The games industry has lost an enormous talent today with the announcement that Andrii Korzinkin, animator of Metro Exodus, has been killed in combat in Ukraine.
The announcement came initially from Leonid Stepanov, one of his friends and coworkers who is also in Ukraine at this time, who posted to Twitter.
“Andrii ‘Nizrok’ Korzinkin died while performing a combat mission in the struggle for independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Stepanov said. “A talented animator, incredible person and real hero. Rest in peace, friend. We all miss you.”
His death was confirmed a day later on LinkedIn when a friend and former coworker, Vitalii Keda said the following:
“Andrii “Nizrok” Korzinkin died while performing a combat mission in the struggle for independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. A talented animator, a great friend and real hero,” Keda said.
He added, “Andrii was an awesome human being, very responsive and supportive, always ready to help, incredibly responsible and dedicated person. I’ve known him since our work together at 4A Games on Metro Exodus and he always stood out with his dry humor and strive for excellence. His positive attitude has always got me fueled up to keep going and insiped not to hesitate to face difficulties both professionally and personally. You will be missed, dear friend. Rest in peace. Heroyam slava!”
Andrii Korzinkin, nicknamed Nizrok by his friends, had most famously worked as an animator on 4AGame’s Metro Exodus, but also had spent time with Gunzilla Games.
Most recently, he had begun working for Remedy Entertainment, creators of games such as Control, Max Payne, and Alan Wake, in September. While he loved his job and what he did, he had always held onto a dream of eventually creating his own game from the ground up. Unfortunately, due to the war, he will no longer have the opportunity to do so.
Korzinkin was not the only developer who was affected by the war in Ukraine. During the opening months of the war, GSC Game World, a Ukrainian game developer based out of Kyiv, announced that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl would be on an indefinite hold while their country fights against the Russian invasion.
In the following months, development of the game started up again slowly, but the game is now most likely not going to release until late 2023 at the earliest.
As always, we hope this war ends quickly and the lives of the people in Ukraine find some semblance of normalcy soon.
