My son is growing up, and I am sad to see that today’s children are completely different from us. We read books, went to the cinema together, and then acted out battle scenes, we communicated more, became friends. We also ran in the yards and played, and there are many reasons why modern children go out with their peers so little, this is a crime situation, and studies, which children are overloaded with, and computers, but... I feel sorry for them, they are deprived amazing adventures and memories that will last a lifetime.

1. Hali-halo

Rules of the game
To begin with, the driver is chosen using a counting rhyme. The driver picks up the ball and asks the rest of the guys a word. Usually they say which category the invented word belongs to and its first and last letter. For example, the driver thought of the word bed. He says it's a piece of furniture, it starts with the letter K and ends with a soft sign. Children begin to guess the word. As soon as the driver hears the correct answer, he shouts “Hali-halo”, throws the ball up as high as possible, and runs away.
The child who guesses the word correctly catches the ball and shouts “Stop.” The driver stops. The player must guess how many steps there are to the driver. But the steps are not easy. Each company can come up with its own steps.
Types of steps in the game hali-halo:
Giant - the largest steps, the entire width.
Normal - a normal baby step.
Lilliputian - very small steps.
Frog - in squatting jumps.
Umbrellas - the child spins towards the driver.
Bricks - step heel to toe.
Camel - step and spit (the main thing is not to hit the driver).
The child with the ball takes the specified number of steps and throws the ball into the ring, which the driver makes with his hands. If the ball hits the ring, the player becomes the driver and the game continues.

2.Hide and seek

Rules of the game
One person drives, the rest hide. According to pre-agreed conditions, the water counts up to a certain number, turning towards the wall, during which time everyone hides without going beyond the boundaries of the agreed territory.
Well, the catchphrase of water: one two three four five I’m going to look.

3. Blind Man's Bluff

Rules of the game
Several people play Zhmurki. With the help of a counting rhyme or by lot, the driver is selected. Players cover the water with a tight blindfold (no peeking is allowed in this game), spin it in place and “scatter” to the sides. Zhmurka must catch and identify a player. If you guess correctly, the caught player becomes the driver.

4. Cossack robbers

Rules of the game
The players are divided into two teams (the more participants, the more interesting the game). Each team has its own distinctive insignia (armbands, ribbons or badges).
An area is designated (the boundaries of the territory where you can hide and run away).
It is determined by lot which team will be “Cossacks” and which team will be “robbers”.
At the signal, the “robbers” run to hide. At this time, the “Cossacks” choose a place for the “dungeon” where the captured “robbers” will be brought. The “dungeon” should not be very large so that it can be conveniently guarded. Its boundaries are clearly marked (with chalk, pebbles, etc.).
After an agreed period of time, the “Cossacks” go to look for “robbers” hiding in the agreed territory. They must catch up with those whom they saw and “stain” (touch with their hand). The “stained” robber is considered caught; he must obediently go with the “Cossack” while he holds him. But if the “Cossack” accidentally unclenched his hands, the “robber” can run away.
The caught "robbers" are taken to the "dungeon".
"Robbers" can help out their comrades. To do this, you need to quietly run up to the “Cossack” leading the “robber” and “tarnish” him. Then the “Cossack” is obliged to let the “robber” go, and both “robbers” run away to hide again. But if the “Cossack” turns out to be more agile and manages to “sully” the second “robber” earlier, he takes both of them prisoner.
"Robbers" can free their comrades from the "dungeon". To do this, it is necessary to touch the prisoner before the “Cossack” guarding the “dungeon” touches the liberator.
The goal of the game is to catch all the “robbers.”

5. Lapta

Rules of the game
I know two versions of the game. One is simplified (for children), the other is for adults. As a child, at the dacha, of course, we played a simple game:
On a flat lawn, at a distance of 15-20 m from each other, two lines were drawn: one was called a city, the other was a horse, or a house.
Then, using a counting table or lot, the striker was determined; he stood outside the city limits, the rest were located in the field behind the law.
The batter throws the ball and hits it hard with the bat. The field players, watching the sword, wait for it to cross the horse so that they can catch it without letting it fall to the ground. If they succeed, the striker goes into the field, and the player who took possession of the ball takes his place. If the field players, having gaped, did not have time to catch the ball, the kick is repeated.
It happens that the batter misses the ball. The rules allow him to repeat the kick. After the third miss, the striker gives up his place to another player.

6. Bouncers

Rules of the game.
A minimum of 3 people are required to play dodgeball. Of these, 2 are bouncers (bouncers) and one is a driver. The players are divided into two teams.
Two players from one stand at a distance of approximately seven to eight meters opposite each other. They have the ball. Two players from the other team move between them. The task of the former is to throw the ball with each other, hit their opponents and knock them out of the game. In this case, you need to throw so that the ball, without hitting the target, can be caught by a partner, and does not fly away to nowhere every time.
The task of the second is not to let yourself be knocked out. If you catch a flying ball, one life is added to you. You get, for example, five lives and to knock you out of the game, you need to be hit six times. If the ball bounced off the ground and hit a player, it didn't count. The place of the eliminated players was taken by other team members. When everyone was eliminated, the teams swapped places.

