It’s not your fault, it’s mine.

You see, I’ve been engulfed in positive feedback for 10 years now. And if you think it’s a good thing – you’re probably right, but not quite. Too much positive can be bad, especially for a creative person. Through these 10 years of game development (and comic book writing) I was getting a bit too comfortable in what I was doing, maybe even a bit too arogant. I need to get back to my humble roots.

That was caused not only by my own Pastel Forum, but also by comments on my website, facebook, twitter, what have you. Again, remember, not your fault.

And this overblown confidence can be tricky at times.

You probably haven’t noticed, but some time ago I started stepping away from the internet feedback. First thing – I deleted all wordpress comments on my website, those old ones, dating back to famous years of 2005-2007, when Submachine and Covert Front blew up. Covert Front used to have over 6000 comments and I read each one of them back in a day.

Then, when Mochiads went belly up and I had to retouch every single game I made to include new ad system – I removed comments links from those as well.

I also blocked all comments on my videos on youtube (now on vimeo, since I moved all my videos there. Why? That’s another long story).

Later I went even further and removed comments section from my website entirely. Now you can just watch, you can’t say anything.

And all this leads directly to the decision of deletion of Pastel Forum. It’s the last bastion of my confidence, which I can’t have. If you want me to create good games and books, I need to be this guy from 2004 again. Someone who’s questioning himself on a daily basis. Someone who doesn’t know how his work will be received, or perceived for that matter. I need to step away and quiet the noise, especially considering I’m about to create (arguably) my most important game of my “career” (which is the ending to the Submachine saga).

You can still catch me on facebook and twitter, but those are the only two remaining ways of doing so.

See you on the other side.

04.X.2014, MFK, Łódź.

Photos by Jarek Obważanek:

Just a friendly reminder that you can own my original stuff through this website.

And more…

The latest comic book by Mateusz Skutnik, co-founder of Pastel Games and creator of several acclaimed point-and-click flash games, now in English translation.

Blacky might seem to be just a regular guy but there is something very special about the way he looks at the world. Seen through his eyes, daily routines and things that tend to go unnoticed in a busy everyday life serve as triggers for reflection. It is a funny and thought-provoking collection of bitter-sweet observations on living in a big city, growing older and being a parent. Read it, but be warned – you will never look at a mug of cold coffee in the same way again.

The latest comic book by Mateusz Skutnik, co-founder of Pastel Games and creator of several acclaimed point-and-click flash games, now in English translation.

Oh boy. “After an hour you realise you made a cup of coffee!” THAT is the story of my life. Working on CBO and on all sorts of other comic projects the one thing I know is never going to change is making a hot cup of coffee, working and then realising it’s now a cold cup of coffee. Just happened.

Anyway, I’m getting off the subject of this post. This book is mad. You look at the cover and think it is going to contain eye-popping colour art. It doesn’t. It’s black and white on a curious lined background. (water colour paper?). The art has a scratchy quality in places and this works well with the ink washes (or it could be water colours reproduced as tones) and the story…it almost seems a very odd mish-mash….

But it is all completely mad and a bloody good fun read. I long ago gave up trying to work out why it is I like some things but not others and all I can say is that Black. Four Of Us just makes me looking at the art. Almost distracting with its washes, crinkly lines, stipling -look at the first page below!

I can see someone like Paul (Browner Knowle/Anon) Brown appreciating this type of thing. I’ve not seen anything quite like this -it has that European look but with “an edge”.

I really do hope Centrala are successful in the UK because that means we would see more of this type -or more unique- work. I think it might be a nice breath of fresh air!

Terry Hooper-Scharf

What I drew during this Autumn’s first parent-teacher meeting at school. Ballpoint on paper.