Maciej Byczyński is a busy man. And there’s no suprise to that, seeing that he’s the head honcho of the Game Day gamedevelopers conference, Imagine Cup 2010 Game Design semifinalist, Ernst & Young’s „Informational Society in Poland” contest finalist, Entrepreneurship Ambassador at the Silesian University, a Chairman of the Scientific Association at said University and – last, but not least – a PricewaterhouseCoopers Student Ambassador. And, yet – despite all of that – he somehow manages to find time to not only be an active member of the Polish game development scene, but also a founder of a death-metal band and… well, a Panzerblog interviewee. Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you… Maciej Byczyński!
 

 

• Panzer Flakes (Jakub Riedel): Hi Maciej. Let’s start off on the right foot here: could you tell us something about yourself? What do you do exactly, what are your passions?
  

Maciej Byczyński: Hi y’all! Basically, I’m still a student, but I managed to find some time for professional work. I’ve got lots of interests, but my most prominent passion are, of course, computer games, the gamedev industry and music, both listening to it and creating it. I intend to associate myself with game development in the future.

• PF: You’ve been doing so many things recently that I don’t know where to start… You’re the main organizer and coordinator of the Game Day gamedevelopers conference, a very cool Polish initiative we would like to know more about. Could you shed some light on it, throw some details at us?
  

MB: Comments and opinions about Game Day 2010 were really positive, which is a good thing – thank you for your support, people! A common opinion that I’ve came across when I was sending out the prospectus for our conference to the media and other interested parties was that there already have been similar conferences out there. And, sure, there are some very interesting events in the same area of interest, but Game Day’s profile was a bit different than what you could find elsewhere. Our main goal was to collaborate with the private sector, show how all of this works in practice, to gather experiences from gamedev companies and independent game designers and build on that. One of our main objectives was to crack through the faulty stereotype that game production is mostly about fun or entertaining yourself. There is a lot of people who don’t get that this is an enormous business. However, we’re going to change things a bit next year. Next Game Day will be held during the summer vacation time. Oh, and of course this year I was massively supported by Łukasz Strąk, a Microsoft’s student-partner.

• PF: Which companies made their appearance at this year’s Game Day?
  

MB: We had a bunch of attention-grabing companies at GD2k10. The whole conference was opened up by Microsoft, represented by Rafał Czupryński, who talked about „Shaders and what they are all about”, and Daniel Biesiada, who’s presentation was about „Game trends: games that people want to play”. Next in line was Artur Ganszyniec, a former CD Projekt employee, who talked about designing and developing story-driven video games, basing on his own experiences with „The Witcher”. He was followed by Nicolas Games, covering a wide spectrum of topics: from game design technologies and tools, through game graphics, up to gamedev’s business aspects. Wojtek Pazdur from The Farm 51 studio was our last speaker, talking about production managment and overall game design, using their current project as an example.

• PF: I really hope that we’ll join that cool cast at the next Game Day. You won’t mind if we take the podium in a swift assault, right? There won’t be any casualties, I promise.
  

  MB: There won’t be any casualties, because everyone at Game Day has „Godmode” switched on! Seriously, though – you’re more than welcome! I’m pretty sure that our next edition will be divided into two days, split accordingly to a thematic profile. I would like to make the first day of the conference a bit lighter, more popular-sciencey, approachable by anyone, while the second day would be a bit more hardcore, aimed at independent and commercial game developers. I really hope to make it a bit more tradeshowish, with lots of fresh news and featurettes.

• PF: „Tradeshowish” sounds good, really good. What I really love about initiatives such as Game Day is that they enable you to take a closer peek at the whole Polish game design industry, check out what’s on the horizon. Any thoughts and observations from this year’s edition?
  

  MB: The overall vast interest in the game design industry, for sure, and the fact that we had an occasion to talk to lots of gamedesigners. There were people who wanted to hear news about one specific game, others wanted to expand their knowledge about game development, others just wanted to meet some interesting people. It really would be awesome if someone went home after Game Day and said to himself: „I’m gonna’ start making video games”. That’s why I wanted to establish a connection between game developers and my university. „Business-education” and „education-business” connections sound really professional, but it’s not an easy task to try and find a way for such a connection to benefit both sides, especially when we’re talking about the game development industry.

• PF: You surely bumped into Nicolas Games at this year’s Game Day, so let me ask you this, maybe you can shed some light on the contradicting information we’re getting… Afterfall: will it be published or not?

