Daniel 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 the lead writer of the video games Mafia (2002), Mafia II (2010) and Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2018).

Daniel Vávra
Vávra in 2020
Born (1975-09-02) 2 September 1975[1]
Rychnov nad Kněžnou, Czechoslovakia
Occupation(s)Video game writer, game director, game designer

Vávra started his career in 1998 at Illusion Softworks, initially working as a graphic artist for Hidden & Dangerous, he went on to become the lead writer of Mafia. After several projects in the mid-2000s, the studio was purchased by 2K Games in 2008 and renamed 2K Czech. The studio was working on Mafia II prior to the acquirement. Vávra greatly struggled with the restructured studio under 2K Games, and left in early 2009, prior to the game's release.[2]

Following his departure, Vávra co-founded Warhorse Studios alongside Martin Klíma in 2011, which would eventually release Kingdom Come: Deliverance in 2018, a medieval role-playing game with Vávra as the lead writer. Warhorse Studios would be sold to Koch Media in 2019 for €33.2m, with Vávra remaining as its creative director.[3]

Biography

Daniel Vávra was born in Rychnov nad Kněžnou,[4][5] before moving to Prague.[1][6] He has partial Jewish ancestry.[7] Since childhood, Vávra has enjoyed working with computers, drawing comics, and taking photos.[8] 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[8] and other gaming magazines, and is also a passionate player of paintball.[8][9] He was also an active demoscener, under the pseudonym Hellboy, as part of the group Broncs.[10]

Illusion Softworks

In 1998, Vávra joined Illusion Softworks as a 2D artist. His first project was Hidden and Dangerous, for which he created some textures.[11] His next project was the highly acclaimed Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven,[12] for which he was the lead designer, screenwriter and director. He later became the leading figure of Illusion Softworks's Prague subsidiary,[13] and also worked on Wings of War, released in 2004.[14] Around 2005,[15] he worked on another project, a third-person shooter game Hi-Tech, but it was cancelled.

2K Games ownership and departure

In 2008, it was announced that 2K Games had acquired Illusion Softworks, and had renamed the studio to 2K Czech.[16] Vavra wrote, and the studio were working, on Mafia II prior to the ownership, and it would release in 2010. Whilst Vavra said nothing at the time, he would later claim he struggled greatly to work under the reformed studio, mainly citing the differences in the structuring systems of major studios compared to the former smaller structure that was used by Illusion Softworks.[17] Vavra has since gone on to state his concerns that major publishers, and the way they are structured, mainly the collective decision making, causes great damage to the gaming industry.[18] He had also presented a full script for a future Mafia III, which was rejected by the higher-ups.

Vavra departed the studio in 2009, with the rejection of his Mafia III script from higher-ups pushing him to leave, alongside mission cuts made to Mafia II.[19][20] Following his departure, the ending of Mafia II was changed from what was on Vavra's original script. He has stated he does not know why this change was made, and that the change in the story does not make any sense to him.[21] Several other original workers at the studio departed either during, or not long after, Mafia II's release.[22]

Warhorse Studios

In 2011, Vávra co-founded Warhorse Studios, and wrote Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a role-playing video game that uses Cry Engine 3 set in a medieval-themed open world environment.[23] 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.[24]

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.[25][26][27] Vávra supported the GamerGate movement.[25][28]

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.[29]

Video games

Filmography

Film

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. "An interview with Daniel Vavra: GamerGate and the gaming industry". TechRaptor. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  3. "THQ Nordic acquires Warhorse Studios in a €33.2m cash deal". GamesIndustry.biz. 13 February 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  4. "Daniel Vávra (Person) - Giant Bomb". Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  5. "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.
  6. "Řecká pomsta českým vývojářům. Dan Vávra polemizuje s Janem A. Novákem". Reflex.cz.
  7. "DanielVavra". Twitter. 3 February 2018.
  8. "Bio - Hellboy". danielvavra.com. Archived from the original on 29 May 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  9. "Military Paintball Community Camping 2010 < Articles - Hellboy". danielvavra.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  10. "ZINE 13: The Demoscene and modern games". zine.bitfellas.org. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  11. "Mafia 2 - Rozhovor s Danielem Vávrou - na Scorpions.cz".
  12. "Mafia for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  13. Tiscali. "Na čem pracuje pražská pobočka Illusionu?". Games.cz.
  14. "Daniel Vávra Video Game Credits and Biography - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  15. 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.
  16. "Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Acquires Illusion Softworks". GamesIndustry.biz. 8 January 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  17. Vavra, Daniel (30 September 2020). "Daniel Vavra Talks About His Original Script for Mafia III". YouTube. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  18. r/pcgaming - This shows exactly why Mafia 3 is a downgrade to the series., retrieved 11 October 2020
  19. Doskocil, Jan (13 May 2011). "Daniel Vávra přetáhl pár tvůrců Mafie II". Eurogamer.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  20. "První mise v Mafii 2 měla být ohromná. A pak to tam nebylo, říká Dan Vávra". iDNES.cz (in Czech). 24 November 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  21. @danielvavra (28 June 2017). "Henry was not the traitor, he was framed by Falcone" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  22. Phillips, Tom (22 July 2011). "Mafia creator founds new studio". Eurogamer. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
  23. "I do care for a next-gen medieval RPG with no fantasy • Eurogamer.net". Eurogamer.net. 22 January 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  24. "Kingdom Come: Deliverance release date, platforms and gameplay news". Tech Advisor. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  25. Totilo, Stephen. "My E3 Meeting With A Pro-GamerGate Developer". Kotaku. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  26. "An interview with Daniel Vavra: GamerGate and the gaming industry". techraptor.net. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  27. Redaktion, Gamestar (17 January 2018). "Vavra reacts to accusations of racism". Gamestar.de. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  28. "from:@DanielVavra #gamergate - Twitter Search". archive.is. 17 May 2019. Archived from the original on 17 May 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  29. "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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