7. Square

Rules of the game
This game requires a company of four people and a ball. First you need to create a playing field. A square of arbitrary size is drawn on the ground, divided into four smaller squares, one for each participant. A circle is drawn in the center of the field for serving. The game begins with the ball being served by a player who is chosen by lot (counting table). The ball is thrown with one or two hands into the central circle, so that it bounces towards the player located diagonally. The diagonal player must return the ball after touching the ground once in his quarter. You need to hit the ball with your feet, knee, head, you cannot touch it with your hands.

8. Fanta

Rules of the game
A good old children's game. There are many options. I'll tell you about the one we played. The presenter collects one personal item from all players, and then everyone writes some task on a piece of paper. Then the pieces of paper are collected, mixed, and the presenter, without looking, first pulls out someone’s object, and then a note. The person who owns the pulled out item must complete the task written on a piece of paper. The game is great, but players should remember that they themselves may be faced with their own task. This circumstance somewhat limits sadistic habits.

9. I know five names

Rules of the game
The guys agree on the order of passing the ball and the sequence of topics.
The first player begins to tap the ball on the ground with one hand, saying:
- I know five girls' names. Anya - one, Katya - two, Polya - three, Masha - four, Nastya - five.
The player must follow the rhythm of the shots, saying one word each time he hits the ball.
If the player has completed the task, he moves on to the next topic, predetermined, for example:
- I know five names of boys (names of cities, animals, insects, birds, countries, cities, etc.)
If a player gets lost, misses the ball or thinks for a long time, then the ball passes to the next participant.
He starts over:
- I know five girls' names
To complicate the game, you can introduce conditions that names should not be repeated. When the ball returns to the first player after making a circle, he starts from the topic where he left off.
The game lasts until everyone gets bored.
The winner is the one who managed to cover the maximum number of topics

10. Salki

Rules of the game
One driver is chosen by lot or by counting. Then the boundaries of the playing area are set. Everyone scatters within this area. The driver begins to catch the players within the established limits of the site. Whomever he catches up with and salutes, he becomes a “salka” and declares, raising his hand up: “I am salaine!” He begins to catch the players, and the former “tag” runs away with everyone. The game has no definite ending.
Sorcerers
(this game is a type of tag)
Participants run away from the driver. The driver catches up with the player and touches him - he gets dirty. The saluted person spreads his arms, and any other participant can run up, touch him and “help him out.” The driver’s task is not to move far from the person who has been greased and not to let anyone get a step closer to him. The summer version of the sorcerers is to run around with “sprinklers” and pour water on each other from holey bottles. Usually, five minutes after the start of the game, everyone is wet, but very cheerful.

11. Damaged phone

Rules of the game
The old time-tested children's game of broken phone.
It can be played by one or two teams.
A driver is selected, who whispers a word or phrase in the ear of one of the players, and he tries to pass it on to the other player in the same way, and so on along the chain.
The last player says out loud what he did and compares it with the original.
Often the result is very unexpected and funny!
If two teams are playing, then the leader gives the floor to two players from both teams. The team whose result is most similar to the original wins.

12. Kitty-Frog-Meow

Rules of the game
The game requires approximately the same ratio of players of different genders. The players sit on the bench. Two participants, the leader and one of the players, stand in front of the bench with their backs to each other (the leader faces the players, the player faces his back).
The presenter points with his eyes (or discreetly with his finger) at one of the players and asks “kitty?”
If the player says "screw", then he continues to choose.
If a player says "meow", then that player is asked "what color?"
The player named a color and completed a task that corresponded to the chosen color.
The meanings of the colors were:
White meant “five minutes alone.” Those. the boy and girl left and retired for 10 minutes so that no one from the company could see them.
Green - three yes questions. Any questions were asked, but the player could only answer “yes”. Moreover, tricky questions were asked, such as “Do you love him”? The answerer blushed and stammered, but had no right to say anything else. The whole company had fun from such dialogues :)
Red meant a kiss on the lips. Color was used very rarely.
Pink - kiss on the cheek. It’s easier with it, it was used often.
Yellow - three questions in private (you could ask anything and the player had no right not to answer). Of course, everyone asked tricky questions and often very personal ones, but the answers were usually kept secret.
Orange - walk a certain route arm in arm.
Blue - kiss the hand.
Purple - three minor dirty tricks (say, pulling a pigtail, stepping on a foot, taking away a hairpin). Also in front of the entire honest company.

