What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access? “Chernobylite is an Early Access game with a lot of content created already, but it's still missing some of the elements and it's not localized for all target languages. It’s playable in the current state, but we need the feedback from our players to let us shape the final vision and scope of the project. To mix the survival, horror, storytelling and strategical elements within one title, our gameplay and narrative mechanics are quite unique. We want to make sure they’re blending well and you’re truly feeling like you were exploring the nightmare version of the real post-apocalyptic scenery.



We work on the game by traveling to Ukraine and 3D-scanning the real Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, which is a huge area, full of ruins and contaminated places. It’s physically not possible to enter every room in every building and scan every inch of the 1000 square miles landscape. Therefore we’d like to collect as many scans as possible, but keep following the players' opinions and shaping the final design of the locations together with our community.



Our goal is to keep expanding, updating and polishing the title toward the final release, by posting the regular patches, language localizations, new content packs, optimizations and bugfixes.” Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? “We don't have a definite timeframe yet but we're estimating it'll be something between 10 and 14 months.” How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? “The full version of Chernobylite will have implemented much more playable areas of Chernobyl Exclusion Zone for your free exploration, as well as more story events, characters, weapons and gameplay mechanics, as well as will be localized into many languages (full English, Russian and Ukrainian voiceovers wit text localization for French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish and more).



The story of the game will contain very branched paths with alternate endings, so even if you play on one or more of the storylines available in the Early Access version, in the finished game you’ll still have new flows of the story to discover and new ways of shaping your destiny.



At the end of the Early Access stage, we plan to deliver the game which is much bigger than Early Access version, with the story localized in many languages, optimized, bugfixed and ready for the flawless play.” What is the current state of the Early Access version? “We’ve already created several locations of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, filled with the real scans of the Zone’s objects, gameplay events and mechanics, story characters and quests for the player.



The part of the story corresponding to the actual scope of the game is already written and implemented, but we’re still working on the final script, animations and voices of characters. You can play the game and have a quality experience, but considering the Early Access nature of the project, you may also expect the bugs, glitches and performance issues, that we’d like to get reported and eliminated with your help.” Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access? “Yes. Chernobylite will be available for a cheaper price during Early Access with the intent to raise the price at full release. This is to reward and encourage those who invest in our game for the long term during Early Access. All future content elements will be available for free to everyone who paid for the game.” How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “The main idea behind entering Early Access was to develop and expand the game basing on community feedback. We aim to be accessible so we encourage people to talk to us directly on our official forums and social media channels. Even if we aren't always responding, we’re reading everything.



Soon after releasing Early Access version we’ll start sharing regular updates of our plans affected by the players’ opinions, reports and general feedback from our community.”