SlavaR: This report was intended to have a second part, which never appeared on the GSC-Fan site. When restoring the article, I decided to include material that was left out and invited the author, Andriyash Kozlovsky, to provide his comments. But he went further and commented on all his text which was written in 2010. And here is the final result. In my opinion, it turned out interesting and unique. Enjoy the reading!

Nothing foretold such a march of events. About one and a half or two years ago I and my friend Ilya Kozyr came across GSC Game World PR director Oleg Yavorsky quite by accident.

Andriyash’s comment: It wasn’t an accident. Ilya was the first to get Oleg’s phone number through Max, chief administrator of Stalker-Zone Info[stalker-zone.info] site (he knew Oleg for some time). I was led to Oleg through the FireLake official site. There was an opportunity to ask questions to the band in writing there. That’s how I came into contact with Yava. I asked questions and after a while, Oleg as the band’s founder answered them. So when I asked for Yava’s phone through Ilya, he already knew who I was, and allowed me to share the phone number.

To our surprise, Oleg was chatty enough with little-known fans from VK social network. It still remains a mystery to me as to why. Perhaps he thought that it would be helpful for the GSC PR department to keep in touch with VK Stalker communities. After all, some of them are very numerous.

Andriyash’s comment: I have to pay tribute to Yava. He really actively spent his time on us. About once a month we talked on the phone with Oleg like clockwork. He had limitless international cell phone service for work (mobile Internet was not so developed back then). At first he called Ilya (or me) and was on the phone with him for 15-20 minutes. And then he called me (or Ilya) and we were on the phone too for about 20 minutes. Can you imagine today a PR director of any game development studio so actively chatting with a small group of game fans? I’m not.

One way or another, from that moment, we began collaborating with Oleg. After Yavorsky’s arrival in Saint Petersburg in January 2010 and the launch of the company’s first fan-site GSC-Fan, our cooperation with GSC Game World had reached a new level and became closer.



Andriyash Kozlovsky, Oleg Yavorsky and Ilya Kozyr in Saint Petersburg. January 9, 2010

Even during our Petersburg meeting we agreed with Oleg that we’ll swing by the GSC office for a visit in early autumn. In the end we were not only visiting but also working a bit.

Andriyash’s comment: We agreed even earlier, and not with Oleg, but with the senior Grygorovych. Sergiy was in my friend list on OK social network. I asked him how real it is to get an internship in GSC? He answered that it’s quite real, and I need to talk about this with Yavorsky in that case. Which I did.

PR skills definitely will not be superfluous for the site administrator. :) Especially when such gurus of the “PR guild” like Oleg Yavorsky and Valentine Yeltyshev shared them with us. The trip was preparing seriously. We wanted to show ourselves and please the fans. We collected the questions for Sergiy Grygorovych, chose the interesting in our opinion fans’ ideas for the next S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, bought some presents for our Kyivan friends (we gave them T-shirts with GSC-Fan print :) — Andriyash’s note) and rushed to Kyiv, to visit GSC Game World.

The GSC office entrance is somewhere here.

Kyiv met us with warmth and sunshine. It’s a little unusual for residents of the Northern capital, who are used to the wet and rainy weather. Coming into the apartment we dropped our things and rushed to GSC (By the way, GSC rented the apartment for us. It was clear that they appreciate us — Andriyash’s note). We had only half an hour until the end of the workday, but we couldn’t wait to see the office.

The GSC Game World office is located on the fourth floor of a former defense factory, now an instrument-making plant, called Rostok. Passing along Lepse Boulevard (now Václav Havel Boulevard — SlavaR’s note) past the factory building, you’ll never find the office entrance. :) You know, there is no sign there indicating that it’s the office of the largest video game development company in Eastern Europe.

Soon we’ll be in the office.

Andriyash’s comment: Our trip was in September 2010. Then I could not imagine that two years later I’ll go past this building every weekday for six years rushing to work in the Vostok Games office (now VG Entertainment — SlavaR’s note). :)

Once at the security post we expected to see Lebedev’s prototype from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. If you don’t know, Lebedev visually was based on a security guard at the GSC Game World and according to GSC employees he was the toughest security guard of all those that ever held the job. :) Unfortunately, we didn’t find “Lebedev”. He no longer worked there during our visit.

The well-known sign.

Waiting for Valentine Yeltyshev, GSC Game World PR manager, we entered the office. The company’s space had a long hallway. Posters of Cossacks, Codename Outbreak and other GSC games hung on the walls. It was striking that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is not among them. “Something wrong”, we thought. :) But Valentine dispelled our doubts. “It will be soon”, he said.