13. The sea is agitated once...

Rules of the game
There are several game options.
1) The presenter turns away from the players and says the well-known rhyme:
The sea is agitated once
The sea is worried two
The sea is worried three,
Marine figure, freeze in place!
While he speaks, the participants move chaotically in any order, depicting the movements of waves with their hands. As soon as the driver falls silent, you need to freeze in some figure. The driver approaches one of the players and touches him. The player depicts his figure in motion, and the driver guesses what it is. The player whose figure was not guessed becomes water himself.
2) After saying the counting rhyme, the players must freeze in the position in which they find themselves. The driver turns, walks around all the players and examines the resulting figures. The first one to move takes the place of the leader, or is eliminated from the game (in this case, the winner is the player who lasted the longest).
3) You can use another version of the game, when the presenter examines all the figures and chooses the one he likes best. In this case, the winner is the player who most clearly demonstrated his imagination.

Rules of the game
Two stripes are drawn on the ground with chalk at a distance of approximately 20 meters.
All players stand on one side; the driver stands on the other side, and turns his back to everyone. The driver says:
"If you drive more quietly, you'll go further. Stop."
The phrase can be pronounced as you like - deliberately dragging out the words, the entire sentence, or, for example, starting slowly and then ending it abruptly and quickly - in general, introducing an element of surprise into the game.
At this time, all players are trying to run as far as possible and get to the finish line; they freeze at the word “stop”. After the word “stop” the driver turns around. If he saw the movement of a player (who did not have time to freeze or stop due to the acceleration speed), he is eliminated from the game.
The winner is the one who gets to the finish line first and touches the driver - he takes his place, and the game starts over.

15. Rubber bands

Rules of the game
The main attribute of this game is the elastic band. The ideal number of players is 3–4 people. Each participant performs jumping figures and combinations at different heights: from ankle level (the “first” jumpers) to neck level (the “sixth” jump). Jumping through a rubber band stretched at hip level had the mysterious name “pozhepe”. As soon as the jumper makes a mistake, another participant takes her place, and the girl who made the mistake puts on an elastic band. If there are four players, pairs change places when both players from one pair alternately make mistakes

16. Edible-inedible

Rules of the game.
All players sit or stand in a row. The driver throws the ball to one of the participants and at the same time names an object. If the item is "edible", the player catches the ball. If not, he repels. The driver’s task is to confuse the player, for example, in the chain “apple-melon-carrots-potatoes” he suddenly says “iron”. If the player makes a mistake and “eats” the “inedible”, then he himself becomes the driver. The faster the driver throws the ball and names objects, the more exciting and interesting it is to play

17. Knives

Rules of the game.
Players mark a circle on the ground. Then, one by one, they try to get a knife into the enemy’s delineated territory and thus conquer as much land as possible from him. The knife can be thrown from the shoulder, with a flip, from the nose and even from the head. The knife can be stuck into the ground, sand and even a wooden bench

Rules of the game.
Each player chooses a name for himself - the name of the flower and tells it to the “gardener”-driver and other players. The driver says a little rhyme: “I was born a gardener, I’m seriously angry, I’m tired of all the flowers, except ...” and calls the “name” (name of the flower) of one of the players. A dialogue takes place between the driver and the player. The player says the name of one flower from those on the team. The participant whose name was announced must respond. The dialogue continues. The one who made a mistake: for example, did not respond to his name, confused the name of the flowers, gives away a forfeit (any of his things). At the end of the game, forfeits are played out. The “gardener” turns away, they take out the thing and ask the driver: “What should this player do?” The “gardener” assigns a task (jump on one leg, squat, sing, recite a poem, etc.) - the player “works off” the forfeit and takes his item.

20. Mother's daughters.

Rules of the game.
The game was considered a girl's game, but in certain cases boys were also allowed into it, who could, even before entering puberty, understand what marriage is and what it threatens. The game had one rule - play using maximum imagination and life experience, gleaned from your parents or in soap operas.
Throughout the game, the roles could change (“come on, now you’re a mother, and it’s as if I’m your daughter?”), randomly found children, stepmothers who suddenly showed up, or inexplicably amused lovers periodically entered the game. And animated dolls, baby dolls, plush animals. Scenes “let’s act as if we were in a store” were played out, weddings, quarrels, intrigues, fights, death! Everything is like in life.

About people. Remember how people lived in the USSR, what they wore, what they ate and what they believed.

1.What did every Soviet person dream of buying?
apartment, car, cottage
furniture, chandelier, complete works of Lenin
good relationship between mother-in-law and district police officer
refrigerator, TV, iron

2.What evening TV show have all the children of the Soviet Union fallen asleep to since 1964?
“A dream comes to visit”
“Visiting a fairy tale”
“ABVGDeeyka”
"GOOG night kids!"

