buy this game

Submachine 5 HD goes one step further than previous HD conversions. This one, aside from being a fullscreen HD version also has enhanced graphics (meaning I spend few days doodling over existing images, making them more detailed – as seen above).

I was also thinking about extending the gameplay, but after a long debate with myself inside my head I decided not to do it. I might write a longer explanation of this later on. Meanwhile, as you all wait patiently for upcoming Submachine 9 – you can revisit this installment. I revisited it after six years after creation and I’m happy to announce it still kind of holds up to todays standards.

Looks like I started a new secular tradition last year with the summation of 2012. Let’s take a look at 2013 through the promises I made at the beginning of the year.

plan A) Is to create 4 games this year, these are, in chronological order: Daymare Town 4, 10 gnomes in Dubrovnik, Submachine 9 and Where is 2014?

Well, almost. Submachine 9 didn’t happen this year, but Daymare Town 4 was exceptionally big (as in: biggest game I’ve ever done).

Besides this I also intend on doing Rewolucje 8: in Space (Rewolucje w Kosmosie) of which I have already 46 finished pages. I could call it a wrap and just publish it as it is. I could. But I won’t. This album needs another 40 pages or so.

Yes. New Rewolucje album was finished and released in December. A bit late this year, but that’s because DMT4 took so long to finish. That game really took a major chunk of time this year. Turns out this album needed 36 additional pages, so I was almost right with my blind calculation. Since we’re talking about comics, there was also another album released in May – Tetrastych. But that’s the fallout of insane number of 118 pages created in 2012. To put that in perspective – this year I made only 37 pages (one being a short comics about Blaki for Zeszyty Komiksowe).

plan B) Once I’m sure that plan A will be fulfilled, there are other smaller side jobs. Those include: further expansion of the subnet,

Yes. In fact, that expansion happened right there in January 2012. Since then the Subnet got rebranded to Submachine Universe, and as of now is dormant, but this will change in 2014. More on this below.

creating specific series oriented websites for all major ones, such as Covert Front, 10 gnomes, Daymare Town etc. I’d like to move away from the regular online games portal and create game hubs for each series. The one I did for the Fog Fall was received warmly and I think it’s a good direction for the future of our catalogue,

Yes! That happened too. Not only that – I moved away from the pastel stories brand and now all my stuff is under my own name on mateuszskutnik.com, which is the most logical progression I can think of. Pastel Games got redesigned by me as well. All games have their own cozy little homes. There are no doubles anymore – if you want to play my games from under pastel games website – you just jump over to my site. Simple as that.

releasing HD versions of older Submachines, starting with Submachine 6 HD,

Yeah, that… Starting and finishing with Submachine 6 HD. Not that I couldn’t release more, in fact I’ve got two ready – was just waiting for a good release time which kind of didn’t come in 2013. More on this below.

finishing the “mission to…” series,

Lol, nope. Not even close.

other small games (also trying to empty my to-do catalogue).

Yeah, right. Emptying my to-do catalogue. Well, one thing happened, and a significant one. Daymare Cat was a major success, despite being a small off-the-main-series addition to the daymare lore. I attribute that to Cat Jahnke, who created this beautiful song to be used in game. Without it – the perfect storm wouldn’t happen and this game wouldn’t sail as far as it did.

plan C) If time is kind enough I’d like to start painting another Blaki comic album. That would be fourth of the series and I’ve got it all written and sketched right here in my notebook.

Lol, nope. Time wasn’t kind. Or maybe it’s me just getting old. I know that I’ve done significantly less work than year before, but I feel that it was more tiresome. But that only means that I’ll create this album in 2014. In fact – right now. I’ll be making it simultaneously with Submachine 9 in January and February. Well, I already started talking about the future, we can stop with those settlements with the past and talk about what’s going to happen next.

Ok, let’s talk business.

