LD: Building the World of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

What the talk is about

Artem Nor gives an inside look at how the level design team built the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. A greybox of almost the whole map came together quickly thanks to the real Exclusion Zone, locations from earlier games and a large reference base, but moving early to an art pass led to a huge amount of rework. He then describes practices that helped: region owners from several disciplines and a level designer assigned to each feature. He also covers system-wide decisions: an open world without invisible walls, water used as a boundary signalled by radiation and vegetation, the Emission, which meant marking shelters across the entire map, a reworked stash and reward system, single anomalies along player routes, and streaming constraints. Useful for level designers and teams building open worlds.