A behind the scenes look at the work that's went into recreating the site and capturing the stories behind the event

Today we are announcing our PS VR title, Chernobyl VR Project, an interactive journey to the abandoned city of Pripyat and its nearby nuclear power plant.

The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on 26th April, 1986 is one of the greatest tragedies of our time. Our title merges the interactive experiences only available through the gaming medium with educational elements to create this unique experience, one that allows you to understand the tragedy through the stories of the people who lived there before and after the tragedy.

The Chernobyl VR project was created through the combination of multiple 360 movies, panoramas, 3D scanning of locations and buildings, 360 photography, stereoscopic videos and much more. The result is a visual tour around the Chernobyl and Pripyat area.

Our development focused on conveying what it was like to actually be there. As a result, you’ll be transported back to 26th April 1986 to witness stories of the citizens and workers of Chernobyl.

We scanned and filmed a large number of areas in Chernobyl, covering the most well known locales such as the plant itself, the Duga Radar, the amusement park, the Azure swimming pool. But we also made sure to document the lesser known places – Primary School No.3, the hospital, apartments and the scrap yard, in which hundreds of vehicles, used in rescue missions, now rest.

The Chernobyl exclusion zone, filled with a vast number of abandoned buildings, offers stories at every turn. You can spot everyday objects left behind by the populace during the evacuation, as they were told they’d return in a few days. 30 years later we came across rooms that seemed frozen in time, untouched since they were originally vacated.

Documenting the locale so thoroughly brought with its own risks: debris would fall during a strong wind. One of our cameramen fell into a hole two meters deep. A Geiger counter was a constant companion to make sure we avoided the most radiated areas.

But we were resolute in capturing everything we could. The location continues to fall into ruin, so at some point in the future it’ll cease to exist. This VR experience will serve as a document to the place, the stories behind it and the people who lived there. It’ll be available on PS VR in the near future.