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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl — Interview
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Anton Bolshakov
Birth date: 09.12.1978
Place of birth: Kiev, Ukraine
Education: Kiev Polytechnic Institute
Projects: Cossacs, Alexander, S.T.A.L.K.E.R
Favorite game(s): Silent Hill
Favorite book(s): Roger Zelazny, Robert Sheckley, Stanislav Lem, et al
Favorite movie: "Heat" starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino
Credo: Should life dictate, you have to write.
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Easily the most mythical and grandiose of all the post-soviet game projects, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl sure has a lot of skeletons in its closet. Heavily hyped and marketed, the project have been basking in popularity and attention from day one, and became a dream-game for many. However, that dream turned out to be a bit too broken for many gamers as the coveted release date kept changing for many years. This, along with clearly premature promotion campaign obviously made STALKER a rather infamous franchise, overgrown with all sorts of rumors and fables. Even now, when the coveted release is, as it seems, inexorably approaching, many questions are still left unanswered. Which is why we decided to turn to the developers themselves for clarification.
| CRPG.RU (Alexander Kulyaev): Hello Anton. Introduce yourself to our readers please. |
Anton Bolshakov: Anton Bolshakov, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. project lead.
| CRPG.RU: Usually, the release date questions are asked last in an interview, but here we are dealing with such a dilatory and controversial project that I couldn't help but request the final and incontrovertible clarification on the issue. Are the current release plans set in stone or still prone to change? |
Anton Bolshakov: The game will be released in March 2007. This is our final say on the issue.
| CRPG.RU: Anton, pardon me for such a question, but aren't you afraid of losing your car? (in october 2006 Anton promised the fans that he'll give away his expensive automobile if the release ends up postponed again) |
Anton Bolshakov: No, I love my car, so I'm doing all I can to keep it :) No worries at all.
| CRPG.RU: Seriously, though, we'd appreciate to hear the development story of the project, all the way since the distant 2003 and up to this day. What goals were set, how the game progressed, evolved; why the constant release date postponing and how did you get along with the publisher? |
Anton Bolshakov: The core concept of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - huge and dangerous Zone in which the player is but a little inhabitant striving to survive - this called for a brand new AI system. Conventional triggers and scripts just wouldn't do the trick. In order to immerse the player in the Zone, make him believe in it, we had to create a truly living and breathing gameworld. Kind of like MMORPG in singleplayer mode. Thus the concept of life simulation was born.
During the last years we focused on tuning and implementing this particular life simulation system. At that point, such a system was unprecedented, so basically we were pioneering this field, and that definately posed a huge challenge. In fact, there were times when we thought it was outright impossible. And yet, in the end we succeeded. Life simulation pulls strings of a huge number of characters - their movement, life cycles; stalkers go about their quests, factions skirmish each other. The simulation creates both the background events and a multitude of side quests.
It was even more complicated to combine the story with simulation. Player has to explore the static story events, while the simulation is a dynamic system that is always in action. We have found an elegant solution: story events are inherently part of the simulation, but until the player finishes such an event, the simulation will not be affecting it. Once the player goes through the story event, associated area gets gradually filled with simulation. So when you return to the level after completing it, there will be something new and unpredictable happening there, including new side-quests.
It may be surprising to you to know that we have developed a very fruitful and balanced collaboration with THQ. Release postponing was a joint decision, they didn't want us to put out an unpolished product. We are satisfied with our work.
| CRPG.RU: In retrospect, what errors can you spot? What would you change here and now should you be given such an opportunity? |
Anton Bolshakov: Some concepts that we were initially set out to implement have provent to be good only on paper, while failing to present any significant gameplay value in the actual game. Such were the concepts of fully-simulated game, in which a computer character can beat the game ahead of the player; concept of compulsory sleep or feeding; vehicle driving, and so forth. Problem is, you realize all this only after implementing, tuning and testing said ideas, at the grave cost of time.
| CRPG.RU: How hard it is to work with such a large publisher as THQ? Any notable nuances? |
Anton Bolshakov: We have developed a very close and fruitful relationship. They are approving of our creative initiative, and they are listening to what we have to say on the product advertisement and other issues. On the whole, working with such a big publisher is an invaluable experience. I, for one, have further improved my understanding of project management, team lead, planning -- THQ are very knowledgeable in these respects. Of course, it takes a lot of writing, mailing, documentation work, but in the end it benefits the project on so many levels. Our primary obstacle was the language barrier. During this joint effort, however, even such an imposing problem was eliminated; our English skills were improved significantly.
