Sometimes you do what you gotta do. Check out how many pastel games are actually in there 8)

[voting closed. you can check the results here.]

Happy New Year everybody. Once again thank You for your undying support. For this upcoming year I wish you all cf3, sub6 and dmt3. On a side note – that picture above is kind of ubergeek. Sure, some fireworks, nothing fancy on this occasion, but they’re over the first 10Gnomes location!! Woot! Pew pew pew!!!

I tend not to write personal stuff about myself on my site, but this time it’s different and it actually concerns you, the players. Today was my last day at work. After six years I quit. They weren’t specifically happy about it, but I quit anyways. From now on I’m commiting my full work-time to developing games. And that’s the news you’re probably glad to hear. What does that mean to you – the player? Well, more games. Or maybe the same amount of games, only better ones. The advantage of this in the nearest future is of course quicker release of Covert Front 3 (hopefully in November or December), and in a bigger view – more Submachines, Daymare Towns, Covert Fronts and the other genre – silly games as well (mothballs, missions to…, pastel bunch games like Castle Run – pastel bunch is the ancestor of the Squirrel Family as that series is closed as of now). I also have ideas for new games series, which will emerge in upcoming 2009, staying a secret for now. All that will also mean my more frequent presence on Pastel Forum, in case you’d like to speak to me in person.

Answering your recurrent questions that pop up from time to time in your comments:

• is there going to be another Submachine?

Yes, of course. This series is open. I don’t know how many more I will make, but at least 10. Just see how it looks: Submachine X. :D

• when will you create another Covert Front?

I’m making it right now. Along with other games, but still. This is my priority project. Hopefully I will finish it this year. And more Covert Fronts will follow, quicker than this one. :/

• How about DaymareTown?

Yes, that too. Those above are my three main game series, and I’m making them in this order: Covert Front, Submachine, DMT.  One after another. And I’m not stopping them for now. However – Covert Front finishes after fifth episode, but until we get to that point – I’m sure that many other games will emerge, or if not, I’ll stick to making Submachines and DMT one after another. I’m sure this outcome wouldn’t be so bad after all ;).

That’s it for now.

The bottom line is – as of now I’m all games (and comics occasionally) – so if I ever needed your strong support – it’s right now.

Long story short:

• The incoming traffic gets greater everyday.
• The server couldn’t handle that amount of players.
• And that wasn’t a bandwidth issue, for I had plenty.
• I had to change the server.

Let’s see how long this one lasts. :D

(still looking good… [add. Mat XI.2014])
(looking better than ever, after moving to ssd :D [add.Mat.VII.2015]).

Anyway – since I had to move the wordpress database from one server to another – all in-post links are screwed.

I’ll be able to rebuilt the site’s inside linkage, but that will take some time, so please be patient and forgiving if some links to walkthroughs, reviews, or even games themselves won’t work. All games are linked in the top menu anyway, you can always dig there.

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…