The Zone: Stalker Stories Steam news

• Latest observed playersNot available
• SteamPulse tracked peak2
• Units sold (VGI)No data available
• Revenue (VGI)No data available
• Review score75% positive
• Total reviews20
• Release dateJun 15, 2023
• DeveloperIlluminated Games
• PublisherIlluminated Games

Genres: Adventure, Indie, RPG, Early Access

Company pages: Developer: Illuminated GamesPublisher: Illuminated Games

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The Zone: Stalker Stories Steam news

The Zone: Stalker Stories news collects recent Steam feed items, update posts, and announcements that SteamPulse can associate with this app.

Latest Steam announcements

• Update on hold - 31 July 2026

  My internet has always been dodgy, since I live in a very remote area, but for the past couple weeks it has been entirely non-functional. Even basic web browsing is impossible, let alone updating a video game. (Writing this post took half an hour of refreshing before the page would load.)(Here's what happens when I try to watch a stream on Twitch.)It's making me nostalgic for how fast and reliable my 56k baud modem was back in the year 2000...The ISP doesn't care, there's nowhere around with a connection I can borrow, and I don't know when I'll be able to secure an alternative. Hopefully with a competitor because these guys suck.I promise I'll be back on the job as soon as I can. Hopefully mid-August, late August if I'm unlucky. September if I'm really unlucky.

• Game State - June - 30 June 2026

  There's not enough new content this month to justify an update, since things are speeding up for me at work and I haven't been able to put much time into Zone. However, we've still got our artists working away on new designs. Take this fun little guy for example:Once we get his other poses finished, he'll be found in the Cinema, and there's another new enemy in the works for the Power Plant.As usual the biggest bottleneck has been environments. We still haven't been able to find an artist to reliably crank out good isometric stuff, but we keep looking. If you know anyone, please, tell them to get in touch!I hope to have more to show you next month. In the meantime, take care, and see you in the Zone...

• v0.8 - The Bug Massacre - 29 May 2026

  Many hours this month have gone into stability and QoL. Due in large part to our lovely players, I managed to track down and fix literally dozens of issues, putting us on the road to 100% stability which I've always wanted.Below is a collective list of changes for v0.8 which includes all the recent patches during May and a few other fixes. It's a long one -- nearly 60 entries(!) -- but definitely satisfying!Another big thank-you to players Samildannach and weinerbutt for their patience in reporting issues and sticking with the game despite them. Without their help I still wouldn't even know about 90% of these!Consider it proof that you can make a massive difference to small indies like us just by getting involved -- with reviews, bug reports, or even just letting us know that you like what we're doing.v0.8 Changelog:Added feature to destroy Cursed equipmentAdded animation for curing Ail…

• Hotfix v0.7.9.5.15 - 27 May 2026

  Changelog: Fixed infinite loading issue at end of Chapter 1

• Hotfix v0.7.9.5.14 - 26 May 2026

  Changelog: Crashes should no longer occur following a successful job board mission Fixed issue after curing the Fractured ailment Cards that reduce Max Stamina should no longer reduce it permanently Stun tooltip will no longer crash on hover

• Patch v0.7.9.5.12 - 15 May 2026

  Changelog v0.7.9.5.12: Lead Container stash should now spawn properly in Power Plant Added upgrade option for off-hand ring slot Increased size of buffs information bar Fixed some Ailments not being cured properly Radiation ailments can no longer double up Fixed Reload Rifle and Reload Revolver cards getting mixed up

• Hotfix v.0.7.9.5.10 - 13 May 2026

  Changelog v.0.7.9.5.10: Dominica should now properly return after going missing on new saves -- IMPORTANT NOTE: Old saves where Dominica is gone are non-viable, but can be sent to me for manual repair (check the Issues & Troubleshooting thread on the Discussion forums) Finishing combats or reloading in Power Plant waste room no longer results in getting stuck Fixed Opportunities in Train Yard train container not working Ambushes en route from Esper to Train Yard can no longer lock up the game Fixed music not playing in some story segments Game will no longer crash when items are stolen from a stash

• Patch v0.7.9.5.7 - 11 May 2026

  Changelog v0.7.9.5.7: New Opportunity in Hospital Fixed some Hospital encounters repeating unintendedly Hospital combats should no longer infinitely repeat Fixed Hospital top floor light level

• Patch v0.7.9.5.6 - 11 May 2026

  Changelog v0.7.9.5.6: Fixed stealth menu not being clickable in some environments Fixed Wharf crane cabin interior Fixed item-related crashes on Blue Potion, Ore Chip Cinema sub-area entrance Opportunity no longer repeats Fixed Rufus side quest not finishing properly

• Patch v0.7.9.5.5 - 10 May 2026

  Changelog v0.7.9.5.5: Stealth encounter menu no longer crashes Fixed persistent crashes after acquiring certain permanent innate buffs Fixed crash when reaching top of stairs in Power Plant waste room Fixed final out-of-bounds error in Power Plant

• Hotfix v0.7.9.5.4 - 10 May 2026

  And another hotfix! When I say bugs get fixed whenever people report them, I mean it. Changelog v0.7.9.5.4: Fixed crashes when encountering Jolly Ghost anomaly in Power Plant Player should no longer spawn out of bounds in Power Plant Fixed other Power Plant crashes Fixed issue with some roaming Power Plant enemies

