Благодарение на Македонска Асоцијација за Развивање Игри (МАГДА) имав можност да присуствувам на една од најголемите Конвенции и Конференции во Европа – Game Industry Conference (GIC) која се одржува секоја година во Познан, Полска на почетоците од месец октомври. Секоја година настанот станува се поголем и поголем, и после Ковид пандемијата луѓе со нетрпение чекаат да пристигне октомври да можат да одат на настанот бидејќи се работи за огромно нешто што не се опишува со зборови. Стотици говорници и луѓе што предаваа, илјадници посетители, едноставно премногу работи на едно место.

Благодарение на оваа Конференција имав можност да се запознаам со Господинот Michał Słapa (Михаул Слуапа), човек или може да се каже легенда којшто работи во гејминг индустријата околу 15 години. Неговото работно искуство започнува уште во далечната 2006 година во најпознатото Полско, но и светско студио за игри CD Projekt Red каде што има работено на легендарните игри „The Witcher и The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings“ во малку помала улога како главна одговорност му била проширување на постоечкиот систем за пронаоѓање патеки и движење. Другите задачи вклучувале различни аспекти на играта, како што се откривање подобрување на кодот, алхемиски систем, некои програми за Gui и други задачи поврзани со механиката на играта.

После големото искуство во CD Projekt Red, Michał Słapa (Михаул Слуапа) го прави првиот од неколкуте големи трансфери во студиото коешто од 2009 година до 2012 година го прави трансферот во Flying Wild Hog. Таму неговото работно искуство го посветува на Shadow Warrior и на Hard Reset каде што го започнува патешествието како AI програмер. Тие две игри на неговата кариера влијаат маестрално за да биде таму каде што е сега.

Иако најголемиот голем трансфер до сега му е од CDPR во FWH, сепак компанијата CDRP повторно го бараат во 2012 година кога фирмата започнува да работи на The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt … На CD Projekt Red многу им било потребно Senior AI програмер којшто ќе го направи светот да е по жив и единствениот човек којшто ги исполнувал нивните барања бил Michał Słapa (Михаул Слуапа). По успехот на The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt он се задржува во компанијата и доаѓа на функција Lead AI програмер да работи на големата Cyberpunk 2077.

Michał Słapa (Михаул Слуапа) поради големите притисоци коишто ги има во CDPR самоволно си дава отказ од компанијата да работи во други студија и што е можно подалеку од CD Projekt Red. Причините за неговото заминување биле притисоци од многу кранчање, останување повеќе од потребно прекумерно работење и многу други работи. Од CDPR заминува во Slightly Mad Studios да работи на сосема нови проекти коишто се игри со возење и тркање. Работи на Project Cars 3 и Fast and Furious Crossroads. Овде поминува многу убаво време, но сепак игрите на коишто работи не се по негов шарм.

И на крај … Michał Słapa (Михаул Слуапа) се враќа таму каде што се чувствува како дома, во Flying Wild Hog и работи како Senior AI програмер на проекти коишто треба да ги видиме во блиска иднина! Лоши времиња прават силни мажи!

Интервјуто е на Англиски бидејќи беше правено на Англиски да можат сите да го читаат <3

Q: Who is Michał Słapa and what motivated you to dive into the Gaming Industry?

Ohh … Damn … That was a really long time ago for me haha. So, I was starting to work on Games and in the gaming industry in the last few months from my college studies. I was finishing my studies and slowly starting my career. And … I can’t believe that I am saying this, but that was 17 years ago. Now I feel so old …

I started as a Coder on the famous „The Witcher“ game which at that time around 2006/07 was supposed to be the greates game ever created from Poland. In the end it was, but we had so much weight to carry back then. Even tho CDPR was not as huge back then as it is right now, believe me, to be still in College and to get an opportunity to work there is mind blowing. After the first The Witcher I also worked on the second The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, but the experience and knowledge i got from the first game made me the person that I am right now.

After CDPR I left a little bit to work for the second biggest Polish Game Studio „Flying Wild Hogs“ to work on Hard Reset and Shadow Warrior. From the knowledge that I got from CDPR i became an AI programmer.