We’re moving on. The presentation room is on our left. We go inside. In the center of the room is a round table. The developers have been meeting there once again trying to put together the puzzle: how to satisfy fans, implement our ideas and stay within technical limits. The task is not easy… The stand is to the left of the table. There are a lot of awards and other interesting things on this stand. We notice S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Prypiat collector’s edition, it seems German. Unfortunately, we have no such rarity. But chin up, fan! Because the devs promise S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Gold Edition. :)

We notice the boxes with the inscription “Cossacks”. Actually, we couldn’t read this, but guessed by the box arts. The fact is that these are Japanese and Chinese editions of Cossacks. Therefore, all the inscriptions are written in Japanese and Chinese characters. According to Valentine, maybe these are the only copies in the whole Ukraine. This commanded respect. Not every game would be in demand in the Far-East.

Gaze falls on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. books by German writers Bernd Frenz and Claudia Kern. We recall that some of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. novels from Russian authors were translated into German. Books from German authors remain untranslated. We can only regret it and hope that someday we can read S.T.A.L.K.E.R. books from German novelists.

We leave the presentation room and go into the opposite room. This is the room of Sergiy Grygorovych, CEO and founder of GSC Game World. There are papers on the table, and there is no computer here. It surprised us. But probably he’s more comfortable with it. :) The great sword hung on the wall. We assumed that this is the Frostmourne from Warcraft III that Grygorovych talked about in his interviews.



We went down the hallway. There were departments on the left and right employing guys who make S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. There are five departments in GSC Game World: art, game design, programming, QA and PR department. According to Sergiy Grygorovych, at the end of Call of Prypiat development they employed only 25 people. Now it seems a little less. But it’s understandable, currently the team is working on a new engine and a large number of people is simply not needed.



Funny guys work in the GSC. :) The inscriptions: “Keep quiet! Play in progress”, “No benefits”, “Don’t be ridiculous”

We arrived at the PR department and were invited to come in. Three people worked there: Valentine himself, department director Oleg Yavorsky and web developer Sergiy Terlyuk. As they say, the more, the merrier. :)

Andriyash’s comment: Also the graphic designer Kostiantyn Stupivtsev aka Cardan worked part-time there. It always amazed me how he can work with images and watch The Simpsons on the second monitor at the same time. :) We didn't talk back then, but later we worked together in Vostok Games and we became good pals.



Valentine Yeltyshev aka Atem, PR manager at GSC Game World

The department’s room was literally stuffed with different interesting things. There was a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. tinned meat can on the table. The label said “Made in Chornobyl”. And a gas mask laid nearby. Probably this tinned meat had expired. :) DOOM and StarCraft board games were on the right side. We were lost wondering, was it possible that GSC wanted to start production of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. board game? But those were only our personal speculations. There were many video game magazines there. Obviously, in all those magazines there was at least one article dedicated to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Igromania magazines were dominant there. GSC is a firm friend with the editors of this magazine. We made sure of it personally. During our time in the office, three or four, we saw Anton Logvinov, Igromania’s video department producer.



We came up to a window. Yavorsky and Yeltyshev had a whole military arsenal there. A handgun and an assault rifle were present. They had everything needed to fend off annoying fans. :) On a serious note, Valentine enjoys airsoft roleplay games, so all of those items belonged to him. By the way, this is not the only hobby of their PR manager.

Are all of your S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games license?

Andriyash’s comment: Later, when I worked in VG, I met Valik at one such airsoft roleplay event based on World War II. It was fun to see him in the military raincoat and with a rifle at the ready. :)

Work begins at the company at 10 AM. Lunch break from 1 to 2 PM. End of the working day is 7 PM. But, as it seemed to us, this is conditional in some way. For example, many employees can linger and come to work at 10:15 AM, and go to lunch break at 1:30 PM. And finally, we rarely saw anyone who goes home at 7 PM on the dot. Usually they linger for half an hour.

However, we couldn’t afford such liberties, and we were there in five minutes. We lived just a three-minute walk from the office. We waited for Valentine and entered the department.

The first working day at the GSC PR department began for us. And we should have spent that day and the next two days under the strict guidance of Yeltyshev (Yavorsky was on a business trip at that time).

PR department. We are interning. The famous person’s workplace is on the right photo. ;)

I won’t go into great detail on the work and life outside of the office in the first few days. We were administering the official company’s forum, selecting fan ideas for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and conversing for many hours with Valentine about GSC projects. In the evenings we went to see Kyiv.

What a beautiful city! Unfortunately, we couldn’t see everything we wanted. After all, that’s not why we were in the capital of Ukraine.

A few days later, Sergiy Grygorovych and Oleg Yavorsky came back from their business trip. Since then our stay in the office has become more fun.

First we were armed with a voice recorder and rushed into the presentation room where we had an interview with the head of GSC Game World Sergiy Grygorovych. After drinking half a bottle of Pepsi at a draught (I’m convinced once again that this drink is respected in GSC), he was ready to talk. The company’s chief answered questions from GSC-Fan site visitors for more than forty minutes. In the end we received answers to all our questions.

After the interview we talked with Grygorovych in an informal setting. Sergiy to us came across as an open and kind person. Immediately recalled words Sergiy said in one of the interviews, that he as a CEO prefers to manage staff with carrot and stick. A lot of carrots and a bit of sticks. Yes, it’s true, we thought. :) You couldn’t tell you were talking to the head of a video game development company.



