Not only is he skilled with the tools that we use, but he helps out during Techlands’s events, works as a voice actor, composes music, is a guitarist in a well-known band, and a content creator on social media. How did he manage to find a way to put all of his skills to use?

From the information we’ve gathered during interviews with our colleagues, most people seem to think that in order to get into the game development industry, you need to be interested in that field, land good internships beforehand, sound confident in your resume, and, of course, have a bit of luck. Would you agree with that?

When I was in seventh grade I got really interested in PCs. Even though they were old, I used them to make my first internet sites. There was a magazine – ‘Gambler’ – that had different programs and codes you could read and change to your liking. That is how I learned to program games. I used to save all of my files on floppy disks. Since they carry sentimental value to me, I decided to commemorate this by getting a tattoo of a floppy disk years later. Well, the world has changed a lot since then, and now a lot of young people ask me why I have a ‘save’ icon tattooed on me. I then tell them about the first steps I took toward my career. Those were the times during which we had limited access to knowledge.

Did you work with someone on programming and testing games?

Not really. Back in school, I was considered a typical geek – when others partied, I was at home, programming. Everyone keeps telling me that I’m not as introverted as I think, though. During my university years, I had to learn all of those skills on my own, as there were no courses that offered to teach game development. I chose to study computer science then, focusing on the metal industry. But I’ve included games in everything I could – every work or school assignment included at least one gaming reference. Everyone knew I would add games even to my databases. I used to treat it purely as a hobby until a thought came to my mind that I could actually turn my passion into a full-blown career.

But it was during a time when working in the games industry wasn’t thought of as a real career.

Yes, that’s true. It was hard to get in contact with anyone who could even talk to me about it, not to mention work together. I was dreaming of it when I was a kid. One day I even called one studio – Mirage – from our landline. Someone picked up. To this day I don’t know if that person actually took me seriously, but they took their time to encourage me to pursue this career.

Many studios were only publishing games at the time, not developing them.

Yes, and people who are now their crucial employees treated their passion, which was developing games, purely as a hobby. But before I started working in the gaming industry, I’d gotten my first job in a company that offered IT solutions. At first, I was tasked with research and monitoring network traffic. Every day I was counting the minutes until the end of my shift. Later on, I started looking for game development companies in Kraków. By sending them e-mails I got a job at Drago Entertainment (previously called TopWare) and later at Nibris. I’ve always been passionate about indie games, and that’s why I, alongside my friends, created our own game studio that focused solely on developing them. My friend and I spent nine months programming and coding this one game, funding it by using the money from my wedding. We never finished it, but showing this demo to the studio Reality Pump during an interview helped me land a job there. It was the thing that got me into the industry for good. I then moved on to working with CD Projekt Red, where I worked on Cyberpunk and the Witcher games. My next step career-wise was, of course, working at Techland.

Could you tell us a bit about how you decided on what to specialize in? Even though you were interested in a lot of different topics in the beginning, you had to somehow narrow it down.

At first, I was focused on working with tools, then on gameplay, and then on tools again. But I always knew that I loved working on fixing bugs and that it brought me a lot of joy. Even the simplest fixes and QOL improvements give me a lot of satisfaction. I just love helping people and removing the roadblocks impairing someone’s work. I now work as a Lead Tool Technology Programmer. It brings me a lot of joy, as not only is it interesting, but it is also a breath of fresh air for me. My job is now more focused on projects and meetings than programming. To prepare myself for my new responsibilities, I read three huge books on team leadership, motivation, and task distribution. I’m focused on helping others with their work by removing any roadblocks that may be in their way and trying to make my team’s job easier.

How would you describe working with tools? Do you need to often brush up on your knowledge? How do you become an expert in tools?

Tools are a great way to get into gamedev. They were previously needed for banks and corporations, so if you work in that field and have a change of heart regarding your career, it’s easy to take that step. Some of the frameworks that we use are also used in other fields. Just like QA, tools are fun and not very difficult to learn, which makes them a great point of entry into game development. Brushing up on knowledge is more of a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than a must. For example, looking at a tutorial on how UIs look in different products can give us some new ideas. If you’re already a great programmer, it won’t be hard to become a great tools programmer.

