Dmytro Kovtun, CEO
Dmytro co-founded AVIA PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LTD in 2007. Since then, the company helped the world's best publishers and developers to release more than 60 games for the majority of gaming platforms.
—December 12, 2024
highlights
  1. The Numbers That Matter
  2. First Impressions
  3. How Pingle Helped Define the Zone

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been making waves since its launch on November 20, 2024. It’s the first major entry in the series in over 15 years, and fans have been eagerly waiting for it. Here’s a quick look at its success so far:

The Numbers That Matter

  • Sales: Over 1 million copies sold in the first 48 hours.
  • Player Base: 5 million Steam owners and counting.
  • Engagement: A peak of 88,831 concurrent players.

First Impressions

  • Reviews: Mixed-to-positive with scores like 73/100 (PC) and 75/100 (Xbox) on Metacritic.
  • Player Feedback: An 81% user score on Steam, showing fans are mostly loving it.

How Pingle Helped Define the Zone

At Pingle Game Studio, we’re thrilled to have contributed to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, focusing on crafting realistic and emotional facial animations. This wasn’t just about making characters look good—it was about making their emotions feel real.

Our Head of Art, Artem Tagan, described the work as a creative challenge:

“Working on facial animations for Stalker 2 was a real challenge. Our team had to overcome technological hurdles and skillfully work with phonemes to create believable character expressions. We aimed to capture and convey the depth of every word, sound, and intonation. We’re proud to have contributed a piece of ourselves to this iconic universe.”

 

Bohdan Malynka, our Lead 3D Animator, shared his perspective:

“Working on lip-sync and refining every phoneme demanded the utmost focus. It was fascinating to tackle unconventional characters, such as drunk ones or those with speech peculiarities. Every character, wrinkle, or facial expression isn’t just polygons and textures—they represent emotion, pain, or hope that we wanted to deliver to the player.”

 

He also noted the emotional weight of animating wounded characters:

“The most challenging, albeit not technically but emotionally, was working on wounded characters and scenes depicting the agony of dying.”

 

Every detail we crafted in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 carries a piece of our passion. We’re honored to have helped bring the Zone to life and are excited for what’s next. Stay tuned for more!