3.What cost one penny?
glass of sparkling water
bag of seeds
mug of beer
ice cream 'seal'

4.What tax really existed in the USSR?
housewife tax
school tax
tax on home library owners
singles tax

5.Which abbreviation was NOT born in the USSR?
earplugs
moped
samizdat
educational program

6. Find the incorrect correspondence between the subculture and the time of its heyday in the USSR.
1980s - disco
1970s - hippies
1950s - dudes
1960s - dandy

7.During the Soviet years, were parasites really contemptuously called black marketeers?
Yes
No

8.What was the name of the main artistic method in Soviet art?
commercial realism
neorealism
socialist realism
proletkult

9.Which day of the week was declared “fish day”?
Thursday
Tuesday
Saturday
Monday

10. What could not be seen on the streets of Soviet cities until perestroika?
Mercedes car
people wearing jeans
girls in miniskirts
billboard advertising Coca-Cola

Right answers

Back to USSR

1. apartment, car, dacha
The famous triad of coveted objects - an apartment, a car, a dacha - was in the USSR the pinnacle of consumer ideals of the population of almost the entire Union. Statistics that know everything confirm this fact!

2. ‘Good night, kids!’
Not a single self-respecting child fell asleep without a cheerful and instructive conversation between Fili, Piggy, Stepasha, Karkusha and Aunt Valya, the obligatory cartoon and a lullaby. “Tired toys are sleeping, books are sleeping...” remember?

3. glass of sparkling water
Regular soda could be bought for just a penny, and for three you got a glass of soda with syrup. For a long time matches cost one penny.

4. tax on bachelors
The tax on bachelors, single and small-family citizens actually existed from 1941 until the collapse of the Union. It is interesting that it was introduced as a temporary measure to increase the birth rate, but, as often happens, what was temporary became permanent...

5.earplugs
Earplugs - “take care of your ears” - plugs invented back in the 19th century, samizdat - a way to distribute written texts, usually illegal, educational program - the elimination of illiteracy, moped - motorcycle and bicycle - a favorite pastime of Soviet youths.

6.1960s – dandy
Dandies were called fashionistas of the 19th century who were overly conscious of their appearance, clothing and image in general. Over time, the term has become hopelessly outdated, but the phenomenon remains - today they are metrosexuals.

7.No
Fartsovschiki were called speculators (resellers) who traded “firm”, that is, foreign goods that were not available for free sale.

8.socialist realism
The main purpose of art in those years was considered to be the promotion of true Soviet values. It was based on three principles - nationality, ideology and concreteness. Socialist realism took shape already in the 30s!

9. Thursday
On this day, catering establishments offered a “wide” selection of dishes, mainly from pollock and hake, although the menu varied significantly in different regions of the country.

10.billboard advertising Coca-Cola
Jeans, miniskirts, and even Mercedes appeared in the USSR much earlier (for example, Vladimir Vysotsky had a Mercedes). And there was advertising in the USSR, but, of course, not Coca-Cola. A wonderful drink appeared in Moscow for the Olympics, Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote: “USSR: 22,400,000 sq. km - and not a single Coca-Cola advertisement!”

What cost how much

1 kop.
Matchbox
glass of sparkling water without syrup
pencil
a piece of bread in the dining room

2 kopecks
payphone call

3 kopecks
glass of sparkling water with syrup
a glass of kvass from a barrel
travel by tram
newspapers
glass of tea in a cafe
notebook

For 5 kopecks?
(bun, travel on the subway, bus, trolleybus)
How much did the tram fare cost? (3 kopecks)
What could you afford for 10 kopecks?
(milk ice cream, haircut)
For 22 kopecks? (popsicle, cake)
For 30 kopecks? (lottery ticket)
How could you spend 56 kopecks?
(to buy an American dollar - it cost so much, but you were imprisoned for buying it, i.e. you couldn’t buy it)
96 kopecks it was worth... (wine “Autumn Garden”)
1 rub. 50 kopecks paid for ... (application to the registry office)
2 rub. 82 kopecks? (vodka)
120 rub. was (engineer's salary)
For 5000 rubles. it was possible to buy... ("Zhiguli")
For 10,000 rubles? ("Volga")

This article was published in the issue of Gambling. As a pleasant gift to readers, we post it on the website shortly after the publication of the magazine, and in expanded option. By the way, you can buy the electronic version of the issue and read everything else.

From time to time, other materials from the printed “Gaming Mania” will appear on the site ahead of schedule. When and what - we won’t tell you. Follow announcements and publications.

What? A game that simulates in detail what would happen to the world if the Cuban Missile Crisis led to a nuclear war between the USSR and the USA

Where?"1C-SoftClub"

We first learned about "" in June last year. From the meager announcement it was clear that Best Way(creators of " Behind enemy lines") are making a role-playing game in a post-nuclear setting. The style is a kind of USSR in 1962 (according to the plot, the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in a nuclear war in which most of the world's population died), which continued to develop until 2012, but not at all as the history textbooks tell. The union survived, a huge city was built underground (on the territory of Moscow) - Pobedograd, which became the capital of a state in which the problem of the Cold War faded into the background, and the main thing was survival in the changed natural conditions and the slow, step by step restoration of its former greatness.

