S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Designer Diary #8
Lead designer Andrew Prokhorov describes the setting of this ambitious survival action game and tells a funny tale about testing the game.
Though it looks like a first-person shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl promises to be far more than that. This ambitious game from Ukrainian developer GSC Game World will pack some of the latest next-generation graphics in an attempt to bring the countryside surrounding the infamous nuclear power plant at Chernobyl to life. In this survival action game, you'll play as a "stalker," an armed scavenger looking to recover valuable items from the exclusion zone that surrounds the plant. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is set after a second, fictitious explosion at the power plant that has drastically affected the surrounding area.
During the course of your adventures, you'll encounter mutants, strange new animals, and other phenomenons. You'll also encounter rival stalkers who may or may not take a liking to your presence. And on top of everything else, the Ukrainian military patrols "the Zone," as it is commonly referred to, and its forces will come after you if they detect you. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is scheduled to ship next year. In this edition of our designer diaries, lead designer Andrew Prokhorov discusses a funny situation that GSC uncovered during testing and sets the stage for the game's single-player campaign.
Shot in the Foot
By Andrew ProkhorovLead Designer, GSC Game World
Just recently we announced that the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is scheduled for May 2005. We are very confident that this extra time will help the team achieve the objectives it outlined for the game.
For a long time we've talked about the unscripted nature of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Our aim is to have a game that constantly surprises the player by moving away from the spectacular yet predictable scripted events of other games and into a different realm where the unpredictability of the game provides each player with a highly personal thrill.
Therefore, you can think of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as a kind of highly sophisticated windup toy--when testing, we literally wind the game up and watch it go. As each entity has its own "mind," you see creatures "living" within the gameworld, and they move around, feed, interact, and fight with each other in completely unscripted ways. Of course, this is not random. There is a "food chain" in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and creatures "know" what is and is not dangerous. Therefore, while we can understand creature behavior, we never script it.
Of course, given the complexity of such artificial intelligence, we have had our share of challenges and general weirdness. During early development and testing of the combat AI, one stalker went mad and began to consider himself an enemy, and promptly set about trying to dispose of this "enemy" as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, our animators did not foresee the need to create an animation where a stalker puts a gun to his own head, so the poor guy shot the only part of the "enemy" he could--his own feet.
For a good 10 minutes, the entire design team was rolling around on the floor in laughter while the stalker desperately battled with his own limbs. In the end, having used up two full magazines, the NPC died, submitting the "enemy successfully terminated" diagnostic before terminating.
Ironing out these bugs and balancing the game so that it is a fun experience has been our aim for a long time now, and this is why we are happy to have the additional time. We will use the time to ensure that S.T.A.L.KE.R. meets, if not exceeds, expectations.
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- THQ
- GSC Game World
- Sci-Fi First-Person...
- Release: Mar 20, 2007 »
- ESRB: Mature
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