Then we went with Oleg Yavorsky into the department where beautiful ladies sewed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wear prototypes. :) Here we had to serve as fashion models. And not just us. Stalker trousers look cool on Yavorsky. :)

Andriyash’s comment: I remember we even talked with Antonina, the head of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wear department, and took her interview. She was interested in our GSC-Fan shirts (and Grygorovych too), so we were flattered by it. :)

We have been in the fashion model role. :)

We got dressed in everything that could fit us. To my great regret, Ilya could fit in more clothes than me. :) His dress size is more similar with Sergiy Grygorovych (wear prototypes are sewn on his dress size). But it can be fixed, Sergiy promised that clothes from the collection with our dress size would be sent to us (Unfortunately, we didn’t get our clothes. :) It’s still sad. :) — Andriyash’s note).

Stalker wear seemed to us quite comfortable and original. And if it goes on sale, certainly there will be a demand, this is our fan opinion.

GSC-Fan administrators with Valentine Yeltyshev

Valik is the man who welcomed us and sent us off at the railway station, settled us in at the rented apartment, and basically he did everything to take our breath away during the GSC internship.

Also through him we agreed with the GSC system administrator to host our site on the company’s server.



Volodymyr Savin and Andriyash Kozlovsky

We met Vova on VK social network. I remember his photos from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Fest impressed me. It was clear that he closely communicates with GSC, and I decided to write to him because I was looking for contact with the devs. He has been my good friend for fifteen years. Curiously, in 2010 we met him absolutely by accident during our internship. I was walking with Ilya through Kyiv in the evening and we crossed paths at the exit of the subway.

SlavaR’s comment: Volodymyr Savin aka Dargalon is an audio director and composer, his works includes S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 (2011), Survarium, ARKTIKA.1 and Metro: Exodus.

Motocross with Valentine Yeltyshev

Valik not only took care of us on weekdays, but invited us to visit the motorcycle race during his holidays. And of course we accepted. In the end we watched the race and he gave us a ride on his motorcycle. Awesome!

Walking the streets of Kyiv

Yavorsky showed us around Kyiv. It was nice that he took the time for us on his weekend, although a bit.



GSC-Fan administrators with GSC Game World art director Illya Tolmachov

Illya was one of the first devs whom I showed the new GSC-Fan design, before the site launched. I was interested in his opinion as an artist. But I can’t recall what we talked about in the office.

Andriyash on an internship at GSC

During the internship we gained experience when it comes to communication with the fans, communicated with the press. Of course, this experience was useful when I started working as a community manager (and later as a PR manager) at VG.

And by the way, what an interesting fate was in store for those NON STOP energy drink cans (in the second photo). :) We found them absolutely by accident in one of the supermarkets in Kyiv. We decided to buy a few, ask the devs to sign on it and organize a drawing among the GSC-Fan visitors. I remember how I came to Oleg with that request. He was busy and it was clear that he was annoyed a bit because it distracted him. However he and Valik Yeltyshev put down their signatures. And suddenly me and Ilya noticed that signatures written with a marker pen on cans just got erased. We realized that we couldn’t keep the souvenirs intact, and drank NON STOP in front of the surprised Yavorsky. I guess he thought we trolled him that way. :D

GSC-Fan administrators with Ruslan Didenko aka Stohe

Ruslan came across as a tough project lead who rarely smiled. I was even a little afraid of him during the internship. “Just go to him, pat him on the shoulder and say: Rustik, let’s make an interview” — that’s what Yeltyshev told me when I asked him to arrange an interview with Didenko. :D

At the GSC Game World PR Department

Our round-table discussions with GSC PR guys are one of those moments I remember best. We had time to discuss many things. :)



We brought GSC-Fan shirts as a gift for the devs and kept some for ourselves (with devs’ signatures). Actually, Ilya kept his shirt for himself. I can’t remember where my shirt is. Maybe I gave it to someone.

At the FireLake rehearsal base

Yavorsky often invited his guests to his garage at the FireLake rehearsals. Me and Ilya were no exception. I’ve never been to a rock band rehearsal before. We listened to music, held the guitars. It was interesting!

When I worked in Vostok Games, Yava continued the tradition of inviting me to the rehearsals. Unfortunately it wasn’t always possible. I think sometimes my rejections even disappointed Oleg a little bit. :)

In my opinion it was a golden age in the history of game development in the vast former USSR. At that time developers were simpler. And maybe fans too. :) As I wrote above, I don’t think that today any development company is going to pay so much time and effort to a couple of fans. This is one side of the coin.

And on the other side, can you name at least one other game studio in the world that has its own fan community? :) Not a game, but in particular a development company. There you go. :)

The editor thanks:

• Andriyash Kozlovsky for help in creating the enhanced version of this article and support,
  
• Maeda K., Kaitlyn Keller and the kind person who asked to remain anonymous for help with English translation.

The article uses photos from the GSC-Fan archive.

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