Our interlocutors are Dmitry Gordevsky, Yana Botsman, Yuri Miroshnikov and Denis Maltsev.

The style of the game is pseudo-historical futurism, familiar to nostalgic tears to everyone who was born and raised in the USSR, but perfectly recognizable by the younger generation. The general fashion for kitsch retro-USSR style - in cinema, music, literature, even in cartoons and social games - has done its job. Today, young people born after perestroika know almost more about the ostentatious paraphernalia of the USSR than their parents, and are happy to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of utopian totalitarianism, equality and brotherhood.

However " New Union", despite the characteristic style and surroundings, is extremely far from kitsch, which is characterized by superficial elaboration of details and excessive emphasis on the characteristic symbols of the era. Best Way is making a much deeper game, overgrown with Soviet paraphernalia only insofar as the action of the “New Union” develops on the territory of the USSR - more precisely, Moscow and the immediate Moscow region.

Until recently, the developers flatly refused to share information about the game, but on New Year’s Eve they agreed to meet with us and give a long interview. Game screenwriter Alexander Zorich (you, of course, understand that there are actually two screenwriters - Dmitry Gordevsky And Yana Botsman ) and producers Yuri Miroshnikov With Denis Maltsev they revealed just a gigantic layer of information about the world of the “New Union”, and in some places they even talked a little about the gameplay, although initially they were not at all going to talk about how exactly their project would be played.

The Moscow River is slowly overgrown. In some areas, enough sand washed up to form real islands in the riverbed.

Are you among the volunteers?

Hello. Before moving on to the details of the game world, let's understand the main character. Who is he?

Soviet long-range aviation pilot, gunner-radio operator of the 3M bomber, participating in the first retaliatory strike on the United States on October 29, 1962. His bomber successfully drops a thermonuclear bomb on the US Air Force Base and Space Center at Cape Canaveral. But after this, events occur that we will keep silent about for now and which make the 1962 war veteran the main character of our game.

What did you focus on when creating the style of the game?

To the Soviet Union of the fifties and sixties. To the Stalinist metro. On pre-war films and songs. On the romance of the civil war of 1918-1920, oddly enough. Also on the atmosphere of the 1930s, or more precisely, on the positive part of it - the cult of the conquerors of the Arctic and volunteer participants in the Spanish civil war, the veneration of war heroes, labor shock workers and figures of proletarian culture.

What happened to the world after nuclear war? Which states have survived? How many inhabitants are there on the planet? Are there any regions left that were largely unaffected by the war?

Immediately after the 1962 war, in addition to parts of the USSR and a number of peripheral countries of Western Europe (for example, Spain), quite large regions of Asia survived: China, Japan, Iran, India. Nothing serious happened in Australia, Africa and South America. But nuclear war as such was only the first in a series of global catastrophes. Huge numbers of people died during the harsh winter of 1962-1963. from cold and hunger.

Further, soot from huge fires fell from the atmosphere onto the Arctic ice for a number of years. The reflectivity of the surface decreased, and the ice began to melt effectively. This led to a sharp rise in sea levels and flooding of vast areas. The floods, in turn, unevenly increased pressure on continental plates, causing a series of abnormally strong earthquakes in the 1970s.

As a result of all these disasters, many parts of Eurasia disappeared from the face of the Earth. In particular, the remnants of state formations on the territory of China, Japan, and Hindustan ceased to exist. The total number of inhabitants of the Earth is estimated at 250 million people.

As of 2013, the official Soviet view is that capitalist countries no longer exist. In fact, this is not entirely true. There are small states even in the United States - for example, the Texas Directory. However, due to the almost complete cessation of flights, navigation over noticeable distances, as well as the destruction of the Heaviside tropospheric layer, which provides over-the-horizon radio communication, there is no possibility for regular contacts.

Even after a terrible nuclear war, the Soviet people strove to go into space. In the Kubinka area, at the end of the 20th century, construction of an accelerating platform for launching a spacecraft to the Moon began.

What does the 2012 Union look like in the game?

Firstly, the USSR has grown relative to its historical borders. It included such exotic union republics as, for example, the South Azerbaijan SSR (due to the annexation of Northern Iran), the Eskimo SSR (the delicately renamed former American Alaska), the Catalan SSR, the Aragonese SSR, the Castilian SSR (and these are all fragments of Spain) . On remote borders (say, near Madrid and in Turkestan) a not particularly advertised war with hordes of mutants is smoldering. Accordingly, the bulk of the armed forces and, in particular, almost all combat-ready tanks are concentrated there.

