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Personal Data
Full Name: Jakub Mikołaj Majewski
Date of Birth: 29 Nov 1981
Place of Birth: Toruń, Poland
Nationality: Polish
Phone: 502 209 448
Currently living in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Email: qmajewski (at) yahoo.co.uk
Summary
Creative director and team leader, with more than a decade of experience working in the games industry, mainstream and indie, full-time and freelance, on just about any type of platform.
I have worked in many different positions over the years - starting with level design and writing, through game design and production management, and most recently, as a creative director. Currently, while continuing to work in games development, I also offer access to my knowledge and experience as a consultant.
Work Experience
- Maze Emerging Markets, London, UK, website: http://mazeem.com/,
September 2011 - present. As a principal consultant, I provide expert advice
on the Polish games industry as well as production and management advice for
several of our client companies.
- City Interactive, Poland, website: http://www.city-interactive.com/,
January 2011 - April 2012. The company is one of Poland’s largest
game developers and publishers. I returned to the company to work as
the Creative Director on a multi-platform air combat game. During my time at
City Interactive, I also worked on another project in a more limited
capacity, and for a few months served as the interim head of the Bydgoszcz
studio. Projects include:
- Dogfight 1942 (TBA; X360/PS3/PC) - as the creative director, I was
responsible for conceiving and implementing the creative vision of the
game. Originally, the game was to be a full-price boxed product under
the name Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII (just like the
Wii game I'd previously worked on). However, distribution problems led
to the game morphing into a pure arcade game for digital distribution
through XBLA, PSN and Steam. The title also changed at this time.
- Alien Fear (TBA; X360/PS3/PC) - while working on Combat Wings, I was
asked to spend a portion of my time on Alien Fear. My
contribution was more along the lines of a design consultant; however, I
also wrote several drafts of the game's script. The project itself is a
straightforward arcade FPS aimed for digital distribution.
- More freelance work,
March 2010 - January 2011. While working at Vivid Games, I also
continued to take on freelance work. Projects during this time include:
- City Interactive, Poland, website: http://www.city-interactive.com/.
- Murder in Venice (2011; DS) - freelance writer. The
title is an adventure/puzzle game. I
translated the game's script into English, as well as working on
improving it.
- Vampire Moon: The Mystery of The Hidden Sun (2010; DS) - freelance writer. The
title is an adventure/puzzle game. I
translated the game's script into English, as well as working on
improving it.
- Chronicles of Mystery: The Secret Tree of Life (2010; DS) -
freelance writer. The
title is an adventure/puzzle game. I polished
several drafts of the game's script, first in Polish, and then in
English. I didn't translate the entire script into English, but
rewrote significant parts of it afterwards.
- Jewels of Tropical Lost Island (2010; DS) - freelance writer. I
translated the game's script into English, as well as working on
improving it. The
title is a puzzle game.
- Vivid Games, Poland, website: http://www.vividgames.com/,
March 2010 – January 2011. The company is a significant game developer on
portable platforms, including mobile phones, the Nintendo DS, and the iPhone.
I work as a game producer, leading various projects for the iPhone and
the DS. I also occasionally lend my writing skills to other projects.
- As producer:
- Word Explorer (in development; iPhone) - producer. I was in
charge of the project. At the time of my departure, the
project had been in development for a year, but was still in early
stages. To date, the project is yet to be completed (work continues
- it's not cancelled or suspended).
- Speedball 2 Evolution (2011; iPhone) - producer. I was in
charge of the project.
- Alien Puzzle Adventure (2011; DSi) - producer. I was in
charge of the project.
- iRudolph (2010; iPhone) - producer. I was in charge of the project.
- Shoot To Kill (2010; iPhone) - producer. I was in
charge of the project.
- Other work at Vivid:
- Ski Jumping 2011 (2010; iPhone / mobile) - additional writer. I
translated most of the game's texts into English, as well as
performing some additional proofreading.
- Championship Racing 2010 (2010; mobile) - additional writer. I
translated most of the game's texts into English, as well as
performing some additional proofreading.
