iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 27/09/2026

I'll make sure to extend the trailer song and put it on the soundtrack release.

Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 18/09/2026

The prototype is drastically behind on sound design, it still uses a lot of old placeholders, has plenty of missing cues, and currently represents only a tiny portion of my work. I'm hoping to show you actual progress in this area sometime later!

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 18/09/2026

Chat, it's time. I'm the sound designer and music composer for this game, and the team is trying to build something really cool, so please go check out the crowdfunding page! There's a playable prototype available for download.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 16/09/2026

Apparently they ran those before, but no word on whether it's still the case.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 15/09/2026

Too old for junior, to inexperienced for middle, no shipped projects, unwanted nationality, low k/d ratio in Call of Duty. Yeah, I am never getting employed in this industry.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 07/09/2026

— Oh, this library is definitely made in England! — How can you tell?

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 05/09/2026

That's precisely how I found you!

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 03/09/2026

In regards to long form stuff, it can definitely be put into a resume under direction and animation. Animation wise, you'll just cut a one minute reel of the best scenes. Direction wise... they'll have to watch the whole thing to judge, it's impossible to cram that into a short form thing.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 01/09/2026

I was so proud and excited that I immediately archived the original audio track without the music, and it's been traveling from hard drive to hard drive ever since, lol.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 01/09/2026

On January 22, I was approached for a very urgent job, and on 23rd the trailer got released. 90% of what you hear came straight from the game files as I basically had very little time to work on it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6zU...

youtube.com

Official Insurgency Launch Trailer

YouTube video by Insurgency

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 01/09/2026

Produced by Deviant Pictures Films, Insurgency's launch trailer was my very first paid sound design gig, and it was also my first big project. I started seriously dabbling in noises just several years prior.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 01/09/2026

If you ever feel like your methods and practices are weird, and you lack valuable experience, remember that there are people out there who do things even weirder. It's the results that matter the most. Everything else can be picked up when needed.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 01/09/2026

I edit and process audio in Audacity (with plugins of course), I compose music in Studio One. Never touched Pro Tools, don't know what they use in the industry.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 01/09/2026

I do all my cinematics in Source Filmmaker and edit them in Vegas, from color to sound. Surely, I moved to Source 2 five years ago, but the tool and the working process remain the same. I tried Blender and Unreal, I tried Premiere and Resolve. Didn't click.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 01/09/2026

I've never been in a studio environment, I rarely join calls, if ever. I network through social media and "friends of friends", I don't know how to use LinkedIn. I've only had two interviews in total in gaming industry since 2017.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 01/09/2026

I have not a single AAAA or AAA title under my belt, NDA or not. Last time I did something for a big studio was in 2014, and even then it was done hastily and delivered over Google Drive. I have not a clue how big professionals do things.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 01/09/2026

I have zero industry experience. None. I don't know how to use issue trackers, I need a GUI for version control, I deliver my files through Dropbox. I don't have templates, I restart or reuse every time. I don't use industry standard tools, I don't know workflows and pipelines.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 31/08/2026

A game I made for a jam 5 years ago was downloaded 780 times and sold 3 copies. In my book, it's a massive success, but I'd love to watch a 15-minute video on it explaining why it was a failure, and why the studio behind it (me) will soon be shut down.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 31/08/2026

🦀🦀 DMs are back! 🦀🦀

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 30/08/2026

Friend streaming Stalker, sees one of the bandits pushing crates and barrels mid-gunfight, yells "Fuck you, Sam Altman, the singularity is here and it's Ukrainian!"

