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▶What do you do on Vigor? In short, I’m responsible for the design team and gameplay aspects of Vigor. That means together with designers propose game systems and content, hand over results of our work to other departments (program, script, art, etc.) and help them bring it into the actual game. My daily routine is a mix of meetings, documentation reviews, feedbacks, communication with leads and team members, planning, some configuration and tweaks of actual game systems. Oh, and drinking coffee. 🙂 ▶What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? Well, I can wiggle my ears, but that is rather useless for game development. I was also a game journalist for over 10 years, so I have a vast knowledge of games which are useful for gathering references. ▶What do you like about Vigor? The mix of a calm atmosphere in shelter and tension in Encounters. Also, all those small things which we are adding to make Vigor unique game experience. ▶What do you want to see in Vigor? Every feature we have in our post-release roadmap. 🙂 Believe me, we are planning to add some really cool stuff. ▶What do you do when you are not making Vigor? A lot of different things. Some geeky (videogames, board games, shows, movies, and anime), some healthy (box, squash and table tennis), some cultural (concerts, opera, galleries) and some social (beer and friends). ▶Did game dev change your view on the games and how? Yeah, basic game dev curse – I’m trying to analyze games instead of just enjoy playing them. ▶Your favorite games, and why? I love both narrative and system driven games. My favorite game is Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. It is an awesome adventure game with likable characters, witty dialogues and three different playstyles. Then I must mention The Legend of Zelda series – I like how it makes the player feel smart when he solves some puzzle. Bloodborne is a fantastic action RPG with a great setting and a sharp combat system. To this day I can’t forget how I finished fantastic ICO at four in the morning. Brilliant, emotional game with interesting holding hands mechanic. Also, Return of the Obra Dinn is a super cool puzzle game with a minimalistic approach. I could go on, but this should be enough. ▶What's your favorite music, movie, show, book, and why? Music - Depends on the mood. Could be game soundtracks (Ace Combat, Persona), some rock (Foo Fighters, Nothing’s Carved in Stone), electro (Daft Punk), Czech indie (Tata Bojs) or classic (Chopin, Vivaldi) Movie - Indiana Jones and Last Crusade – classic adventure movie with a great actor and humor Show - Red Dward – weird British sense of humor Book - The Martian by Andy Weir – believable sci-fi and a real page-turner ▶Is there something that you want to say to our community? Thank you very much for being with us on this exciting road called Vigor. While it could sometimes feel that we are not listening to your feedback, but the opposite is true and following months and updates should show it so please keep enjoying the game. ▶You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? Step one: find an electric generator. Step two: collect enough fuel. Step three: finish my gaming backlog. Bonus Question - from Dominik ▶Name five of your favorite examples of game design, and tells us why. Hmm, a rather tricky question. The first could be Tetris – simple, straightforward rules, but endless fun. Then shooting paint in Splatoon – I like how this core system is turning classic shooting game upside down. Also, kid/squid switching is really smart. Of course, first seconds from Super Mario Bros. is something that I need to mention – you can teach player game basics with just a few cleverly placed blocs and enemies. Number four: shield regeneration in Halo – a great way how to keep player in action longer without removing the tension of death. And the last one could health system in Metal Gear Solid 3 – well, it rather sucked that it was done through the in-game menu, but the actual idea of regeneration from food and different types of injuries added interesting survival feel to classic stealth game.