MB: Which one, I could ask? Objectively speaking, I think that it will be published. Nicolas Games had a lot on their heads during the last two years and I’ve heard and read that some people have held many things against them. However, some of their difficulties were a result of some of their own essential business exploits, and will be fading away… I’m talking about a sudden change in their business model and their search for a strategic investor. Plus, there’s a substantial problem in the Polish gamedev industry, and every game developer has to deal with it sooner or later. The lack of properly qualified, competent employees. I actually think that’s one of the main reasons we’ve been waiting so long for Afterfall to resurface.

• PF: Well, if anyone needs qualified and competent game developers, our outsourcing studio can help you with that. But let’s leave in-your-face advertising for later. What Polish game are you most anticipated for right now?

MB: A couple of them. I really like CD Projekt’s approach and marketing angle, telling people that The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will be „the best cRPG game we’ve ever seen”. It will surely be polished from every angle: engine, gameplay mechanics, graphics. It may sound a bit colloquial, but all the upgrades and changes can really be a decisive factor in the game’s fight for success. What I’m really most psyched about is how Bulletstorm is going to turn out, a game from the People Can Fly studio, published by EA. During E3 – which you could track online – it actually got more buzz than… Crysis 2! Oh, and there’s Nail’d from Techland, a company I must compliment on finding its way onto the 100 Best Game Developers list, being the biggest game studio in Central and Eastern Europe, according to Great Britain’s surveys and charts. Afterfall: InSanity, which we discussed earlier, is next on my list, I’m really curious about this game and its reception on the European market. Let me refresh your memory, by saying that CD Project will be distributing the game locally, whereas all of Europe – except Poland, Russia and Bohemia – will be covered by The Games Company. Last on my list – the stealthy project from The Farm 51.

• PF: Well, let’s hope that they all will turn out to be hit bestsellers. And since we’re talking about bestsellers here – what’s the best game you’ve ever played?

MB: A „hit game” is a game you can go back to after a while and still have the same amount of fun with it as with the first playthrough. As for the games that were to my liking: Fallout 1 and 2, Heroes of Might & Magic 2 and 3. Their overall atmosphere, stories they set up…

• PF: What about this year?
  

  MB: God of War 3. This game was consistently and flawlessly executed. They took all the great features from part two and multiplied them with new ideas, which turned the game into something monumental. Story, camera work and – most of all – combat were all important ingredients in its success.

• PF: Let’s keep the ball rolling here, let’s create a list, „the best of Maciej Byczyński”. Favorite protagonist in any video game ever?
  

  MB: I’m still quoting the good ol’ „You wanna dance?” from Duke Nukem 3D. Duke was a distinctive, unique character, with a biting tongue and extreme manners. I remember that – when I was still in primary school – I devoted a whole lot of time to Duke. Good times. Shake it baby!

• PF: Ah, yes, the good ol’ Duke… But let’s not venture too far into the duking territories: who’s your favorite secondary character or antagonist in any computer game?
  

  MB: I remember the first time I saw the Butcher, from Diablo 1. I was 10 at the time, I’ve already seen my share of movies about „satan” and „satanists” and I was petrified – to make things even worse, I was almost out of „life potions”!

• PF: I wanted to ask about the most unappreciated game in history, but I guess that title belongs solely to Beyond Good & Evil, so I won’t go there. Instead, why don’t you tell me what’s the best, most awesome gun in computer games history?
  

  MB: Boozar from Fallout 2.

• PF: Give me one question you’d like me to ask the next person I’ll be talking to…
  

  MB: What are the biggest flaws of the Polish gamedev industry?

• PF: Time for our little survey: what’s better, pirates or ninjas?
  

  MB: „Pirates… who pay for music anyway”.

• PF: Thanks for the interview, thank you for your time. Would you like to end this with some kind of a blast, say your goodbyes in some kind of a bizzare, eccentric way, maybe send a word of greeting to the cast of your favorite soap opera?
  

  MB: Greetings to everyone who’s reading the Panzerblog. And now… Let’s rock!

• PF: Thanks for the chat, see you on next year’s Game Day! And until then… Be strong. Eat Panzers.

 
You can find more information on Game Day on its official site (in Polish). If you would like to read more interviews we’ve made in the past, check out our talks with Marcin Przybyłowicz and Oscar Jilsén.