After FWH. I got my biggest call back then it was by career goal, but from this perspective is good and bad at the same time. The CEO from CDPR called me to go back at CDPR to work as a Senior AI Proggramer to work on their biggest game ever – The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. When I got back there I was more than 5 years, i knew everyone from the past, and new people, but I felt like I was at home … But … the last few years was the biggest horror for me! Crunching every day, starting to work on Cyberpunk 2077, and working on the weekend, at some point, I was spending more time at the studio than with my family. For some people that is kinda okay … Good salary, working in CD Projekt Red, and many more, but when you have a family at home, and they have not seen you for a long time … It’s F-ed up.

I left CDPR and a good decision I made was to work remotely from home for an English studio „Slightly Mad Studios“ because I am all the time with my family and I have a lot of time. No crunching no nothing. And it’s intresting that in 2020 COVID-19 hit the world. I was getting motivated to go back and work in a studio, but in the end, we were closed all the time.

At the end of 2021 when the measures got better, I finally started working on-site in a studio, the place where i feel at home and where I don’t feel like someone hates me or likes to beat me … Flying Wild Hog!

Q: As you said it’s an honor to work on the first The Witcher game, right after they bought the franchise. Can you tell us a little bit more of your experience working at CDPR back then? How was it then in the early days?

I would say that at that time the Polish GameDev Industry was building it self and it was such Creative Chaos … It was such a different time back then. I could say back then it was dark and undergound and everyting. When I was starting I was still a Student, it was really hard for me to explain to everyone what I was doing and why I was doing that.

Maybe the most horrific parts back then were the salaries that we were getting. Or to be more specific, the wages we were not getting … It’s 2006-2007-2008, we are in Poland, we are not World Wide Famouse, people looking at you like cultists … Me personally, and a lot of the other colleagues working at CDPR a lot of the time we were sleeping and living in the studio because we did not have money to pay rent for our own places. At this time we all have amazing lives and everything that we want and need, but back then it was Dark.

I always wanted to make games, since I was a kid playing on some Bootleg Consoles because I was not just playing, i was trying to figure out who and how are they making this thing called Video Games! I hade many chances to just give up the GameDev Industry and start working in banks or things like that, but I chose to sleep in the studio because I knew one day all this it will pay off!

Q: From CDPR you went to work at Flying Wild Hog, and you also got a huge Role at that studio, AI programmer. Can you give us some details about what it was like to work with AI 10 years ago and what it’s like now?

Well, Flying Wild Hog back then was much different from today. Back then it was the beginning for them, few guys that had a little bit of money and were trying to invest as much as they could to create their first game, it was all on them. Because they were and still are a Polish-based Studio they were mostly inspired by the studios that were from Poland.

When I started working there the pitch and motivation of the studio was ’We know and love our friends from People Can Fly (another Polish studio) and their games Painkiller. If we can make a game like that, but better, we can be a great studio‘. And with that motivation, we built the first game Hard Reset and we made an amazing product.

Interestingly, everyone is saying that i started as an AI programmer, but i started just as a simple programmer who wants to help. I became the AI guy from the moment that they realized that they needed an AI person who is going to work on the Bosses and the characters. With honor, I am saying that i made every Boss in Hard Reset! And later when i left there i left my Code and everything, and I can say that everything is being built from the things i left there in the past. For me, it’s cool because i left cool things for the new people.

Q: You have back and forth relationship, from the second Biggest GameDev Studio back to where everything started, back to CD Projekt Red. And now working on their two biggest games – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077. Give us some details of how was it going back and working on those two games.

Ohh, going back to CDPR was a challenge. I was called by the CEO of CDRP that they need me there firstly for The Witcher 3 because they are creating the game on a bigger scale. When i started working on The Witcher 3 was probably the hardest for me because i had so much work in a scale way for creating AI for the game. The game always needed more hands to create the game. If you played the game you know it. And maybe because so many people were working on the AI with my, got GOTY.

But … I think from my perspective it was a little bit too much and the game did not need that many AI characters and everything in the game. Maybe from CDPR they are going to hate me for saying this, but from this point of we it was way to much.

