Warsaw, 29 June 2022
The management of RedDeer.Games sp. z o.o. (RDG) proudly announces that thanks to our collaboration with Matthew Tyrmand (the son and owner of the copyright to the works of the legendary Leopold Tyrmand), the studio’s portfolio now includes a multi-year licence agreement authorising the creation of a series of games and a number of DLCs based on the crime novel titled “The Man With White Eyes” by Leopold Tyrmand.
In 2007, this widely read detective story, written during the communist era, was released in an audiobook edition. In 2009 “The Man With White Eyes” was reissued by the Prószyński i S-ka Publishing House. In 2010 Jan Buchwald staged a play based on the book at the Powszechny Theater, and on the anniversary of the writer’s 100th birthday, the Polish Parliament declared 2020 to be the Year of Leopold Tyrmand.
In 2022, it was the turn of the company to acquire a licence authorising the preparation of a series of games in which RedDeer.Games will translate the book’s detective story into interesting gameplay using all characters, events, proper names and overall plot solutions.
‘Why “The Man With White Eyes”? Because nothing works better in the gaming world than a charismatic main character. Since the licence agreement has no territorial restrictions, our hero will become the basis for video games and an entire multiverse based on many modern entertainment channels, gaining global popularity. On behalf of myself and the entire RedDeer.Games team, I would like to thank Matthew for showing confidence in our studio and choosing us as a partner to bring the classic Polish crime novel to other media,’ said Michal M Lisiecki, CEO of RedDeer.Games sp. z o.o.
‘Working with RedDeer.Games is the next stage that will make it possible for the “The Man With White Eyes” – this time as a game – to reach modern audiences worldwide through gaming platforms. I believe that these activities will contribute to the promotion of my father’s work, mainly among the younger generation,’ added Matthew Tyrmand, a Polish American economist, columnist and social activist.
The provisions of the Agreement clarify the mutual obligations of the parties, which guarantee RedDeer.Games a 20-year exclusive licence. The project includes the production, release and promotion of a number of games and game series, comic books and also a number of extras (not only digital). The agreement provides for modern fields of exploitation, like NFT and Metaverse.
RedDeer.Games, as a producer and publisher, provides funding for the production and exposure of the titles as well as the marketing costs associated with their promotion and digital distribution through dedicated platforms, in particular the Nintendo eShop (for Nintendo Switch consoles), the Microsoft Store (for Xbox consoles), the PlayStation Store (for PlayStation consoles) and STEAM (for PCs), which are the largest distributors of games and applications in the world.
We will provide more details, including the genres of the games, in future announcements.
Leopold Tyrmand (1920-1985)
Leopold Tyrmand was a Polish writer and publicist. He was considered quite controversial in Poland during his lifetime and was published reluctantly. However, he was certainly a jazz expert and a populariser of the music.
Leopold Tyrmand was born in 1920 in Warsaw to an assimilated Jewish family. In 1938, he graduated from the Jan Kreczmar Middle School in Warsaw and went to Paris, where he studied at the architecture department of the National School of Fine Arts. It was there that he first encountered American jazz music and Western European culture, which left a lasting imprint on his work. The outbreak of war surprised him during his holidays in Warsaw, and from there he made his way to Lithuania. In Vilnius he established contacts with one of the underground independence organisations, for which he was arrested by the NKVD in 1941 and sentenced to eight years in prison. He managed to escape, and after making false documents, he reported for work in the Reich. In 1944, he enlisted as a sailor on a German ship in a bid to make his way to neutral Sweden. However, he was captured in a Norwegian port and imprisoned in the Grini concentration camp, where he lived to see the end of the war.
After the war, he began working as a journalist at the Polish Press and Information Agency and later at the editorial office of Przekrój – a well-established newsmagazine. He published in Przekrój, Express Wieczorny, Tygodnik Powszechny, Rzeczpospolita, Dziś i Jutro and Ruch Muzyczny. He specialised in music, theatre and sports reviews. During this time, his first collection of war stories, “Hotel Ansgar”, was published. However, he became famous for his thriller novel about post-war Warsaw, “The Man With White Eyes”, a detective story with a love plot in the background. Slightly later came the monograph “At the shores of jazz”, which is a compendium of knowledge about jazz as well as a collection of short
stories titled “The Bitter Taste of Lucullus Chocolate”. Due to Tyrmand’s uncompromising nature, he was affected by repression after 1958, and the censors stopped his subsequent novels. His last book to be published in Poland was “Filip”, depicting the fate of a young Polish man whose wartime paths lead him to Frankfurt am Main. The novel is based on biographical elements. Tyrmand emigrated from Poland in 1965 – first travelling in Europe, then going to the United States.