Enough about tools – we heard you also play in multiple bands! Is that right?

I’ve played in many bands before, but now I’m part of only one. If I were to make a list of the things that are important to me, making games would always be first, but second place would go to playing guitar with people, not even in the form of a band. I joined my first band as a bass player purely by accident, thanks to my friend. I wasn’t even a bass player at that time, so I tried to learn it on my guitar, which I'd tuned in a specific way. We were mostly playing in our garages, but we’ve also managed to play some concerts in Kraków. A similar case was with my second band, which I wrote most of our songs for. Years later, I managed to get into a folk-metal band ‘Netherfell’, which was my first attempt at making it professionally as a musician. When we eventually parted ways, I got an offer from Vane, which is a band comprised of professional musicians. It was my first experience with the life of an actual musician. We were touring not only the country but also abroad. We were playing live concerts both at festivals, like Pol’and’Rock, and on the radio. With my wife, we ran Vane’s shop, which sold our merch and shipped it worldwide. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’m part of Terrordome. I encourage you all to follow us!

Could you tell us what’s still on your bucket list?

I wasn’t able to do most of it. I composed music for the ‘Jednoręki’ show for one of the theaters in Kraków. It’s played not only in Poland but also abroad. I’ve always dreamed of having my own radio show. I’ve never worked in any radio station, but I’m satisfied with having a blog and a podcast, which I run with my daughter. I sometimes work as a voice actor as well. For example, I helped with Szlachetna Paczka’s projects. I wasn’t sure of my performance as a voice actor, but since my employers were happy, I was, too.

Why wouldn’t you be good at it? You’re involved with so many projects related to your voice that voice acting is the natural next step.

I’ve always struggled with somewhat of an impostor syndrome. I’ve always questioned if my work is good enough, even when I recognized that my career is heading in a good direction. It didn’t matter that I had good qualifications and had achieved so much already. I think it must be connected to my perfectionism, as I’ve always tried to be as good at my job as I possibly can.

And it’s going great, especially during Techland’s events that you’re usually a part of.

Whenever I’m doing something, I always give it my 100%. I’ve always been like that. It also applies to those events. When I let our PR and HR teams know that I can take part in them, they sent me to the Digital Dragons event. And when I was there, they almost had to use force to get me out of our booth. I just enjoyed talking to people so much – about our company, the industry, college courses related to it, and many other topics that were unrelated to my job. I think it stems from my time spent traveling in a band. Besides working as a driver or the guitarist, I used to sell our merchandise, which involved talking with every customer. Nothing beats the feeling of going back to the same event after a year and meeting a person who once asked you for advice and is now studying or working toward a career in the gaming industry.

Do you have any universal advice that you give to people you meet during those events? What would you advise, since there are so many stereotypes about our industry?

Back in the day, there weren’t many job advertisements in the gaming industry, but companies quickly replied to most of the e-mails we sent. Times have changed – the industry is much busier these days, but it’s always worth trying to muster up the courage and reach out. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get the job. It happens. Every interview provides you with feedback and pointers, which may help you land a similar position in the future. I once heard of a guy who didn’t get the job during the first interview. He came back two years later with an amazing portfolio. Not only did he prove to them that he is competent enough, but that he’s also quite the character. This would be my general advice. If someone is looking for something more specific regarding tools or programming, I always try to help them out individually.

Last question, then. What would you say is the most valuable and interesting aspect of developer tools? What should mere mortals know about, but they don’t? Is there something unique you’ve made that you want to tell us about?

We gave players access to our tools during many of our events. Not to all of them, of course. It still must be quite the experience for the modding community – working with the same tools as the developers of Dying Light. Our jobs and tasks are not directly linked to the player base – what we do is supposed to make our colleagues’ jobs easier. My favorite tool that I’ve made, though… I would say the moment when we released our tools to our community, since it was very special to me. It was the moment when we all decided, together, what we want to show the outside world. This was the first time we showed the world a part of what we’re working with and how. The feedback that we’ve gotten from our community couldn’t be more positive.