Q: Cyberpunk 2077 has so much AI in it because it’s a city with millions of characters and many things. What was harder to make, the AI for The Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk?

I can’t go deep into this question. It’s complicated to answer because it has so many inside information that i can’t share to the public. It’s hard to compare both games for two reasons. On The Witcher 3 i worked from the beginning till the end, and for Cyberpunk 2077 I worked for like a year, not that much. The second reason i would say Cyberpunk 2077 was more easy and more hard at the same time is because we knew what we ere doing because we made The Witcher 3, but at the same time as you said it’s a crowded city, it’s not an Open World.

Q: When Cyberpunk 2077 was released it got really bad feedback and backlashes. As a person who worked on the game, how did you feel when the game was released because you put your name on the game?

I think i left CDRP around 3 years before Cyberpunk 2077 was released, and i left that company for one reason … I knew from the very start that the game was going to have a lot of crunch periods. That’s why i left it and probably i would never go back there!

Of course, the company did not want to be crunched, but they just run out of options. They wanted to process to be „normal“ but me personally and a lot of other people who worked knew, and many were not that prepared.

I have a lot of colleagues who stayed till the very end, and they are still there, and all i can say it’s that they are proud of the product that they made and worked on for years, even tho they knew it’s early and the crunches are going to effect them personally. I’m sorry i can’t share personal details that much, but it’s good that i left on time.

Q: How was for you the change from working on Open World games and AAA games, to working on racing games at Slightly Mad Studios?

I would say that from CDPR going to Slightly Mad Studios was a really ’cool‘ challenge for me because i started working there remotely. At the time i started working there it was rare for people to work remotely on big games! I got the experience before many people even knew that was even possible.

Also it’s funny that before i worked on The Witcher 3 which was the best game of the year, and then i was working on the game Fast and Furious Crossroads which is like the worst game of the year. For many people that is like a failure in life, but for me it was more knowledge for the future, and i loved the stuff i was working. I was implementing AI in Racing Games which was rare for that time.

When i was working on Project Cars 3 i had so much fun because it was such an amazing racing game because it was stable from Day 1 till the last day! Every change i did in the game was good and did not hade bad effects. Every night after work i played it and i was getting stats of is everything good. And it was!

Q: When the pandemic was almost ending you went back to your home studio where you are still working, Flying Wild Hog. Can you share some of the games you worked on?

Damn, i really want to share everything, and i really mean everything that we are working on right now in the Studio because everything i so amazing and i enjoy every day spending there, but… NDA’s man… I can’t say even a word. I can talk how the technology is being used for the games, but the projects, not even a word. I can just say… BE PREPARED!

Q: How much does your work and knowledge of AI effects the games at Flying Wild Hog?

At Flying Wild Hog we are mostly focused on the gameplay because we want to show the people the gameplay so they can have much fun. The most important thing that we are trying to create is vivid and engaging gameplay. The AI is a good tool for that, but you don’t see AI if you are not having fun. The fun is when you interact with the enemies. We are combining the AI with the Gameplay to the biggest level.

If we take for instance Evil West you can see in that game how much is AI affecting the gameplay.

Q: How big is Flying Wild Hog?

I don’t know because the studio is divided in a few cities. We have one in Krakow, one in Warsaw, and Rzeszów, and the thing is because Poland has an amazing infrastructure everyone is coming and going. Like if we go today at Warsaw studio maybe you are going to see 20 people working there, in a month there is going to be 10 or maybe 50 people. Everyone is helping with everything. I am based in Warsaw at the moment because my projects are based in Warsaw. That’s why Flying Wild Hog is making a lot of games all the time.

Q: What is the biggest goal for Flying Wild Hog? Like what are your goals for the next 5 Years?

I would say that I am not the person who can or needs to answer this question because we have a Marketing team who is answering this.

I would just say our goals are to make great games!

Q: And for the end… What motivation or suggestions would give to the people who want to start making games?

Just find the things you are good at an you want to make. Everything is accepted and achievable, you can’t make wrong choice. The market is big, enter the market and find your possition. There is a possition always for everyone!