In Ukraine some game developers are volunteering to fight against Russia

As the war in Ukraine enters its third week, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion force is tightening its grip, despite setbacks, on key cities. With the nation’s capital Kyiv under siege, game developers in Ukraine tell Polygon that their employees are taking up arms to defend their country. Some claim they have stayed put, unable to flee their home amid airstrikes and artillery bombardments.

Tymur Solod (Pingle Studio’s marketing manager) has spent most of his time searching for safe passage to his team in Kharkiv. His city was shelled by Russian forces for several days.

“The city is being burned to the ground,” Solod told Polygon over the weekend. “We managed to evacuate almost everyone. […]We are the last of our kind, there are very few left. [are] organizing an evacuation for them now.”

According to him, a small group of developers would be moving west towards the safety and security of Lviv. Some others, however, chose to remain behind.

“Some people of our team volunteered to [join the] regular army and territory defense units,” Solod said. “The company [keeps paying a]Everyone, particularly those who are new to the workforce, gets a salary [the] army.”

Red Beat’s lead game designer Yaroslav Seingaevskiy said that Red Beat members have volunteered to defend the territory, or TD.

“One of our devs […] is in Chernihiv’s TD,” Singaevskiy told Polygon. “Basically, that’s a paramilitary force that acts as a backup for main army forces. Yet TD units often take part in combat too — and they are pretty effective at it thanks to high mobility and general knowledge of the area. […]It is our hope and prayer [they] will be okay as well as Chernihiv’s citizens.”

Developers are making every effort to ensure that their workers get paid. Frogwares CEO Wael Amr said that although work in the country is at a halt, team members from outside Ukraine have been helping to keep the lights on.

“We have some versions of previous games which we lined up weeks ago to release so we are working on them how best we can,” Amr wrote. “But the main focus of our team as a whole is on helping where we can with info, organizing transport or evacuation for those who require it, and checking in on everyone two or three times a day.”

The situation for the Kyiv-based WeaselToken team of Alex Molodkin, Anastasia Kuznetsova and Anastasia Kuznetsova is slightly more difficult. Molodkin and Kuznetsova tell Polygon that they are sheltering inside their apartment building, along with Molodkin’s mother and grandmother. The hallway is their main area, and they avoid any windows or walls which could be subject to gunfire. Molodkin says he’s doing what little he can to keep their game project going using the city’s damaged cellular network. According to Molodkin, they sleep in shifts and listen for the sound of an air raid siren.

Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images

“Both leaving the city and living in some shelter for a prolonged period of time is not an option in our case due to various health-related issues, especially my grandmother’s legs,” Molodkin told Polygon. “However, our evacuation bags are packed up, so we’re ready to leave at a moment’s notice.”

“It’s still very hard to concentrate on anything for more than half an hour,” he continued. “No one really prepares you for war in the 21st century, so it’s very hard to just get accustomed to it in a few days and go on with your regular business. Your mind just constantly goes back to the topic of madness happening all around, and there’s no escaping it.”

Multiple developers told Polygon that they are deeply concerned that Russian forces have captured nuclear power plants in the region, including Chernobyl and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — the largest in Europe. Numerous developers also called for the United States and NATO to establish a no fly zone in the area. This is a move western leaders fear could cause open conflict among nuclear-armed enemies.

Molodkin, however, remains optimistic, just like so many other developers with whom we’ve been in touch.

“Currently, we just focus on surviving and supporting those we can. It’s very hard to predict anything beyond, as the war’s outcome isn’t really something we control,” Molodkin said. “Everyone here is very optimistic about our armed forces’ chances of victory. We are proud of our people — they are putting up one hell of a fight and clearly will never give up. That goes for us too.”