Daniel Vávra

Daniel Vávra (born 2 September 1975) is a Czech video game writer, director, designer and co-founder of Warhorse Studios. He is best known for being the author of crime action video games Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven and Mafia II. As of 2016, he is working on medieval role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Daniel Vávra was born in Rychnov nad Kněžnou, before moving to Prague. Since his childhood, Vávra liked to work with computer, draw comics, and make photos. He studied at School of Applied Arts in Turnov and started his career as a graphic designer in advertisement company TIPA. He has written numerous articles for Czech gaming magazine Level and other gaming magazines, and is also a passionate player of paintball. He was also an active demoscener, under the pseudonym Hellboy, as part of the group Broncs.

Illusion Softworks/2K Czech

In 1998, Vávra joined Illusion Softworks as a 2D artist. His first project was Hidden and Dangerous for which he did some textures. His next project was highly acclaimed Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, of which he was the lead designer, screenwriter and the director. He later became the leading figure of Illusion Softworks's Prague subsidiary and also worked on Wings of War that was released in 2004. He worked on another project, Hi-Tech, but it was cancelled. His last project for Illusion Softworks (that was renamed to 2K Czech) was Mafia II. He left the studio in 2009.

Warhorse Studios

In 2011, Vávra co-founded Warhorse Studios. He is currently working on Kingdom Come: Deliverance, a role-playing video game that uses Cry Engine 3 set in a medieval themed open world environment. The game was set to be delivered in Q4 2015 through episodic iterations, and the game was successfully funded via Kickstarter.

On 9 November 2012, Vávra led a protest against the unjust arrest of I. Buchta and M. Pezlar, Bohemia Interactive Arma 3 developers arrested during their holiday on the Greek island Lemnos. The protest was held outside the Greek embassy in Prague.

On 2 April 2015, Vávra (Warhorse Studios) announced that Kingdom Come: Deliverance is delayed until Summer 2016, in which the game had now been delayed until 2017.

• Hidden & Dangerous (1999), Illusion Softworks
• Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven (2002), Illusion Softworks
• Mafia II (2010), 2K Czech
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance (2017), Warhorse Studios

• ^ "Daniel Vávra Video Game Credits and Biography - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 17 September 2014.