▶ What do you do on Vigor? I'm working as a Lead UI/UX Designer and I'm responsible for the UI of Vigor and overall experience it creates for players interacting with it. ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? During the playtests and gaming nights I'm quite an easy target for others so I actively increase the success of my opponents 😄 ▶ What do you like about Vigor? The tension, uncertainty, and overall atmosphere. That every encounter can be totally different. If you go with an empty backpack, you can still return with the best crate. But I need to mention the environment as I was trekking in that part of Norway and gosh! It really looks like that. Great job level designers! ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? I'm more of a stealthy player and collector, I also like puzzles. Buried caches are a perfect example so I would like to go even further in complexity, connection to lore and required cooperation with your duo partner to solve it successfully. ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? You would probably see me sitting by my crafting desk, fiddling with a rotary tool, wood, foam, paints that would eventually turn into a prop from the gaming world. I’ve always been a crafter but games brought this obsession to a completely new level. Being able to bring an object which you are attached to within a game into life is so satisfactory and challenging at the same time. My favorite pieces are Leviathan Axe of Kratos (God of War), silver sword of Geralt (The Witcher), and Banuk Striker Bow of Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn). When I’m tired of sitting I love to go outside. Mountains, camping and high altitude, that’s a real adventure for me. Also I like to spent a good time with my family by making a stone-baked pizza with them ▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how? Definitely. I learned that so many disciplines need to click together to create such a piece of art. I often get caught in thinking about the reasons behind some mechanics, especially UI, how they were done, and how I would actually recreate them by myself. Also, I’m much more tolerant of bugs. ▶ Your favorite games and why? Singleplayer action-adventure games where shooting is not a core mechanic or is done in a really good way including aim assist. I seek games when I want to mostly relax, often I’m a backseat gamer. The Uncharted series, Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher, Gris are my favorite from the top of my head. All of these have a beautiful environment, amazing music, and story in common. But I also enjoy Resident Evil 2 or 7 if I want to pump my adrenaline. ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book, and why? Synthwave genre and soundtracks from games and movies. I’m not a huge movie lover or book worm though. I personally prefer shows as I can have them as background while I’m crafting! Like Breaking Bad, Dexter, Stranger Things or various cooking shows. ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? Thank you for playing, your support and feedback, please keep it coming! And even when it sometime looks like we don’t listen, be sure we do. ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? I would build my shelter somewhere close to the water and mountains and start farming. ▶ Bonus question: What is the weirdest/best bug you have encountered in a video game? It was during the development of Arma 3 mod Argo, there was this bug with super long necks of characters, maybe 1.5 meters long. That couldn’t stop us from playtesting the game modes of course. So imagine you need to be stealthy, move carefully, report any movement of enemies to your team and be super serious. Then suddenly all you see are floating heads above the buildings, sitting on super long necks looking at you like giraffes in a zoo. 😄

▶ What do you do on Vigor? Sound design. All the ambiances and guns + lot of other effects and UI here and there. Oh yea, sound for trailers too. ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? I record weird creaking sounds that then creep people out in our maps. I also imitate voices of some old Slovak pre-internet meme freaks to keep the morale high in our audio office. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? The rush of adrenaline and the tension it can build. The rewarding feeling when I return from the match after accomplishing something. ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? Some really fun new game modes, ideally with teams. Flawlessly polished gameplay and gunplay. Maybe even some RPG elements? Where I could beside my shelter also upgrade and progress my character. E.g. less weapon sway, faster reloads if I am more of a marksman. Faster looting, bigger inventory, seeing loot indicators further away if I'm more of a scavenger. Hearing footsteps further, maybe even seeing them somehow indicated on the terrain. Who knows, could be a lot of fun 🙂 ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? Producing electronic music, going to parties. Playing first-person shooters. Reading books, drinking beers, researching shitcoins.. ▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how? I am now a lot more appreciative of what goes into making such a project. How much creativity, skill, and effort it takes in so many disciplines. ▶ Your favorite games and why? Neverhood comes to mind - I loved it. It was just so adorable and lovely. Hit me right in the feelz. I still have a small Clayman I did 20 years ago lying around somewhere. Most recently: Journey. Beautiful work of art in all aspects. Worked like a charm for me. Other than that, the usual stuff - Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Starcraft. Each of them brought something new and revolutionary in its time and all are timeless IMO. Nowadays it's Day of Infamy, Insurgency. Before those, I played A LOT of old Day of Defeat. Also, CS1.6 should probably have an honorable mention too as I played it on quite a pro-level for like.. 7 years? For defeaters and fu.sk. Good times :') ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why? Music: various DNB mostly as I've played and produced it for quite some time. But other than that probably The Cinematic Orchestra, Zero 7, Lulu Rouge, Burial, Trentemøller, etc. Movie: If I had to choose only one then it's nothing too original - The Matrix. It's all in there. But also things like Casino, Full Metal Jacket, Tarantino movies, etc. Show: Futurama - I loved how one could find new and new jokes there each time. Book: Anything from Alan Watts really. One of the top thinkers ever and he really knew it with words. If I had to choose one then probably The Book. ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? It's really fun and refreshing to watch you guys play and comment and give feedback. I appreciate it a lot, don't stop! ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? Probably just laugh with the absurdity of it all. Oh and then maybe kill myself, dunno lol ▶ Bonus question from Viktor What videogame sound, sound-cue or ambiance is the most satisfying/memorable for you? The coin sound from Mario. And now you just heard it in your mind! Great sound design. Also ambiance from Fallout 1 and 2 and Starcraft 1 OST.

