We’re halfway in our campaign, already reaching 160% of the target funding amount – what an achievement, big thanks, everyone!
Once again, we can’t even say how grateful we are for all your support: we already see, hear, and read that many of you are involved in discussions about the game here in comments, on Discord, Steam, and our other social media. We're gathering feedback, responding and reacting to your questions and suggestions because we believe this is the right way of making the game like Chernobylite 2. Knowing that our campaign is fully funded and additionally backed up for more than half of its initial target, we can finally share with you the full list of stretch goals we can achieve if more players worldwide believe in what we’re doing. We'll elaborate more on the following goals in our future updates, but see and think if they're inspiring to you to spread the word about our campaign and let us create even more cool stuff to Chernobylite 2.
Some of you asked about our current stretch goal, which was extra locations for cooperation mode - are they playable in solo/single-player campaign? Yes, they are, you can fully experience them on your own without need to invite your friends (even if we believe it's cooler then). All parts of Chernobylite 2 can be played in a single-player campaign, and cooperative mode is a cherry on the cake to let you enjoy some of the missions with your friends if this is the way you like to visit the Zone.
But just to remind you what our initial inspiration and dream was, before we planned and launched the Kickstarter campaign, there was already a long road with the Chernobylite 2 concept phase and development.
Right after the final release of the first Chernobylite in 2021, we started to think about what would be the next big step for making our game world even better (besides making it bigger). Yes, we always consider our work as an opportunity for others to visit a place that is not quickly or safely available for everyone. The key hero in our stories was always the Zone itself, the place that is both tempting and scary, beautiful and full of sadness, interesting and terrifying. The place where anything and everything can happen, the region which you can become addicted to, but also can harm you a lot or even kill you when you’re not aware of the threats.
Chornobyl Exclusion Zone is a very special area, hundreds of square kilometers protected by fences, militia, special forces, and military personnel to prevent any uninvited visitors from wandering around. Although for several years tourist trips were being organized for people wanting to take a look at the Zone, today, mostly because of the war in Ukraine, it’s totally forbidden to explore the area unless you’re a scientist, military, or you got a permission to work on some specific project.
Then, after delivering Chernobyl VR Project in 2016 and Chernobylite in 2021, our next goal was to create something bigger and let you see more and more of the Zone.
Just to provide some picture: in the Chernobyl VR Project, it was necessary to spend about 1 hour to see all the tiny pieces of the Chornobyl Zone we could 3D-scan and provide within the interactive world. In the first Chernobylite, you had to spend 12-15 hours to see all the areas and get through all the missions. In Chernobylite 2 you will spend at least 25-30 hours to get through the main campaign, and there will be many more places and missions to let you experience the Zone for another few dozens of hours. We created a world about 20 times bigger than the playable area of all missions from Chernobylite 1 combined. Our biggest dream was to provide it with the open-world form, with the possibility to travel across the Zone without needing to return to the mission hub each time. It took us almost 3 years to build this world, and we can’t wait to show it to you in its entirety.
This trip is getting close to its finish line – soon, we’ll provide you with the demo version of Chernobylite 2, where you can see and try how this new adventure is shaping up. Then, we’ll give you access to the Beta version of the full game, letting you explore almost all the areas we’ve recreated digitally and where we added a lot of surprising and crazy events to make your trip exciting and challenging. And, when the game is finally finetuned, expanded, and polished with your support, we’ll deliver a full version of Chernobylite 2: Exclusion Zone, which fulfills our desire to create an ultimate Chornobyl adventure.
Stay with us; we have plenty of new and interesting things to showcase to you in the following days.
That's all! See you soon!
