S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: - Interview

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A S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 interview on BBC:

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Stalker 2: 'We want to show Ukraine can make great games'

"I would say that maybe half of our studio is currently working under the constant threat of being killed," says Evgeniy Kulik.

Evgeniy is a technical producer on Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, an upcoming video game developed by Kyiv-based developer GSC Game World.

It's a title fans of the original, released in 2007, have been awaiting for some time.

But it might not have happened at all, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

BBC Newsbeat spoke to Evgeniy about how Stalker 2's developers kept going, losing colleagues to war, and why the studio feels it's so important for them to complete the game.

The Chernobyl power plant was the site of the world's worst-ever nuclear accident.

In 1986, when the country was under the control of the Soviet Union, there was an explosion at the nuclear power plant 90 miles from Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

At least 31 people were killed in the immediate aftermath and the blast created a fire that burned for 10 days, sending a plume of radioactive smoke across Europe.

A 30-mile exclusion zone was set up around the nuclear reactor to keep people out, although the Ukrainian government had begun to admit tourists into the area before Russia's invasion.

The original Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, was set on an alternative timeline where a second nuclear disaster had struck, creating an array of mutant creatures and other unnatural phenomena.

Players took the role of a character tasked with exploring the post-apocalyptic setting and navigating the various factions fighting for control of the wasteland.

The decision to set the game at the site was controversial - one developer has said "the blood was still warm and it flowed in our veins" - even 30 years later.

But the game was a big hit, and Stalker 2 was first announced in 2010 - with the intention to build on the original's survival gameplay style.

In 2018, GSC Game World announced that it was working towards an April 2022 release date.

But just two months before that arrived, Russian troops and planes began to cross the border with Ukraine.

War had begun.

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