“We are doing what we can. We are working. We’re trying to unite people with games and as human beings.”
That’s a producer from game studio Aurum Dust, about to release its next game in the Ash of Gods series: the tactical turn-based card game Ash of Gods: The Way (27th April). The producer – who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from Russian authorities – is just one member of the development team in Russia, working alongside developers from Ukraine, Cyprus, Armenia, and more – a development team that is vehemently against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The studio’s Russian founder fled the country years before the war began as they disagreed with the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The studio is now headquartered in Cyprus.
As such, Aurum Dust is an example of a game development studio not just working during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but uniting people from both sides to work in peace. Theirs is a story of compassion during incredibly difficult times.
And it’s not the only studio impacted by the war. GSC Game World put development of Stalker 2 on hold last year as it relocated from Kyiv to Prague after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Most recently it was hacked by members of a Russian social network, though it remained defiant.
Frogwares, developer of Sherlock Holmes The Awakened, will finally release its game next month after frequent delays. The studio has shared harrowing video diaries as it continues to work despite missile strikes and frequent losses of power.
That’s a situation familiar to the Ukrainian team at mobile developer Nordcurrent, responsible for games like Pocket Styler and Happy Clinic. It’s based in Vilnius, Lithuania, but with additional offices in Odesa and Dnipro, Ukraine. A further office was opened in Warsaw, Poland, after war broke out.
“So initially the employees that left [Ukraine] came here [Vilnius], but then we made a decision that we will open an office in Warsaw,” Nordcurrent CEO Victoria Trofimova told Eurogamer. “So the Ukrainian employees are now employed and those who decided to leave – some stayed in Vilnius – but the majority of them now live and work in Warsaw.”
Before then it was business as usual. “Two months before the war I was actually visiting Tatjana in the [Dnipro] studio and life was normal,” said Trofimova. “Prior to this, none of us have ever experienced war this close.”
While some developers fled Ukraine, others stayed behind. Tatjana Margolina, head of the Dnipro office, is one of those people.
“It was really a shock and everything became kind of hectic,” she said of the first days of the war. “There was huge uncertainty of knowing what will happen.”
The studio had to offer employees an opportunity to evacuate, which meant organising buses, fuel, and transporting employees and their families across the borders despite huge queues. What’s more, as so many people weren’t planning to travel, children, pets, and even some adults didn’t have the necessary documents. Thankfully employees were offered housing or a place in hotels in Vilnius.