This year, as any before was marked with few intertwining year-long projects as well as occasional high-endurance ones. Let me recap for the sake of remembering just what the hell happened in 2012. [for the impatient ones: 14 games and 2 comic book albums happened].

1)

 

First of all, there was a project of creating a one small game per month. 12 games all together. The results are as follows:

• Pigeon Phew
• Daymare Invaders
• Mission to Uranus
• Garden Door
• Mr. Mothball 4: Zen Moth
• 10 Gnomes in Porto Petro
• Daymare Kite
• Mission to Mercury
• Castanea
• Lightem Out
• Mr. Mothball 5: under the Cherry Tree
• Where is 2013?

The reasoning behind this project is simple. I’m a completionist, I’m trying to get a closure on unfinished series, and there were few game projects just laying around on my hard drive, reminding me that they’re still not done. You can see couple of “mission to…” games, mothballs, two games expanding the daymare town lore, as well as few standalones. The mothball series is probably done, as I have no fresh ideas on how to approach this character anymore. The last one was actually a rebuild of an old small game that maybe few of you remember from this page’s header. The header game. But that was way back in 2008, so this game was waiting for an upgrade for four years. Daymare Kite was in the to-do folder since Daymare Town 2, Garden Door’s pictures were shot in 2011 and so on. The only ongoing series left is “mission to…” as there are two games left, and I’ll be damned if I don’t finish this as well. The remaining two are Sun and Earth (Pluto does not count, sorry) :D. Adding to that couple of regulars, such as 10 Gnomes and Where is 2013? and we have a full list. For the curious, yes, I still have unfinished small projects on my drive, yes, I’ll be making them eventually, but god forbid I’ll commit to making one per month anymore – that was… exhausting. Especially in the light of other 2012 projects, such as:

 

2)

 

I also created two big games from major series:

• Covert Front 4: the Spark of Life
• Submachine 8: the Plan

and with that, the Covert Front is finished and done. Phew. The story of Kara following German scientist Karl von Toten has run it’s course. A big sense of closure right there. On the other hand – the Submachine is as strong as ever. There was a minor confusion whether this would be the last Submachine ever, which it isn’t. Let me once again reassure you – the Submachine will go on INDEFINITELY. Sure, the main storyline ends at Submachine 10, but that doesn’t even mean that this series will be over. I’ll make standalone Submachine games from that point on, such as Submachine: 32 chambers, ancient adventure or FLF. We’re good here, don’t you worry. The sky is clear over the Submachine. Wait, is there a sky in Submachine?… :/

 

3)

 

Another big step forward in 2012 was the attempt to bring you even more quality – this time for a small price. The idea of creating full screen, standalone, browser-free games was in my sights for a long time.

• Submachine 8 HD
• Submachine 7 HD

Luckily I was able not only to overcome the technical obstacles, but I also figured out how to actually handle a monetary transaction of such item. I did it my way and I’m proud of this.

 

4)

 

Moving on, let’s not forget the pastel games. Me and my buddies from the company were able to create 5 games together:

• Rizzoli and Isles 2
• the Fog Fall 4
• Sneak Thief 5
• Monster Detective
• the Scene of the Crime: Dream of murder (not yet published);

The Sneak Thief series is finished with the fifth installment, however we’re planning a brand new series with Kamil Kochanski, the artist behind Sneak Thief, the Great Escape games and Halo & Pixy. You know, the funny, cartoony one in our pack. The new series is still a secret, but it’s coming, I can assure you. As for other series – time will tell. The future of those series doesn’t depend on me, but people writing and drawing them, so I can’t tell what will become of pastel games in 2013. Let’s wait and see.

 

5)

 

Are we done yet? Not even close. Remember when I said something about year-long projects? Here’s another one. This one was also a simple premise: create one-page comic every week. I started this project back in October of 2011, so to complete a full year cycle I had 42 weeks to go. And I did. The new 52-page album, entitled Tetrastych is going to be published in may. Here are few pages, which also explain the bizarre title of this album.

