Because the real world is in such disarray, we decided to catch up with the narrative designers of post-apocalyptic games to interview them about what makes them tick. You know… just in case fiction spills into reality, and we need survival tips.
Firstly, we sought out Lukasz Slipko-Kepa, the narrative designer on the post-apocalyptic horror survival first-person shooter RPG Chernobylite.
How we got here
Q: Hi Lukasz! Tell us how you got into video game narrative design
A: I’ve always been a passionate gamer and an avid reader. I think it was after I finished playing Mass Effect 2 that I started to wonder if a narrative design writing career was something I could pursue. I wrote and published a book sometime before that.
I also did a lot of writing during my philosophy studies and even more when I worked as a copywriter. I knew I had the necessary tools to become a narrative designer.
I began educating myself on the subject of narrative design and pestered narrative designers on Linkedin with questions about what they do and how the work of a game writer looks.
Some of them were very helpful and inspired me to pursue my goals, for which I’m eternally grateful. As luck would have it, soon after that, I learned about an opening at Techland for the zombie survival horror co-op game Dying Light, and I took a chance to fulfil my dream of becoming a narrative designer.
Q: What games had you worked on before Chernobylite, and how did these experiences help you build the narrative for Chernobylite?
A: My first project was writing side-quests for Techland on Dying Light. It was brief but helped me to understand (and practice) the most important differences between the narrative in games and other media. I had to drop some of my personally cherished writing habits, like writing dialogues that would go on for pages.
My narrative design project on Dying Light also taught me the hard truth. Unless you’re creating a narrative-heavy experience like Disco Elysium, writing is never really the most crucial part of the game design.
More often than not, it serves to flesh out the world and gives voice to the characters, but at the same time, it has to fit in with existing mechanics that may frequently change.
Above all, the writer needs to be adaptable to changing circumstances because it’s cheaper to rewrite some lines than to redesign an entire level or location. Flexibility is a large part of the narrative designer role.
Researching real-life Chernobyl
Q: What research did you conduct into the real-life Chornobyl disaster, and how did this research inform the final script?
A: Like everyone else, I was influenced mostly by the Chornobyl disaster’s portrayal in pop culture. It was only after joining the Chernobylite project that I seriously dug into the subject.
I watched the HBO series Chernobyl and some available documentaries, but the serious work began when I digested many books on the subject. Initially, I was focused on more technical aspects like the timeline of the catastrophe and the science behind nuclear power.
But very quickly, I realized that the most interesting part is the human stories behind the Chornobyl disaster in the context of the socio-political landscape of the Soviet Union in the 80s.
The books from fantastic researchers and authors like the Belarusian investigative journalist Svetlana Alexievich, Chornobyl survivor research by Kate Brown, and Paweł Sekuła introduced me to the lives of ordinary people affected by the Chornobyl disaster in complex and challenging ways.
The more I read on the subject, the more I realized how the secrecy of a totalitarian regime combined with the nonchalant approach to nuclear technology and disregard for human life created this perfect storm of suffering and mystery.
I wanted to capture some of that collective experience and show the individual stories of people from different walks of life affected by the Chornobyl disaster. All in all, I believe my research made the world of Chernobylite and the whole main story more believable and grounded, and engaging.
Q: What were the most ‘out-there’ ideas that didn’t make the final cut?
A: We toyed with many different ideas throughout the whole creative process, but at the end of the day, we always asked ourselves whether this or that helped our vision of the world or undermines it.
Consistency was something that we took very seriously. The goal was to create a survival-horror game inspired by the so-called “Hard Science Fiction,” where all the weird stuff is backed by scientific theories and, therefore, more believable and better grounded in reality.
I felt that part of Chornobyl’s appeal in video games comes from exactly this feeling of being grounded in reality, no matter how unimaginable or threatening this reality could be.
That’s why I felt It was important not to get carried away with crazy ideas and always look for some scientific background to support the more fantastic elements of the narrative.
