Interview with Tobias Stolz-Zwilling: On Games, Marketing & Taking Risks

It’s the very first interview from Artvostok Studio, and we’re starting strong.

I met Tobias Stolz-Zwilling, Communications Director at Warhorse Studios, at G-Star in Busan. What started as a casual conversation and cheers to the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1 & 2, quickly turned into this interview. So here we are.

We talk about what actually works in game marketing today (and what really doesn’t), why humanizing a studio matters, how to deal with hype and backlash, and how Tobias went from studying journalism to literally knocking on Daniel Vávra’s door with a printed CV, and staying at Warhorse for more than a decade.

– Have you always been drawn to the game industry? I’m very interested in your personal path and your childhood experience with games.

– It sounds a bit like a therapy session now. But yeah, I always had a strong connection to video games. The first console I ever played wasn’t even mine, it was my cousin’s Atari 2600. I remember playing Pitfall and those kinds of games. That’s where it started.

The first console I actually owned myself was the original Game Boy. I still have it. It still works. So yeah, I’m kind of old. Around that time I was already completely hooked. Then I got a Super Nintendo — and I still own that one too. For me, it’s probably the best console ever released, mostly because of the memories attached to it.

– What motivated you to start a career in the industry?

I have this very clear memory: I was visiting my grandma in the east of the Czech Republic. I was, as usual, playing video games way too long. At some point there was an argument between my mom and my grandma (I don’t even remember what it was about), but I turned around and said, very seriously, “One day I want to work in the video game industry. I’ll be a tester.”

Of course, I had no idea what that actually meant. In my head it just meant playing games all day. Little did I know that being a tester is really hard work, and it’s definitely not just replaying your favorite game for fun. That was the moment my childhood dream got slightly crushed.

– What about your journalism path and how you started at Warhorse Studios?

I was actually on a journalism path for most of my early life. In school and later at university, I was always writing: school newspapers, small publications, that kind of thing. I did my bachelor’s in Germany, since I was born and raised there, and then moved to the Czech Republic in 2012. My mom is Czech, so I always spoke the language fluently. I did my master’s there and started working for both Czech and German media in Prague.

One day I was in my apartment building, waiting for the elevator, and this guy ran in just before the doors closed. He introduced himself as Daniel Vávra. I looked at him and thought, I know this face from somewhere. I went back to my apartment, googled him, and realized he was the creator of Mafia and had just founded Warhorse Studios. At that time, Kingdom Come: Deliverance was on Kickstarter.

I immediately checked their website to see if they were hiring. Most of the positions were programming or technical roles — things I couldn’t do. But a few weeks later, they posted a community manager opening.

So I printed my CV, put on something decent, went downstairs, and knocked on his door. His wife opened. I asked, “Is Dan home?” She said yes. He came out in his pajamas. I told him, “I know who you are. I love what you’re doing. Here’s my CV.”

And that was it. In May 2014, I started at Warhorse.

I was hired as a community manager, but that lasted maybe a week before I started moving more into marketing. About a year later, I became PR manager. And last year, I was promoted to Communications Director. So I’ve been at Warhorse for over a decade now. So that’s how I ended up in the game industry.

– What parts of your personality got you where you are now? Is it confidence or a precision to your goals?

I’d say it’s both.

I’m a very extroverted, loud person. I usually say what I think. I don’t like conflict, as I’m actually more of a harmonious person but if I feel like something’s off or I’m being bullshitted, I’ll speak up. I won’t just sit there quietly.

In terms of work qualities, I think I’m funny, I like playing with words, and I have a certain presence. When I walk into a room, I can draw attention. That obviously helps a lot in PR and communications.

Normally, PR people stay in the background. They prepare everything, brief someone else, and then that person goes out and talks. I’m a bit different. I plan things, but I also execute them. Over time that made me more of a face, or voice  of the studio, and I’m fine with that. Give me a microphone and a stage, and I don’t really need much of a plan.

– What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting out in the games industry?

That’s a really difficult question, because there’s no universal advice. There isn’t one formula where you can say, “Do these things and it will definitely work.”

In my case, I was honestly very lucky. I was at the right place at the right time. I saw an opportunity and I went for it. So if there’s one general piece of advice, it’s probably that: when you see a door open, don’t hesitate too long. Go for it.

But beyond that, it really depends on what you want to do in the industry. If you’re an artist, work on your portfolio. If you’re a designer, work on your skills. Just keep improving at your craft. That part is always in your control.

And when an opportunity shows up, fight for it. Don’t let someone else decide too quickly what you can or cannot do. At least try. Push a bit. Take the shot.

I don’t know if that’s helpful or not, but that’s the most honest answer I can give.

– What kind of difficulties have been there working in PR and what is the best way to deal with them?

One of the main challenges in this job is that it’s never the same. Everything keeps changing. One day you’re dealing with a game release, then events around the world, then a comic book project. There’s always something new to figure out. That keeps it exciting but it also means you constantly have to adapt.