1. game wise:

• Submachine 9, obviously. It’s already somewhat developed, so I should finish it in January (or February, don’t hold my word for it);
• further expansion of the Submachine Universe. Yes, as before – more locations. It’s at 90 locations total right now – I want to go up to 100 and then stop (for a while at least). Maybe add another layer of puzzles to it. Who knows (well, me in the future knows).
• Where is 2015? Am I being held hostage to making one of these each year till the end of my time? Well yes, yes I am.
• HD versions of older games, starting with DMT3 and Sub5. Both are ready to ship, I’ll probably release one  around the 15th of each month. The plan covers DMT2 and DMT1 (in that order) and also going down the list of Submachines. Sub4 – for sure. Others if I have time. Oh, almost forgot – I’ll be releasing Sub5 Hd as is, without additional puzzles or graphic changes – I just can’t spare time for the possible changes.
• Dare I say smaller games? Like, maybe more mission to… games? Yes, I dare.
• Submachine 10: the Exit. The last in the main series. I want to at least start making it this year. I don’t believe I’ll finish it in 2014, but let’s just wait and see.

2. comic book wise:

• Blaki 4 (60 pages)
• Rewolucje 9: under the Snow (at least 46 pages)
• If I’m healthy at the time – I want to attend another 24 hour comic book event. That’s in October.  This year I’ll be making Blaki 5 – another Blaki album which is being written and sketched right now. Who’s writing it? Well me, naturally. Why this choice for 24hcd? Because it’s black and white and it’ll be easier to do than then full color comics I was doing previously. Too much hustle with all them paints, waters, papers, brushes and what have you. Painting Blaki in black and white will be swift and clean, ninja style.

So the plan is simple – do all this and be happy.

And here we are, 2014 – another transitional year. Another year of closure and waiting for bigger things to come in upcoming years. Well, waiting is a bad word.

Once again – happy 2014. It’ll be a good one.

play

Holy bejesus that was a close call if I ever saw one. Barely made it this year. Note to self: start working on “Where is 2015?” in mid-july 2014. This game is a small formal experiment (again). Working title of the experiment: single sight game. Tell me what do you think about this kind of gameplay in the comments. Anyways – again – thank you for your undying support through out this year and see you in 2014! Now I’m off to shoot some fireworks with the kids if you don’t mind.

Enjoy!

Ok, let’s address the elephant in the room. As it turns out I won’t be able to finish the new Submachine game this year. It’s just humanly impossible to do it in about 10 days. I know that 100% of you think that it’s ok and you want a quality game rather than a half-baked rushed mess, even by expense of waiting a bit longer. I’m just coming clean to those waiting impatiently and hoping it’ll come this holiday season. I feel like I owe you this piece of information so you can breathe out, at least for now.

A bit longer, probably TL;DR explanation below.

(more…)

I received this footage from Daymare Town composer Alex Voytenko in March of 2011. At the time he thought that it was strong enough imagery that it could end up in one of my games. And he was right. After about 2.5 years it found it’s way into Daymare Town 4. Sometimes it turns out the wait is worth it.
The inspiration it seems works in mysterious ways.

(more…)

play | play original version | play an early sketch

So here’s what happened.

I was playing all submachines in order to get into the right state of mind for the upcoming episode, right? Then I almost accidentally opened the submachine 2 work file, to see how much the code got old and how much work I’ll need in order to create an HD version. I don’t quite remember what happened after that – but here’s the revisited, renewed and kind of polished a bit version of the game. It’s still the same game, I just dusted it off.

So I took a long, upclose look at this game. I found a potential. A potential to reorganize a bit, stir things up, add new material, finally add some kind of rewards for finding the secrets – that’s all you wanted back in 2006 as I recall. All in the HD version that’s bound to happen someday. For now – here’s a good template to start working on the extended submachine universe.

Good times ahead.

