I made console and PC games, first at X-Ray Interactive and then at Tate Interactive in Kraków, the studio behind the Kao the Kangaroo series. Tate Interactive belonged to the four of us who made the games (Jan Matląg, Jakub Kojder, Wojciech Biliński and me) and to an investor, who owns the company today. In the Polish demoscene and gamedev community I went by Makhzi.
Jakub Kojder, Jan Matląg and I built the studio’s own engine, Elephant, with its tool set, and the later games ran on it. Over the following years the studio grew into a much larger team. My credits:
Games
Cover: Wikipedia Kao the Kangaroo
- Platforms
- PC, Dreamcast
- Publisher
- Titus Interactive
- My role
- programming, level design
Cover: Wikipedia Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox
- Publisher
- Titus Interactive, Cenega, JoWooD, Atari
- My role
- programming
Cover: Wikipedia Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of the Volcano
- Platforms
- PC
- Publisher
- Cenega, 1C, N3V Games
- My role
- lead programmer (one of the leads)
Cover: Wikipedia Kao Challengers
- Platforms
- PlayStation Portable
- Publisher
- Atari
- My role
- programming
Cover: Wikipedia Asterix & Obelix XXL 2: Mission: Wifix
- Platforms
- PlayStation Portable
- Publisher
- Atari Europe
- My role
- lead programmer of the PSP port
Lanfeust of Troy
- Platforms
- PlayStation Portable
- Publisher
- Atari Europe
- My role
- programming
Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure
- Platforms
- PC, Wii
- Publisher
- Atari Europe
- My role
- programming
Cover: Wikipedia My Horse & Me 2
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation 2, Wii, Xbox 360
- Publisher
- Atari Europe
- My role
- programming
The Saddle Club
- Platforms
- PC, Wii
- Publisher
- Deep Silver
- My role
- programming
Titeuf: Le Film
- Platforms
- PC, Wii, Nintendo DS
- Publisher
- Deep Silver
- My role
- programming
Who released the games, country by country (MobyGames, GameTDB, gry-online.pl):
- Kao the Kangaroo: Titus (France, USA; Virgin Interactive distributed the Dreamcast version in Europe), Licomp Empik Multimedia (Poland), Sold Out Software (UK, 2002)
- Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2: Titus and Cenega (Poland, 2003), JoWooD (Germany, France and Europe, 2004-2005), Atari (USA and Canada, GameCube, 2006), Nordic Games (PS2 re-release, 2012)
- Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of the Volcano: Cenega (Poland), 1C (Russia), Auran Games (Australia)
- Kao Challengers: Atari Europe (UK, France, Australia), Atari (USA), Licomp Empirical Multimedia (Poland)
- Asterix & Obelix XXL 2: Mission: Wifix (PSP): Atari Europe
- Lanfeust of Troy: Atari Europe
- Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure: Atari Europe (France), Atari Deutschland (Germany), CD Projekt (Poland)
- My Horse & Me 2: Atari Europe (Europe), Atari (USA, as Riding for Gold), CD Projekt (Poland, as Kocham konie 2)
- The Saddle Club: Deep Silver (Europe, France as Grand Galop), Koch Media (Germany), Cenega (Poland), Destineer (USA, as I Love Horses: Rider’s Paradise)
- Titeuf: Le Film: Deep Silver (France)
The producers we worked with, as credited:
- Kao the Kangaroo: Eric Caen and Hervé Caen (executive producers, Titus), Paul Leskowicz (producer)
- Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2: Keehwan Her (associate producer, Atari); Neil Soane (producer), Stefan Berger, Daniel Wehner, Jan Wagner and Robert Al-Yazdi (product management, JoWooD); Paul Leskowicz (producer)
- Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of the Volcano: Paul Leskowicz (producer)
- Kao Challengers: Gérard Barnaud (producer) and Rebecka Pernered (publishing director), Atari, with Ai-Lich Nguyen, Sophie Barnaud, Ludovic Bony, Sandrine Dubois, Jenny Clark, Carine Mawart and Lisa Gaillard (localisation, materials, quality and certification); Paul Leskowicz (producer)
- Asterix & Obelix XXL 2: Mission: Wifix (PSP): Nadège de Bergevin (senior producer), Rebecka Pernered (republishing director), Sébastien Chaudat (republishing manager), Christophe Manquant (republishing producer) and Philippe Louvet (engineering services manager), Atari Europe, with Cyril Voiron, Tim Verschure and Lionel Arnaud (marketing and product)
- Lanfeust of Troy: Rebecka Pernered (director of production), Nadège de Bergevin (executive producer) and Philippe Louvet (producer), Atari, with Cyril Voiron, Tim Verschure and Lionel Arnaud (brand and product)
- Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure: Rebecka Coutaz (publishing director), Nadège de Bergevin (senior producer) and Philippe Louvet (producer), Atari, with Cyril Voiron, Tim Verschure and Sara Hasson (marketing and planning)
- My Horse & Me 2: Rebecka Coutaz (director of production), Thomas Le Grand (senior producer) and Olivier Staebler (associate producer), Atari Europe, with Weronika Larsson, Aurélie Baudy, Marie Sliwa, Sophie Wibaux-Meliet, Stéphanie Sieker, Claire McGowan and Stéphane Entéric (project management); Hudson Piehl and Veronica Franklin, Atari Inc.
