Meet the Lambs – Szymon Wawruch

In today’s interview, we introduce a person already known to some of those who observe the work of Brave Lamb Studio. Lead Game designer – Szymon Wawruch gave an extensive interview about the challenges of producing War Hospital and working at Brave Lamb Studio. We invite you to read it!

Szymon, what do you do in Brave Lamb Studio?

Szymon Wawruch: In BLS I am responsible for the entire War Hospital title. As the design team that I have the pleasure of leading, we focus on making gameplay assumptions a reality from the abstract planning level to the final gameplay, meticulously analyzing the quality of execution and the so-called fun factor (gameplay satisfaction factor) at each stage of the process.

Tell us about your experience as a game designer.

Szymon Wawruch: If the love for games was enough to become a full-fledged game designer I could boast experience not much less than my age (30). Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as many might think. The accompanying love for gaming, market awareness helps a lot in choosing the best solutions in the development process. I have been involved in game design professionally for more than five years and I have been systematically improving my skills while getting to know and learn the new business mechanisms that rule the industry.

Why did you decide to work in the Studio?

Szymon Wawruch: BLS has a few solid pillars that every project to which passionate game developers choose to give probably the best years of their lives should have. They are:

• A project that has an interesting concept – a non-trivial game idea that responds to the needs of a gaming community that is more mature and opts for more serious dilemmas and a setting so rarely shown in games, yet so dark and fascinating.

• Working conditions that give a healthy and respectful environment for mutual work that does not use employees’ passions against them but encourages individualism in every aspect, mechanic and sound.

• Transparency of biz and dev activities and relationships.

Personally, I will add from myself one more important pillar – the vast majority of the crew members knows each other since they have been working in other studios, where they have cooperated together. Thanks to that, the interaction between various departments in BLS is efficient and remote work does not deprive us of opportunity to become acquainted with one another.

Tell us about a typical day at the company? In what ways do you work?

Szymon Wawruch: Remote work provides many new challenges and forces adaptation. As a young studio, BLS does not need to remodel its work system because the middle of the pandemic situation was the circumstances in which Lamb was brought into existence. Given the lack of organic contact and the isolation of the crew, the pace of work allows us to maintain a very optimistic outlook on the impact of such an operating format on the shape of the game. The rhythm of work and the discipline of executing assumptions are our daily bread and the transparency of planning and a clearly outlined goal allows us to maintain 100% focus on the most important elements at each current stage of development. If we come back to the studio it can only get better.

In your opinion, what is the biggest advantage and what is the biggest disadvantage of working as a designer on a project like War Hospital?

Szymon Wawruch: I feel honored by the trust of the people working at the Studio. The presence of uncommonly talented artists, programmers, designers, animators, writers, 3D graphic designers, as well as producers and business and marketing people and the awareness that we are all working on a piece on which I had the opportunity to outline the concept is both a great ennoblement and a source of great stress. Could the system have been better designed, could the mandated task have been better described, could the hopes for the final satisfaction of the game be as good as we assume? Such voices are an inseparable part of my work, but regularity being a result of professionalism and my complete trust for the team of which I am, after all, a part is a great learning experience and a goldmine of knowledge.

Will you play War Hospital after the release?

Szymon Wawruch: When creating the game, I spend thousands of hours thinking about the players who will have the opportunity to sit in front of the title. The greatest honor for me will be the sense of satisfaction players will receive by spending more hours of their lives exploring everything we put in the product. The moving stories of the characters, the surprising interrelationships between the systems in the game, the wonderful music accompanying the gameplay, the poignant graphic vision of a world devastated by war, the events that are real struggles inspired by the hardest years of the First World War. This is the game I want to play together with all the players as its designer, as well as with each of them individually as a player.