Dominik Vojta left Prima TV to build a Prague metro simulator

Dominik Vojta spent nearly nine years as a graphic designer and design team lead at Czech broadcaster Prima, but traded his stable corporate career for a childhood dream — building a realistic Prague metro simulator. His game Back in Service has already brought in over 60,000 dollars (roughly 1.2 million crowns) in revenue over two years.

According to Vojta, over the years Prima grew from a small company where everyone knew each other into an unwieldy corporation — endless meetings, a crowd of managers meddling in the work, and exhausting rounds of approvals for literally every single image. At first he was drawn in by the speed and efficiency with which the team pulled off interesting projects, but his enthusiasm eventually faded as the team itself started falling apart amid reshuffles in the marketing department.

Vojta's dream of making his own game goes back to when he was twelve, building metro stations in 3D modeling software and trying to convince developers to turn it into an actual game. Two years ago, while still working at Prima, he launched a crowdfunding campaign on Startovač — the idea resonated so strongly with the public that it raised almost 700,000 crowns. Vojta took that success as a sign it was time to move on.

Balancing a full-time job with game development, though, turned out to be impossible — he was spending up to sixteen hours a day at the computer, which started taking a toll on his health and mental balance. Development, marketing, community management, graphics, trailers — it all ate up an enormous amount of time, and Vojta decided to quit Prima to devote himself fully to the project.

Back in Service started out as a solo project, but Vojta was gradually joined by like-minded people — fellow fans of urban public transport. He admits that making a simple game with the help of AI isn't much of a challenge these days, but complex 3D graphics, optimized models, and a realistic look demand a whole different level of skill. He wrote all the game's code himself, without AI assistance, relying purely on his own logic. In his view, success in projects like this is a long haul that requires determination, passion, and persistence, since there will be hundreds of obstacles along the way.

Despite the success, the game's revenue still isn't enough to fully support Vojta — so Back in Service remains just one of several projects he's juggling at the same time.