| Type | Video game developer |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Prague, Czech Republic |
| Key people | Marek Španěl (CEO), Ondřej Španěl |
| Products | Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, ARMA: Armed Assault, ARMA 2, ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead |
| Employees | 140 [1] |
| Subsidiaries | Altar Games Black Element Software Centauri Production |
| Website | http://www.bistudio.com |
Bohemia Interactive (BI), also referred to as Bohemia Interactive Studio (BIS), is an independent computer and console game developer based in Prague, Czech Republic. The company is managed by Marek Španěl, who is also co-owner of the company.
BI is a member of IDEA Games, who functions as a publisher and consultant for several independent developers.
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The release of Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis in 2001 into the international market won BI several prestigious awards. At London's ECTS show of 2001, BI won the "Best PC Game Developer of the Year" award. In addition, BI was also awarded "Rookie Studio of the Year" at GDC 2002.
The debut game of BI, published by Codemasters, immediately became the top selling game in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Czech Republic and other countries. After this success BI prepared a special US version of the game which launched in September 2001 and it also became one of the best selling games in the USA.
After OFP was released, the official expansion packs came onto the game market, officially titled Red Hammer and Resistance which brought significant engine updates. The development team continued (until 2005) to support the game with regularly released upgrades and patches over the Internet.
An Xbox version of Operation Flashpoint containing both original and the resistance campaign was released in November 2005. It was released under the name Operation Flashpoint: Elite.
The spinoff studio Bohemia Interactive Australia (BIA) was formed by BI and David Lagettie, where joint development of a special military training simulation program, VBS1, began in December 2001. After thorough testing and field use (in cooperation with United States Marine Corps), VBS1 was made available in the fall of 2002 for qualified government clients and military organizations. On May 21, 2004, VBS1 underwent limited public distribution. On August 14, 2004 it was released for North America; distribution was handled by Coalescent Technologies. In 2008 most of development operations were moved to Prague, Czech Republic under newly formed Bohemia Interactive Simulations. Subsequently BIA was integrated as Asia-Pacific arm of Bohemia Interactive Simulations and Peter Morrison, previously Lead Developer was appointed CEO.
The studio operates multiple high end optical Motion capture setups provided by technology leading Motion analysis and Vicon, Vivid-900 3D scanner by Minolta and RED One camera with complete set of lenses, lighting and related computer equipment.
The technology is available for hire and was used in various in-house and external projects (e.g. Wanted, Universe at War: Earth Assault, Assassin's Creed 2).
Also, BI offers output data from its unique LINDA, highly sophisticated software used to generate 3D models of trees and bushes specifically adjusted for real-time simulations and games (each model includes multiple levels of detail, LOD).