Kyiv Developer Builds Survival Game Mid-Hackathon While Battling Severe Mental Illness

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A Kyiv-based systems architect is participating in the RevenueCat Shipaton 2026 hackathon while developing NICHLYST, a narrative survival game about human fragility under pressure. The developer disclosed clinical PHQ-9 depression scores of 21 and a GAD-7 anxiety score of 16, both indicating severe impairment, with no improvement since May 2026. During the writing of this devlog, an attack drone was shot down roughly 2.5 kilometers from their home, with falling debris killing a two-year-old child and injuring two adults. Despite these conditions, the developer continued advancing the project technically, including building an automated Git pre-commit hook to enforce a strict five-color visual palette across the entire codebase. The developer describes the hackathon as a last-resort effort to build something financially sustainable, relying on a system deliberately designed to function even when its creator cannot.

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