PEOPLE
Vatra is currently made up of over 45 terrific and talented individuals, a top heavy mix of close-knit industry veterans with a healthy dose of new talent. This group‘s shipped game tally is an impressive 52 titles in all.
The Vatra Leadership Team
Matthew Seymour – Studio Head
After spending a number of years in film & television production, Matthew eagerly jumped into the games industry 18 years ago to become a partner and executive producer for The Illusions Gaming Company. Five years on Matthew ran production at another development studio, but wanting to gain valuable publisher experience joined Microsoft in 2001. Here he helped create and nurture the Top Spin franchise with Power & Magic before rebooting Amped 3 for the Xbox 360 launch with 2K Games. Matthew went on to become 2K Games’ executive producer in Europe before joining the Kuju Entertainment family in the first part of 2009.
Andy Pang – Development Director
Andy has held producer roles at Argonaut Games plc, Climax ltd, Illusion Softworks and 2K Czech. As a games industry veteran since 1988, he`s managed garage size teams on SNES and Amiga development to eventually leading 75+ people teams on all next-generation platforms.
Brian Gomez – Design Director
Brian has been in the trenches of game development for over 14 years as a designer, producer, and writer. In 1998 he joined Scotland’s VIS Entertainment as game director, then moved up to creative director, on a number of licensed and original properties, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Evil Dead, State of Emergency, and Brave: The Search for Spirit Dancer. In 2003 he joined Pandemic Studios as a lead designer on the groundbreaking urban combat sim, Full Spectrum Warrior. In 2004 Brian teamed with horror author & filmmaker Clive Barker to create the supernatural action FPS, Clive Barker’s Jericho, and launched Alchemic Productions LLC.
Alexander Sila – Senior Producer
Prior to 1999, Alex was a computer and aircraft model engineer. He joined the games industry in 1999 and successfully managed the Hidden & Dangerous series as team lead.
Marek Berka – Lead Designer
Formerly a bodyguard for a Russian casino operation and successful fantasy board games designer. Marek joined the games industry in 2003 and has since excelled in script writing and mentoring junior designers.
Viliam Korbel – Lead Designer
Viliam entered the games industry in 2002 as scripter with Illusion Softworks and during his time there, he successfully finished Chameleon as its lead designer. During the following years, at Illusions he held the position of gameplay designer.
Viliam is experienced with a multitude of game engines and scripting languages. He is currently heading up design on one of Vatra’s yet to be announced next-gen titles.
Petr Benysek – Lead Programmer
At the start of his career in software development, Petr worked as an anti-virus and graphics programmer. He joined Pterodon Ltd in 2000 where he was responsible for proprietary 3dsMax tools, the game engine and gameplay mechanics. Whilst Petr has a broad range of programming skills, his greatest passion is gameplay itself. Since being a key contributor on Vietcong 2, Petr has held the position of lead programmer.
Radek Marek – Art Director
Radek is a skilled and experienced artist with a strong vision. He excels in being able to communicate his vision clearly too any art teams and disciplines. He joined the games industry in 1999 and was a key contributor to all of the Hidden & Dangerous titles.
Martin Hebert – Lead Animator
Martin has held lead animator roles within Pterodon, Illusion Softworks and 2K Czech working on Vietcong and other next gen projects. Martin is expert in motion capture with a wealth of experience it all its aspects, i.e. set-up, directing and clean-up.
Ludek Farda – Lead Artist
In October 2000, Ludek seriously entered into the games industry joining Illusion Softworks as 3D / 2D vehicle modeler on Hidden & Dangerous 2. With this games’ success he went on to model environments, weapons and vehicles
for Hidden & Dangerous 2: Sabre Squadron. Ludek’s first assignment with Kuju Entertainment was with Headstrong as a modeler on their infamous Wii title, The House of the Dead: Overkill.
Libor Kvasnicka – Lead QA
Libor joined the game making community as a tester with Illusion Softworks in 2002, and continued his career there as an assistant producer and eventually a producer at their former Bratislava studio. Libor has had the honor of testing the critically acclaimed Mafia as well as Vietcong 1& 2, and Hidden Dangerous 2.