Hang on.

revisited version

original version

an early sketch

play | video walkthrough | movie from location | jayisgames review

The old town of Dubrovnik is one of the most beautiful urban formations I have ever seen. It’s walled off from the rest of the world (famous Walls of Dubrovnik), and the town was never sieged during the Middle Ages. A dictionary definition of a fortress. What follows is that all houses are built very tightly and the streets are narrow, but this “medieval style” is very human-friendly. The organic nature of the city shows how it’s supposed to be. It’s built like a hive, but not overwhelming nor claustrophobic. It’s the exact opposite of the suburban model, where everything is so far apart that you need a car to buy groceries or bread. Here? You probably had to walk for 5 minutes to get everything you needed. To sum it up: it’s beautiful, narrow, medieval and human friendly.

And full of tourists.

You can’t imagine how difficult it was to find a desolate place in this town. Tourists were everywhere. Even on this street – people were casually strolling through and I had to wait for them to move on and get out of the picture. Crowded is the word I’m looking for. I bet Dubrovnik is most beautiful right now, in October, when the summer season is over and all locals can finally go outside and not be greeted by a stampeding crowd.

Walled off from the rest of the world, the fortress-like old town of Dubrovnik has narrow streets and tightly built houses. It’s a human friendly town where tourists like to flock and residents seem to flourish in peaceful appreciation for their beautiful neighborhoods. Yet here, perhaps among the leaves of a succulent, the grains of potting soil, or the black depths of a wall crevice, live the unseen inhabitants of the town: the10 Gnomes in Dubrovnik. But can you find them all? That is the question in this lovely continuation of Mateusz Skutnik’s point-and-click find-the-gnomegame series.
In each scene, move your cursor to pan the camera angles, seeking out questionable spots which invite a closer look via the changing cursor. Investigate each view with precision if you intend to discover—and click on—every gnome before the ten minute timer expires. “10 minutes to find 10 gnomes?” You say, “Not a problem. They’re small, so how much time do they really need?” But this location is vast, despite its confined alleys and skinny doorways, and there are many times you’ll zoom so close you can see the thin fibers on a plant’s leaf yet still find no gnome. It could take several restarts and much more then 10 minutes to explore. Objects, such as a folded-up wheelchair or a single strand of human hair speak of the stories and life behind the walls, and you may end up too distracted to look for gnomes.
Even if some of those elusive imps manage to elude your investigative efforts or if hidden object games are not your idea of fun, play 10 Gnomes in Dubrovnik as art for art’s sake. Skutnik’s photography captures Dubrovnik’s quiet, dignified beauty that is both serene and surreal. It’s a wonderful adventure to explore the art and architecture and life of this enchanting location. So take a look around. Who knows what surprises you might find? Maybe even a troll.

Author: Elle.

Last week Dexter went down in flames and shame and we’re still asking ourselves – how is it possible that they made 8 seasons of that?…

Yesterday Breaking Bad finale aired and this series ended in the blaze of glory, taking the rightful place among the best tv shows of all time.

Lately I finished my opus magnum, Daymare Town 4, which proved that I still can do a neat game once in a while.

And today I finished 10 Gnomes. Now they just sit there in the window and once they cool off I’ll serve them to you.

Pastel Stories is no more. All my things are under my name right now. Aditionally I redesigned entire Pastel Games website, now you can easily access all of our distinctive series through their own mini-hubs.

Things are changing.

Time to move on.

Each time I’m about to draw or paint – I always buy few new things. It’s nice to have something squeaky clean, at least for a brief moment. This time it was a new batch of paper (but of course), few brushes and white gouache paint from Talens – the same one that served me so well when I was covering entire previous album in the fog. To be clear – I’m not starting a new album – I’m finishing it. It already has over 46 pages and I just need to add few more stories to wrap things up. It’s already written, by the way.

The sketches are waiting, now it’s only a matter of actually drawing the comic.

Through the years I learned that it’s kind of dangerous to have only one project open at any given time – if you hit a writers block on it – you’re stuck. But if you have two or even more projects at once – you can jump from one to another, and ride the wave of creativity as long as you physically can. That’s why I saved the best news for last. Starting from October I’m beginning the development of Submachine 9: the Temple.

Goodbye Walter White, thank you for everything.

Hello Murtaugh.