Just two days ago I found out that someone has stolen my work from original Submachine1 using reverse engineering and then put those stolen graphics, stolen sounds and, most importantly stolen code into his game and called it his own. Not cool at all. The game is called Escape Da House 5, and obviously I won’t post a link to it here. You can google it up if you want to see this monstrosity with your own eyes, since the game is horrible, not only because the stolen goods but because gameplay is lame as hell and the creator has no sense of color whatsoever. The construction of menu and inventory shows his abilities in the field of programming (what happened, couldn’t you just steal that from the Submachine as well?) so feel free to play it and have a laugh about it. You can also comment on his site and even email him with congrats on a job well done, since you can easily find those contacts under the credits button in the game itself.

This may sound bitter, but I assure you it’s not. Honestly – it made me stronger, since everywhere I went (everywhere meaning some sites that host this game and hold comment section) people were recognizing the rip-off. And that was making me smile, because Submachines are a recognizable trademark and you can’t just steal it because it will not go unpunished.

The second thing – watching this game’s poor gameplay all I can say to it’s creator is – it’s not all about the graphics or coding or sounds that you can steal anytime anywhere. It’s all about THE STORY, man.

And last but not least: I feel strong, because I have my fans behind my back. They support me. I feel their breath on my shoulder, not only pushing me to create more games with better quality, but allowing me to just say:

so what?

when situation like this one occurs. Like Tony Soprano used to say: what can you do?… Sue his ass someone said – well it’s not worth the effort nor time. I’d rather make a new game. Gnomes, anyone?

Special thanks! goes to Karen Maple and Eric Himmelsbach who emailed me about this problem, and ShadowsQuest2500 who wrote about this on my forum.

ps – I know the timing of this post is somewhat unlucky, but I assure you this is not an april fool’s joke. :D

Page 28 of the newest GeeDisplay magazine (issue #4) says: “unser flashgame des monats”, which as far as I remember from my german lessons back in school translates to: our flashgame of the month. The game is acompanied by a small article about it, but I won’t dare to translate it :D

~~~~

Anstatt Häuser, Brücken oder ganze Stadtviertel am Reißbrett zu entwerfen,lässt der polnische Architekt Mateusz Skutnik lieber in Comics und Flash-Games poetische, leicht melancholische Welten entstehen. Das Spiel „Submachine“ aus dem Jahre 2005 zählt zu seinen bekanntesten. Außerdem hat er die Flash-Serie „Squirrel“ ins Leben gerufen, die vor allem an Kinder gerichtet ist. „Geschichten erzählen“, so Mateusz, „ist für mich das Wichtigste im Leben. Ganz gleich, ob durch Comics oder Flash-Games.“ Die Geschichte von „Mission To Mars“, seinem neuesten Platformer, ist die eines Weltraumdetektivs, der sich auf der Marsoberfläche auf Spurensuche begibt.Ein Jump’n’Run-Abenteuer mit Stil und steil ansteigendem Schwierigkeitsgrad.

~~~~

And we have an english translation thanks to SubtleGoat, who posted it in the comments (thanks!!):

Instead of creating houses, bridges or entire districts at his drawing board, Polish architect Mateusz Skutnik prefers to create poetic, vaguely melancholy worlds in the medium of comics and flash games. “Submachine”, created in 2005, is one of his best-known games. He also created the flash series “Squirrel”, which is chiefly aimed at children. “Telling stories,” says Mateusz, “is the most important thing for me in life, whether in comics or flash games.” The story in Mission to Mars, his latest platform game, is that of a space detective searching for clues on the surface of Mars. A stylish jump’n run adventure game , which challenges with a sharp-paced increase in difficulty.