• Tetrastych sample pages

 

6)

 

However that previous project was not the most important comic book work of 2012. This one is. Again, a simple task. Create 46-page comic book album in 46 days. That would be one page daily for 46 days straight. The outcome is the newest Rewolucje album, and you can read more about this right here:

• 46/46
• Rewolucje 7: we Mgle

Now this one is my absolute best project of 2012, not only because of it’s bold outcome, but this one is by far my best graphical work to date. Let’s not forget that it also sports a killer of a scenario written by Jerzy Szylak. So… are we done?… No.

 

7)

 

This next project was a bit different. Yeah, I had to paint a cover and title-page graphic for it, but it was mostly an archaeological work of picking a good material from the sea of old crap. Everything had to be retouched in photoshop, as most of the originals were kind of destroyed by father time. This album shows my old ways from times when I wasn’t Mateusz Skutnik, the Submachine creator, but just simple Mateusz Skutnik. :D

• Komiksy znalezione na Strychu

 

8)

 

Bare with me, we’re almost done. Normally I wouldn’t list the following here, but this kind of out grew it’s premise and became a larger-than-expected thing. This is a series of 7 movies showing how to waterpaint a comic page. Well, maybe it’s not “how to” per se, it’s just a showing of how I do it. Nevertheless – a project of it’s own, realised during that period of Rewolucje 7 daily painting.

• How to waterpaint a comic page
• a shorter version (album trailer)

 

And with that, I’m done. That’s it. But wait, from the looks of it, is it true that in july I was:

1. Making Daymare Kite
2. making a one-page comic story each week
3. painting Rewolucje 7 – one page daily
4. creating Submachine 8

all at the same time??

Yes, yes it is true. That’s how it went down. That’s intertwining right there. And frankly speaking I forgot about another small project that I was slowly but steadily creating. The subnet got few small expansions as well. So there. Thanks for reading through up to this point, right now there’s a reward for you for being stubborn enough to dig through this list. Ready?

 

2013

Let’s talk about 2013. Get some insight.

To be honest, 2012 was exhausting. It was a year of closure (well, attempted at least), a year of different experiments, and now I have to take that all in, process the data and come up with a reasonable plan for the future.

plan A)

Is to create 4 games this year, these are, in chronological order:

• Daymare Town 4
• 10 gnomes in…
• Submachine 9
• Where is 2014?

Yes, I focus on my four major series this year. This is the top priority list of must-do games.  Besides this I also intend on doing:

• Rewolucje 8: in Space (Rewolucje w Kosmosie)

Of which I have already 46 finished pages. I could call it a wrap and just publish it as it is. I could. But I won’t. This album needs another 40 pages or so.

 

plan B)

Once I’m sure that plan A will be fulfilled, there are other smaller side jobs. Those include:

• further expansion of the subnet
• creating specific series oriented websites for all major ones, such as Covert Front, 10 gnomes, Daymare Town etc. I’d like to move away from the regular online games portal and create game hubs for each series. The one I did for the Fog Fall was received warmly and I think it’s a good direction for the future of our catalogue
• releasing HD versions of older Submachines, starting with Submachine 6 HD
• finishing the “mission to…” series
• other small games (also trying to empty my to-do catalogue)

 

plan C)

If time is kind enough I’d like to start painting another Blaki comic album. That would be fourth of the series and I’ve got it all written and sketched right here in my notebook.

And I think that’s it.

Once again – happy new year 2013.

It’ll be a good one.

 

So one of the actors was complaining that none of his friends were able to recognize him from that cast picture I posted two days ago.

Here he is seen in another scene. Hope this helps.

