Dan Vávra

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 one of the creators of action video games Mafia and Mafia II and the medieval role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Dan Vávra
Born
Daniel Vávra

(1975-09-02) 2 September 1975[1]
Rychnov nad Kněžnou, Czechoslovakia
OccupationVideo game writer, game director, game designer

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] Around 2005,[13] he worked on another project, a third-person shooter game Hi-Tech, but it was cancelled. His last project for Illusion Softworks (renamed as 2K Czech) was Mafia II. He left the studio in 2009.[14]

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.[15] The game was set to be delivered in 2015 through episodic iterations, and was successfully funded via Kickstarter. Repeatedly delayed, the game was eventually released in 2018, with more promised content released since then.[16]

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.[17][18][19] Vavra associated his views on a progressive bias in video game journalism while using the protest hashtag #GamerGate.[17][20]

In 2012, Vávra led a protest against the arrest of Ivan Buchta and Martin 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.[21]

Video games

References
  1. 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. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  4. "Řecká pomsta českým vývojářům. Dan Vávra polemizuje s Janem A. Novákem". Reflex.cz.
  5. "DanielVavra". Twitter. 3 February 2018.
  6. "Bio - Hellboy". danielvavra.com. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  7. "Military Paintball Community Camping 2010 < Articles - Hellboy". danielvavra.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  8. "ZINE 13: The Demoscene and modern games". zine.bitfellas.org. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  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. "Daniel Vávra Video Game Credits and Biography - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  13. Vávra ⚔, Daniel (17 May 2019). "Around 2005 I was working on scifi game set in 2025 starring a female cyborg". @DanielVavra. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  14. Doskocil, Jan (13 May 2011). "Daniel Vávra přetáhl pár tvůrců Mafie II". Eurogamer.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  15. "I do care for a next-gen medieval RPG with no fantasy • Eurogamer.net". Eurogamer.net. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  16. "Kingdom Come: Deliverance release date, platforms and gameplay news". Tech Advisor. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  17. Totilo, Stephen. "My E3 Meeting With A Pro-GamerGate Developer". Kotaku. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  18. "An interview with Daniel Vavra: GamerGate and the gaming industry". techraptor.net. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  19. "Vavra reacts to accusations of racism". Gamestar.de. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  20. "from:@DanielVavra #gamergate - Twitter Search". archive.is. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  21. "Jailed ArmA 3 devs send letter from prison as Czech protests escalate • Eurogamer.net". Eurogamer.net. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
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