I wouldn’t say there was one huge dramatic obstacle. It’s more the ongoing pressure of handling new situations all the time. And for me personally, it helps a lot to talk things through. I’m someone who likes exchanging thoughts. There was a period when I was alone in the marketing department, and that was tougher. I prefer having colleagues I can bounce ideas off. Now that we’re a bigger team, it’s much easier.

The trickier moments are usually around negative press. When something goes wrong, or when there’s criticism building up, you have to stay calm and figure out how to handle it. Before the first game even launched, we were accused of all kinds of things — people called us racist, said we were whitewashing the Middle Ages. With the sequel, it flipped and we were too woke.

So there’s always someone complaining. At some point you realize you can’t fight every narrative. You just have to stay vigilant, keep a clear head, and navigate through it. It keeps you on your toes, but that’s part of the job.

– You’ve been to hell of a lot of conferences in 2025, does they really work well for marketing?

I think physical conferences and trade shows have become very hard to justify purely from an ROI perspective. They’re expensive, and most of the time the direct marketing impact just doesn’t match the cost. So I wouldn’t say they should ever be the core of your marketing strategy.

That said, they’re not useless, the mistake is relying on the booth alone and expecting magic to happen just because you showed up.

In my experience, a well-placed trailer with proper budget behind it, pushed digitally and supported by social media and press, can be much more effective than just having a physical stand where only the people walking by see your game.

Where events really work is when they’re part of a full package. You release trailers around the same time, line up interviews, coordinate press coverage, push social content. Then the event becomes a focal point of a bigger campaign, so that’s when it has real impact.

But just renting a booth, especially in a less visible area, can get very expensive very quickly. If the foot traffic is limited or the audience is mostly regional, your reach shrinks even more. And then the cost per actual engaged player becomes pretty high.

So for me, physical events still have value — but only if they’re part of a broader, well-planned marketing effort. On their own, they’re usually not financially efficient.

Speaking of popularity Kingdom Come started as a pretty bold middle finger to the usual fantasy RPG formula, and it clearly worked.

Did you or the team expect this level of public response and success, or was that a surprise?

While it may sound like a great narrative to frame it as “punks fighting the system,” that wasn’t the mindset.

Daniel (Daniel Vávra, Co-Founder of Warhorse Studios) was thinking, “Hey listen, there’s so many medieval games and all of them rely on magic and dragons, so how about we do it correctly?” So I wouldn’t say it was rejecting the beloved genre, but just creating the kind of game people genuinely believed in and wanted to see.

As for the public response, of course you always hope your game will succeed. You invest enormous effort, energy, and heart into it, and you believe in what you’re building. But the speed and scale of the success did exceed expectations. I can remember how we were guessing when we sell the first million, and we talked about months, or even years, when in reality it was a week.

It was quick, but we knew Kingdom Come: Deliverance had flaws, That’s why we tried hard to make KCD2 so much more better.

– What do you think most game studios are unnecessarily afraid of when makingnbsp, and, especially, presenting their games to players?

I think a lot of studios are unnecessarily afraid of showing their game too early. There’s this common mindset that you first build everything in silence, finish the game, put it on the shelves, and only then start marketing it. But that’s really not how it works anymore.

It’s much better to start earlier: show parts of the game while it’s still in development, introduce some of the developers, put faces to the project, talk about certain features. This is what helps them understand what to expect and what the game is actually about.

So I’d say the unnecessary fear is this idea of “we can’t show anything until it’s perfect.” In most cases, starting the conversation earlier is the smarter move.

– What mistakes do you see some older AA or AAA studios making right now that quietly (or not so quietly) push players away?

I can only really say what works for us.

One thing that helped a lot is making the studio more personal by actually showing the people behind the game. Having faces out there. Letting developers speak. Letting players see who’s making the thing they’re spending their time and money on.

With a lot of bigger AA or AAA studios, the games are huge, polished, impressive, but you often have no idea who’s behind them. It feels distant. Anonymous. And over time, that kind of distance can quietly push players away.

For us, it worked well to humanize everything a bit more. When players feel like there are real humans behind the project, it creates a stronger bond.

– If you had to point at one industry habit you’d happily kill with fire, what would it be?

If I had to pick one thing I really don’t like, it’s probably prejudices.

That thing where people decide what you or your game stand for before you’ve even shown anything. We had that happen — people attacking or criticizing the game before it was even out, based on something they made up in their heads. They build their own version of the story and then treat it like it’s the absolute truth.

The other thing is how careful and risk-averse some studios have become. Everything feels very calculated. Like ticking boxes. Following a formula. Building something that fits nicely into a marketing plan. And then you end up playing the same game over and over again, just with a different skin.

Interview was made by Tania E. — Business Development Manager of Artvostok Studio.