Daniel Vávra

Daniel Vávra
Born (1975-09-02) 2 September 1975[1]
Rychnov nad Kněžnou, Czechoslovakia
Occupation Video game writer, game director, game designer

Daniel Vávra (born 2 September 1975) is a Czech video game writer, director, designer and co-founder of Warhorse Studios. He is best known as the author of crime action video games Mafia and Mafia II and the medieval role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Biography

Daniel Vávra was born in Rychnov nad Kněžnou,[2][3] before moving to Prague.[1][4] He has partial Jewish ancestry.[5] Since childhood, Vávra has enjoyed working with computers, drawing comics, and taking photos.[6] He studied at the School of Applied Arts in Turnov and started his career as a graphic designer at advertising company TIPA. He has written numerous articles for the Czech gaming magazine Level[6] and other gaming magazines, and is also a passionate player of paintball.[6][7] He was also an active demoscener, under the pseudonym Hellboy, as part of the group Broncs.[8]

Illusion Softworks/2K Czech

In 1998, Vávra joined Illusion Softworks as a 2D artist. His first project was Hidden and Dangerous, for which he created some textures.[9] His next project was the highly acclaimed Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven,[10] for which he was the lead designer, screenwriter and director. He later became the leading figure of Illusion Softworks's Prague subsidiary[11] and also worked on Wings of War, released in 2004.[12] He worked on another project, Hi-Tech,[13] but it was cancelled. His last project for Illusion Softworks (renamed as 2K Czech) was Mafia II. He left the studio in 2009.

Warhorse Studios

In 2011, Vávra co-founded Warhorse Studios. He is currently working on Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a role-playing video game that uses Cry Engine 3 set in a medieval-themed open world environment.[14] The game was set to be delivered in Q4 2015 through episodic iterations, and was successfully funded via Kickstarter.

On 9 November 2012, Vávra led a protest against the arrest of I. Buchta and M. Pezlar, Bohemia Interactive Arma 3 developers arrested during their holiday on the Greek island Lemnos. The protest was held outside the Greek embassy in Prague.[15]

On 2 April 2015, Vávra (Warhorse Studios) announced that Kingdom Come: Deliverance was delayed until Summer 2016[16], and the game was later delayed until 2017.[17] The game was released on February 13, 2018.[18]

Political views

He has been a vocal critic of censorship and what he believes is a progressive bias in video games journalism, in which he claims that it falsely accuses the gaming community of sexism.[19][20] He has, however, denounced misogyny,[21] and said that "a large sum of gamers are teenage boys, who [kind of] naturally tend to do stupid things and are often quick on conclusions and insults. So no, the industry is not misogynist. Stupid people are misogynist."[20] Vavra associated his views on a progressive bias in video game journalism with Gamergate.[19]

Video games

References

  1. 1 2 Obchodní rejstřík na justice.cz, IČ 24155489, Warhorse Studios s.r.o. (formerly Prague Game Studios s.r.o.), Czech
  2. ↑ "Daniel Vávra (Person) - Giant Bomb". Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  3. ↑ "Jay Diesel v rozhovoru pro HipHopStage nabízí nejen slíbenej new mixtape ke stažení!". HipHopStage.
  4. ↑ "Řecká pomsta českým vývojářům. Dan Vávra polemizuje s Janem A. Novákem". Reflex.cz.
  5. ↑ "DanielVavra". Twitter. 3 February 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 "Bio - Hellboy". danielvavra.com.
  7. ↑ "Military Paintball Community Camping 2010 < Articles - Hellboy". danielvavra.com.
  8. ↑ http://zine.bitfellas.org/article.php?zine=13&id=19
  9. ↑ "Mafia 2 - Rozhovor s Danielem Vávrou - na Scorpions.cz".
  10. ↑ "Mafia for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  11. ↑ Tiscali. "Na čem pracuje pražská pobočka Illusionu?". Games.cz.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Daniel Vávra Video Game Credits and Biography - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  13. ↑ "HiTech". YouTube.
  14. ↑ "I do care for a next-gen medieval RPG with no fantasy • Eurogamer.net". Eurogamer.net. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  15. ↑ "Jailed ArmA 3 devs send letter from prison as Czech protests escalate • Eurogamer.net". Eurogamer.net. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  16. ↑ "Kingdom Come: Deliverance delayed until summer 2016". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  17. ↑ "Kingdom Come: Deliverance delayed until next year". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  18. ↑ "Kingdom Come: Deliverance release date, platforms and gameplay news". Tech Advisor. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  19. 1 2 Totilo, Stephen. "My E3 Meeting With A Pro-GamerGate Developer". Kotaku. Retrieved 2018-02-20.
  20. 1 2 "An interview with Daniel Vavra: GamerGate and the gaming industry". techraptor.net. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  21. ↑ "Vavra reacts to accusations of racism". Gamestar.de. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
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