- Speedway 2010 (2010; mobile) - additional writer. I
translated most of the game's texts into English, as well as
performing some additional proofreading.
- Freelance work, December 2009 - March 2010. Since leaving City Interactive, I have
done a lot of work as a freelance writer and design consultant. I
also attempted to start up a development studio, called Revolt Studios -
this project was ultimately abandoned after my business partner decided to
pursue other interests. Projects during this time include:
- City Interactive, Poland, website: http://www.city-interactive.com/.
- Crime Lab: Body of Evidence (2010; DS) - freelance writer. The
title is an adventure/puzzle game for the Nintendo DS. I polished
several drafts of the game's script, first in Polish, and then in
English. I didn't translate the entire script into English, but
rewrote significant parts of it afterwards.
- Terrorist Takedown 3 (2010) - freelance writer.
The title is a first-person shooter for the PC. I
wrote the game's script.
- Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII (TBA; Wii) -
freelance writer and design consultant. This title is an arcade
flying game for the Nintendo Wii. As a freelance writer, I am
responsible for all the dialogues in the game (mostly writing them
from scratch, in some cases based on rough outlines). As a design
consultant, I have also contributed some major revisions to the
game's mission design and the overall gameplay design. The game
was ultimately not published due to the collapse of the Wii market,
but as I understand, it may yet be released together with upcoming
multi-platform Dogfight 1942 (formerly Combat Wings).
- SWAT (working title, project cancelled; PC) - freelance writer.
I translated the game's dialogues from Polish to English.
- Battlestrike: Force of Resistance 2 (2009; PC; published in
Poland as Rajd na Berlin: Cien Stalingradu) - freelance
consultant. The title was a first-person shooter. I participated in
the project as an independent consultant, and translated the game's
dialogues from Polish to English.
- Revolt Studios, Poland (no website, no longer in existence).
- Race-Train (unfinished; PC) - a light-hearted, casual-oriented
train-racing game with RPG elements. I was responsible for the game
design - writing all the design documentation and ultimately
implementing the game scripts (to some degree). At the time of
cancellation, the game design documentation was in a fairly advanced
stage, and we were working on an experimental demo using my business
partner's game engine.
- Knights over the Atlantic (unfinished; PC) - an arcade flying
game with heavy emphasis on storyline. This is a project I dearly
hope to revive one day. It was a more long-term project than Race-Train
- bigger and more budget-hungry. As such, it was allowed to
"simmer" in the background while we focused on Race-Train.
I was the project's producer, as well as the lead designer/writer,
writing the game design documentation.
- City Interactive, Poland, website: http://www.city-interactive.com/,
January 2006 – November 2008. The company is one of Poland’s largest
game developers and publishers. I worked for City Interactive first as a lead
designer, then as a project manager, and in the last three months, as a
freelance consultant. In the last few months at City, my work primarily
centred on training new project managers.
- As project manager:
- Armed Forces Corp (2009; PC; published in Poland as Najemnicy)
- project manager, and subsequently consultant. The title is a
first-person shooter. My job was to kick-start the project, develop the
initial project plan and design documentation, as well as to train a
newly-hired project manager and eventually pass the project on to him
entirely. Subsequently, I also translated the game's dialogues from
Polish to English.
- Royal Marines Commando (2008; PC) - project manager. The title was
a first-person shooter. I was in charge for the first half of the
project, before passing command to a trainee project manager. My duties
included coordinating design documentation development, directly
overseeing the game & level design team, coordinating the game's
development in general, and training the new project manager.
- Code of Honor 2 (2008; PC) - project manager. The title was a
first-person shooter. I was in charge of the project. My duties included
coordinating design documentation development, directly overseeing the
game & level design team, and coordinating the game's development in
general. I also developed the story into a full scenario script.
