Development of training game for NATO and the American Military returns to the Czech Republic

8 Apr. 2009 | CzechInvest, Bohemia Interactive | Bohemia Interactive will develop the next generation of its military training game Virtual Battlespace, used by NATO and the American Military, in Prague.

The Czech software company Bohemia Interactive is relocating its development team, which is engaged in creating the next generation of the military training game Virtual Battlespace, back to the Czech Republic. In connection with this, the company is creating new jobs for top programmers at its new development centre in Prague’s Dejvice district. Virtual Battlespace is used for training military units around the world, including those of the American armed forces and NATO.

“Until the beginning of this year, Bohemia Interactive worked on Virtual Battlespace mainly in its Australian studio. We are very pleased that we can welcome the game developers back to the Czech Republic,” says Alexandra Rudyšarová, acting CEO of CzechInvest. “Software developers currently comprise the largest group of new investors in the Czech Republic. Last year alone, 43 such investors entered the Czech Republic with our assistance.”

“Virtual Battlespace 2 enjoys worldwide popularity. It is used by a broad range of organisations, including the armed forces of the United States and United Kingdom. From June this year, NATO will also use it for joint training. This means a lot of development work for us,” explains Peter Morrison, CEO of Bohemia Interactive Simulations. “Even though Australia remains the main sales territory, we decided to relocate most of the development back to the Czech Republic because we are convinced that we will find here a lot of top-quality programmers who will want to take part in the development of Virtual Battlespace. Beside that, it is also something of a homecoming for us.”

Bohemia Interactive came to fame in 2001 with the release of its highly regarded action game Operation Flashpoint. This game operated on the Real Virtuality graphics engine, on which the Španěl brothers, the founders of Bohemia Interactive Studio, had worked since 1997. Today Bohemia Interactive is developing the third generation of this engine, on which the next version of Virtual Battlespace will run.

“Currently, our developers are intensely focused on, for example, integrating into Virtual Battlespace a module for realistic training of forces against improvised explosive devices. This was also one of the key requirements of NATO, which wants our computer game for preparing soldiers for missions in Afghanistan and Iraq,” continues Peter Morrison.

Besides development of “serious” computer games, Bohemia Interactive works on games for entertainment. The company is currently completing its latest title, Armed Assault 2 (ArmA2), which runs on the same engine as its military software.

More about Bohemia Interactive

Established in 1999, Bohemia Interactive is an independent game-development company with studios in the Czech Republic and Australia. The company’s activities include development of top-level graphics software, research in advanced 3D graphics and artificial intelligence, and technologies for simulating physical properties in a real-time interactive environment. Bohemia Interactive is the creator of the games Operation Flashpoint and ArmA: Armed Assault. The Bohemia Interactive Simulations division develops “serious” products, such as the military training game Virtual Battlespace, on the core game engine called Real Virtuality.

Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2) is being developed specifically for military training, thanks to which it offers many specific features including a realistic 3D virtual environment, scenario editors, run time authoring and after-action review capability. Unlike most other military simulation products, VBS2 is also very easy to install, configure and run.