Ivan Ilko recreated the Nevytsky Castle in the early XVI century – the time of its greatest flourishing – in the game which is his graduation project.
Ivan Ilko studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Kyiv at the Faculty of Architecture. Eventually, he realized that he was interested in virtual architecture more than the real one and started looking for a university where he could study it professionally, but with a creative approach, rather than a programming one. He chose Copenhagen, where he graduated from the Faculty of Visual Design, Games and Media this year.
He chose the topic of his graduation project himself. Ivan decided that he wanted to recreate in game environment the Nevytsky castle during its heyday – the beginning of the sixteenth century. As a result, Ivan received his diploma, and we received a full-fledged game in which we can run, jump and experience the atmosphere of that time. It is important to note that it was all done by one person.
"When I was choosing the theme of the project, I wanted to create a project that would not only be a good example for my portfolio, but also something that could help the community. I love the Nevytsky Castle very much and every time when I am in Uzhgorod I make sure to visit it. And once, when I was there in the winter, I looked at it again and thought: I should recreate it in game environment. I was always curious about how it looked in the past, and now, unfortunately, no one is taking care about it," – Ivan says.
The work on the project lasted 4 months. The developer found all the available documents, drawings and literature that could help to get a full picture of the exterior and interior of the building, as well as the life in and around it. The historian Oleksandr Dzembas from Uzhgorod helped Ivan in this, as he devoted many years of his professional career to the study of the Nevytsky Castle.
"I did not want this project to become just another ‘picture online’, so I made it as close to the real location as possible. Of course, the castle I visualized is not an exact recreation, because I am not a historian or an archeologist, but I did everything as accurately as possible. And of course I wanted this project to look appealing to the end user," – Ivan says.
Ivan and his brother, Bogdan Neymet, also made a virtual 360 tour.
In addition, Ivan made many sketches of the castle, photographs of textures, stones, that are valuable today, and will be even more valuable in a few decades.
In the game, you can move around the castle, in the courtyard, as well as inside the rooms. Currently, it is a game just about exploring the building and the environment of the time. But Ivan does not rule out the possibility of further development of the project and the creation of plots, intricate details, various characters.
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