VGTimes Interview with the Developers of Satellite Odyssey: Jupiter — The Soviet Take on a Space Survival Horror

At gamescom asia 2025, VGTimes caught up with the Russian indie team Antifreeze Games — creators of last year’s adventure thriller Satellite Odyssey: Prologue. The studio is now hard at work on its sequel, Satellite Odyssey: Jupiter. Game director Sergey Karetnikov shared exclusive details about what to expect.

VGTimes: Tell us more about the new project. What is Satellite Odyssey: Jupiter going to be like?

Sergey: The first game is already out. The Satellite Odyssey series explores humanity’s journey into space — but in an alternate history where the Soviet Union succeeded in conquering the cosmos. Prologue was a short, story-driven experience, about an hour long, and it received positive reviews on Steam. Now we’re developing the sequel, Jupiter, which we’ve brought a playable build of. It’s no longer just a walking simulator — this time it’s a full-fledged survival horror in the spirit of the Resident Evil 2 remake, with roughly ten hours of gameplay.

The story takes place on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. The USSR has built a city there, but it’s been overtaken by a rogue AI that seized control through an army of clones. The protagonist is a young woman on the run, trying to uncover the truth behind the uprising.

VGTimes: When do you expect to release it?

Sergey: We’re aiming for late 2026 or early 2027. Playtests will open as soon as this November — we want players to experience it early and share their feedback.

VGTimes: How large is your team?

Sergey: Only six people. We’re a small indie team, but we’re putting everything into this. The “Soviet Resident Evil” is coming!

VGTimes: What unique features will set Jupiter apart from Resident Evil?

Sergey: For now, we’re focused on nailing the Resident Evil 2 formula — achieving that alone will be a milestone for us. We’ve brought a demo to test the core systems, and over the next year we’ll start adding unique mechanics. Expect experimental weapons like a Tesla gun and an ultrasonic emitter — things you don’t see in Resident Evil.

But our biggest feature is the setting: imagine a mix of BioShock’s atmosphere with Soviet-era sci-fi. It’s retro-futuristic, nostalgic, and distinctly different. We’re still exploring gameplay innovations, but the foundation is solid.

VGTimes: Sounds a bit like Atomic Heart.

Sergey: Definitely, especially the first game. You can also spot influences from Prey and Deathloop. We studied a lot of titles to understand what works — and tried to absorb their best elements.

VGTimes: Who is your main audience?

Sergey: The first game mostly reached players from the CIS region. We don’t have a global publisher yet, but we’re looking for one. Prologue performed well in our market, but we’re aiming to expand internationally this time.

VGTimes: Is this your first international showcase?

Sergey: Not quite — we’ve been to events in Cyprus and Belarus, but gamescom asia 2025 is our biggest one so far. We hope to make it to Cologne next year for the main European gamescom.

VGTimes: What engine are you using — Unity?

Sergey: Yes, Unity. We considered Unreal Engine, but our experience and tools are stronger with Unity, so we decided to stick with it.

By the way, some fans were surprised we switched from first-person to third-person. We know players liked the original perspective and its atmosphere, but Jupiter takes a different direction. Prologue was more of a narrative walking sim; the sequel aims for a new feel. Maybe in the future, we’ll combine both first- and third-person views again.

VGTimes: Any advice for aspiring developers? How much did Prologue cost to make?

Sergey: For beginners — expect it to be expensive, not just financially but in time and effort. Even with experience, we constantly rebuilt things. We rewrote Prologue’s script four times. Every time we gathered feedback, we realized something didn’t work and started over. That’s what drives up development time and costs.

For us, with four people, it took about two years to complete the first game. It wasn’t easy — and the sequel has an even tighter schedule. We’ll see if we can make the 2026 window.

VGTimes: We wish you luck!

Sergey: Thank you.

Interview conducted by Rodion Ilin.

VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and during this time has attended dozens of exhibitions and festivals where our journalists gathered numerous exclusive materials. For example, at the year 2025 we saw with our own eyes one of Asia's major gaming exhibitions — ChinaJoy in Shanghai.