Once again I’ve been nominated for the ‘Storm of the Year‘ award by polish nationwide newspaper. Once again it’s in the ‘literature’ kategory and I’m competing with a comic book (Pan Blaki this time) so there is really no hope of actually winning the prize. However it’s damn nice to find yourself within couple of best things that happened over the year in your region. For the third time in a row. :D

~~~~

excerpt from the newspaper (Gazeta Wyborcza 2008-01-27):

Kto z trójmiejskich twórców i animatorów kultury w ubiegłym roku odniósł prawdziwy sukces? Który z muzyków nagrał ważną płytę, a który artysta oczarował nas tak skutecznie, że do dziś pamiętamy jego wystawę? Jaki spektakl teatralny najsilniej do nas przemówił? Książkę, którego z pisarzy zabralibyśmy na bezludną wyspę?

Dziś, podobnie jak rok temu, startuje plebiscyt, w którym nasi Czytelnicy wybiorą twórców, którzy w roku 2007 dokonali czegoś intrygującego, nowatorskiego, wartego zapamiętania, jednym słowem – wywołali Sztorm Roku. Bo tak też nazywa się nagroda, którą przyznamy w siedmiu artystycznych kategoriach: teatr, literatura, sztuki plastyczne, muzyka klasyczna, rock-jazz-muzyczna alternatywa, film i multimedia oraz organizator. Ta ostatnia kategoria to nowość tegorocznego plebiscytu. Wiadomo, że żadna impreza, koncert, wystawa czy warsztaty nie powstają “same z siebie”. Jednak osoby lub organizacje umożliwiające ich realizację często pozostają w cieniu. W tej kategorii chcemy wskazać na instytucje, których działalność wykracza poza “ustawowe obowiązki”, osoby i stowarzyszenia dzięki którym w Trójmieście dzieje się więcej.

W tym roku w naszym plebiscycie staraliśmy się – po licznych, gorących dyskusjach w redakcji – ograniczyć liczbę nominacji w poszczególnych kategoriach do trzech. Mamy nadzieję, że nie straciliśmy przez to z oczu wydarzeń i dzieł ważnych; za to na pewno tym większe brawa należą się nominowanym – nawet, gdy Czytelnicy nie przyznają im nagrody. Oczywiście w paru przypadkach – w kategoriach, w których artyści z naszego regionu “dyktują warunki” na scenie ogólnopolskiej, jak to ma miejsce w przypadku chociażby muzyki rozrywkowej – takie ograniczenie okazało się niemożliwe.

Specjalną nagrodę Sztorm Roku 2007 dostaną organizatorzy Wydarzenia Roku. Te laury przyzna wspólnie redakcja “Gazety Wyborczej Trójmiasto”.

Nominacje w kategorii literatura:

1. Krzysztof Kuczkowski – za tomik „Dajemy się jak dzieci prowadzić nicości” i widowisko słowno-muzyczne „Truposz” (przygotowane z Romanem Puchowskim), pokazujące dojrzałość stylistyczną, umiejętność pisania o uczuciach, talent do prowadzenia przewrotnej gry z kulturą masową oraz do posługiwania się mocną i poruszającą frazą.

2. Mateusz Skutnik – za album „Pan Blaki” (przygotowany z Karolem Konwerskim), pracę dojrzale prostą, wciągająco przejrzystą, zawrotnie intertekstualną, będącą dowodem na to, że filozofia może mieć także komiksowy wymiar, nic na tym nie tracąc, a raczej zyskując.

3. Paweł Huelle – za powieść „Ostatnia wieczerza”, w kunsztowny sposób łączącą wątki lokalne, tematykę etyczno-moralną i dyskurs o sztuce, wartką akcję i refleksję na temat religii, książkę, będącą kolejnym konsekwentnym krokiem w pełni ukształtowanego, ale wciąż rozwijającego się autora.

Well, this may be already old news, but I didn’t have time to post this earlier.

• Submachine 4 was voted best point and click game of 2007 in the JayIsGames competition;
• I ended up as 3rd in the developer of the year 2007 competition on FreeGamesNews;

Both were so-called people’s choice, so my big thanks goes to all of you who took 5 minutes of their lives to vote. I didn’t really have time to thank you all earlier because I was finishing Submachine5: the root. Which is finished. Waiting for a release date at the ArcadeTown. Which will be soon.

This is going to be a good year, I can feel it. Thank You guys for your never stopping support and good words. To start this year with a nice vibe – here’s that retouched version of Submachine 1. It’s still the same game, so don’t expect anything new and fancy, but as I said it uses a newest submachine engine, similar to that used in Sub FLF, but there are some new features, such as sounds of picking up and putting down inventory items. Just aiming at the perfection I guess. Sub5 is being built on the same engine, so there.

[this game was removed from my servers since there were at least two more updates of this game  since then ;) ]

lately I experienced some problems with my wordpress installation. Strange things were happening. Couldn’t make or edit posts. But after three days of pulling hair from my head and some serious brain storming and reinstalling the damn thing I’m back in action. Phew…

A comeback gift from me to you – another sub5 screen. Enjoy…

.. is not a mystery. You all know that I’m developing Submachine 5: the Root. The one that will take us to the very first historically speaking built submachine structure. At least as we know it. The development is going smoothly, there are couple locations finished and more already crystalized in my brain. The puzzles will be more basic, and for some – easier than in Submachine4 for example. It is a root, a first try of the submachine builder (?) to construct this structure, so no wonder that the puzzles would be easier for starters. Time-damage could make them more difficult, but still. I wanted to finish it before Xmas, but there are few reasons that I will not:

• first of all – it’s not a regular Xmas game afterall. There are not santas, christmas trees, snow, gifts or anything, so why bother.
• If I wanted to release that for Xmas, the game would have to be ready in two weeks. Two weeks is doable, but I’d need a solid rehab afterwards. Rehab from a computer screen, not intoxicating substances. I don’t want to rush it, since as we’d all agree it’s better to wait few more weeks and get a really well designed game, instead of a quickly built, buggy alpha release that I’d have to fix later anyway.
• I have to go outside to buy presents for my family and get a christmas tree. Well, not now, but you get the idea. The Dec is closing on us drastically.
• I’m still not sure what to give you as a bonus area, you know, the one that you enter after you collect all ingame secrets. And I still wonder how to present you with this area, since I think the way it was done in previous game wasn’t the best one, that way you were loosing the feeling of actual finishing the game. Now I want to make things clear – yes, you’re done, you’ve finished, and now you can sit back, relax and watch bonus stuff. Any ideas on how to bring it to reality are welcomed. And maybe ideas on what would you like to see in the bonus area, because as I figure, “more my reality pictures” is not an option.

So, January it is. In the meantime, you can feast your eyes on the above screen. It’s from the early stage of the game, so don’t worry that I’m revealing anything important here. Because I’m not. And, while I’m at it, here are some Q&A that are repeating in your emails and comments (Q, not A):

• When will you release sm5, CF3 or DMT2?

Submachine5 will probably hit the internet in January, but please, pretty please, don’t ask me for a specific date. After that I’m making DaymareTown2, probably still first quarter of 2008, and then Covert Front3, which as you can probably tell is so far away, that I have no clue about it’s release date whatsoever. Not mentioning that Karol hasn’t even started writing the scenario for it. He has some ideas, but no structure yet.

• Are we going to meet other people in submachine?

Not likely. Just some indications that there actually were other people over there. maybe we’ll meet Murtaugh one day, but nothing certain. We’ll meet other people in Covert Front though.

• Is this really the end or will there be another submachine?

Strangely I get this question after almost every built. No, this is not the end, there will be Submachine 6 for sure. After that I don’t know.

So there. My longest self-written post up to date. ;)