Over the coming weeks IGN will be taking an in-depth look at different aspects of S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky, talking direct with developer GSC to find out exactly how the follow-up will move the series forward. For the first instalment PR director Oleg Yarvorsky focuses on how Clear Sky came about and the ideas that will make the prequel a worthy successor to the original game.

After the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, we still had a whole bunch of ideas that had not been implemented in the game due to either feature cuts or lack of time to polish them. For the sequel we wanted to develop some of these concepts and implement the ideas that couldn’t be implemented before, plus we also wanted to shed some new light onto the story elements untouched by the original game.

The story of Strelok, the protagonist of the original game, was not completely revealed in Shadow of Chernobyl. He mysteriously showed up in the death truck at the start of the game but his previous escapades to the Zone centre were pretty vague to the player. It was therefore logical in our minds to take a step back and give players a better idea of Strelok got up to in the Zone, which is how the idea of the prequel emerged. Additionally, we wanted to make Clear Skies a quicker-to-develop project compared to the original, which took six long years, and with this in mind want to start developing a new engine or a new game world and other features. Instead we intended to add the new developments to what was already in place, taking into account the feedback we received from the original and to overhaul the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. setting in general.

As before, the artists and art designers packed their bags to spend time in the Chernobyl exclusion zone to get a good idea of what it’s like. Not only did they bring back tons of photos from corners of the zone previously unexplored, they also returned with emotional feelings too – what it actually feels like to be there. We also undertook expeditions in to the marshland area, where some took examples of local flora that we then used to create the marsh level in the game. In the area surrounding Kiev we took loads of reference photos of old buildings that we constructed by German prisoners after WWII and these pictures helped us to create the city of Limansk.

While all of this was happening the programmers got started on the job of improving the graphics engine and thought the new story line and in-game features through. The direction of the game was led by Anton Bolshakov, project lead on Clear Sky, and with the team he decided the focus of the game should be on the war of the factions, which involves capturing resource points as well as the player’s interaction with the various clans. In addition we wanted to change the concept of searching for and collecting artifacts and include an extensive roster of weapons upgrades.

During development time we made sure that we always took players’ feedback into account. We were always keeping an eye on the official forum threads to get a better idea of how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was perceived by players and, more importantly, to find out what they would most like to see in the follow-up. We really considered every half-decent and interesting idea that cropped up too, plus we were also influenced by the activity of mod-makers too. Indeed, we analysed the top popular mods because we believed they were a testament to specific innovations that were accepted by players. We also invited certain mod teams to contribute to the game development, so much so the creators of the AMK mod have had some of the ideas and findings integrated into Clear Sky.

As project development nears its end we’re adamant Clear Sky will turn out to be a good demonstration of how the ideas that featured in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. have positively evolved, to make it closer to the original vision we had for S.T.A.L.K.E.R, which was to make the best game we could think of.

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