Ukraine game developers say they’re staying put, with hopes to rebuild

polygon.com:

It’s been more than 50 days since Russia launched its illegal invasion of Ukraine. In just the past few weeks, the battlefield situation has changed dramatically. An armored assault on the capital, Kyiv, has been blunted by dug-in Ukrainian forces. Russian troops have pulled back, redeploying for what experts believe will be a renewed offensive in the Donbas region to the east. The lull in the fighting has allowed some game developers to return to work, something many tell Polygon they now see as their patriotic duty.

“Kyiv is much more alive now,” said Red Beat’s lead game designer Yaroslav Singaevskiy in an email to Polygon last week. “More shops, markets, and coffee [houses] are open for business. Traffic is increasing. It’s even possible to rent a bike or electric scooter again! It is worth mentioning that revitalizing [our] capital is crucial for the economy because Kyiv produces about 20% of Ukraine’s GDP.”

While it relieved some pressure on citizens trapped in the city, the retreat of Russian forces from around Kyiv has also revealed evidence of potential war crimes. In the city of Bucha, for instance, investigators have found evidence of mass killings of Ukrainian civilians. Those atrocities and more prompted United States president Joseph Biden to call Russian president Vladimir Putin “a dictator [who] commits genocide.”

“It was a shock for all of us when the first reports from Bucha arrived,” Singaevskiy said. “It’s unbelievable to see such barbaric acts in the modern world. Words simply cannot describe the emotional toll. In addition to that, we expect much worse news from besieged Mariupol, while Russian artillery and air force slowly grind it to the ground. Estimates of civilian casualties [here] are already