Independence Day of Ukraine 2024 - Ukrainian Games Festival
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Hello
It is Oleksandr from Starni Games, and our entire team is extremely excited to share with you the joyous moment in the middle of the third year of brutal war raging in our country. It is the third Independence Day of Ukraine celebrated after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that in itself is an achievement. We sincerely hope that in one year this occasion will be more peaceful and the war will be over on good terms for Ukraine.
Today, we want to share with you how our team adapted to the ongoing war, as well as unveil some of our plans for the future.
When the war started back in February 2022, we spent the first few months adapting to the new reality:- Looking for bomb shelters, making reserves of food and water supplies
- Living in the city with the enemy at its doorstep. (One advanced Russian group's APC was eliminated next to my colleagues' house in the middle of the city during the chaotic first few days.)
- One of our team was trapped in Bucha occupied by Russian forces and was hiding with his family in a garage basement for a week before evacuating to safety via road where some civilian cars were shot to bits later on the same day.
- Taking PC from office to home to be able to work. This seemingly simple action looked like a special ops operation - as public transport was unavailable and the whole city in curfew with barricades and checkpoints all across the city.
- Being forced to go to a bomb shelter 10 or more times a day - turning your whole day and night into the walk to and from a shelter (or sleeping on some mats inside).
- Catching some scum that wanted to exploit the situation or just was drunk and not in their right mind (in my house neighbors caught a guy trying to steal a bicycle). There were some photos of wanna-be looters tied to a tree with tape by the locals - to await the arrival of the police who had more urgent matters to attend to with the Russian troops just a few kilometers from the city. The guy we caught was saved from this fate by his mom coming over from nearby houses and “crying murder”. However, the next day we saw a photo of the very same guy tied to a tree, so his adventures did not stop at our place.
- Trying to make sense of the literal flood of information, misinformation, wild rumors, and made-up stories from all around. (That was one of the things that inspired us to be very cautious when working on Ukraine War Stories not to provide any unconfirmed information - and it paid off, as some of the claims we discarded as dubious and unconfirmed (even though they were made by some officials) were later debunked as false claims and there was a scandal. We avoided being mixed up in that and provided accurate accounts.)
- Going to the outskirts of the city 3 km from the Rissian positions to where my colleague lived to pick him up and invite him to live at my apartment for a while - as he lived in literally the outermost house in Kyiv - the closest to the frontline positions.
- Eagerly awaiting good news and sharing every new video or crucial report.