| CRPG.RU: Now that we have covered the prehistory, let us talk about the current state of the game. It is well-known that you had to abandon a certain number of game elements in order to decrese the development time and get rid of the less gameplay-viable aspects. What elements in particular were cut? |
Anton Bolshakov: The only major concept that was abandoned was the fully-simulated gameplay with no fixed-story events. With such concept implemented, any stalker NPC could beat the game. Through playtesting we have discovered that full simulation will not allow us to "guide" the player through the game, because often we encountered dead-end scenarios where you couln'd figure out what to do next. Besides, such a game would be near-impossible to balance and test.
Other aspects that we have given up on are minor features that I've already mentioned and that didn't affect the gameplay.
| CRPG.RU: A curious piece of information floated the internet recently, claiming that you also decided to simplify the life simulation system and, accordingly, the AI as well. Can you elaborate on that please? |
Anton Bolshakov: Life simulation system has been implemented to its full extent, as planned.
Current implementation of the system combines the story and simulation perfectly, thanks to the non-scripted AI and game scenes which interact with said system. Story events are pretty much wedged into the simulated world. An area is initially comprised of story events surrounded by the simulation. The simulation affects the story scenes only after the player interacted with them. Once the player finished with the story scene, it gets filled with stalkers and monsters under simulation system's control.
For instance, once you finish the Trader's quest - kill the factory-stationed bandits that raid the stalkers - upon your next return to the factory you'll see that it's now inhabited with simulation-controlled characters. It could be anything from a group of rookie stalkers or a crazed sniper to a monster pack. So when you finish the level the first time and later return to it, you'll find something new and always different. Simulation-controlled characters do quests, fight one another, rest, eat and sleep. You can talk and trade with neutral NPCs. The simulation is closely tied to the gameplay as the simulation events will provide side-quests for the player. For example, if a friendly stalker camp gets attacked by monsters, its inhabitans may ask you to help them retailiate. Traders will place money on renegate stalkers' heads; you could set out to find unique weapons which spawned in the Zone, or you could trace the location of a hidden stash by reading a dead stalker's note.
| CRPG.RU: How exaclty does this "life simulation system" work on the Zone scale? What is it exactly and how does it benefit the gameplay? Provide several examples please. |
Anton Bolshakov: Life simulation is the life habitat of game NPCs. It makes the characters aware of the Zone. Each character follows his own life cycle: stalkers roam the Zone, carry out certain tasks, rest, sleep and eat. Monsters hunt, eat, sleep, rest, migrate and fight for their lives. There are two levels of NPC activity detalization: first is when the characters live and operate within player's immediate surrounding -- that is, when he can actually see them; second level involves less detailed activity simulation -- those are less visually detailed actions but they are carried out on a regular basis. Life simulations also contains certain "character groups" that act as separate entities. This results in factions fighting over territory and monsters raiding stalker camps.
While your ordinary scripted game has that same-old character waiting for you by that same particular corner of the world, STALKER offers a radically different experience. All the characters (over 1000 in number) in the Zone live and act irrespectively of the player. They carry out tasks, fight, move about the zone - live their lives. What it means for the player is that you never know what to expect to see around the corner. Perhaps there's a friendly stalker camp out there, or a monster lair; crazed sniper or a bloodsucker; wounded stalker or stealthy assassin. Zone contains a multitude of simulated events that take place irregardless of player's actions. It's not only fun to take part in those events, but even watch them unfold, from safe distance.
Another purpose of the simulation is to prevent the gameworld emptiness. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gameworld is the vast reaches of the Zone, which are initially filled with story events. After the initial area completion, several scenes will lose their characters. This does not mean, however, that the areas become empty. The simulation will be gradually filling the vacant territories with new characters and events. Every replay of a particular area will be unique, you will never see the same events.
