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SUMMARY:The Birth of Polish Game Development - How American Pop Culture Inspired Digital Creators Behind the Iron Curtain
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/2026/08/26/witchfire-the-witcher-blizzard/
LOCATION:
DTSTAMP:20260906
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20260906
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20260906
DESCRIPTION:Sunday, September 6 at 4:00 PM - 5:00 PMPAX WestFirebird 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
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