Ok, let’s do this. 2020 is gone, let’s wrap it up and put it away. This year was dramatically different then any previous year, I don’t have to tell you that. Some things didn’t happen as they were supposed to, other things popped up spontaneously out of nowhere. Let’s confront the to-do list from back when the world was still relatively normal.

Plan A

The big game. Drawing all remaining inks. Painting all watercolors. Finishing puzzles, adding intro, outro, finishing the game. Testing. Creating three trailers: reveal, release and gameplay. Besides all that – the future is foggy.

The big game… Yeah, this working title is no more relevant, since the biggest thing that happened last year was it’s title reveal. Working on Slice of Sea took 90% of my work time last year, and deservingly so. This is the biggest project I’ve ever worked on, spanning more than three years by now. All remaining inks? Yes. That means all backgrounds for the game. Right now the count of locations stopped at 165, however since then I wrote few more locations into the game, will be drawing them shortly. Each location consists of at least three drawings, so to put this to perspective – this amount of drawings would translate to around 5 or 6 comic book albums that I used to draw one of yearly. Painting all watercolors? Well, kind of. That plan changed since 2019, there are no actual watecolor paintings in this, instead everything is colored in photoshop using watercolor textures created by me. So yes, all watercolor is done. This change was implemented to keep the game cohesive and somewhat unified in it’s look. Also – this way I have more control over the color and how it looks. I was able to tweak colors or move around particular parts of backgrounds instead of having a full watercolor drawing just sitting there looking pretty. Finishing puzzles? Hell no. This is the part I’m doing right now and I’m giving myself few more months to do this right. Intro, outro, finishing the game – all of this is still in the future. Testing? Happens daily since 2018. Three trailers? Only one by now – the biggest one, title reveal. This was a big milestone for me, as I said before – biggest of the year, as I was able to share something with you guys. It also proves to you that the game is actually happening.

Plan B

But not so foggy for me to not see that there are 10 Gnomes in Malmo and Where is 2021? on the horizon. Because they are. Gnomes being penultimate in the series, Santa not.

Yes! There were some game releases this year. 10 Gnomes in Malmo, not only released during Covid-19 quarantine, but also shaped by it. The same thing can be said about Where is 2021?, since this game observed return of point and click to the series and Santa being, let’s just say somewhat passive. I want to underline that these two games are, and will remain the only pieces of my work that discuss Covid-19, as I don’t plan or intend to bring it up in any of my future games. Nor comic books, once/if I get back to creating those again.

Plan C

Things that are uncertain and/or unlikely. Trying to publish Submachine Card Game. Still not sure what to do with this one. I’m torn between getting a publisher and releasing it myself. Maybe getting back to comics? But that’s a big question mark right here. We’ll see.

Oh boy, here we go. Submachine Card Game.  There were some developments last year, for example I’m no longer wondering how to publish this thing. We’re going with the self-publishing option and most likely will make a Kickstarter campaign for it. Hopefully this year. The game was being tested, changes were made, the only thing that’s still somewhat up in the air is game instructions – I’ve been rewriting and perfecting those immensely. As of today I’m trying to prepare cards for professional printing to create a deck that can be used in promotional photos and videos for said Kickstarter campaign. However, Slice of Sea overshadows this process, that’s why it’s taking so long. Besides that, there was something else that happened in 2020.

Covid-19 quarantine drawing challenge. I know, the word “challenge” is cringe, but I just like to throw my way some kind of challenge from time to time to keep my synapses going, just like when I painted entire 46-page long comic book album in 46 days few years back. Anyway, starting on March 12th, through entire April, and finishing on May 30th, 79 days of daily drawings. Large part of that was drawing Slice of Sea, but I also managed to draw unrelated, random ink pictures, just like during Inktober a year before. I still plan to sell them at some point, once I gather enough will to actually do it, which can happen tomorrow or in 2022. Again, Slice of Sea overshadows everything else.

Comic books. No. This is the second year without any of that noise. Do I miss it? No, not yet. Funny side note: on the picture below you can see that I mark number of comic book pages created that year in red. I’ve been doing this for the last 10 years, you can see it in all previous yearly wrap-ups. This year I completely forgot about it. I remembered only after looking through catalogue of those yearly summaries that I keep on file, as you do. Kind of scary how much human mind is able to adjust to the current situation it finds itself in.

I think that’s all from 2020. Let’s look ahead.

Plan A 

Can you guess? Finishing and releasing Slice of Sea.

Plan B

The last entry in the 10 Gnomes series. The project of 12 years is finishing this year. And it’s going out with a bang, since the final gnomes take place in New York. I could write a long and sappy story about gnomes starting back in 2008 in my home town and finishing in New York of all places, but I think I’ll save that for a proper post-mortem article about gnomes once it’s done and shipped. Also – Where is 2022? Yeah, sure, at this point, why not? I’m sure Santa is up for that as well.

Plan C

Submachine Card Game Kickstarter campaign and whatever happens after that. This plan is so undefined and unstable yet that I do not dare to say more.

Plan D

Comic books? No.

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This is it. That’s all there is.

[Trying to come up with a witty quip to end this post, but drawing a blank.]

See you next year!