Have any interstate relations been preserved and will this be somehow reflected in the setting?

In the setting - of course, but the plot of the game almost does not intersect with these events. So, there are extremely irregular relations with Cuba. They are carried out using several airships specially built in the seventies and eighties. According to the official version, their energy sources are compact nuclear reactors, but in reality they are classified anomalous artifacts. Flying these airships, however, is extremely dangerous due to hurricane-force winds and almost continuous electrical storms over the Atlantic.

Other interstate relations, if preserved, are strictly classified.

One of the powerful checkpoints covering the approach to Pobedograd is located in the area of ​​the former metro station.

Glory to the CPSU

Is the CPSU alive?

If it were not for the collapse of the USSR, it would still be alive in our reality - see the Chinese Communist Party as an example. Well, in the reality of the “New Union”, the CPSU is the victorious party, under whose wise leadership the USSR defeated the USA and, in general, the entire aggressive NATO bloc, crushing the exploitative capitalist system on planet Earth.

So everything is in order with the CPSU, and its General Secretary, as expected, is at the head of the Soviet Union... However, one should not think that because of this the whole game will be permeated with deadening boredom, like the early eighties in the USSR. Strictly measured doses of communist phraseology only decorate the gaming world and give it the charm of a “positive dystopia.”

Pobedograd is an underground city. Tell us more about him. Where is it located, how many inhabitants are there, how does life generally live underground?

Pobedograd is located under the central part of Moscow, in particular under the current Lubyanka. The city is so vast that the main character will not be able to walk around it entirely, but he will still see some areas.

More precisely, Pobedograd refers to the entire network of underground structures near the former Moscow, an expanded, significantly expanded system of shelters, bunkers, command posts, and underground factories over several decades.

But in the area of ​​​​Dzerzhinsky Square, at a not very great depth, a huge cavity was successfully discovered, which after for long years work to strengthen the vaults, expand the adjacent tunnels and general improvement turned into a huge center housing a large Victory Square, a complex of government premises called “Kremlin-2”, as well as cultural and recreational facilities.

How big will the locations be, are there large open spaces planned?

The locations in the game are both large and compact. Some basement may be very tiny, but in other places you can wander around with interest for quite a long time.

There are a lot of monsters in the screenshots from the game. Who are they and where did they come from?

Mutants, what else can I say about them!

Are there any ordinary animals left?

Yes, but not much; they lost out to new creatures in the course of natural selection. They are not involved in the game in any significant way. Who cares about “a dog is man’s best friend” when you can unleash monster dogs on your heels?

What biotopes are there in the game and what characteristic creatures live in them?

In our game, out of the entire vast USSR, only the Moscow region is represented. It differs from our usual only in that during the Great Floods of the 1970s, a noticeable part of the former Moscow region turned into swamps. In the swamps, of course, terrible swamp wolves live, and on the banks - terrible swamp wolverines.

The screenshots show humanoid mutants. Who are they? Who did they come from?

From people, from no one else. These are mainly the so-called retrogenets. The main mechanism of post-war mutations was the “disinhibition” of certain sections of the human genome in such a way that the sections stored in it, common with other living beings (and this is a scientific fact - the human genome largely coincides with the genome of even a dog or a fish), began to control growth and development of the body. This is how various chimeras arose: a man with gills, a man who can weave a web (like a spider), a man who beats with electric current (like an electric stingray).

There is also a fundamentally different source of mutated creatures in the game, but we will mysteriously keep silent about it for now.

A gang has settled in former military warehouses. Now the bandits have no shortage of weapons and ammunition.

Any anomalies?

Yes, they are just called differently. As a screenwriter, I try to make the anomalies extremely scientific, or more precisely, scientifically based. Created a whole classification. This, they say, is a thermal anomaly, and this is a gravitational anomaly, and this is a leptonic anomaly, and this one is completely tachyon.

Well, the developers strive to fill the anomalies with gameplay meaning. Let's say that a particularly strong monster could be killed by luring it into an anomaly-trap, or that passing a tricky section of the route would be possible only with the skillful use of anomalies... But here there is still a lot of work ahead, an intensive creative search is underway.

Are there any vehicles in the game? Is it just left over from pre-war times or has some kind of industry been preserved?

The situation with industry is very difficult. You could say this: the heavier the industry, the more hopelessly it collapsed. But the Soviet industry suffered the main losses not directly during the war (although the destruction of a number of industrial areas was monstrous), but during the post-war degradation, in 1963-1983. Thus, for example, mass production of heavy four-track tanks T-12 (“Object 279”), ideally suited specifically for the conditions of a post-nuclear world, was carried out during 1963-1975, that is, after the end of the war, but then died out because blanks for gun barrels and a number of engine components have been exhausted...

