic Wars, Soldiers: Heroes of World War II, Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason and Faces of War.
A real breakthrough was the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, developed by GSC Game World. The first part was released in 2007 and was called Shadow of Chernobyl. It was developed for 6 years. Later, books and movies appeared behind the game. The game takes place in an alternate reality, where on April 14, 2008 (there is a contradiction - the game itself mentions the date of April 12, 2008, and on the official website - April 12, 2006) there was a second explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This explosion caused the appearance of the "Zone" - a place within which, various anomalous phenomena appear, such as a multidirectional gravitational flow of more than 100G. The history of the second explosion at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant is shrouded in darkness, and, wanting to investigate this situation, the Ukrainian government is sending troops to the Chornobyl zone. However, their actions in the zone end in failure. Due to the failure of the experiments, the territory of the Zone was fenced, checkpoints were built at the main points of access to the Zone. After some time, information about mutant animals and so-called artefacts, which were common objects in the past, began to arrive from the territory of the Zone. Getting into the anomaly, objects acquire unique properties. Many desperate people, wanting to make money quickly, began to enter the territory of the "Zone" to obtain a valuable artefact and sell it to scientists. A year later, people appeared on the territory of the Zone, who had tattoos in the form of the abbreviation "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." As a rule, these were people who began to "live" in the Zone. Soon everyone who rushed to the Zone began to be called stalkers (something between a marauder and a guide). The events of the game take place in 2012. The protagonist is a miraculously surviving stalker from a "death truck" (used to remove the bodies of dead stalkers from the center of the Zone; such a truck has a radiation background that is many times higher than normal human living conditions). The protagonist has completely lost his memory, and the only clue is the entry in the PDA: "Kill Sagittarius." According to the tattoo "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." on the hand of the protagonist, he receives the nickname "Marked". Now he faces many difficult questions and tasks. Then came the prequel to the game - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky .
In 2010 a new part of the series S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Call of Pripyat. The action of the project "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat" unfolds after the events of the original game - that is, after the shooter destroyed the project "O-Consignment". Having received information about the opening of the road to the center of the zone, the government decides to deploy a large-scale military operation under the code name "Fairway" to receive control over Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. In accordance with the developed plan, the first group of military must go for air intelligence of the territory and make detailed schemes of the locations of abnormal formations. Subsequently, these safe passages will have to be secured by the main forces of the military. Despite thorough preparation, the operation fails. To collect information about the causes of the failure, the Security Service of Ukraine directs its agent to the center of the zone. Further events depend only on the player. [12]
Also in this year, studio 4A Games released METRO 2033. The early GDC 2006 demo build of the game used the X-Ray Engine that has been used in the Stalker Game series. [13] The game uses a multi-platform version of 4A Engine, which is transferred to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. There was a controversy where the game's engine was stated to be based on a version of X-Ray (as claimed by Sergei Grigorovich, the founder, GSC Game World, as well as users who saw screenshots of the 4A Engine SDK, marking visual similarity, shared resources and technical changes in the pre-training demo). 4A Engine was made after a GSC Game World scandal, or it is its own development (according to 4A Games and Olesya Shishkovtseva in particular, [14] which claims it to be unthinkable to recycle X-Ray to support playing consoles). 4A Engine uses NVIDIA PHYSX support, improved artificial intelligence (AI), as well as a console SDK for Xbox 360. The PC version includes DIRECTX 11 support and is described as a "love player message" thanks to developers' decision to make a PC version [especially] phenomenal". [15] On October 22, 2009, THQ officially announced that it will be a publisher of the game "Metro 2033". It was stated that the game will come out in early 2010 for PC and Xbox 360. Together with this statement, a game trailer was released. On November 2, 2008-2009, the Russian publisher and localizer "Akella" announced the signing of the contract with THQ on the publication of the Metro 2033 on the territory of Russia and the CIS countries.
As of 2018, 84% of video game developers produce mobile games for iOS and Android [16] and more than 50% develop or plan to develop games for VR and AR devices. The average salary of a game developer in Ukraine is $1,375. According to a study, Unity is considered to be the most popular game engine in the country, used by 69% of game developers. The largest genres are action (40%) and adventure (42%). In total, the Ukrainian video game industry employs about 20,000 people. 75% of local company offices are based in Ukraine. Almost 90% of video game studios are self-funded. The audience of games that were created by Ukrainian developers is more than 770 million users. The most popular video games in the country were created by Plarium, Ubisoft and Wargaming. [17] [18]
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Pripyat, also known as Prypiat, is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 1970 as the ninth atomgrad to serve the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which is located in the adjacent ghost city of Chernobyl. Pripyat was officially proclaimed a city in 1979 and had grown to a population of 49,360 by the time it was evacuated on the afternoon of 27 April 1986, one day after the Chernobyl disaster.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a first-person shooter survival horror video game developed by GSC Game World and published by THQ in 2007 following a long development. The game is set in an alternative reality, where a second disaster of mysterious origin occurred at the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, causing strange changes in the area around it. The game features a non-linear storyline and includes role-playing gameplay elements such as trading and two-way communication with non-player characters.
GSC Game World is a Ukrainian video game developer temporarily based in Prague. Founded in Kyiv in 1995 by Sergiy Grygorovych, it is best known for the Cossacks and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of games. GSC Game World was the first company in Ukraine to localize PC games to the Russian language. In 2002, it became a publishing house, GSC World Publishing.
