2020 Christmas gift from Laura to Julie.

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.

~~

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!

~~ spoilers ~~
Design docs for Where is 2021?:

It’s happening (Jan 5th 2021):

steam page | reddit | homepage

This is not the best day in the life of Seaweed. One might even say he’s out of his element.

From the creator of Submachine comes the adventure of Seaweed, a mysterious character from Daymare Town.

This is a point and click adventure game. Everything you see in this game was drawn by hand on paper. Use keyboard to move around and mouse to solve puzzles.

Music was created by Thumpmonks and main theme song written and performed by Cat Jahnke.

This game is still in development, I predict it’s release to be early 2021, however the exact date is not set yet, as the game will be released when it’s ready.

#sliceofsea

Blakiego poznałam pierwszy raz dopiero niedawno, choć jest on już w zasadzie dorosłym mężczyzną. Jego postać została stworzona przez Mateusza Skutnika w 2001 roku.

Przy okazji Komiksowej Warszawy 2020, a także 100-lecia Polskiego Komiksu egzemplarz “Blaki” można było otrzymać bezpłatnie, co – zdradzę już na początku, okazało się niezłą gratką.

Blaki to jegomość niskiego wzrostu ze spiczastymi uszami. Podejrzewam, że jego podobieństwo do Mistrza Yody nie jest przypadkowe. Zamiast świetlnego miecza towarzyszy mu jednak niezmiennie cienki i długi papieros.

“Blaki” jest zbiorem wielu krótszych i dłuższych komiksów, które najlepiej charakteryzują głównego bohatera jako filozofującego pesymistę z resztką realistycznego rozsądku.

Każda indywidualna historia jest dla czytelnika satysfakcjonująca – jedna mniej, inna bardziej. Prawdopodobnie szybko znajdziecie swoje ulubione. Ja wyjątkowo doceniłam tę o czajniku, który odpowiada za śmierć i życie w kosmosie.

Sporo jest opowieści z komunikacji miejskiej – są one widocznie wyjątkowo inspirujące dla autorów. Można liczyć także na solidny komentarz otaczającej nas rzeczywistości, absurdy niczym z Barei oraz przekrój najgorszych cech narodu.

W “Blakim” to zawsze on jest najczarniejszą postacią na rozkładówce – oczywiście pod względem kolorystycznym. Otacza go dużo szarości, a tekst wpisany w kadry często stapia się z otoczeniem.

Miło było poznać Blakiego i dobrze jest wiedzieć, że historie z nim w roli głównej ciągle będą powstawać. Jeżeli gdzieś traficie na ten komiks – nie wahajcie się, zabierzcie go ze sobą do domu. Polecam nastolatkom i dorosłym.

[source]

When is the Flash Player end-of-life (EOL)?

As previously announced in July 2017, Adobe will stop distributing and updating Flash Player after December 31, 2020 (“EOL Date”). We made this announcement in collaboration with several of our technology partners – including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla – which issued complementary announcements with more technical detail on what the Flash Player EOL will mean for developers, enterprises, and consumers using their specific OS environments or browsers.

Why did Adobe decide to EOL Flash Player and select the end of 2020 date?

Open standards such as HTML5, WebGL, and WebAssembly have continually matured over the years and serve as viable alternatives for Flash content. Also, the major browser vendors are integrating these open standards into their browsers and deprecating most other plug-ins (like Adobe Flash Player).By announcing our business decision in 2017, with three years’ advance notice, we believed that would allow sufficient time for developers, designers, businesses, and other parties to migrate existing Flash content as needed to new, open standards

How will this decision impact Adobe Flash Player support and distribution for the remainder of the year (2020)?

Adobe will continue issuing regular Flash Player security patches, maintain OS and browser compatibility, and add features and capabilities as determined by Adobe through the end of 2020.

Will Adobe make previous versions of Adobe Flash Player available for download after 2020?

No. Adobe will be removing Flash Player download pages from its site and Flash-based content will be blocked from running in Adobe Flash Player after the EOL Date.
Adobe always recommends using the latest, supported and up-to-date software. Customers should not use Flash Player after the EOL Date since it will not be supported by Adobe.

If I find Flash Player available for download on a third-party website, can I use it?

No, these versions of Flash Player are not authorized by Adobe. Customers should not use unauthorized versions of Flash Player.  Unauthorized downloads are a common source of malware and viruses.  Adobe has no responsibility for unauthorized versions of Flash Player and customers’ use of such versions is entirely at their own risk.

Which browsers and operating systems currently support Adobe Flash Player?

Please visit http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/tech-specs.html for the latest list of Flash-supported browsers and operating systems. Note, as it gets closer to the EOL Date, the number of Flash-supported browsers and operating systems may decrease so Adobe strongly encourages customers to migrate to other standards.

Will Adobe provide security updates for Flash Player after the end-of-life date?

Adobe will not issue Flash Player updates or security patches after the EOL Date. We recommend that all users uninstall Flash Player before the EOL date (see manual uninstall instructions for Windows and Mac users). As of mid-October 2020, users started being prompted by Adobe to uninstall Flash Player on their machines since Flash-based content will be blocked from running in Adobe Flash Player after the EOL Date.

Does Apple Safari support Flash Player?

Apple Safari version 14, released for macOS in September 2020, will no longer load Adobe Flash Player or play Flash content. Please visit Apple’s Safari support for more information.

A glimpse into one of alternate futures.