Metropolis Software was a Polish

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a larg ...

founded in 1992 by high school friends

Adrian Chmielarz Adrian Chmielarz (born 1971 in Lubin) is a Polish video game designer, programmer, creative director, producer and writer specializing in adventure games and first-person shooters. Chmielarz has co-founded and led Metropolis Software, People Can F ...

and Grzegorz Miechowski. The studio gained success in Europe with their titles. By the end of 1997, Metropolis had expanded to included 20 full-time employees. Around 2002, a personal conflict between Chmielarz and Miechowski led to Chmielarz to leave the company. A few months later, Chmielarz founded

People Can Fly People Can Fly is a Polish video game developer based in Warsaw. The studio was founded in February 2002 by Adrian Chmielarz, previously the co-founder of Metropolis Software, together with acquaintances Michał Kosieradzki and Andrzej Poznań ...

, along with some other staff from Metropolis. Miechowski continued to run Metropolis. In 2008, the studio was bought by

CD Projekt CD Projekt S.A. () is a Polish video game developer, publisher and distributor based in Warsaw, founded in May 1994 by Marcin Iwiński and Michał Kiciński. Iwiński and Kiciński were video game retailers before they founded the company, whi ...

, and closed in 2009. In October 2010, former CD Projekt and Metropolis Software developers announced the formation of 11 bit studios, a game development house with Miechowski as managing director. Metropolis secured a license to develop a video game based on

Andrzej Sapkowski Andrzej Sapkowski (; born 21 June 1948) is a Polish fantasy writer, essayist, translator and a trained economist. He is best known for his six-volume series of books ''The Witcher'', which revolves around the eponymous "witcher," a monster-hunte ...

's ''

The Witcher ''The Witcher'' ( pl, Wiedźmin ) is a series of six fantasy novels and 15 short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the eponymous "witcher", Geralt of Rivia. In Sapkowski's works, "witchers" are b ...

'' series around 1997. According to Chmielarz, Sapkowski had little interest in the game, only seeing the monetary value of the license, giving Metropolis freedom to develop as they saw fit. The company got as far as completing one playable level, producing press material, and securing a publisher TopWare, but at the time, Metropolis was also working on three other titles. Between these, difficulties with the game, and TopWare's concern that the Slavic nature of the source material may not have international appeal, the project was shelved. Chmielarz said that the project was never officially cancelled, but got lost among the other work they were doing by 1999. CD Projekt later acquired the rights for ''The Witcher'' to develop ''

'' (2007).

Games

* ''

Tajemnica Statuetki ''Tajemnica Statuetki'' is a Polish-language adventure game developed and published by Metropolis Software House for DOS-based computers in 1993. While it was never released in English, it is known in the English-speaking world as ''The Mystery ...

'' (1993) * '' Teenagent'' (1994) * '' Blaster! /'' ''Katharsis'' (1997) * '' The Prince and the Coward /'' ''Książę i tchórz'' (1998) * ''RoboRumble /'' ''Reflux'' (1998) * ''

Gorky 17 ''Gorky 17'' (released as ''Odium'' in North America) is a turn-based tactics tactical role-playing video game developed by Polish studio Metropolis Software and published by Monolith Productions for Microsoft Windows in 1999. The game was lat ...

'' (1999) * ''

Archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other re ...

'' (2002) * ''Gorky Zero: Beyond Honor'' (2003) * ''Gorky Zero 2: Aurora Watching'' (2004) * ''Ski Jumping 2006 /'' ''Skoki narciarskie 2006'' (2005) * '' Infernal'' (2007) * ''They'' (cancelled) * ''Witcher / Wiedźmin'' (cancelled)

References

{{Authority control Video game development companies Video game companies established in 1992 Video game companies disestablished in 2009 Defunct video game companies of Poland Companies based in Warsaw