Sunday, September 6 at 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
PAX West
Firebird Theatre (LVL 5, Signature Room)
900 Pine Street, Seattle, WA 98101

Poland is a prime example of how inspiration drawn from American pop culture can elevate an entire industry to world-class prominence. This session with panelist Ryszard Chojnowski, will take attendees on a remarkable journey back to a time when the Polish video game industry was beginning to emerge behind the Iron Curtain. The presentation will explore how American pop culture including films, literature, music, VHS tapes, and satellite television found its way to young creators growing up in the communist era, sparking imagination and creative ambition in a vastly different reality. What began as a fascination with American culture ultimately evolved into the creation of globally acclaimed titles such as The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077, This War of Mine, and Dying Light. The talk will ultimately reveal how such a vibrant and innovative game development scene flourished in a part of the world once considered distant and inaccessible, and why PAX West has become a natural place for this story to be shared.

Ryszard Chojnowski is a Polish video game industry veteran and podcaster with 30 years of experience spanning, localization, game design, and project management. A firsthand witness to the emergence of gaming culture in late communist Poland, he offers a unique perspective on how Western pop culture shaped an entire generation of Polish developers and players. He served as project lead on The Witcher at CD Projekt Red and has contributed translations to major BioWare RPGs and almost the entire Blizzard catalogue. He currently oversees the full multilingual localization of Witchfire by The Astronauts.

This session is supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.

Lead image: © CD Projekt RED