Intro

In a world where hundreds of employees are routinely laid off so the executives can pad the stats on a chart that will be shown to investors, GSC did the exact opposite for the benefit of its staff. This company willingly underwent financial stress to ensure the safety of its employees.

War Game: The Making of Stalker 2 aired recently with almost 90 minutes of material documenting the studio’s troubles leading up to the development of the long-awaited game. From financial troubles, over a worldwide pandemic to a full scale invasion, GSC never gave up on the sequel and one key person stood out as she ensured rockets and ballistic missiles would not spell the end of the next foray into the Zone.

Key points leading to Stalker 2 development

GSC Game World was started in 1995 by Grygorovych Sergiy Constantinovich, whose initials the studio carries to this day.

In 2011, GSC closed its doors after what seemed like financial issues. During these 16 years, the studio created legendary franchises with Cossacks in RTS genre and Stalker, the atmospheric shooter with survival elements.

In December 2014, the studio came back under the leadership of Sergiy’s brother, Ievgen, to work on Cossacks 3.

Ievgen asked his wife, Mariia, to be his producer and crisis manager for a couple of days back in 2016. Today, she is the creative director of GSC Game World but her crown achievement will likely remain the fact she handled the biggest crisis imaginable before it even started.

First major hiccup was the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in delays but in hindsight, it wasn’t the biggest hardship GSC endured.

Late 2021 from Mariia’s perspective

During autumn and winter of 2021, Russia ramped up its threats of violence against Ukraine, as if the woes stretching from 2014 were not enough. Additionally, Russian troops were spotted amassing weapons of war close to the border.

While most Ukrainians were already used to these threats by now and didn’t think much of them, nor their “military exercises”, some were feeling uneasy with these developments, including Mariia.

It was when Russia declared that nothing would happen that froze the blood in Mariia’s veins. Historically, whenever the Russians said nothing would happen was when people should be worried the most.

Planning ahead

GSC’s creative director wasted no time as she made arrangements for the entire studio and their loved ones.

In January 2022, Mariia booked buses to be on standby 24/7 along with drivers who could transport them at a moment’s notice. Had she waited for the invasion to happen, drivers’ arrival would be delayed, perhaps indefinitely. Thinking ahead, however, they would be there as soon as they were needed. The buses would be kept a secret from the employees to avoid causing panic.

In order for the GSC employees to be in a safe area, they would either need to be outside Russia’s range or within 50 kilometers of the border with NATO. Mariia wagered that should Russia invade, it wouldn’t dare provoke NATO as well.

As such, Uzhorod was chosen as the team’s destination since it is close to borders with Slovakia and Hungary.

With all this planning in place, people thought Mariia and Ievgen were paranoid, which is a sentiment she shared at times, asking herself whether all this is really necessary.

Uzhorod

GSC staff are woken in the early morning hours of February 20, 2022, by their phones. They are asked to come in by 7:00 AM, on a Sunday.

From that perspective, it sounds terrible that bosses would ask employees such a thing but soon they woke up to an even worse reality. They were also asked to bring their loved ones as well as pack bags for a prolonged stay.

By this point, the staff realized what is going on and that the planned company “retreat” would be more than a stay in the mountains, sipping hot chocolate.

Having calculated the possible traffic jams ahead of time, Mariia figured now would be best to get a move on.

GSC employees were elated that the company would think ahead like this and even more that it would go to such lengths and financial hardship in order to protect them. While thankful, 139 of them declined the offer and would stay in Kyiv.

Meanwhile, GSC took care of 183 employees, their families and former staff who would go on with the plan, securing travel and lodging for all of them.

They arrived in Uzhorod during the night and most wanted to return some semblance of normalcy, be it by eating local cuisine, having a rest or hanging out. Mariia was already planning the next steps.

The border

On February 24, 2022, Putin’s speech aired and missiles came flying immediately after. Hostomel Airport is under heavy attack, right on Kyiv’s doorstep. Those who didn’t leave before and attempted to do so on 24th were met with massive traffic jams, moving roughly one car length per hour.

In Uzhorod, GSC team decided the safest place for them is outside the country. Some team members turned back to defend the homeland, others proceeded to the border with Hungary.

Of the two buses, the first one was the last vehicle that went through the border before it closed. Stranded on the Ukraine side, the bus with Mariia and the rest of the people would never cross the border. They didn’t give up, however, finding a foot path leading across the border where they were stopped by the guards.

In the freezing weather with no shelter from the piercing winds, Mariia kept trying to get everyone across. Her persuasion attempts succeeded after 12 hours, with the group finally able to join the rest.

Aftermath

After crossing the border, remnants of GSC made their way to Czech Republic where parents of one of the employees knew some people who managed office space. This is where they would start almost from scratch.

While the data was preserved and they didn’t have to begin anew entirely, the team had to renovate the office, set everything up and create studios for motion capture as well as audio recording. Additionally, they had to recast the actors which set the progress back quite a bit.

Employees who went to defend Ukraine instead of going across the border were kept on GSC’s payroll for as long as it was necessary to ensure the country’s continued existence.

GSC’s struggles would continue as they cut ties with Russia by ceasing sales there and removing the planned localization. These actions shattered numerous fragile egos. As a result, there still isn’t a day where Russians don’t attempt to hack the company.

Mariia was doxxed, with vile minds calling for missile strikes on her house.

Following all the setbacks, the team feared the hype for Stalker 2 might fizzle out. They were afraid it could all be for nothing. At Gamescom 2023, the team would find out whether their efforts were worth it.

Gamescom 2024 also had a playable demo and the hype still holds. Stalker 2 is scheduled to release on November 20, 2024.

If not for Mariia’s foresight and planning ahead of the invasion, as well as subsequent GSC efforts, Stalker 2 would still have no release date.