I emphasize - the simulation is constantly refilling and renewing the scenes freshly-completed by the player. Each revisiting will yield new events and quests.
| CRPG.RU: How smart and ingenius are the NPC stalkers? What aims do they purpose, what drives them? Are there clans, factions, groups and how does player interact with them? How does it work? |
Anton Bolshakov: In the beginning of the project we faced the need for a completely new concept of game AI. The point is that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. freeform world as we see it suggests a new vision of character's behavior and interaction. Stalkers roam the Zone, face the anomalies, seek out artifacts, get quests from other characters. From time to time they return to the traders to peddle off their loot, restock with food and equipment. If outnumbered, stalkers tend to avoid confrontation; they may flee during battle if their chances drop low; they can hide, make ambushes. To this effect we have employed several combat situation appraisal algorithms, combat and non-combat behavioral patterns, targeting system, reactions to mutants and anomalies. We believe that it was a success and STALKER AI is one of the things we can really take pride in.
| CRPG.RU: Please tell us about the factions. With examples, if you can. |
Anton Bolshakov: Each faction follows its own agenda which in turn defines its relationship to other factions. For instance, the "Duty" faction is comprised of ex-soldiers who came to the Zone willingly to battle the horrors within. They consider it their duty to protect the world from mutant uprising, making great effort to suppress all the abnormal manifestations of the Zone.
The "Freedom" faction is a militaristic group of anarchists who fight for the free access to all the information about the Zone. They openly oppose the government and the army, trying to prevent them from assuming complete control of the Zone. They believe that the Zone is actually a testing area for the Third World War weaponry. They try to inform the world about these dark secrets, for its own good.
Factions are based in tightly-protected installations which house the faction leader, a large contingent of security guards, as well as stashes of ammo and supplies. Almost all the factions fight each other and the player can join the fray.
Neutral factions provide the player with random quests, as well as their distinct equipment, ammo and weapons for trade. It's often wise to cooperate with the factions, as you'll gain access to unique weapons and equipment as well as substantial discounts when dealing with affiliated traders.
Not all stalkers join factions -- there is a number of lone stalkers who are completely indepedent.
Destroying a faction's headquarters will not eliminate the entire faction. Any surviving faction members will still fight for their cause in Simulation-controlled areas.
| CRPG.RU: Transport is nontheless a very pressing issue, so I must ask -- what exactly is decided on this account? In one of the recent interviews Oleg Yavrovsky mentioned that this issue is being discussed and is yet to be resolved. Now that the release is looming near, is there a definite answer? |
Anton Bolshakov: Unfortunately, transport system has been discarded, as it went poorly with the Zone that we created. Anomaly-ridden terrain is hardly suitable for motor vehicles.
| CRPG.RU: It's shame, though perhaps it's to the better. Which reminds me of the three-year old gameplay videos and raises a quetion: will players be able to attempt to prang that patrol helicopter? |
Anton Bolshakov: There are helicopters, indeed. Hitting them is extremely difficult so the best tactic is to avoid being spotted by them.
| CRPG.RU: How varied is the weapon arsenal? Can we expect futuristic guns or you've settled on the realistic or pseudo-realistic ("potential") models? |
Anton Bolshakov: Around 30 weapon types, that conform to the time-frame between the 70s of the 20th century to the early 21st century. Included are both the conventional guns like the AKs, and experimental weapon models that are yet to be approved for mass production, like, for instance, the FN 2000 assault rifle. The game will sport a rich variety of pistols, shotguns, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, grenades, grenade launchers, as well as several exotic weapons. All weapons are graphically implemented in accordance with the structure of the existing prototypes. Several interesting features include detailed physical model of the weapon which takes into consideration surface densities, shock waves, fragmentation blasts. With time weapons wear out which affects its accuracy and reliability. You can modify most of the weapons, add a silencer, underbarrel grenade launcher or a sniper scope.
| CRPG.RU: What are the special technical means that the player can use? Binoculars, for instance, or a night-vision kit. Anything else? How do such devices affect gameplay? |
Anton Bolshakov:
There's binoculars, anomaly detector and night-vision kit. These devices will be handy, but it's not something you can't do without either.
| CRPG.RU: Speaking of Stalker, one can't help mentioning anomalies. How many types of such emanations exist in the game and how varied are their effects on the player? Could you please describe some of the most notable ones?