▶ What do you do on Vigor? I'm a scripter / technical designer. ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? A steady supply of pancakes! And as a thing on the side, I turn design docs into technical solutions and implement them. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? Exploring the world. ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? More non-combat and/or cooperative activities. Shooting shouldn't be the answer to every situation. ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? Sleeping, gaming, and acroyoga. ▶ Did game dev change your view on games and how? I find it difficult to enjoy a game as a player, once I've peaked behind the curtain. So I avoid working on genres that I enjoy playing. ▶ Your favorite games and why? That changes a lot Right now my favorites are Horizon Zero Dawn on console and Battlestar Galactica Deadlock on PC. ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book, and why? Anything sci-fi or fantasy. I like delving into imaginary worlds. ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? Found all the trolls yet? ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? I head for Norway. I heard it's a-ok there. ▶ Bonus question from Petra: Are there any games that inspired you or had an impact on your profession? Journey: Great example of storytelling without a single line of text.

▶ What do you do on Vigor? I do them levels. From sketching ideas on paper, sculpting the terrain and arranging houses to placing individual trees, flowers and also bushes (and to prevent speculation -> I'm not the one who made them bulletproof! :D) ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? Right now I am working on a cool new map while occasionally maintaining and bug fixing on the current ones. I also personally make sure the coffee maker doesn't get a minute of rest. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? The freedom you have at the start of every encounter when you're figuring out what your approach is going to be. Also, the fact you can go in empty-handed and still come out on top. ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? Maybe an additional quicker game mode á la team deathmatch... something to soothe the nerves after you get out-camped by some [edited] for the third time 🙂 ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? One adorable two-year-old emperor makes me devote all my time running a railway operation around our couch for the Little Mole & gang... and occasionally when I'm not doing that, I like to design houses. ▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how? As a kid, I always kinda suspected its not all fun & games as it might have seemed to be. Now I can tell that it is definitely more fun and more games than most other lines of work, though the enormous scope of these projects can be overwhelming at times. ▶ Your favorite games and why? Half-life is one of the all-time greats for me. Producing custom maps with its Hammer editor sparked my interest in game dev in the first place and no other game will ever have such a massive place in my heart as its mod, the original e-sport, classic Counter-strike 1.6 After some 20 years of playing it and countless keyboards snapped in half, here I am still a regular on my local deathmatch server 🙂 ▶What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why? Music - definitely my all-time favorite is the electronic duo Boards of Canada I also really enjoy diving into the obscure subgenres of vaporwave, drone, and ambient. Favorite artists: Nmesh, t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者, HKE, 猫 シ Corp., cv313, Patâgoniå, Sport3000 Movies - apart from the obvious Matrix/Inception/Taxi Driver stuff I also love me some cruel old middle ages in Markéta Lazarová (1967) and for something not so deadly serious there is Sideways (2004) to rewatch once every few years... Show - trying to avoid the popular ones right now 😄 It can become very time-consuming once you're in... looking at you, Mad Men! Book - Magician by R.E.Feist ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? Thank you for the feedback & all the memes! ❤️ ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? I'd have a blast on those empty roads. ▶ Bonus (From Kamil) If you had to live in a videogame level, which one would you choose? The Citadel Island (the city at the beginning of Little Big Adventure 2) - it has the best atmosphere of any videogame place from my recollection. ▶ Viktor also has a Youtube channel so make sure to stop by 😉 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_DHBHnqPbPNF0ZmBUwQxhw

▶ What do you do on Vigor? Senior Graphic Artist ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? My specialization is the graphic part of weapons, props and other assets. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? As a person who doesn't like cold weather in real life, I'm really into the Norwegian setting of Vigor. ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? More game modes would be cool! ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? Right now I'm participating in Inktober. It is a drawing challenge where you're supposed to do one ink drawing a day during the entire month. And I'm also part of the Blood 1 modding community for a looong time. ▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how? Throughout the last few decades, video games have become a cultural touchstone and extended their relevance way beyond the early years. And with almost 18 years in the game industry, while becoming an important part of the team that creates games I would say yes 😉 ▶ Your favorite games and why? Blood, Duke Nukem 3D & Shadow Warrior - the Holy Trinity of the Build engine. Doom, Quake, Half-Life series, Ion Maiden and many more 3D shooter deserves a mention. I'd put them on the same level. These games are as much fun now as they were back in the nineties. And why? Because you can mod these games. In some way, you can alter the game and how it's played creating your own unique experience. Plus I have met many dedicated people that rally behind modding certain games for either technical help or even just encouragement and inspiration. ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why? I finally got my hands on Blood, Sweat, and Pixels book. I like books about the game industry overall. When it comes to music, I like Tool, Deftones, Dälek, Death Grips, Nine Inch Nails and many, many more. It is hard to pick just a few 😉 And you should check the Brutal Assault festival if you are into metal music. Best festival in the world! When it comes to shows - Robot Chicken, Rick and Morty and South Park. ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? Feedback is an important part of game development. It's a tool that is used to build things up, not break things down. Ask questions and make memes! ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? I would grab a guitar and start a post-apocalyptic hardcore band! Bonus (From Radim) ▶ What's your favorite video game soundtrack? This one is easy - Quake II

