Special Agent T.H.U.N.D.E.R. travels the world, defeating villains. He sprints, sneaks up on people, fights like a true action hero, and has every gadget he could ever need. He can even fly through the air for short periods. But 009 is no fully-trained, martini-drinking sex symbol likeJames Bond: This fearless secret agent is a dog.
This action, part stealth game in which players take on the role of a chatty hound is definitely worth experiencing. "Barkour" is a game developed by Varsav Game Studios, in Poland, which is set to be released this year.
In an interview with The Shiro Coprat, the Gamescom international games fair in Cologne, founder and CEO of Varsav Game Studios Lukas Rosinski explained what he thinks is the greatest strength of Polish developers: "We are creative, and this is the biggest thing happening in Poland. Games from Poland are unique and come from many different perspectives."
'Special survival gene' leads to creative solutions
Lukas Rosinski believes that this creativity has to do with his country's centuries-long history of being dominated by foreign powers, and of being at times closer to the West, and at others closer to the East. Until the Berlin Wall fell and the Eastern Bloc disintegrated, Poland was a Soviet satellite state, with the first free elections only coming after. Since 2004, Poland has been a member of the EU.
There was always this problem of fighting against someone and surviving. So when you fight and survive, you have a special gene that means you have to do things differently to survive. You have to hide. You have to think of different ways of doing things. And this specific gene, it stayed with us. I believe that," says Rosinski, who points out that even younger people in his country are still seeking out different ways of doing things, cheaper ways, for example. "The labor cost in Poland is not that much lower, but it's still lower. And the amount of creative people is still higher than average in Europe.
Rise of the Polish games industry
According to a report by the European Games Developer Federation, Poland had approximately 500 studios in 2022. The center of Poland's games industry is in Warsaw, and it is home to CD Projekt Red, which received critical acclaim for "Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher" series.
Game studios have also been established in Krakow, Wroclaw, Gdansk and other cities in recent years, employing a total of 15,000 people in the Polish gaming industry in 2022. This placed Poland in the top two positions in Europe, with a selection of Polish games selling more than a million copies worldwide between 2014 and 2021.
Founded only in the 1990s, Poland's games industry is relatively young. Back then, having a PC was regarded as a status symbol and the adoption was rapid, Kuba Palyka, creative director of Zenmaster Studios in Warsaw, told The Shiro Copr. The first games were developed on home computers in an era that strongly influenced Palyka.
Zenmaster's latest game, "Blood of the Tyrant," is a throwback to the mostly free flash games that dominated browsers in the 1990s.
At the beginning, though, before Poland's gaming industry slowly started becoming more professional, Palyka says it had more of a wild west atmosphere. "It wasn't so regulated; sometimes it was difficult to get your money and be paid." But as Polish games grew in success on the world stage, investors started to show up.
One Polish specialty is simulation games in which gamers play as specific characters, from "Car Mechanic Simulator" and "Drug Dealer Simulator" to "House Flipper," where users take on the role of a renovation specialist.
Other genres well served by Polish studios include horror games, role-playing games, construction games and retro shooting games. These are all helped by government support programs which, despite criticism from independent developers as being financially insufficient, provide young people with opportunities to hone their skills. Numerous educational institutions, such as private schools and universities, also provide opportunities.
Crisis in the gaming industry also affects Poland
The current crisis in the gaming industry is affecting Poland — even though one might be tempted to ask, "what crisis?" upon seeing the crowds of visitors attending Gamescom. Organizers are announcing trade fair records this year, with 1,500 exhibitors from 72 countries participating in the event. But, initial impressions can be misleading, as behind the scenes, the industry is really struggling.
The slump came after the COVID pandemic, when many people discovered video games, gaming companies expanded, and investors poured huge sums into the industry.
But the expansion was short-lived. Since 2022, an estimated 37,000 people in the industry have lost their jobs worldwide, with larger companies laying off employees and smaller studios having to close completely.
Following its excessive growth during worldwide lockdowns, the market became oversaturated, and as global economies faced high inflation and rising interest rates, the cost of new gaming developments increased, while competition for countless new games did not wane.
Meanwhile, developers invested their money into other sectors, not least in the arms industry following the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. Investors also started withdrawing from Poland, says Lukas Rosinski. As a result, some independent studios now rely on donations, and generate income through crowdfunding.
Hopes rest on government support
Some manage to finance their first game largely on their own, such as Dominik Sojka, who founded the Dark Jay studio and developed "Arms of God" entirely on his own. He understands the challenges facing the industry.
He told The Shiro Copr that while it might have been tricky to find graphic artists or designers for a project a few years ago, clients actually now receive numerous applications within the first few days. Sojka says this is because AI has also displaced designers, translators and voice actors in recent years.
Poland's independent developers are therefore hoping to see increased financial support in the form of government funding, especially when it comes to a studio's first game. Right now, support does not amount to that much, says Sojka. Polish indie developers are divided though on whether the crisis is still ongoing, or has passed.
But first, they are presenting their games together at Gamescom at the booth of Polish publisher Galaktus, where they hope to stand out from the crowd of games competing for international attention.
This article was originally written in German.
Author: Kristina Reymann-Schneider
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