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Anton Bolshakov: Around ten distinct anomaly types: gravity, electro-magnetic, acid and fire. There's an anomaly called "Inferno" that emits 5-meter pillars of flame that incinerate everything in their path. Or a "Shredder" - it shackles random human or animal victims, lifts them up in the air, and blows them to smithereens. A very gruesome anomaly.
| CRPG.RU: About two years ago, Andrey Prokhorov, project lead and lead artist, described the game's genre correlation the following way: 30% RPG, 70% Action. Has the ration changed since then? How profound is the roleplaying aspect and how is it represented exactly? Does our protagonist have any skills, perks, and the like?
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Anton Bolshakov: Regrettably, I cannot evaluate the current ratio. What I can say is that the action element still prevails over story and roleplaying ones. Protagonist has neither level progression nor skills or perks. It's a sort of statless roleplaying game. The player improves his own skill. Aside from that, it's pretty much your typical RPG, which, however, is more geared towards actual roleplaying than stat-pumping. You can play it in a multitude of ways and styles: you can slaughter everything in your way, or you can be a benevolent soul helping those in need. Stalkers travel everywhere, collect artifacts, weapons, discover anomaly zones, interact with each other. The player grows economically throughout the game. Just like in Elite, you earn money, purchase new equipment, weapons. In doing so you open up new areas of the Zone.
| CRPG.RU: Easy question now -- does the protagonist have a name? Everybody must have seen his face, but how to address our hero? |
Anton Bolshakov: The protagonist is called The Marked One. Why do people call him that I will not say, you'll have to play the game to find out.
| CRPG.RU: How large is the Zone? How thorough was your effort in creating a realistic visual representation of the Chernobyl atomic plant and the town of Pripyat? Can you tell us how many times have the GSC team been there? Can the player recognize some fragments of the real town, like the real streets, neighbourhoods? |
Anton Bolshakov: The Zone is basically a virtual reconstruction of Chernobyl and its outskirts, and that's almost 30 square kilometers. More than 60% of the virtual areas were based upon our own photos and video footage of the Chernobyl area. We maintained the architecture of most of the important buildings and installations - concrete tower of the power plant, deserted streets, dreary-looking Soviet appartment buildings, broken shop windows, rusty garages and telephone booths toppled over. All these details constitute the deep and unique atmosphere.
Three trips to Chernobyl yielded hours of video footage and thousands of photos, as well as invaluable personal experience. We tasted the ghost town atmosphere, the feeling of hidden dangers that permeated the whole area, and that we wanted to capture for our own virtual zone of shadows. The total number of our trips to Chernobyl has reached 7.
| CRPG.RU: Will the Zone be open for exploration from the very beginning? Obviously enough, we won't be able to run through all the areas right off the bat because it's a sure death, but still? |
Anton Bolshakov: Yes, about 90% of the Zone is open from the start; if the player can survive the dangers ahead, he can delve into almost every nick and cranny out there. At the same time, this won't disturb the story flow, and you can return to it at any moment. The remaining 10% are the sealed areas that require a certain key; it's mostly underground installations and the like.
| CRPG.RU: How does the trade system work? |
Anton Bolshakov: It's a very simple and effective system. It's as simple as selecting the things you want to trade and those you are trading for. If the items traded are not equal in worth, you can pay the rest in cash. You can trade with all the characters you can talk to. The prices are affected by the relationship between the player and the NPC -- the more he likes you the more discount you get.
| CRPG.RU: How does the story progression work, how do you get quests and how do you do them? |
Anton Bolshakov: Quests are given to you by the key characters which guide you through the story. A trader, or a bartender, and so forth. There are around five primary story characters, who are always in the thick of things and they will guide the player, help him with his mission.
| CRPG.RU: Can you disclose any story details? |
Anton Bolshakov: I'm afraid not. You'll have to wait till you play the game.
| CRPG.RU: What can you tell us about the multiplayer? What gameplay modes are there and how fun do you think it will be, as compared to other such games? Any plans to introduce STALKER to the progaming scene? |
Anton Bolshakov: There will be three modes - Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Artifact Hunt. The first two are self-explanatory, but the Artifact Hunt will be something new.
Despite the fact that the multiplayer rules are quite standart, STALKER's unique atmosphere will fully compensate that. Landscapes, anomalies, artifacts, stalkers -- all this constitutes the unique atmosphere of STALKER.