▶ What do you do on Vigor? I'm Working as a Level Designer. That means to design environments and then assemble them together with the use of models made by Artists. ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? Level design starts as an idea and maybe map drawn on paper. Then we create simple placeholder models, sculpt the terrain, place objects, props, and vegetation and add gameplay elements like loot. Then play and analyze if there is enough cover, uninteresting areas which need to be improved and so on. In the end, Levels are hopefully enjoyable to play and as pleasant to the eye as possible. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? Feeling of uncertainty. Arriving to an area not knowing what awaits me there. Bunch of angry outlanders or just a trail of corpses from unseen battles. Those far away shootouts which I'm not a part of but which can change the encounter for me. There will be fewer survivors fighting for the resources after that. Shootouts where I exchange few gunshots with my enemy and then, realizing how precious the ammo is, we both quietly disengage and disappear in the forests. ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? I want to see a meaningful character or shelter progression. Levels, new abilities, skills, etc. Character improvements in general. And to have game systems supporting non-aggressive encounters with others. Ways to cooperate with random people met in the world on some task or just try to survive together. Imagine that you are hiding in some old house from the snowstorm and from the balcony you see an outlander slowly approaching your shelter. He doesn't have to be a threat to you worthy of a full magazine of bullets but an opportunity and asset. ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? I'm quite a gamer myself. From Video games to board games or pen&paper RPGs. I'm up for any kind of game. A Hobby my wife vigorously hates. I like movies, theatrical plays, sports events (as a fan) as well. Apart from that, I like visiting restaurants and doing other social activities with a group of friends. ▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how? Of course, it did! As a game dev, I understand game mechanics and what is behind them, how the pipelines in the industry work. Just by looking at or playing a video game I can analyze it, find a reason behind some decisions, evaluate the cost of features and so on. Especially in my field of profession I can appreciate some games like Dark Souls even more and see production cuts in others – looking at you Dragon Age 2. ▶ Your favorite games and why? I play most of the game genres, but at the moment my favorites are probably grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive – Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron etc,... Other notable mentions would be Open World Adventure games like Red Dead Redemption, GTA or Assassins Creed and RPG games in general. ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why? In terms of music, I like to listen to Irish Folk songs. Movies shows and books are interconnected. I like fantasy and history. So nobody can be surprised if I say Game of Thrones here (both books and show), Lord of the Rings, Witcher, etc. I'm a huge fan of History so my favorite books are encyclopedias and educational books. One example would be Greatest military blunders from Geoffrey Regan. ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? Apart from the usual stuff like give us a chance, there are great things coming to our game and so on. I want to say one more thing – guys, try to be nice to each other from time to time and not shoot everyone on sight. Try to play differently. One of my greatest experience playing Vigor was when I convinced someone to leave by only aiming at him (even though I was out of bullets). And please, don't hesitate to write your feedback and ideas. Its a great read from time to time. ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? I would try to assemble a group from my family and friends and move somewhere safe. Or at least a place presumed to be safe. Norway is too cold and far away, South is too hot, East and West pretty dangerous, so maybe wine cellars in South Moravia. That sounds like a pretty safe place to me. Bonus (From Kuba) ▶What is the difference for you between designing an open world (like in Arma) and smaller levels (like in Vigor)? What do you like more and why? There are interesting procedures in the creation of both kinds of those environments. In large open worlds, you have to follow some basic urban logic between areas. If you put the airport somewhere there will be infrastructure around it, bigger towns will have necessary facilities like shops, school, gas station, public spaces. You have to think about power distribution, highways and so on. And everything has to be reasonably connected. Smaller environments allow you to put more details in them. You can carefully place every flower or rock while ignoring what is beyond the boundaries of such level. You can make only the areas which are really interesting. One Landmark can be level in itself. On top of that player movement can be predicted more and areas can be designed with that in mind. It's hard to tell what I like more, but I have to say that for now, I'm really enjoying this different approach Vigor allow me to apply.

