Meet Petr

Hey, Petr. Please, tell us a bit about yourself...

Hey Bohemians, I'm a regular redneck from the Southern Moravia region of the Czech Republic, who is living the dream of being part of the game dev industry since 1999. I have been torn between art and technology from my childhood days, that is why I have degrees in heavy machinery, art restoration, and to make things worse, I'm also a librarian. In the end, I found myself to be good at writing, and I've spent the last two decades as a game and culture journalist for various outlets. Before joining Bohemia Interactive, I founded and ran several successful gaming websites and travelled the world thanks to it. I had a chance to talk to the most significant personas in the game industry, regularly attend any big video game event out there, and poke under the lid of game development in the meantime. Other than that, I love books, music in general, learning languages and any new technology which can be used to do my job better. I like to code in Python (and C++), and building PCs from scratch is my passion and damnation. Sometimes, I feel like an IT support hotline for the whole village.

Can you tell us a random fact about yourself...

I would probably be a professional football/soccer player if it weren't for games, literature, and art in general. I played for various Czech rep. National teams under fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, and scouts from professional clubs were chasing me like crazy at that time. Phew, I'm glad I resisted – the world doesn't need another average "kopačka "(co-patch-ca), who doesn't know what to do with his life after the end of his career.

What was your first positive interaction with video games, that you can remember?

1987, playing The Legend of Zelda on a NES console, brought to me as a gift from my US auntie, who was allowed to visit her family in Czechoslovakia after her escape from the communist country in the sixties. It was kinda tough to rewire the NES adapter to work with our electrical network and sockets. My father was, luckily, an electrician. You should have seen his face when the console booted up. It was like the future materialized before our eyes.

And your most memorable video game moment?

Finishing the Amiga version of Dungeon Master: Chaos Strikes Back after a few months of drawing the maps on paper and trying different approaches without knowing any single word in English. Even navigating the menus was trial and error.

What's your all-time favourite video game? And what sort of game do you like to play generally?

Oh, why do you do this to me!? It is so hard to choose just one game to rule them all. Chrono Cross, Freelancer, Crusader Kings II, Football Manager series, Transport Tycoon, Final Fantasy VI, PES, Ultima series? I don't know... all of them! Anyway, since my job for more than the last two decades was to play and write about games, I learned to like most of the genres. But my favourite is RPG, adventure games, turn-based strategy games, rally games, sports simulations, and space simulations/shooters.

What’s the worst — or most memorable — bug you’ve come across in a video game?

Every bug is annoying or entertaining if it doesn't cost you a few hours of progress. Till the end of my days, I won't forget how buggy the The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall was. I bought the US 1.0 version which, unfortunately, you weren't able to finish without at least the first patch. This game cost me 2,100 Kč (average wage was like 15,000 Kč at this time) and I spent the whole summer trying to earn money for it and a RAM upgrade. Do you realize how hard it was to get hold of a patch file at this time when even computer magazines weren't offering a cover CD with the latest patches… The same story goes for hardcore dungeon Wizards & Warriors from genius designer David W. Bradley who did Wizardry VII. Flawed masterpieces, you can say.

What's your favourite movie, TV show, and/or book?

Finally, this one should be easy, except not! All right, I'll randomly pick my favourites, but don't judge me, I'm old.

Movie(s): black & white masterpiece Marketa Lazarová from František Vláčil and Kubrick's movie poem 2001: A Space Odyssey.
TV show(s): Black Books, Blackadder and Red Dwarf.
Or book(s): Nikolai Gogol – Dead Souls, Yukio Mishima –The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.

And your go-to music playlist is...?

This is my nightmare, someone asking me to name my favourite band or album. You can usually see me with my headphones on, which means I need music for 99% of everything I'm doing. My music playlist varies from black metal through grunge and jazz to folklore music. I'll list only three interprets/bands to give you a clue:

Root – one of the oldest black metal bands in Europe, originating from Brno. Still active.
Emil Viklický – genius jazz piano player from Olomouc. Still alive. Escaped to the US during the communist era.
Mother Love Bone - Apple (album). Sadly dead, like the majority of Seattle-based grunge legends.

So, as a Marketing, Media, Brand and PR manager, what do you do?

Basically, anything which goes out of our company should be under my control. Any information, tweet, FB post, press release, newsletter, etc. It also applies to all marketing graphics, websites, or even videos these days. The most important part of my job is to draft, plan and execute marketing campaigns for our releases together with developers and brand managers assigned to specific projects, be it DayZ, Vigor, Arma, Ylands, or Mini DayZ 2. In the meantime, I'm responsible for our brand and company marketing, planning which event we want to attend, etc. I know it may sound kinda vague, but the bottom line is, I'm a jack of all trades, or maybe dogsbody is more precise. But I'm happy to support all the talented people from the development and marketing teams. The only thing which matters for me is the success of our games.

What do you think are the most important skills / traits to have for someone in your position?

I would say communication is the most important thing. Inside the company and outside as well. You need to move your ass around the offices to ask people around what's happening, how you can help, where is the problem? GameDev is a tough business, release dates are shifting, scopes of the projects are changing from day-to-day, and you need to react minute-to-minute. You have to be on top of the information pipeline. One should also have to be creative to think up a solution when the situation changes, and it also helps a lot if you can talk with both development, management, and partners because all of them have different expectations.

How does it feel to jump from a job as a game journalist to a Marketing & PR Manager in the same industry? (@AceSVK)

It wasn't so hard. I'm doing the same job but on the other side. I can use my experience and my contacts to shape Bohemia Interactive marketing to be more productive, more community-focused, more prominent. I don't want to be obnoxious, but thanks to my insight, Bohemia can do things now, which I was always missing from the gaming companies when I was a journalist. Things that are meaningful for players and journalists.*

What do you enjoy about your job, and game development in general?

Making games is an art, the same art as writing a book, composing music, drawing something, or writing a poem. It is the art of making impossible into reality. I love to be part of the process, I like to help our games shine in front of the media, players, basically the whole world. I know it sounds pompous, but it is the truth. My role in Bohemia Interactive is to let the entire world know what we are doing, why we are doing it, and why it is so special.

Cats or dogs?

Is there anything else you're currently working on in your spare time?

Together with my former colleagues, we are still publishing LEVEL Magazine. I'm helping my friends from Cinemax studios to produce their next indie masterpieces and last but not least, I try to be available for my best friend, who is quadriplegic, whenever possible. She is the most inspirational person in my life.

To finish, tell us one of Petr's Top Tips...

Drink coffee! It will help you when deadlines are tight. Which means, every day.

*Disclaimer: I'm still publisher/editor/writer for LEVEL Magazine in my spare time. I don't cover Bohemia Interactive or similar games in my texts.

Our next Featured Bohemian is right around the corner, so keep an eye on our social media pages for the latest updates. But until then, feel free to learn more about working at Bohemia Interactive by checking out ourCareers Page–we may just have the perfect job opening for you. Until next time...