Other unique MP features are: dynamic night/day cycle, rating system, weapon upgrades and varying ammo types.
| CRPG.RU: Let's get down to earth from the gameplay questions to the more practical ones. Do you fear that the game has become a bit dated technologically? Times change, after all, and the screenshots are not as impressive now as they used to be three-four years ago. |
Anton Bolshakov: We are confident in STALKER's technological splendour. It remains one of the most high-tech projects of Q1 2007. Many features of our X-Ray engine have are unprecedented so far. X-Ray Engine enables us to render huge highly detailed areas with up to 1 million polygons at a given frame, sporting full dynamic lighning, soft shadows, destructible light sources, full day/night cycle, weather effects, as well as Parallax Normal Mapping, HDR-lighting, thorough pixel-accurate lightning, various after-effects, 5.1 surround sound and so forth.
| CRPG.RU: How do the DirectX 9.0 and DirectX 8.0 engine modes coexist? Will the game adapt to the particular hardware configurations? |
Anton Bolshakov: At the beginning of the development the best graphics were achieved with DirectX 8 (GeForce 4 or higher), yet in order to be up to date we created a brand-new modern graphic renderer that is geared towards DirectX 9 and the latest generation of video cards. The game will know which renderer to use depending on your system, and using the powerful configuration menu you'll be able to further improve your performance and image quality.
| CRPG.RU: what are the system requirements for both modes? |
Anton Bolshakov:
For DX8:
Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz or AMD Athlon XP 2500+, GeForce FX5900 or ATI Radeon 9800 1Gb RAM
For DX9:
AMD Athlon 64x2 4800+ or Intel Core 2 Duo 1,5 Gb RAM, 100% DirectXR 9.0c-compatible videocard with 256MB of vRAM (GeForce 7800, for instance)
| CRPG.RU: Do you plan to upgrade X-Ray Engine with DX10 compatibility later on? |
Anton Bolshakov: Of course we will make our future projects fully compatible with DX10 features. Can't yet say if there's going to be a DX10 patch for STALKER, though. We haven't decided on this yet. Even if it's a direct porting of STALKER's code, with no new feature support it's still a 10% improvement. It's a pressing issue for all the projects that get released in Q1-2 2007, how big will the install base be and how fast it's going to grow. It all depends on the price policy of the major hardware manufacturers.
| CRPG.RU: How much is left of the "Roadside Picnic"? Did STALKER diverge completely from its precursor, or does the latter still have some influence on the atmosphere of the game? |
Anton Bolshakov: STALKER was never influenced by Roadside Picnic, we have our own story, setting and heroes; and there's certainly no alien intervention involved, or whatnot. The story's based on the factual and semi-factual recounts of what actually caused the Chernobyl tragedy. In portraying the alternative Chernobyl history we turn this game into a warning of what a simple human mistake can lead to.
| CRPG.RU: Who is going to publish the game in Russia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)? Is the project planned to be released in both English and Russian simultaneously? |
Anton Bolshakov: Our own publishing division GSC World Publishing is in charge of releasing the game in the post-soviet bloc. And yes, English and Russian versions will be released at the same time.
| CRPG.RU: What sales numbers are you aiming at? In your opinion, can the PC-market in its current state allow for high sales? Are you pondering on the possibility of porting the game to the next-gen consoles? |
Anton Bolshakov: PC gamer base is still quite extensive, especially in Russia, Germany and USA, so we are hoping for the best. Regarding console ports I can say that we are indeed thinking about it, but only for the next projects; for now, we are focused on releasing the original game.
| CRPG.RU: What aspects of the game you are fond of the most? Is there a feeling of being a part of a truly magnificent and epochal project? |
Anton Bolshakov: What dazzles me the most is the fact that all the key initial concepts of STALKER have actually been implemented -- huge and living gamworld, life simulation, free adventures, large variety of quests, multiple endings -- all this was fully implemented. Of course this came at a great cost of time and effort, and yet we succeeded and now we won't feel guilty about not implementing something we promised we would. We are proud of our effort and I think players will be happy about it as well.
| CRPG.RU: Well that's pretty much it. We thank you for the elaborate and interesting answers - we hope that this interview will decrease the unneeded speculation and rumors. Got anything else to say to our readers? |
Anton Bolshakov: Thanks for the interesting questions, I enjoyed talking to you! On behalf of our team I would like to wish you luck, health and just a little bit of patience - STALKER is out very soon now.
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