▶ What do you do on Vigor? Gameplay Programmer. ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? Tough one,.. well I bring my two dogs to work from time to time so people can get some fur on their clothes. And recently I started a fire alarm. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? Graphics. I’ve been working for BI for more than 12 years and have never thought that we are able to produce such kind of game (from graphics perspective) ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? Deathmatch 🙂 I just don’t understand all those fancy overcomplicated Tamagotchi shelter things. I want to grab a gun and go get some frags. Disgrace corpses, loot them, get better and bigger guns, repeat.. ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? Basically everything after what I am sweaty and thirsty enough to deal with few beers and some Mexican food. ▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how? When I was a kid(90’), I used to get cracked games burned out on a couple of CDs. I just didn’t want to pay for something untouchable. But since I have started to be a game dev(btw. my first compiler was cracked Borland c++), I completely changed my mind. So please, support your game devs and buy games... I need to pay bills ▶ Your favorite games and why? Doom and Wolfenstein series - many types of weapons, even more types of enemies, huge UI arrows above the heads (so no wasting of time with reading stupid mission description, maps, etc. etc.) ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why? I prefer to relax after work so I like comics based movies.. But the less serious ones.. with Thor or the one with that little squirrel in a yellow suit with a bunch of weirdos (trying to save the galaxy or something). I guess from Marwell studios or the second one - DC? who knows, don’t care. I like Terry Pratchett(but don’t like reading) so movies based on his books 🙂 ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? I know that Vigor has many unfinished features, bugs, glitches, … but still... it is like dating with a fat lady - it could be FUN and intense, but none of your friends must spot you together. So give us a chance to prove our qualities ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? Perfect! Tons of unclimbed rocks projects all around without weekend crowds, playing children, tourists, etc.. Bonus Question (from Anton) ▶ What would be one thing you would like to see in your lifetime and why? Sounds like a classic HR question, doesn’t it? So the answer should be something like world peace or so... but rather than that I really like to see a Whitewater park (editor's note:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater) on our local Svratka river here in Brno. Plan for it is ready for almost a decade, but the realization is long way run. But I am an optimist and don’t lose hope

▶ What do you do on Vigor? As the Marketing & Brand Manager, I am doing my best to create, communicate, and deliver the Vigor value to the target market at a profit (the last point is more up to publishing department). I know it may seem like "generic bullshit." Still, it describes what marketing does, and we bend these points into the game industry specifics while using familiar tools such as: Branding, Trailers, Key Arts, Screenshots, Descriptions, Website, Blogs, Dev Diaries, Store, Sales, Social Media, Streams, Forums, Newsletters, Press, Advertising, Merch, Events, Expos, Updates, Influencers, Partners, Campaigns, etc. Sometimes we can even influence a Game Content a little bit! 😛 The other thing is to use these tools with knowledge of strategy, goals, measurement, and optimization, which is my job to handle. The rest, it is about making ideas, planning, organization, communication, and execution within the Vigor Team and our business partners. ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? Connect people with good ideas and doing my best to make it happen. But maybe a better question would be: What is the Vigor Team contribution to you or marketing? There I would say a lot! Especially we have open minds in Vigor Team. You can be a good marketer as you want, but without the support of others, it is not complete. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? Unconventionality. We are making a game cocktail with ingredients that you already know, but our mixture and extra spice brings a new flavor – F2P Shooter-Looter-Builder in post-war Norway. ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? Can I say something else than more of the Tomato? 🙂 Honestly, I love these funny things and easter eggs. It adds a little bit of craziness into the harsh and post-war setting, which is also making our communication more diverse. ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? I am Jack of All Trades, so it will be better to introduce what I do in these times! Boxing Alucard (design manager), petting my cat Jošt and finishing my motorcycle driving license. Also, I am looking forward to summer chill out and festivals. 8-) ▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how? Yop. Let's start with the basics. 😄 I found there is a difference between scripter, programmer, cloud programmer, etc.! I am getting familiar with words like merge, branch, back-end, front-end, and others... I learned how the game dev company about 450 people and different locations, projects, or departments works. From the marketing perspective, I appreciate the valuable experience to publish the game on Xbox One. ▶ Your favorite games, and why? Jack of All Trades? Okay, let's be diverse! Here are my TOP 13 and whys: Passage – game mechanics as a metaphor Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – game controls and its meaning Bloodborne – lore Dark Souls – level design System Shock 2 – game systems World of Warcraft – the social aspect Counter-Strike 1.6 – competition FIFA – gameplay purity Metal Gear Solid 3 – survival system Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves – genre mixture Metro Series – atmosphere Witcher 3 – setting, proper story finish (don't like Avallone ending from books) Kingdom Come: Deliverance – authenticity ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book, and why? Music: Children of Bodom! Then Kalmah, Ensiferum, Korpiklaani, Burzum, Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath. Headbanging to melodeath, pumping to vikingness, feeling black metal rawness, and appreciating trash/heavy/rock roots. Still, I got my whatever playlist full of other shit than metal. 