Tyrmand’s books have been published abroad, and they include the novel “Seven Long Voyages”, set in Darłowo; the novel “A Social and Emotional Life”, stigmatising Warsaw’s creative intelligentsia community and its servility to the Communists; the collection of essays titled “Notebooks of a Dilettante”, telling the story of America as seen through his eyes; the pamphlet on communism titled “Civilisation of Communism” and “Diary 1954”. He died in 1985, and his “Diary 1954” had to wait until 1989 to be published, although it was heavily censored.
Leopold Tyrmand also has to his credit an unfinished mini novel: “Thoughts and Journeys of Lieutenant Stukułka”, the drama “Polacy, czyli pakamera” (untranslated) and a draft of the screenplay for the film “Niebo” (untranslated). His texts printed in the Polish press between 1946 and 1963 were published in the collection “Pokój ludziom dobrej woli” (untranslated).
Matthew Tyrmand
Polish American economist, columnist and social activist.
Matthew Tyrmand was born in January 1981 in the United States. He grew up in Brooklyn and New York and studied in Chicago. His parents were Leopold Tyrmand, a writer (author of the famous novel “The Man With White Eyes”) and Marry Ellen Fox, a doctoral student in Iberian studies at Yale.
After graduating in economics from the University of Chicago, he worked as an analyst on the Wall Street stock market for 10 years. He is currently involved with the investigative group “Open The Books” – which analyses government financial data for fraud. He is also a manager with the organisation Project Veritas, exposing cases of corruption and unfair practices in public life. He publishes journalistic texts – often about Poland – in the American portal “Breitbart”. He was granted Polish citizenship in 2011.
Matthew Tyrmand’s book, written with Kamila Sypniewska, was published in 2013. In the biography “I am Tyrmand, son of Leopold”, we learn, among other things, about the influence of the famous father on his son and life in his shadow. In 2016, he was communications advisor to Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski. He is associated with the weeklies “Do Rzeczy” and “Wprost”.
“The Man With White Eyes” by Leopold Tyrmand
The novel was published in 1955 as a detective story. Many years have passed since then, but the book enjoys unflagging interest and appreciation from readers, who admit that any classification doesn’t quite fit it. The novel contains many elements such that it could be categorised as an insightful socio-cultural or even a historical study.
Many of the themes presented here focus on the lives of Poles in the post-war years, when the country was recovering from destruction and trauma. The setting is Warsaw, a city mostly ruined during World War II. Together with the book’s characters, we pass the still disorderly streets and examine the resurgent state and society, which has yet to find itself again in the ‘new realities.
Tyrmand’s novel is multi-layered. “The Man With White Eyes” from the title is the main character of the story. He sets himself the task of fighting the criminal Warsaw underworld. He self-appointedly gives himself the title Defender of the Weak, looking out for those who can’t deal with the hooligans who make their lives miserable. The communist police attempt to track down this mysterious ‘avenger’, trying to figure out who he really is. Add to this the love story taking place in the background of events. The author’s interesting style along with the compelling storyline have made it a legend among Polish novels published after World War II.
REDDEER.GAMES SP. Z O.O.
RedDeer.Games (RDG) is an independent development studio, active on the game market since the fourth quarter of 2019. After less than two and a half years of operational activity, the company debuted among the top Polish game developers in the Forbes monthly ranking: „TOP 50 game producers in Poland 2022”, taking fortieth place, with a value estimated at PLN 56 million.
RDG is a developer and publisher of indie games of its own and third-party titles. The games are sold worldwide in the digital distribution model through dedicated platforms, in particular the Nintendo eShop, the Microsoft Store and STEAM, which are the largest distributors of games and applications in the world. The company’s plans for 2022 include expanding its publishing operations on the PlayStation Store platform.
Combining the expertise of a team of passionate designers, artists, musicians, programmers and producers, the studio creates funny and engaging independent games. Teaser of games released in 2019-2021 are available here: VIDEO. Currently, the company has nearly 100 contracted titles in its portfolio, with all announcements and games released by RedDeer.Games available HERE.
The company is one of the largest publishers of games for the Nintendo Switch. Our studio’s games regularly appear in the TOP 30 sales in the Nintendo Switch eShop in all regions, as well as in the recently added new section of the eShop ‘Trending by Play Time’.
2022 marks a breakthrough for the company, which, after two years of operating in the indie segment, plans to expand its competence in game production to AA | AA+. Soon we will inform you about the details of the preparation of the Class AA project based on the new licence, 100% owned by RedDeer.Games.
REDDEER.GAMES INVESTOR RELATIONS TEAM
e-mail: investor-relations@reddeergames.com