- Operation Thunderstorm (2008; PC; published in Poland as Mortyr:
Operacja Sztorm) - Localisation Kit manager. The title was a
first-person shooter. I stepped into the project late in its development
cycle, so my role was relatively limited. I was there, more or less, to
ensure that the project would be completed on time. I handled the
Localisation Kit and helped to manage the project as a whole in its
final stages.
- Terrorist Takedown 2 (2007; PC) - project manager. The title was a
first-person shooter, and I was in charge of the project. My duties
included coordinating design documentation development, directly
overseeing the game & level design team, and coordinating the game's
development in general. I also developed the story into a full scenario
script.
- As designer/design consultant:
- Battlestrike: Force of Resistance (2007; PC; published in Poland as
Mortyr III: Akcje Dywersyjne) - level designer and Localisation
Kit manager for the product, a first-person shooter. Apart from that, I
also handled the Localisation Kit again. As such, I was responsible for
checking and correcting all the game texts (briefings, objectives,
dialogues, etc.) in Polish and English, as well as preparing the
Localisation Kit for translation into other languages.
- The Hell in Vietnam (2007; PC) – design consultant. I was
attached to this project, a first-person shooter, late in its production
cycle. In spite of the odd job title, my main responsibility was to put
together the game's Localisation Kit - I collected all of the game's
texts and dialogues, worked with an outsourced writer on a second draft,
and then polished everything up into a final draft. I was actually
attached to this project mainly in order for me to gather experience
working with first-person shooters, so originally my official task was
to a) brush up on using the editing tools for the Chrome engine, and b)
to play the game and offer ideas on how to further improve it. I didn't
much like being a fifth wheel, however, so I was able to finally get the
more concrete task of handling the Localisation Kit.
- Wings of Honour: Battles of the Red Baron Arcade (2007;
PC) - lead
game designer. Another internet conversion, but this time more far
reaching than CW:BoB AE - we essentially rewrote all the missions and
heavily reworked the gameplay mechanics.
- Combat Wings: Battle of Britain Arcade Edition (2007; PC) - lead
game designer. This project was a sort of conversion of the original CW:
BoB - the idea being to make the gameplay more arcade while
simultaneously reducing the game's size drastically in order to adapt it
for the internet download-before-you-buy market.
- Combat Wings: Battle of Britain (2006; PC) – lead game designer
& writer for this arcade flying game. Functions included general
game design and writing the script, mission design and supervising the
implementation of all the missions by the level designers.
- Wings of Honour: Battles of the Red Baron (2006; PC) – lead level
designer, co-designer and co-writer for this arcade flying game.
Functions included overseeing the production of all the missions in the
game (i.e., developing missions and supervising the level designers). I
contributed to the general game design, and wrote & edited a great
deal of the voiceover texts.
- Techland, Poland, website: http://www.techland.com.pl/,
July 2005. Techland is one of Poland's largest game developers/publishers.
After Tannhauser Gate was shut down, I spent a few weeks working as a level
designer at Techland on Call of Juarez (2006; Xbox/PC), an FPS western. Although it was a valuable experience, neither side was
satisfied, and I did not stay long - I doubt my work is especially
noticeable in the final product.
- Tannhauser Gate, Poland, website: http://www.thgate.com,
December 2004 - June 2005. This was a small game developer with about fifteen-twenty staff
members. When I joined them as a junior game designer, both of their
projects were in late stages of development. However, the small size of the
team meant that I was given far greater responsibilities than the title of
junior game designer would indicate:
- The Roots (cancelled; Xbox/PC) - junior game designer,
role-playing game. My main duties included finishing up the game
texts, implementing the game narrative using Lua scripts and an in-house
world editor, and balancing the game. The title was eventually
terminated when the company went out of business. At the time, we were
approaching beta status.
- The Roots: Gates of Chaos (2005; N-Gage) - level designer for the
product, a role-playing game for the Nokia N-Gage. My tasks included
distributing all the enemies and retrievable items in the game, which
included approximately 40 different maps.
- Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia, February – April 2003. Casual
marking tutor in COMN13-612: Videogames as Communication. Duties include
marking student papers and helping to prepare weekly discussions.
- Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia, October – December 2002.
Research assistant for the “Diverse Worlds of Computer and Video Games”
research project conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Brand, School of Humanities &
Social Sciences, communications. Duties included overseeing data collection
and participating in the analysis.
- Freelance work:
- Wing Commander: Standoff (2004-2009, PC) – heading a large team of 10+ volunteers, I co-produced and
co-directed this unofficial, episodic expansion pack for the game Wing
Commander: Secret Ops (1998, Origin Systems, Inc.). Functions
included coordinating the project, as well as mission and cinematics
design, cinematics scripting, and finally writing the game’s script
and text fiction. Website: http://standoff.solsector.net.
- Australian Game Developers, Australia (the website no longer exists,
but you can check it out in The
Wayback Machine)
- The Omega Syndrome (2004; PC) – design consultant.
- Dio Games, Romania, website: http://www.diogames.com.
- Pax Solaris (2003; PC; later republished as Pax Galaxia)
– game manual writer, game level co-designer, and quality
assurance.
- Niels Bauer Games, Freiburg, Germany, website: http://www.nielsbauergames.com.
- Smugglers 3 (2004; PC) – design consultant.
- TV Manager (2002; PC) – game manual writer and game
co-designer.
- Smugglers 2 (2001; PC) – game manual writer and game
co-designer.
- Wing Commander: Unknown Enemy (2002; PC) - Co-produced and
co-directed the product, an unofficial expansion pack for Wing
Commander: Secret Ops (1998). Functions included helping to
coordinate the project as well as mission and cinematics design,
cinematics scripting, and writing text fiction for the game. Website: http://unknownenemy.solsector.net.
Educational Background
- 2002 – 2003 Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia. Master of Film and
Television, focussing on interactive media. The degree included practical
and analytical subjects, as well as a thesis component. The thesis dealt
with the nature and structure of narrative in video games. Twice placed on
Vice-Chancellor's list for academic excellence during this time.
- 2001 – IECS Université Robert Schuman, Strasbourg, France. One semester
stay through Bond University’s student exchange program.
- 2000 – 2001 Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia. Bachelor of Arts,
majoring in International Relations and French Language. Also undertook some
film courses as electives, including subjects like scriptwriting and video
production.
- 1998 – 1999 Canadian College, Macau, China.
- 1992 – 1998 The International School of Lae, Lae, Papua New Guinea.
Employment Skills and Attributes
- Excellent oral and written communication skills, particularly in creative
writing (both prose and scriptwriting).
- Ten years of experience in organisational and managerial functions,
including a lot of work under pressure, with tight deadlines requiring
overtime work.
- In-depth theoretical and practical knowledge of scriptwriting for both
films and video games.
- More than ten years of experience with games design & implementation,
especially in the area of level/mission design & scripting, as well as
directing cinematics. I've used a range of scripting languages, game engines
& tools. While most of the engines I've experience with are proprietary,
and therefore not especially portable to new projects, I can basically learn
whatever tools I need to know.
- With twenty years of experience using computers, I can also handle a whole
lot of other software. Apart from all the usual office & project
management tools, I've dabbled with graphics editing, sound editing, and I
regularly use video editing software for personal projects.
- Practical knowledge of most aspects in the process of video production,
including pre-production, video camera operation, sound editing, and
non-linear image editing.
- While I'm completely fluent in English, my native language is actually
Polish. I also have a working knowledge of French (I can read, more or less
understand when people speak, but I'm very rusty when it comes to writing
and speaking myself), and some (very) limited knowledge of Russian.
Other Interests
Above all, I devote my spare time to my family. Beyond that, I assist my
local Catholic Church parish in various ways, including the weekly production of
video clips. I also continue to dabble with games modding.
Other than that, my interests include film (...the creation of, rather than "watching movies"!), history,
aerial and naval warfare, drawing/painting, water sports (swimming, kayaking),
aviation, Sarmatia & Sarmatism, and Catholic theology.
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