• Patch v0.7.9.5.3 - 10 May 2026

  This one feels a little big to just call a hotfix, so I'm calling it a patch instead because it fixes a whole bunch of issues. The majority of these are directly thanks to all the bug reports sent in by player Samildannach -- big shoutouts and appreciation! Changelog v0.7.9.5.3: Fixed several issues with Power Plant cave exploration Fixed crashes at the end of certain side job missions Fixed issues with Local Problem side job Fixed crash when ambushed while returning to Esper Loading into interactive story segments should no longer cause buttons to become unresponsive Game now autosaves after side job completion Game now creates a backup of the previous save when saving Fixed Shadow NPC sprite disappearing when reloading on certain story segments Fixed last line getting cut off on side job mission briefings

• Hotfix v0.7.9.5.2 - 9 May 2026

  Changelog v0.7.9.5.2: Fixed broken transition to Cinema from world map Fixed unintended random combats appearing in Hospital biome Stealing items during side jobs should no longer break the item Ending certain side jobs (such as the Power Plant cave) should no longer crash the game

• Hotfix v0.7.9.5.1 - 8 May 2026

  Changelog v0.7.9.5.1: Fixed crash when loading after defeating Train Yard boss Added extra error logging for combat Stamina

• v0.7.9.5 - Cinema 2 - 7 May 2026

  Whew! Cinema 2 update is now live, with as many as 5 minutes to spare. I'm not quite done with the Cinema environment yet. There's still some new enemies in the pipeline and some polish I'd like to apply, but the exploration is all in place, featuring a number of new exploration mechanics and puzzle-type stuff. Plus the new area looks really cool.I also managed to locate a few nasty bugs, including one that made the entire Hospital biome crash on load. Really sorry if you ran into this problem -- it should be under control now.Full list of changes included below. As always, let me know if you run into any issues and I will fix them. If there is a bug in the game, it's only because no one has reported it. So please don't wait for me to maybe stumble on it by chance!I badly need some sleep now, but I shall see you in the Zone...v0.7.9.5 Changelog: Remaining areas of Cinema environment are…

• Second Cinema update: ETA 7 days - 30 April 2026

  So I was on track to get the next Cinema update out on the 30th... and then I got hit with food poisoning on Monday, which left me basically useless all week. It's been an unpleasant time to say the least and I still don't feel very well.I'm going to make up for lost time over the next week and push the update out to you then. As always, I appreciate your patience, everyone -- the life of an indie dev is a long list of delays and setbacks, but we soldier on.

• Game State - March - 30 March 2026

  Development continues to grind onward! I've been working more on environments, including -- since I had the assets -- this experiment that might look familiar:(I wonder where we've seen these things before...)It's been kind of a pain in the arse to do, since the engine wasn't really set up for large isometric environments with a lot of overlapping stuff, but as a proof of concept it has confirmed that we can make the old top-down stuff a thing of the past. We'd just need new art.(As always, if you know any competent artists who'll work for budget indie rates, tell them to get in touch!)The last part of the Cinema is still coming along, the final boss should be done sometime in April, and I hope to get the last bits of Cinema writing finished up then too. In addition we've got at least one unique new enemy for the jungle area coming soon as well. That's all I have to show off for now. St…

• v0.7.8.9 - February Update - 24 February 2026

  I managed to put in quite a few hours this month, and it shows, 'cause the second part of the Cinema is very close to being done. The primary bottleneck now is the art for the boss enemy, which is in progress. Human art takes time but we all know it's quite simply better.The party piece for this update, aside from important fixes for serious issues, is something I've hinted at before -- 8-way walking animations! This makes the player sprite feel much more at home in our expanding collection of isometric environments. (What's this? You... You can move diagonally?!)The current crop of animations are temp, intended to be replaced as soon as feasible, but they'll do for now. I'm still planning to expand on player movement with running animations, and a proper dying animation as well.On top of that, the player sprite will now respond better to grav anomalies, and I've added support for chang…

• v0.7.8.5 - Cinema 1 - 7 January 2026

  It has taken much time and many new systems for handling larger isometric environments, but today I can finally unveil the first half of the Cinema.(Don't worry, it's not all in black & white.)Normally the Cinema environment shouldn't unlock until later in the game, but I've decided to make it accessible from Chapter 2 while the game is in Early Access, so you can experience the full contenty goodness more easily.It's still missing a few planned refinements, but first I need to recover from the late nights I've been putting in to meet my own arbitrary deadline. That's just how we roll around here -- when we make promises, we keep 'em.Thus we continue to grind a little bit closer to 1.0 every month.Full list of changes included below as is traditional. Let me know if you run into any issues and I will fix them -- if there is a bug in the game, it's only because I don't know about it.Now…

• First Cinema update: ETA 7 days - 31 December 2025

  The holidays have been causing delays for the artists and me, but regardless I'm planning to release the first half of the Cinema environment next week.(I just received the last few assets for this fun little guy!)Most of this week will be spent animating his remaining poses and designing his combat stats/script. There's also a couple more things to work out about the level but I'm making good progress.The new player walk animations are nearing completion as well, so that may be a feature to look forward to in the February update... Once I completely rework how the directional animations function. ːsteamfacepalmːExciting times ahead. I'll see you in the new year!

Patch notes and updates