Ukrainian Game Developers Persevere

ign.com:

Around four in the morning on February 24, 2022, Alex Molodkin was hard at work in his Kyiv apartment. The Steam Next Festival was in full swing, and Molodkin was participating with a free demo of the cozy puzzle adventure he was developing with his partner, Puzzles for Clef. His family was asleep. It was a normal night for Molodkin, until the war began.

“I was just working on our game because I often work late into the night,” Molodkin says. “Everyone else was sleeping and I hear some distant explosions. Didn't need much time to realize what's happening. So I just had to wake everyone up and deliver the awesome news.”

Molodkin woke his family and the group moved into the hallway of the apartment, bringing necessary belongings. And that’s where Molodkin has been, for the most part, since February – sleeping in shifts with his partner to keep an eye on the news or any threats that might require them to react. He considered evacuating with his family, but with a family of four and no car, it’s a logistical nightmare. Plus, as Molodkin puts it, it’s a matter of principle. “When some bad guys show up in your country, you don't want to run the moment they show up. You want to stay put for as long as possible.”

Molodkin’s story is a familiar reality for a number of game developers from all across Ukraine, who found their lives upended unexpectedly when Russia attacked their country in late February. The invasion is still ongoing over two months later, and has resulted in (at time of writing) the deaths of over 3,000 Ukrainian civilians and the displacement of over 5.5 million.

IGN spoke to five developers and two gaming event organizers from the country about their experiences over the last several months. All of them told us that