… As I’m almost leaving for the Christmas Eve Celebration I wish you all peaceful holidays …

Doktor wrócił po dwóch godzinach jak już przyszły wyniki badania krwi. W sumie już byliśmy gotowi do opuszczenia placówki, nasiedziawszy się w poczekalni ostrego dyżuru, ale on miał inne plany:

– Ja panią wyślę jeszcze na dodatkową konsultację na oddział chorób płuc. Za chwilę przyślę tu pielęgniarza żeby panią zawiózł bo to w innym budynku i pani tam nie dojdzie w tym stanie.

No to czekamy dalej. Tym razem na pielęgniarza. Jak się tak czeka to mimochodem obserwuje się otoczenie. O tam, pochlipująca rodzina tego co go przywieźli godzinę temu z wypadku. Tu bliżej ta co sceny ponoć robi, ale nikt jeszcze nie widział tej sceny i w sumie to czekanie na scenę skracało czekanie na wyniki. Tam babcia na wózku, ewidentny artretyzm, nadwaga, taka kaczuszka okrągło zwalista. A tutaj ten opalony cwaniaczek co jest znajomym ochroniarza stąd i jak tak siedzą i gadają to jest wyżej w hierarchii od nas.

Czekamy i czekamy na tego pielęgniarza, myślę sobie… Nie, nie mogę powiedzieć co myślę bo to spoiler całości jest a tu trzeba zaczekać do końca opowieści. Więc czekamy.

O, przyszedł, i to z jakąś lekarką ale niższego szczebla, ma inny kolor ubranka niż nasz doktor nadgorliwy. I pielęgniarz idzie prosto do tej babci na wózku. A lekarka:

– Nie, to ta młoda pani o tutaj – wskazuje na nas. Ania podnosi rękę jak w szkole że tak, to ona na te płuca.

– Ta młoda? To sama dojdzie – ocenia pielęgniarz.

– nie dojdzie, bo ciąża, bo osłabiona, bo płuca – ripostuje na nasze szczęście lekarka.

– Ale ja nie mam wózka!

I tutaj moi drodzy dochodzimy do sedna abstrakcji.

Chwila konsternacji, pielęgniarz myśli…

Wymyślił…

Idzie w stronę babci…

I zaczyna ją z tego wózka wysadzać.

Tu dodam że dokładnie o tym pomyślałem pięć minut wcześniej, że nie ma pielęgniarza bo wózka szuka i zaraz babcię wysadzi. Babcia chętna do współpracy w sumie, rozumie problem, że tylko jeden wózek i tak dalej. Ale sama mimo prób nie daje rady wstać. Mnie wryło w ziemię całkowicie, tym bardziej że pomaganie tej babci w zsiadaniu z wózka za bardzo pachniało niedźwiedzią przysługą. No to pielęgniarz jej pomaga. Potem zawołał kolegę i w końcu we dwóch ją przesadzili na poczekalniane krzesełko. We dwóch.

– Zapraszam panią – rzucił pielęgniarz w stronę Ani z nutką wyrzutu chyba. Nie wiem, nie jestem dobry w rozpoznawaniu nutek.

Jak wyjeżdżaliśmy z poczekalni na te płuca to oboje woleliśmy nie patrzeć w twarze naszych współczekających. Pomyślałem że jakbym tę sytuację wpisał do Blakiego, to zbyt wysoki poziom absurdu zniszczyłby realizm tego komiksu.

Realizm.

Nie wiem co musiałaby wykręcić ta od robienia scen żeby ci ludzie w miarę szybko zapomnieli o naszej akcji degradacji babci z wózka.

ps – na obrazku przedstawiono prosty schemat ustawienia wózkowego wzgęldem ściany tak by walenie łbem było najbardziej ergonomiczne.

Yeah, I went to the dark side and joined FB. Only to give you another opportunity to stay in touch and always be the first to know about my games. Or comic books.  Click the above image to connect.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 10 semi-finalists in the animated short film category of the 2010 Academy Awards. Thirty-seven entries had originally qualified in the category. And the Kinematograph is one of the semi-finalists. ;)