🙂 For example, Nirvana and Munroe. Movie: Back to the Future – time traveling, causality, Delorean, and Johnny B. Goode. All that you need to see in a perfect film. Show: Red Dwarf – Mr. Flibble. Book: Roadside Picnic – Happiness for everybody, free, and nobody will go away, unsatisfied! One Day of Ivan Denisovich – The end of an unclouded day. Almost a happy one. Just one of the 3,653 days of his sentence, from bell to bell. ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? The game is strong and healthy as its community! So as we genuinely appreciate your support and feedback during the Game Preview, the new start is still going to happen within the Free-To-Play release. As the payment wall falls, there is going to be a wave of new players with no Vigor experience and very likely with different reasons why they started playing Vigor. At this moment, we will once again appreciate your hands and voices that can help us to welcome or guide newcomers in post-war Norway properly. Are you ready for this, Outlanders? ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? I would settle down with a small community group that I can trust. Our job would be to find some tools and weapons, harvest food, build shelters. Then expand and start the first football season of post-war Norway Premier League. Bonus Question (from Jan) ▶ Why have you decided to work in Bohemia Interactive? Well, I started my game industry career back in university times when I organized gaming events, conferences, or festivals and wrote theses and articles related to Game Studies topics. Later, I joined a small indie studio that released a quite successful adventure game Dark Train. So, since I have been part of the Czech Game Dev Industry for some time and the Bohemia Interactive is the biggest game dev company in the Czech Republic, I always had an eye on the company and its people out there. As a kid, I loved Arma: Cold War Assault, and later, I appreciated the DayZ concept when it came out. Together with a reconceptualization of publishing/marketing (didn't know that), I received the job offer to work on the unannounced project. First, it was the ideal opportunity to get a full-time marketing experience for me. Second, I knew that would be working on a new promising project full of talented people. Third, I found it is Vigor within its team, and I liked the unconventionality of both. If you find the Norwayish shooter-looter-builder game with the Tomato that is implemented by Unicorns in Brno and published on Xbox One... Well, you have to say, Yes! 🙂

▶ What do you do on Vigor? I am analyst, I provide my colleagues with information on in-game statistics, take care of dashboards, answer tricky questions and so on. ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? I work with records of stuff happening in the game, stored in rather big spreadsheets. They contain many many numbers, 5 or 127 or 0,0012 to name a few - they are not too impressive when they are alone like that, so I use huge pitchfork called SQL to make few big informative numbers out of heaps of smaller ones. Such numbers can assist my colleagues with making decisions or just make our audience on social media chuckle about hundreds of people crushed by airdrop. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? I like the tempo of the game, it is not as frantic as many modern battle royale games and it rewards patience and wits. I like the tension, hiding in a bush and waiting for your chance. I also fancy the setting a lot. ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? Hundreds of thousands of players enjoying the game. ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? I like going to gigs, playing drums and table football, also chatting over a couple of beers in a pub. ▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how? I am amazed at how many different professions and talents are contributing to making the company and a particular game tick. ▶ Your favorite games and why? I like numbers heavy games like Football Manager or Patrician series or Paradox grand strategies, spreadsheets are my thing generally. Too bad I usually can’t do much more table-staring when I come home from work. Hypnospace Outlaw, Life & Death: The Brain, Liberal Crime Squad, Octodad: Deadliest Catch because bizzare makes me happy. 80 days, Stanley Parable, Kentucky Route Zero, I like to get immersed in a good story. ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why? Most gigs I attend involve loud guitars, stuff in my headphones is mostly hip-hop. My favorite movie is called Wrong Cops. I am also a huge fan of Russian cinema. Bojack Horseman and Czech classic Hospoda are shows I am most fond of at the moment, mostly because of bits of comedy in otherwise dark personal stories. I don’t read much fiction lately, maybe after I finish Wikipedia. ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? Play Vigor, provide feedback, generate data. Thank you, you are doing great so far. ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? I find it hard to imagine myself not perishing alongside humanity, as I am a very comfortable city dweller. If I could somehow survive and embark on a big long term project, I would probably try to utilize my naval knowledge from Patrician III, Sid Meier’s Pirates! and Silent Hunter III, build something seaworthy and ship me to some more hospitable climate. Bonus Question from Alucard ▶How would you measure fun in games? Tricky one. One would say that simply measuring time spent in or frequency of returning to a game is a good metric, but there might be periods of being stuck or grinding which are less funny. I think it is important to include some sort of qualitative research, meaning we should measure time and activity of the player, but it has to be complemented with actually asking the players how they liked it, in some structured way. Only once we have all this information, we can weight in all the factors, go through numbers and say with satisfactory confidence that given game is meh.

