Jarek Kolář

Jarek Kolář (born Jaroslav Kolář; November 8, 1977)[1] is a Czech video game designer.

In the early 1990s he enjoyed playing LucasArts adventure games, especially Indy III and Monkey Island I.[2] While studying at the secondary school Gymnázium Slovanské náměstí in Brno, he met programmer Petr Vlček and they together created a parody of Monkey Island where Guybrush (transcribed as Gájbraš) had to escape from an island inhabited by donkeys.[3] His opponent was LeGek, a brother of LeChuck (with reference to the book Chuk and Gek by Arkady Gaidar about the adventures of brothers Chuk and Gek in "the great and happy country named Soviet Union", a compulsory reading for school children in communist Czechoslovakia).[4][5]

Petr Vlček at the time only had an 8-bit Atari 800 and therefore developed the game editor and engine at school.[2] Jarek drew the locations and wrote the plot.[2] While on a school trip to Polička, Jarek decided to skip a lunch with his classmates and instead went to find the panelák where entrepreneur Petr Vochozka lived at the time.[3] Two weeks later, Vochozka saw their demo and agreed to produce and distribute the game.[3] The Secret of Donkey Island, released in June 1994 after two years of development, is considered the first Czech commercially successful point-and-click graphical adventure.[6] The sales were supported by an enthusiastic review written by Petr Vochozka for Czech game magazine Excalibur.[7] In the following months Petr Vlček and Jarek Kolář created an adventure game called Seven Days and Seven Nights, based on a story about a womanizer written by Petr Vochozka for a semi-developed Amiga game.[8]

After working for a while for German game development companies, Jarek Kolář and programmer Michal Janáček founded the company PTERODON, s.r.o. in October 1997.[1] In May 1998 they started development of a new 3D game, released in 2000 as Flying Heroes. Thanks to Petr Vochozka, who in 1997 founded with Jan Kudera Illusion Softworks,[9] Hidden & Dangerous was successfully released in 1999, and was followed by Flying Heroes in 2000. Both were distributed by Take-Two Interactive.

Pterodon closely cooperated with Illusion Softworks; their teams shared one open space in an administrative building in Brno.[10] Jarek was lead designer of the tactical first-person shooter Vietcong, released by Pterodon/IS in 2003. One of the last released games Jarek contributed to is Mafia II (senior gameplay producer).[11]

Kolář later joined newly formed Hangar 13 and contributed to Mafia III until he returned to the Czech Republic and joined Bohemia Interactive where he currently works on a new game. He also worked on a story for Dead Effect and Dead Effect 2.

List of games

References

  1. 1 2 Commercial register at justice.cz, identification number (IČ) 25513648, PTERODON, s.r.o., the Articles (in Czech společenská smlouva) were signed on 17 October 1997
  2. 1 2 3 Haquel P. Tickwa, Na hraní už nemáme čas, Excalibur 36, page 6 (interview with Petr Vlček and Jaroslav Kolář)
  3. 1 2 3 Petr Ticháček, Jarek Kolář o počátcích CZ herní scény, 21. June 2000, bonusweb.idnes.cz (interview with Jarek Kolář)
  4. ↑ A. Gajdar, Čuk a Gek : Mimočítanková četba pro školy všeobec. vzdělávací, translated to Czech language by Olga Ptáčková-Macháčková, 9th edition, SPN Praha 1979 (the book, written shortly after Stalin's Great Purge, ends with the following sentence: "And they all new and understood that they have to be honest, work a lot, truly love and protect the great and happy country named Soviet Union")
  5. ↑ http://kyklop.blokuje.cz/196540-ohlednuti-i-8211-ze-ctenarskeho-denniku.php (saple excerpt from so called "Readers Diary" rated by the schoolteacher)
  6. ↑ Petr Ticháček, Tajemství Oslího ostrova - první CZ hra, plnehry.idnes.cz, 20. June 2000
  7. ↑ České adventury - díl 1, bonusweb.idnes.cz
  8. ↑ Zdeněk Polách, Petr Ticháček, Jarek Kolář rekapituluje 7 dní a 7 nocí, BonusWeb.cz, (interview with Jarek Kolář)
  9. ↑ Commercial register at justice.cz, identification number (IČ) 25347004 (till 2002 Jan Kudera held most of his stake in Illusion Softworks via his company Cash Reform Group, s.r.o.)
  10. ↑ Pavel Pospíšil, Rozhovor s Illusion Softworks, Computer, 25. January 2000 (interview with Petr Vochozka)
  11. ↑ 2K Games, Mafia II manual
  12. ↑ "Jarek Kolář (Bohemia Interactive Studio, Czechy) – Writing story for a mobile F2P shooter: Dead Effect 2". International Festival of Comics and Games in Lodz. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
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