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 30/08/2026

I don't think I'm getting my DMs back, lol. Sent an e-mail to bluesky support, they replied 12 hours later with a generic, out of context "have you tried turning it off and on again" type reply. FML.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 28/08/2026

My favorite game dev trope is when a game needs profile pictures for characters to use in briefings, documents, news, etc. so they just use raw model viewer screenshots or (more recently) test renders from the CGI contractor, with little to no editing, lol.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 28/08/2026

@support.bsky.team hey, bestie! How long does it usually take for DMs to unlock and return back to normal after getting a suspension? Had some important correspondence in there, but now all I see is "Account inactive." :(

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 28/08/2026

Bsky absolutely struggles with some of the pixels in this one, lol

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 28/08/2026

They added battle royale to SFM, but I'm bad at it

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 28/08/2026

I have no DMs and I must scream.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 28/08/2026

Finally got my bsky account back from suspension. Don't worry, Altman, my hard drive lived after all.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 17/08/2026

I don't take death threats seriously. Like, what, are you coming to Moscow? Are you seriously coming to 55.76031689292464, 37.62711100026519 just to kick my ass? Nah.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 16/08/2026

We initially used FMOD purely for dynamic music, and regular sound cues for sounds, but then I decided to just move everything there to have more flexibility and effects. Got really tired wrestling Unreal's default reverb, too, lol.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 15/08/2026

Oh it was your video that inspired me to do this!

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 15/08/2026

We're migrating to @fmodstudio.bsky.social audio middleware, so I decided not to write fat stacks of documentation and instead went down the "Audio Museum" route where other team members can dissect examples and look up best practices.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 15/08/2026

I will see you all thrive, and I will see you all prosper. One way or another, you all will get through whatever struggles you're facing.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 09/08/2026

The scary strings I used in this music part aren't helping either, lmao

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 28/07/2026

I find it so fucked that the closest people I vibe with are at least 700 km away from me, and the people I vibe the most with are ~10 000 km away. It suuuuuucks.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 23/07/2026

I've had a fairly nice experience working with Ren'Py, it's the most popular and extensive one. Its syntax is pretty easy to learn. TyranoBuilder is nice and visual, very easy to use. Heard good things about Monogatari but never tried it, can't vouch for it.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 18/07/2026

If I hear another person go "How are you so talented and still unemployed and unknown?" I'll start killing people.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 13/07/2026

We plan to have proximity chat be affected by the world i.e. have echoes, get muffled, etc. I feel like it would compliment the co-op horror gameplay fairly well. A lot to experiment with, of course, but I am genuinely surprised how simple, yet powerful FMOD is.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 13/07/2026

Check this out. I proposed immersive voice chat where it'd sound like it's actually being transmitted through a radio, complete with interference and glitches shown at the end, then quickly prototyped it in FMOD. I didn't think it would work. Nik implemented it in one evening.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 09/07/2026

Literally Russian playbook lmao. Our dumbfucks did precisely this a few years ago, so now publicly discussing anything queer is deemed, and I quote, "LGBT propaganda". A third of the federal assembly are closeted gays, but you can no longer discuss that because it's a direct threat to the state!!!1

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 08/07/2026

It stands out a bit purely because there's no motion blur. Each droplet and individual "chunk of water" looks sharp, that's why it might seem "weird".

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 08/07/2026

I don't think it's bad. It's stylized and doesn't look out of place to me. If you didn't mention that, I wouldn't have thought about it. Your other options are either SFM-tier sprite particles, or hyper realistic simulation that would melt your GPU and look wildly out of place, lmao. Keep it.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 07/07/2026

If you've never had to buy stolen credit cards from some shady organization located in Hong Kong using overpriced crypto, then you have not lived a full life. Shrimple as that.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 07/07/2026

I am now making fun of anybody who has unrestricted access to international banking and payment providers. We are now sanctionmaxxing up in this bitch. Oh, you got Paypal working? Visa, MasterCard? Pathetic.

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 02/07/2026

Shitting all by yourself, handsome? 😏

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 25/06/2026

My DMs are open, but I can also send you my Discord username if that's more preferred!

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 24/06/2026

I think I can help! Dark, moody, and atmospheric are very much my specialty. You can listen to some of my works on Bandcamp: vladislavzh.bandcamp.com My pricing doesn't bite, or so I've heard, and I'm pretty flexible in this regard as well. Feel free to reach out!

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Vladislav Zharkov @vladislavzh.net · 22/06/2026

Sounds like Xsens, they're the only ones who have an unreasonably expensive software subscription nowadays. Noitom's free, Rokoko has a free tier. Finding a buyer would be a massive headache anywhere outside of the US. If you can't find one, keep it. You never know when the stars will align.

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