▶ What do you do on Vigor? I am a programmer working on the character, camera, and tools for Vigor. The work builds upon earlier feature prototypes and placeholder and brings them to a higher standard. ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? It is my goal to make sure that the game designers and level designers have an easier task to create a better game. For this, I need to research how other games implement features, develop our implementation, and iterate upon those features over several releases of Vigor. Not everything I make is perfect, but as long as it pushes the project further then, I am doing a good job. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? The tension of a match, you are uncertain about when things are going to go wrong, and you are always calculating risk versus reward. You can also play differently depending on your needs, you may play safe and only look for metal pieces, or play aggressively with a duo and planning to get the airdrop or die. ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? I am not much of a visionary; better aim assist functionality, changes to the camera behavior, better vaulting and climbing, and better implementations of everything else I worked on. I learned a lot in the past year and a half, and now I want to apply it retroactively and make the game better. ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? Play games, do photography, travel abroad (this year Tokyo and New York, kismet), and several side projects involving writing, programming, and art. ▶ Did game dev change your view on the games and how? Definitely! Right now we are working on replacing the ladder functionality to be compliant with all the other character improvements we made and raise the standard. While playing Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice I had to play around their ladders for comparison, I also toyed around with the camera in the Tomb Raider games before I realized that I could do this during work hours and get paid! I appreciate the work put into games more now, but I have issues enjoying the games themselves. ▶ Your favorite games and why? S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for their atmosphere and cohesive world, Dark Souls for their world and the lesson that you can do anything if you don't give up, Minecraft for being an outlet both technically and creatively, and Pokémon as a huge inspiration for any journey. ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why? My favorite music is Dutch hardcore (Neophyte, Angerfist) not to be confused with American hardcore; I love my electric and rough music! Sadly I don't have the time to read that much, but I enjoyed Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky brothers and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? This is my first job and also working on a AA game, and I am thrilled with the player's reaction to our game from the first teaser to people playing it today. A lot of feedback and criticism is on-point, and I appreciate the faith many of you have put into the project. As an insider, I know more what is in the works, and what is going to improve in future updates so I hope you keep coming back for every update! ▶ You are Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? Carefully scout Grontheim with my Vintar and SPSA and trusted friend Mazen. Bonus Question (From Filip ) If you were to make your own game, what genre would it be and why? Challenging question! It would not be far off from stalker, and it would focus on storytelling. Your path through the game is yours, and your actions have a significant impact on other characters. I don't know about the genre but has first person shooter elements.