The team#
The team at X-Ray Interactive and Tate Interactive, as credited on MobyGames:
Kao the Kangaroo
- Paul Leskowicz (producer)
- Jan Matląg (lead programmer)
- Marcin Klimek (programming, levels, concept)
- Jakub Kojder (programming, sound)
- Wojciech Biliński (characters, levels, concept)
- Paweł Czapla (characters, graphics, concept)
- Paulina Klimek (graphics)
- Aleksander Szymczyszyn (graphics)
- Bartosz Idzi (sound, music)
- Rafał Szumny (sound, music)
- Jarek Owczarek (business)
- Jan Szczepanowski (business)
Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2
- Paul Leskowicz (producer)
- Wojciech Biliński (game designer)
- Jakub Kojder (programmer)
- Marcin Klimek (programmer)
- Michal Kucharczyk (programmer)
- Marcin Wasniowski (programmer)
- Jan Matląg (lead programmer)
- Paweł Czapla (concept art)
- Michał Firek (lead level designer)
- Jacek Cetera (level designer)
- Piotr Kolasinski (level designer)
- Arkadiusz Firlit (character modeling and animation)
- Grzegorz Kukuś (character modeling and animation)
- Wojciech Idzi (lead 2d artist)
- Bartosz Idzi (sound and music)
- Stanislaw Kozlowski (general manager)
- Agnieszka Kozlowska (business development)
- Eric Loget (business development)
Kao the Kangaroo: Mystery of the Volcano
- Paul Leskowicz (producer)
- Jan Matląg (lead programmer)
- Jakub Kojder (programmers, sound effects)
- Marcin Klimek (programmers)
- Marcin Wasniowski (programmers)
- Michał Trzeciak (programmers)
- Wojciech Biliński (game designer, modeling and character animations)
- Paweł Czapla (world and character concept, texture creation)
- Michał Firek (level creation)
- Piotr Kolasinski (level creation, special effects)
- Łukasz Biegun (level creation)
- Jacek Cetera (level creation)
- Arkadiusz Firlit (modeling and character animations)
- Dariusz Puk (sound effects, music)
- Jacek Joniec (voice-over)
- Jan Nosal (voice-over)
Kao Challengers
- Paul Leskowicz (producer)
- Jan Matląg (main programmer)
- Jakub Kojder (programmers)
- Marcin Klimek (programmers)
- Marcin Wasniowski (programmers)
- Wojciech Biliński (game designer, characters modeling and animations)
- Paweł Czapla (concept art, level designers)
- Michał Firek (level designers)
- Arkadiusz Firlit (level designers, characters modeling and animations)
- Jacek Cetera (level designers)
- Piotr Kolasinski (level designers, special effects)
- Grzegorz Kukuś (characters modeling and animations)
- Wojciech Idzi (2d artist)
- Bartosz Idzi (sound, music)
- Mateusz Ryszka (sound, music)
- Stanislaw Kozlowski (general manager)
- Agnieszka Kozlowska (bussines developement)
Asterix & Obelix XXL 2: Mission: Wifix (PSP)
- Paul Leskowicz (producer)
- Agnieszka Kozlowska (business development)
- Jan Matląg (lead programmer)
- Wojciech Biliński (lead designer, character animation)
- Jakub Kojder (programmers)
- Marcin Klimek (programmers)
- Marcin Wasniowski (programmers)
- Michał Trzeciak (programmers)
- Mariusz Niezabitowski (programmers)
- Michał Firek (lead level design)
- Łukasz Biegun (3d artists)
- Tomasz Straszewski (3d artists)
- Paweł Czapla (concept artist)
- Arkadiusz Firlit (character modelling, character animation)
- Piotr Kolasinski (f/x)
- Dariusz Puk (music & sfx)
- Lukasz Cwikla (qa lead)
- Tomasz Zbadyński (testers)
- Artur Kisielewski (testers)
My Horse & Me 2
- Paul Leskowicz (ceo)
- Wojciech Biliński (managing team, lead game designer)
- Jakub Kojder (managing team, programmers)
- Jan Matląg (managing team, main programmer)
- Marcin Klimek (managing team, programmers)
- Marcin Draszczuk (programmers)
- Mariusz Niezabitowski (programmers)
- Piotr Bednaruk (programmers)
- Wojciech Marzec (system programmers)
- Sebastian Chain (system programmers)
- Marcin Wasniowski (system programmers)
- Tomasz Rojek (pc installer programmer)
- Łukasz Wychrystenko (tools programmers)
- Paweł Lewandowski (tools programmers)
- Lukasz Cwikla (script programmers, hardware support)
- Pawel Labuz (script programmers)
- Artur Poznański (game designers)
- Michał Mazur (game designers)
- Kamil Witkowski (art director)
- Michał Firek (lead 3d level designer)
- Łukasz Migda (3d artists)
- Paweł Owczyński (3d artists)
- Adrian Sobieraj (3d artists)
- Adam Laczny (3d artists)
- Grzegorz Rosol (characters modelers)
- Arkadiusz Firlit (characters modelers)
- Paweł Czapla (lead 2d artists)
- Izabela Jóźwiak (artists 2d)
- Magdalena Kojder (artists 2d)
- Piotr Kolasinski (artists 2d, special effects)
- Artur Kulczycki (artists 2d)
- Adam Bakowski (lead animator)
- Łukasz Burnet (animators)
- Agata Czaplińska (animators)
- Krzysztof Padjasek (qa lead)
- Krzysztof Wojtach (tester)
- Dariusz Puk (music, sound)
- Ewa Odrzywolska (office management)
Where to read more:
- My credits on IMDb and the Tate Interactive page on MobyGames
- The Kao the Kangaroo series on Wikipedia and Tate Multimedia on Wikipedia
- “Polscy twórcy gier od A do Z: Tate Interactive” on Polygamia (in Polish)
- How Kao the Kangaroo was made: an interview with Wojciech Biliński (in Polish)
- The games today: the Tate Multimedia website and its developer page on Steam, with Kao the Kangaroo: Round 2 and Mystery of the Volcano re-released