Adrian Chmielarz (born 1971 inLubin[1]) is a Polishvideo game designer,programmer,creative director,producer andwriter specializing inadventure games andfirst-person shooters. Chmielarz has co-founded and ledMetropolis Software,People Can Fly andThe Astronauts. He is one of the most prominent Polish video gaming figures, and has been described as one of the "most divisive" figures in the industry.[2]
Born inLubin on April 9, 1971,[3] Adrian Chmielarz moved into game development in a roundabout way. In 1985, at the age of 14, Chmielarz attended the firstPolcon science fiction convention inBłażejewko, where he first discovered an affinity for computers. He soon went through aStar Wars fan phase that saw him interact with a computer for the first time. By the late 1980s, he had become fascinated with computer games such asKnight Lore andBugsy by reading about them inPrzegląd Techniczny.[4] He began saving for aZX Spectrum despite never having used one before. His first experience playing games would see him typing in each line of code from gaming magazines into his friend's computer, though each time he turned off the computer the games were wiped as there was no way to save them.[5] Chmielarz was pushed by a desire to buy a computer with his own money, knowing that his parents had been forced into theblack market to "put food on the table".[5]
In 1987, Chmielarz earned financial sustainability by traveling 40 miles each day to sellbootleg foreign films on VHS tapes, copied from a friend at a bazaar inWrocław (such type ofcopyright infringement was not illegal in Poland until 1994).[5] The Wrocław marketplace where such goods were sold often had access to newer titles earlier.[1] He noted that while an Englishman could buy a game the day of release, the average Pole would often have to wait up to five weeks and become impatient during that time, leading to this natural solution.[4] According to Chmielarz "many people would buy games, if only it would be possible."[4] At one point, Chmielarz set up a distribution deal with the to-be-founders of what would become Polish distribution companyCD Projekt, whereby they would drop cassette tapes full ofpirated games at a local train station.[5] After picking them up, to get an advantage over his competitors at the bazaar, he would addsubroutines to altergameplay (such as changing the number oflives or adding invulnerability); he would also himselfcrack the games and then apply his own anti-piracy protection measures to prevent other pirates from copying and selling it. Eventually, his bootleg business expanded into a brick-and-mortar company which sold different types of media, including movies and games, while also building computers to feed the local business industry.[5][1] However, large companies started to enter Poland and the market became crowded.[6] While he had a computer engineering company, the times were getting tougher and only giants with big money could survive on the market.[7] Chmielarz decided to leave his profitable business and study atWrocław University of Technology. However, he became bored and left without finishing his degree; he would later regret wasting his time at university.
By 1990, Chmielarz had his own computers and his obsession led to him playing and making games all the free time.[5][4] He sent the results of his experiments with creating video games the editorial offices of the magazinesKomputer[1] andBajtek, winning a subscription to the latter as a result.[4] One of these early titles was an erotic gameErotic Fun that sold well without any long-term profit; he later deemed this a good business lesson about exploiting an opportunity in the gaming market.[1] Some of his other early games included text adventure gamesKosmolot Podróżnik andSekretny Dziennik Adriana Mole, which he wrote on theTimex Computer 2048.[4]
In 1992, Adrian Chmielarz and Grzegorz Miechowski co-founded video game developing and publishing companyMetropolis Software. The group realised that they could fill a gap in the untapped Polish software market, in which hundreds of thousands of people owned computers but were unable to become fully immersed in adventure games as they did not understand English.[4] Chmielarz was not worried about the Polish gaming market being a small niche, as he knew the trail had already been set by developer xLand. Furthermore, he had assessed that while the local market was currently not active it was potentially big, noting the number of people who attended conventions.[4] This project evolved into Chmielarz's first commercially released video game, the 1993 point-and-click adventureTajemnica Statuetki.[5] Some of Chmielarz's next projects, such as another point-and-click adventure gameTeenagent (1995), scrolling shooterKatharsis (1997), and tactical role-playing gameGorky 17 (1999, known asOdium in North America), have been published also outside Poland. Due to an internal conflict, Chmielarz left Metropolis in 2002.[8]
Founding the video game development studioPeople Can Fly in 2002, he went on to create the successful first-person shooterPainkiller (2004) and its follow-upsPainkiller: Battle Out of Hell (2004),Painkiller: Hell Wars (2006), andPainkiller: Hell & Damnation (2012). A partnership withEpic Games and the work on theGears of War series of third-person shooters, in which he personally went from a multiplayer level designer for the first two games to being the original creative director ofGears of War: Judgment (2013), led to Epic acquiring People Can Fly in 2007 and the creation of their next first-person shooter,Bulletstorm (2011).
After leaving People Can Fly (by then fully owned by Epic) in 2012, Chmielarz formed the independent video game studioThe Astronauts, which developed and published its debut game, the first-person adventureThe Vanishing of Ethan Carter in 2014. His next game and a return to the first-person shooter genre,Witchfire, is to be released "when it's done".[9]
Chmielarz has also written commentary articles for Polish video game magazines, including his monthly columns "Gawędy bez fai" and "Gawędy po fai" inSecret Service andNEO+. In English, he has written blogs atGamasutra[10] andMedium.[11]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Teenagent | Scenario designer[12] |
| 1997 | Blaster! | Designer[12] |
| 1999 | Odium | Designer[12] |
| 2004 | Painkiller | Project leader, lead game designer[13] |
| 2007 | Gears of War | Additional level design[12] |
| 2011 | Bulletstorm | Creative director[14] |
| 2013 | Gears of War: Judgement | Original creative direction[15] |
| 2014 | The Vanishing of Ethan Carter | Developed as part ofThe Astronauts[16] |