▶ What do you do on Vigor? I'm a Jr. Scripter working on creating / prototyping game mechanics and player interfaces. ▶ What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? I do my best to always be learning something new, both at work and in my personal life.. Whether it be the Czech language or an aspect of the Unreal Editor. For me, a day’s success is measured in the lessons learned. And from a technical perspective, my contributions are probably most visible in the Reward & Crate screens displaying cloud data to the player. ▶ What do you like about Vigor? I like the mentality of high risk, the high reward associated with the airdrop. I personally enjoy games that create this feeling of hypersensitivity and suspense that emotionally capture the player in a way that's unique or commonly connected with games like F.E.A.R. ▶ What do you want to see in Vigor? I hope to see more easter eggs. While there's already quite a few, I still feel there's room for more. It would be nice to hide some cleverly scripted actor within a level just to see how long it takes for the community to notice. 🙂 ▶ What do you do when you are not making Vigor? When I'm not working I do my best to stay creative and busy; that being said I try and balance my time among friends, goals & personal projects. ▶ Did game dev change your view on games and how? I think whenever your passion becomes your career, your mentality changes a bit. I thoroughly enjoy game-dev, but it certainly changes the way you experience games. I find myself far more analytical and taking longer to progress through the game as I’ve become overly detail-oriented. ▶ Your favorite games and why? I feel compelled to mention the Arma franchise, as I owe my career and love for game-dev to it. But growing up my favorite games were Banjo And Kazooie, Delta Force Black Hawk Down, and Stronghold Crusader. Unfortunately after joining Bohemia, I find myself playing games less in my free time. Hopefully, in the near future, I’ll be able to catch up on some of the recent releases. ▶ What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why? This question has no short answer for me. But I love media that leaves the audience thinking. For example shows like Black Mirror, Maniac, or books like To Kill A Mockingbird. In regards to music, I was raised a metalhead, and spend a lot of time listening to thrash bands such as Kreator, Municipal Waste, DRI, & Testament. ▶ Is there something that you want to say to our community? Just that it's amazing to create content and receive feedback, so join the community discord and forum. ▶ You are an Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? In reality, I think I’d find a nice shelter and only queue for encounters when I need essential resources. 🙂 Bonus Question (From Martin ) ▶ How do you enjoy living in Europe? What is the biggest difference for you? I absolutely love living in Europe. It seems every major European city is perfect for getting lost in for a weekend or so. Here in the Czech Republic, there are almost monthly festivities to keep yourself busy. It's a great place to live, I certainly recommend it to all my friends in the states considering careers abroad. After being here for a year it's rather hard to remember what the biggest difference was? The one that's reoccurring, and most frustrating in the summer, is that there is no ‘free’ water in Czech restaurants. You explicitly have to order it, in the states it's just always there. It's a terribly small thing but seems to be a reoccurring nuisance. Other then the one “pet peeve” I can't think of anything terribly different. Im sure theres a lot that I'm overlooking, but after a while, the Czech / European lifestyle just seems normal. 🙂

▶ What do you do on Vigor? I work as a scripter, I am bringing things to life and I really love being the first person who sees the new feature working. I spent most of my time on Vigor working on the UI, so if you see how it changes and opens new dialogs while you’re focusing or clicking elements eg. in shelter builder or while crafting new equipment, it was probably my work. Or level map and interaction dots during an encounter. ▶What is your contribution to the Vigor Team? I am great at improvising, which is extremely useful for creating prototypes or solving unsolvable issues. ▶What do you like about Vigor? How it looks like. I feel like I'm in real-world Norway at some locations. That feeling of absolute happiness when you finally loot four nails for your next shelter improvement. ▶What do you want to see in Vigor? More crazy stuff. I hope that there will be some Halloween or Christmas special update. ▶What do you do when you are not making Vigor? Finishing my Ph.D. studies. The last phase of writing the thesis is extremely demotivational 😞 In the rest of time – skiing or bike riding (depending on the season), playing chess and reading books. And folding origami! ▶Did game dev change your view on the games and how? Sometimes I am surprised, how long it can take to make some tiny change. Big features are time-consuming, of course. Many small tweaks are really simple. And time after time the tiny change appears and ruins almost everything. ▶Your favorite games and why? I’ve grown up on small free games, especially puzzles. But the number one for me is Liero. I love those pixel-art fountains of blood and monitor-shaking explosions. ▶What's your favorite music, movie, show, book and why? Favourite book? It is difficult to select only one, or two, or a couple of them. Stories about Sherlock Holmes, Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, books by Jules Verne etc. Folk & Country, it is an easy question for me. Movies about people's inside heaven with some portion of humor: “The Shawshank Redemption”, “Dobří holubi se vracejí”. Show: M*A*S*H. Did you know that the final episode was the most watched series finale ever? And using Rasťo‘s new category I want to say that Garfield and his „love“ for mondays is so inspiring 🙂 ▶Is there something that you want to say to our community? Do not ask me fora fishing minigame, you will get this one 😄 ▶You are an Outlander; humanity has fallen. What would you do? Step 1: Find some sharp stone. Step 2: Go to the library and get the book The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. Step 3: Start building new industry according to manual obtained in step 2. Bonus Question (From Rastislav ) ▶What would be your ideal vacation? First week doing literally nothing. Then spend my time at the sea and in the mountains. Croatia provides both. Swimming. Exploring wild nature, abandoned monasteries, small old villages... Drinking wine and prošek (dalmatian sweet dessert wine). And manually crafting something strange, eg. life-size sailboat from wine corks.