Now this is kind of interesting. Even though I don’t have any kickstarter projects, nor patreon or indiegogo (no one is giving me any money before I deliver) – I feel kind of obliged to keep you in the loop on what I’ve been doing last year and what my plans for future projects are. It’s kind of obligatory for those “fund my project” situations, yet here we developed this kind of relationship without dragging money into the equation. After all, it’s not one project and it’s not just one year.

So… Let me confront my to-do list from 12 months ago.

• Submachine 9, obviously. It’s already somewhat developed, so I should finish it in January (or February, don’t hold my word for it);

Yes, of course. It’s been so long that we all forgot that Submachine 9 happened in 2014, right? It did. With each game the pressure is larger – I gather I dealt with it quite nicely concerning this game.

• 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).

Yes. That too happened exactly as planned. 100 locations it is, few puzzles added, all user-created content implemented, the expansion finished. Now the canvas is set for creating a proper game out of it. Eventually.

• 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.

Yep. Got it. The curious thing that you probably didn’t know is that this game took me entire year to create. Game operates on 12 month-based levels, each one prepared in according months. Turned out to be too big to handle by popular flash games portals Newgrounds and Kongregate, since they both have a 20 Mb cap limit on flash files. Oh well.

• 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 boy, oh boy, OH BOY. Did I deliver on this one! (Yes, yes I did). So the thing is – I made a list of games that needed a HD update, and it turned out there are 12 of them, rounding up nicely to, again,  a year-long project. Just take a look:

I just couldn’t pass on such teasing project. So I did them all. That’s 220% of the initial plan. That was also a requirement for the upcoming Submachine projects, but that’s for later. If you look closely you’ll notice just one imperfection in this plan, which is that chronogically sppeaking – Sub FLF HD should come before Sub 32 HD.  The reason for that is that I wanted to save the FLF game for last – since it had to go through major changes, as I believe I don’t have permission to sell Future Loop Foundation’s property, which meant all photographs, album covers and most importantly – their music. Lucky for me – the always trusty ThumpMonks stepped in and delivered a beautiful soundtrack that lands this game right in the submachine lore. More over – all pictures representing family were replaced by my own – now I’m kind of embedded into the series literally. It turned out to be a quite personal game for me. That’s why it was saved for last, I wanted to go out with a BANG out of that hd-fication process.

Other HDfied games, not yet mentioned include: Sub 3, Sub 2, Sub 1 and Sub 0. All of them are ready for the big bundle.

• Dare I say smaller games? Like, maybe more mission to… games? Yes, I dare.

As for smaller games, Eien happened, in cooperation with Jacek Witczynski, and also Escape From JayIsGames, which completely came from left side and surprised not only you, but me as well. As for the mission to… series… Well, it didn’t happen… But this year… You just wait and see.

• 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.

Well, if you count writing the story and structure of the game into the development process (as you should), then yes, I started creating Submachine 10. More on this in a minute. Stay tuned.

2. comic book wise:

• Blaki 4 (60 pages)

Yep. 60 pages it is. The long awaited fourth installment in the Blaki series was created, published and well received, nothing to add here. Moving on.

• Rewolucje 9: under the Snow (at least 46 pages)

LOL NOPE. But that was NOT my fault. I started creating this comic book, but it turned out to look not quite as I’d want it to, so I had to give away the material and start over from scratch. The ending of the year was a bit hectic, and I had no time for this album anymore.

• 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.

Again – LOL NOPE. If I remember correctly it wasn’t me that was sick, but somebody else in my family and I had to stay in, really no choice here whatsoever. Family comes first, even before Submachine! (whaaaa?….). Even more lol nope would be the fact that Blaki 5 was pushed back a few years as I created my rough draft of comic book albums for the next 7 years. Blaki 5 ended up in 2019. So there.

There’s one more comic that has to come up on this list:

• Rewolucje: In two days (story: Grzegorz Janusz).

The hecticness of December 2014 was pushed to another level as I was bound to create a 4-page short set in Rewolucje comic series lore, all before January 2nd 2015. Why? Don’t ask, no time to lose, just hop on the dinosaur, grab a laser gun and let’s gallop into 2015!

2015

Welcome to the year of Submachine!

Well, no point in hiding or denying. This will be the most important year in the Submachine Saga. Let’s take a look, projects are listed in order of importance, not chronologically:

Plan A:

• Submachine 10: the Exit. Yes. The big one. The last one. Well, not the last one per se, but the last one in the main storyline. The Exit will end the story of Murtaugh, Liz, Einstein the cat and all other plot lines that occured within the series in last 10 years. Jesus. 10 years. Yeah, hard to omit that, not only the story ends, but we also have an anniversary on our hands. It all comes up together nicely, doesn’t it.
• Rewolucje 9: under the Snow. Yep. Maybe not all of you know it, but comic books are as important to me as games. Actually this one will be created first, starting tomorrow. The sooner I finish this, the sooner I’ll have rest of the year dedicated solely to the last Submachine. Well, not exactly, because…

Plan B:

• Submachine Universe HD. This will come handy as a special feature bonus material once I create Submachine bundle. It will probably be sold separately as well, I’m not about to screw over all of you that already bought games from me and would prefer to not invest in a bundle that consists in 90% of games that you already own.
• 10 Gnomes in… Who knows where. And for that matter – who knows if it will be created at all. Just saying, and leaving a placeholder for my future self.
• As you probably know by now, I’m a completionist. It physically hurts me to leave an unfinished project. And there are only TWO games left in the Mission to… series. Therefore, coming up in 2015 – two small games, Mission to the Sun, and – last in the series – Mission to Earth. I need to put this series to rest. I just have to do it.
• Where is 2016? Well, like, naturally. Until I specifically say otherwise, there’s always another Where is…? game coming  up.

Plan C:

There are still few things that need to be wrapped up before this year ends. Like:

• Daymare Mini Bundle. There are four DMT small games that just can’t be sold separately. I can’t justify charging a buck for any of them on their own. Thus – creating a bundle of those four and selling it for mere two bucks – that’s the way to go. Those games are already in HD, I updated them somewhere along the way in 2014. You’re wondering what those games might be? Well, there’s Daymare Kite, Daymare Invaders, Daymare Cat and last but not least – Where is 2010?. So there, that’s a plan.
• Daymare Bundle. Kind of self explanatory. A bundle containing all games from the series wrapped up in one zip file for your convenience.
• Submachine Bundle. Well, after all is set and done and the dust settles, this bundle will contain everything there is to own in this series, including all main storyline games, all side games, Submachine Universe offline and all soundtracks.
• 24-hour comic challenge – I’ll probably go and participate in this one, since I’m on a biennale pattern when it comes to testing your limits with this insane idea.

AAAAAAnd (let me check my notes) that’s it. This year will probably be submachine-themed all year long, with teasers, sketches, screens from the new game. And all other stuff will just happen on the sidelines. Again – I’ll keep you in the loop as the story develops. Follow me here, on Facebook or Twitter to stay in the game.

Happy New Year everybody – it’ll be one for the books!