How Chernobyl Helped Me Create Sound for Survarium
When I started working on the sound design for Survarium — a post-apocalyptic shooter about survival in a world overtaken by nature — I quickly realized that standard sound libraries wouldn’t cut it. I needed a real atmosphere: tense, alive, and unique. That’s why I decided to travel to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This place became my source of sounds that made the game deeper and more believable.
Sounds of the Post-Apocalypse: How I Sought Atmosphere for the Game
Survarium is a world of abandoned cities, anomalies, and struggle. I wanted the sound to pull players into it. So, I made an effort to record sounds in various spots around the Chernobyl Zone, ensuring they’d feel as real as possible in the game. For instance, footsteps in a room with a wooden floor had to differ from those on concrete. A jump by a character in light gear on a metal staircase had to sound distinct from a jump by one in heavy gear on the same stairs. Running on sand had to differ from running on grass. I aimed to capture every detail and record as many sounds as I could, building a stockpile of realistic material to work with later.
Recording Gear: What I Used in Chernobyl
For the job, I brought a binaural microphone — it creates a sense of presence, as if the player is standing right where I recorded. I used a Zoom H6 for clean captures of footsteps and ambient noise. Contact microphones were attached to rusty doors and pipes to pick up scrapes and vibrations. For anomalies, I experimented with a hydrophone, dipping it into puddles and basements to catch deep, rumbling tones. Each tool brought something unique that later found its place in the game.
What Sounds I Captured: Footsteps, Shots, Anomalies
In Chernobyl, I gathered a whole collection. Footsteps along the concrete corridors of an abandoned school became the basis for indoor movement. The creak of rusty gates turned into the sound of opening stashes. The hum of wind through broken windows was processed into a low tone for anomalies. I even recorded the clatter of old shutters — they added life to the empty streets of Survarium. All of this became part of the game world.
How My Recordings Shaped Survarium
The work on the game spanned from 2012 to 2018, and my Chernobyl sounds became its backbone. Players noticed how footsteps changed depending on the surface, how shots sounded different indoors versus outdoors. The developers highlighted this in a dev diary, and the community pointed out how the sound kept them on edge. For me, it was proof that the trip and the recordings paid off — they made Survarium feel alive and memorable.