The Chernobyl disaster is the world's worst nuclear accident to date.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is a 2008 first-person shooter survival horror video game with role-playing elements. It was developed by GSC Game World and published by Deep Silver as a prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
The Polissya hotel is one of the tallest buildings in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine. It was built in the mid-1970s to house delegations and guests visiting the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Currently, the hotel is half-ruined. As of 2021, a section of the hotel's roof has become noticeably unstable, sparking concerns of a potential collapse.
The Pripyat amusement park is an abandoned amusement park located in Pripyat, Ukraine. It was to have its grand opening on 1 May 1986, in time for the May Day celebrations, but these plans were cancelled on 26 April, when the Chernobyl disaster occurred a few kilometers away. Several sources report that the park was opened for a short time on 27 April before the announcement to evacuate the city was made. These reports claim that the park was hurriedly opened to distract Pripyat residents from the unfolding disaster nearby. However, these claims remain largely unsubstantiated and unsupported. Pripyat residents have not been able to recall for sure if the park was opened following the disaster, but considering the lack of panic at the time of the disaster and subsequent evacuation, there would seem to be no need to distract people. In any case, the park—and its ferris wheel in particular—have become a symbol of the Chernobyl disaster.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is a first-person shooter survival horror video game developed by GSC Game World for Microsoft Windows. It is the third game released in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series of video games, following S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, with the game's narrative and events following the former. It was published in the CIS territories by GSC World Publishing in October 2009, before being released by Deep Silver and bitComposer Games in North America and the PAL region in February 2010.
Metro 2033 is a 2010 first-person shooter survival horror video game developed by 4A Games and published by THQ. The story is based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novel of the same name, where survivors of a nuclear war have taken refuge in the Metro tunnels of Moscow. Players control Artyom, a man who must save his home station from the dangers lurking within the Metro. In the game, players encounter human and mutant enemies, who can be killed with a variety of firearms. Players must also wear a gas mask to explore areas covered in fallout radiation, both underground and on the surface.
4A Games Limited is a Ukrainian-Maltese video game developer based in Sliema, Malta. The company was founded in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2006 by three developers who departed from GSC Game World. In 2014, 4A Games moved its headquarters to Sliema, wherein the Kyiv office was retained as a sub-studio. The company is best known for developing the Metro video game series.
The 4A Engine is a graphics middleware engine developed by 4A Games for use in their video game Metro 2033, published by THQ. It supports Direct3D APIs 9 through 12, OpenGL 3.2, Nvidia PhysX, and Nvidia 3D Vision.
Metro is a post-apocalyptic fiction franchise consisting primarily of novels and video games that began with the 2005 release of Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky's novel Metro 2033. It was followed by his sequels Metro 2034 and Metro 2035, as well as by many other books by different authors, including Tullio Avoledo, Pierre Bordage, Robert J. Szmidt and Shimun Vrochek. Ukrainian studio 4A Games created the original novel's video game adapatation Metro 2033, followed by Metro: Last Light and Metro Exodus.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a first-person-shooter survival horror video game franchise developed by Ukrainian game developer GSC Game World. The series is set in an alternate version of the present-day Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine, where, according to the series' backstory, a mysterious second Chernobyl disaster took place in 2006. As a result, the physical, chemical, and biological processes in the area were altered, spawning numerous nature-defying anomalies, artifacts, and mutants. The player takes the role of a "stalker" - a name given to trespassers and adventurers who have come to explore the exclusion zone and its strange phenomena.
VG Entertainment Ltd is a Ukrainian video game developer based in Kyiv. The company was founded in March 2012 by former employees of GSC Game World, including Oleg Yavorsky, after GSC had been shut down. The company developed the battle royale game Fear the Wolves (2019) and is working on Survarium, a free-to-play shooter game in early access since 2015.
The Chernihiv–Ovruch railway is a partially electrified and partially operational single track railway line that stretches between the town of Ovruch and the city of Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine, passing through southern Belarus and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The line is owned by Ukrzaliznytsia alone, with railway stations located in Belarus being leased from the government of Belarus. A portion of the line between railway stations Vilcha and Semykhody has not been in service since the Chernobyl disaster, on 26 April 1986.
Avanhard Stadium is an abandoned football stadium in Pripyat, Ukraine. It was built to become the home ground of FC Stroitel Pripyat. Due to the Chernobyl disaster it was never realized. It was named, like several other grounds, after the Ukrainian sports society trade union. The town of Pripyat was evacuated following the Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986, which occurred a few kilometers away.
Metro Exodus is a 2019 first-person shooter game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. The game is the third installment in the Metro video game series, which is based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels. It is a sequel to Metro: Last Light and the book Metro 2035, and follows protagonist Artyom and his crew as they flee the Moscow Metro and set off with their allies on an intercontinental journey to the Far East on a locomotive called Aurora. The story takes place over a year, during which Artyom visits locations such as the Volga River and the Caspian Sea. The game improves on the gameplay mechanics of Last Light; it includes several miniature open world locations and has linear levels like earlier games in the series.
Chernobylite is a 2021 first-person shooter survival horror video game developed by Polish game developer The Farm 51 and published by All in! Games. The game is set in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, where the player's objective is to explore, as Ukrainian physicist Igor Khymynuk, and find his fiancée in the radioactive wasteland. It was released for Windows in July 2021, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in September 2021, and PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in April 2022. It received positive to mixed reviews from critics.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is an upcoming first-person shooter survival horror video game developed and published by Ukrainian game developer GSC Game World. It will be the fourth game released in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video game series, the first game in the series released on consoles, as well as the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game in 15 years since the release of Call of Pripyat in 2009.
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