Q: As a Polish person, did you have any family affected by the Chornobyl disaster, and what did they remember? Did these accounts inform the narrative of the game?
A: I was seven when the Chornobyl disaster happened, so I don’t have many personal recollections. My parents mostly forbade me from playing outside for some time, never really explaining why.
When the Chornobyl disaster happened, Poland was inside the Iron Curtain, and it wasn’t really in our government’s habit to quickly inform the public about the facts. It was the opposite: not talking about the problem was a tried method of making it disappear.
However, it didn’t work, and the authorities had no choice but to take matters into their own hands, regardless of what Moscow was or wasn’t communicating about the Chornobyl disaster.
When I was older, I talked to some relatives and read old newspaper articles about the radioactive cloud over the northeastern part of our country and the prophylactic distribution of the so-called Lugol’s iodine to millions of Poles. Only then did I realize the true scale of what was happening.
Standing up to the genre’s biggest games
Q: How did it feel creating the narrative for a game alongside such popular titles as Fallout 4 and Stalker: Shadow Of Chernobyl?
A: I understood from the get-go that Chernobylite would always be compared with the Stalker franchise, even though it’s a very different game. Not only in terms of narrative but because of different mechanics, the First Person Shooter mode is only a part of Chernobylite.
As for Fallout, of which I’m a huge fan, I always thought that an essential part of this universe’s allure narrative-wise was the series’ dark humour that counterbalanced the bleak and tragic backdrop of a post-apocalyptic world.
I took a page from Fallout’s book. I tried to infuse the Chernobylite narrative with some lighter and humorous moments here and there to provide temporary relief for players throughout the otherwise sombre and emotionally heavy main story.
It wasn’t that hard since the reality of living in the Soviet Union or any of the countries from the so-called Eastern Bloc provided many anecdotes that, from today’s perspective, seem funny or absurd.
Q: How did you feel on the day of release for Chernobylite and the response the game received?
A: I remember waiting anxiously for the first reviews. I believed in my work, but I wasn’t sure if the critics and gamers would be equally enthusiastic. I think it was well received in terms of the narrative.
However, the reviews mainly focused on my colleagues’ fantastic job in faithfully recreating the Exclusion Zone using photogrammetry, which involves making 3D objects using many photographs from different angles.
Q: How do you feel about the game’s awards, being the person responsible for nearly all of the dialogue?
A: I was pleased about all the praise The Farm 51 received for Chernobylite. The narrative was only one part of all that made this game a commercial and artistic success, but it was life-changing for me as a narrative designer. I’m thrilled that my writing positively contributed to the overall experience for gamers.
Q: How long did it take to design the narrative for Chernobylite?
A: The Farm 51 initially invited me to support them with additional writing for various upcoming DLCs. This process took me about a month. After that, I worked on reshaping and reworking the entire narrative. It was quite a lengthy process that took about five months. It was a very intense time for me, but also very rewarding.
Where to next
Q: What does the future look like for Chernobylite?
A: Sadly, I have to answer “no comment” to this one. I’m sure you can understand.
Q: Do you have any advice for people wanting to start a career in narrative design?
A: Start small. Find a project on which you can collaborate with others after your day job hours to build up your experience and portfolio. Read a lot, hone your writing skills and play as many games as possible, if only for an hour or so (watch let’s Play on Youtube if you can’t play actual games).
Try to play games consciously and spot the little things that make a narrative work. The same goes for other media. If you enjoy a Netflix series, you should immediately ask yourself why and how the writer approached the subject matter.
Get your inspiration from anywhere you can, not just games and books. Visit museums, attend music festivals, watch fashion shows, and pick up weird hobbies. You will be surprised to see how enriching your soul impacts your writing.
Chernobylite is available now on Steam for PC, Xbox S/X, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch. Lukasz Slipko-Kepa currently works for The Farm 51 as a narrative designer and can be found on LinkedIn.