As of 2013, shipbuilding in the USSR is completely absent, as is aircraft construction. But, for example, the electronics industry developed quite successfully. Super-powerful computers were created. Robotics has made significant progress. This made it possible to begin the construction of a unique cosmodrome near Kubinka - it was carried out by robots under the control of the Setun-2000 super-large computer. True, one story later happened with this computer... In general, the players will see.

Traces of large-scale air battles over Moscow and the Moscow region in the fall of 1962 are visible in the 21st century. You can even live in the wreckage of ancient military vehicles.

We are ours, we are a new world...

At what point and why did people come to the surface?

Here I would like to remind you that in 1962, nuclear arsenals were, of course, impressive, but not comparable to later ones. Today, one ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) can deliver a dozen warheads with a capacity of 0.5 Mt, which, dispersing according to a given algorithm to pre-calculated optimal detonation points, are guaranteed to destroy Moscow entirely. And a hundred of these missiles, with a thousand warheads, can make staying on the surface anywhere in the Moscow, Tula and Kaluga regions deadly. That is, from the late 1970s to the present day inclusive, it is possible to make life on the surface absolutely unacceptable in one day - say, on the East Coast of the United States or in Central Russia.

But in 1962, the massive use of nuclear weapons in the central part of the USSR was difficult (there were almost no ICBMs, for example). Therefore, although in the end the United States dropped hundreds of bombs and combat units on the European part of the USSR, although it completely destroyed several large cities (Baku, Rostov, Volgograd), the complete contamination of the Moscow region with deadly radiation did not occur. Of course, pockets of it arose. These include Moscow itself and several districts of the Moscow region. But still, there was no “D-Day” when people came to the surface, simply because so many of them never descended anywhere. At least for years. It is clear that everyone preferred to sit out the atomic bombing itself in shelters - those who had such an opportunity.

As for Pobedograd, it’s the other way around - the capital of the USSR is almost entirely located underground to this day.

Is there anything left of modern Moscow?

Yes, there are some left. And, in general, not so little. For example, on the site of the Kremlin there is not even a multi-kilometer crater at all, but the most ordinary... ruins of the Kremlin. In some places they are not even ruins. The fact is that the United States was able to successfully use only four thermonuclear warheads in Moscow, and by no means the most powerful. For the realities of 1962, this is a completely acceptable assumption, because at that time there were not so many intercontinental ballistic missiles - the longest-range and fastest component of strategic nuclear forces.

Therefore, strikes were carried out primarily by subsonic strategic bombers B-52, B-47 and obsolete B-36. And the S-25 and S-75 air defense systems, deployed in large numbers around Moscow, handled them well, as did fighter-interceptors. A large-scale battle between our air defense and American bombers in the Moscow region, by the way, is one of the important parts of the scenario.

Another question is that due to radioactive contamination, almost all ground-based structures in Moscow were abandoned.

Has science survived in some form?

Science has survived, although it has almost completely lost some directions. It is easy to guess, for example, that there is little left of humanitarian knowledge. But the life sciences - genetics, zoology, virology, immunology, botany - have developed unusually strongly, especially considering the relative primitiveness of the experimental and hardware base.

Many scientific breakthroughs have been made in cybernetics, robotics, ultrafast particle physics and materials science. But such areas of applied knowledge as metallurgy, agricultural chemistry and aerodynamics are in decline.

Who is the player up against?

All imaginable enemies, organized and not: bandits, looters, counter-revolution, monsters, mutants. And since we are not a bloody shooter, but still a role-playing game, the player, depending on the situation, can enter into battles with relatively neutral creatures - for example, in order to temporarily gain the trust of especially dangerous enemies. In addition, he will have to get involved in several detective stories, identify spies and settle disputes between generally good, but hot-tempered people.

The ruins of a city near Moscow are now inhabited only by aggressive mutant monsters.

Strike while the iron is hot

Tell us about the weapon. What is it like? How many? Is it possible to create trunks yourself?

We take several different layers of weapons.

Obsolete samples as of 1962, which, however, were preserved in large numbers in warehouses (PPSh, Degtyarev RP-27 light machine gun, Mosin carbine, SKS self-loading carbine.

Weapons relevant for 1962 (Kalashnikov assault rifle, RPD machine gun).

Homemade products and homemade alterations of the two groups of weapons mentioned above (sawed-off shotguns, crossbows).

Rare and exotic, but actually existing samples (for example, the Czech Scorpion submachine gun).

Experimental samples, which, according to our version, were put into mass production after 1962 (three-barrel machine gun "Pribor 3B", machine gun TKB-022).

And, finally, completely fantastic products, allegedly created in the post-nuclear USSR, including using the latest technologies, artifacts, etc.

We take all these layers, to which we should add edged weapons, pistols, hunting rifles, grenades, bottles with Molotov cocktails - and saturate the game world with them.

