Jarek Kolář

Who is Jarek Kolář?

Jarek Kolář is a Czech video game designer.

In the early 1990s he enjoyed playing LucasArts adventure games, especially Indy III and Monkey Island I. While studying at the secondary school Gymnázium Slovanské náměstí in Brno, he met programmer Petr Vlček and they together created a parody of Monkey Island where Guybrush had to escape from an island inhabited by donkeys. His opponent was LeGek, a brother of LeChuck.

Petr Vlček at the time only had an 8-bit Atari 800 and therefore developed the game editor and engine at school. Jarek drew the locations and wrote the plot. While on a school trip to Polička, Jarek decided to skip a lunch with his classmates and instead went to find the panelák where entrepreneur Petr Vochozka lived at the time. Two weeks later, Vochozka saw their demo and agreed to produce and distribute the game. The Secret of Donkey Island, released in June 1994 after two years of development, is considered the first Czech commercially successful point-and-click graphical adventure. The sales were supported by an enthusiastic review written by Petr Vochozka for Czech game magazine Excalibur.