You cannot create weapons yourself.

You mentioned fantastic weapons created using artifacts. Can you give some examples of such weapons? And what do you mean by "artifacts"?

We are not yet ready to give specific examples of such weapons. Let's just explain general principle. In the game world, there are a large number of anogens (sometimes called by the familiar Latin term “artifact”) of a nature unknown to science, some of which are successfully used in various sectors of the national economy, including in the weapons industry. For example, a low-frequency temporal anogen can so affect the efficiency of the gas exhaust mechanism of a familiar Korobov assault rifle that the TKB ceases to seem familiar.

Yes, there are plans to allow players to collect and use individual anogens.

What other useful things, besides weapons, can a hero carry with him? Will there be any useful gadgets?

Of course, there will be various gadgets (although there is no such word in the Soviet lexicon in the 21st century) that can be used to your advantage. Unfortunately, the time has not yet come for specific examples.

What's left of the culture? How has the mentality of survivors changed since pre-war times?

It all depends on which survivors we're talking about. The main part of Soviet society has, quite expectedly, a Soviet mentality. Moreover, we must take into account that in the world of the “New Union” there was neither Khrushchev’s “thaw” (by the way, Khrushchev himself, the winner of the USA and NATO, remained in office much longer and was not removed by Brezhnev, as in our reality), nor Brezhnev’s stagnation (Brezhnev never came to power), nor Gorbachev’s perestroika. Therefore, the moral and political climate in the post-nuclear USSR can be characterized as “moderate Stalinism.” That is, excesses like the “Great Terror” of 1937-1938. there was no more, but strict discipline remains everywhere, an analogue of the Stalinist State Defense Committee (called KPVT - Commission for Overcoming Temporary Difficulties) is continuously operating, and the cult of the leader - Secretary General Yelganin, a former military pilot, who personally bombed Washington in 1962, operates.

At the same time, isolated or partially isolated groups of survivors may have a very different mentality from the standard Soviet, “Pobedograd” mentality. It is clear that it is absolutely impossible to deal with workers singing happy songs and marching to work for an entire game. Therefore, we created several interesting microsocieties and individual bright personalities. Someone behaves like a bandit of the forties (remember the “Black Cat” gang from “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed”), someone behaves like a savage, someone has a strange mental disorder, and it seems to him that he is receiving American rock 'n' rolls of the late fifties...

You can talk about the culture of the New Union for a long time, but it’s better to put it off until the next occasion.

There is no longer music in the famous Bolshoi Theater building. For lovers of opera and ballet, the New Bolshoi was built on the sixth underground level of Kirovsky Prospekt.

Externally, the game resembles Stalker and Fallout. Are there ideological intersections?

There are just no ideological intersections. At least in the main thing. The fact is that the state and its main bodies (the army, state security, scientific institutes) are usually interpreted in such games as, firstly, the main cause of the apocalypse (the military started a war, scientists released a virus from laboratories, and the like), secondly secondly, if certain government agencies still continue to act, then as some kind of annoying limiter of the protagonist’s freedom, or even a serious threat to his life (well, for example, government special forces are hunting for Gordon Freeman on the territory of Black Mesa).

In ideological terms, we have, in fact, a unique “positive dystopia.” We show the world - yes, apocalyptic, yes, not the most fun, with many dangers. But government stalkers (“special intelligence officers” in the terminology of the “New Union”), and scientists, and the Soviet government - they are all our people (and from a game point of view, allies). The same applies to some of the isolated factions of survivors in various locations, namely those that are loyal to the Soviet regime.

Yes, sometimes a player can go “against the grain” and help, for example, bandits. That is, positive karma regarding the Soviet regime can be ruined if desired. But still, our ideological center of gravity has shifted to the area of ​​positive interpretation of the state and its bodies. We are doing this primarily not for propaganda reasons (for example, I personally have an ambivalent attitude towards the defunct Soviet government of the 1980s; I can’t call it unequivocally positive), but precisely for the sake of creating a fresh, new, original setting.

Well, the last question: what is the goal of the hero and the game as a whole?

The main character's goal is to save the Motherland. Why, and most importantly - from whom (or what) it is necessary to save the winner of a nuclear war, we would like to keep secret for now.

Thank you everyone for a very interesting story, but, as you understand, we are not saying goodbye. Look forward to visiting you very soon.

In the first post-war years, the city was patrolled by exotic combat vehicles. True, already in the eighties this task was considered irrelevant.

* * *

The authors are currently focusing on the game world, because the studio doesn’t have a working build that could be shown without fear (it’s still a long way from release). But we managed to come to an agreement with Best Way, and as soon as it's ready, we'll be the first to see it. So somewhere in the spring, or maybe early summer, another global report on the “New Union” will appear in “Gaming Mania” - with a description of the gameplay and the sensations of traveling through game locations.