Mateusz Skutnik's Blog, page 18

Morfolaki 4, recenzja w Ziniolu

Świat Morfołaków jest tak rozbudowany, że można o nim czytać na okrągło i nie odnieść wrażenia, że coś się powtarza. Po zamknięciu komiksu długo trzeba się zastanawiać, co właśnie przed chwilą nas trafiło i czy to było naprawdę? Mateusz Skutnik narysował teraz to, co istniało pod postacią scenariuszy już w momencie wydania zbiorczego z 2007 i to, co Nikodem Skrodzki dopisał. Niezwykła to frajda czytać tamten stary zapis scenarzysty, a potem porównywać z narysowaną na jego podstawie do Nowego Testamentuhistoryjką. Ale frajda jest też z odkrywania tego bardzo namacalnego świata, którego istnienie czuje się pod skórą, z odkrywania jego mechanizmów i poszukiwania w nim logiki. Morfołaki robią coś takiego z głową, że wielu rzeczy pozornie się nie zapamiętuje, ale potrafią się one wryć w podświadomość i powrócić przy każdej kolejnej lekturze z siłą huraganu Katrina. Mistrz.

[source]

Subnet Final Flash Update and why it had to end…

Listen… I know. I know there’s too much reading as of late about the Submachine here. This is the last article about the Flash era Submachines, ok? I promise. Just let me do this, and it’ll be done for. Next time we’ll be talking Submachine it will be about new game created in Game Maker to be released on Steam. Hopefully that will be in two or three years from now.

Funny how things work. Submachine wasn’t even mentioned on my to-do list for 2017, yet it was the biggest and most important project of the year. It all started with an idea I had in January to create a Patreon goal of making one Submachine Universe location per month, once the required condition was met. If all went well, that would mean 12 new locations spread throughout the entire year. As we all know, things not always go well, the goal wasn’t met few times, so later that year I decided to unbound this project from this Patreon goal, and just decided to create one location per month without any conditions. This decision not only allowed me to work more freely, I also didn’t have to look up to Patreon nervously each month checking that state of the goal. I could also create more than 12 new locations. Submachine Universe became a canvas on which I was able to paint new complicated puzzles involving old and new locations. I could sprinkle inventory items everywhere, add more theories, design multi-location puzzles.

 

 

Here are some numbers. In 2017 I created 29 new locations that consisted of 221 new rooms. If we were to treat it as a standalone game – it would make one hefty Submachine game. In fact – probably the biggest one yet.

As I finished the monthly goal of new locations in November, somebody joked that I should make another 12 locations in December to have entirety of 2018 covered.

And so by pure coincidence, during the so-called “final update” in December I created 12 new locations which had 113 new rooms. Almost half of the entire year’s work done in just one month. It was a pretty busy December, if you remember that there also was “Where is 2018?”, released on December 31st.

And here we are. That December final expansion was a secret one, not only the biggest expansion ever created since the inception of this project back in 2010, but also one that would give this game a definitive ending.

An ending that I had to finally create. And ending that had to happen. And here are the reasons why:

 

1. Flash being killed in 2020.

 

We’ve been through this countless times by now. But there were some new developments of the sad story of Flash Player in 2017. Mainly – Adobe finally killing Flash in 2020 for good and telling everybody to jump ship. Here’s the announcement. So basically that only proves me right when I made the decision to jump ship three years ago. You see, this platform now officially has no future whatsoever. Submachine Universe was my LAST flash project that wasn’t discontinued mainly due to nostalgia and me not wanting to leave things in the air after more than half of a decade working on it. Hence – the ending.

 

2. Flash being more and more problematic as standalone executables. 

 

 

This is more of a behind the scenes thing that does not concern most of you, but the problem here was Flash was always meant to be an internet thing, viewed through your browser, held by flash player plugin. This, I guess was giving flash content a hint of security and stability. Once you start creating standalone games (that are .exe and .app files, not .swf) you’re basically done for. In the past, various system tolerated these, potentially risky files. But now? The days of downloading and opening whatever you wanted from the internet are gone. Now your antivirus and OS will held your hand and tell you what you can and can’t do.  Just take a look at this:

 

As you can see, plethora of problems on both ends. Mac OSX version was being stopped by Gatekeeper (form of antivirus built in feature of Mac OSX), which was telling people that these files they just downloaded are damaged and the only way to deal with them is to just trash them and forget about it. Well then… Thanks, Gatekeeper… On the other hand flash .exe files were being stopped in the same way on PC computers, which, to no surprise, were not really fond of opening .exe files that were downloaded from the internet. You can also add problems with saving games, as the system of flash saving is the most counter-intuitive thing about it. Yes, sure, once you download a game that is a standalone .exe file, and you actually are able to open it at all, when it doesn’t want to save – you just have to change flash plugin settings in your browser, because of course. Saving was the most fragile part of Flash development. You moved your game to another folder? Your save is gone. You changed the name of your game file? Well, you might as well start over playing it, right?

And don’t even start me talking about amounts of hoops people had to jump through to even open my games on Linux.

The real problem here is that there was no way for you to sign those executables with a developer ID, so that the system would know it’s legit. Something that is readily available in Game Maker and is actually required if you want to create Mac OSX versions of your games. No such thing in Flash though! You want an app? There you go. Just don’t sweat that people won’t be able to open it. And you know what – I’m not surprised operating systems are fighting that tooth and nail. The way Flash was handling .exe and .app files was reckless and could be possibly dangerous. Times have changed and Flash just got left behind. But we move on. We have moved on. It’s just that the Subnet got left behind in flash.

 

3. My mild OCD concerning constant updating, tweaking

and upgrading minuscule stuff in the Subnet.

 

 

Those were two technical problems of Flash being Flash in [current year argument]. Now onto something more personal. You see, one of the most distinctive characteristics of a comic book artist (which, mind you I am primarly) is that mild version of obsessive compulsive disorder of wanting to finish open projects. This is the only way for you to actually finish, let’s say a 100-page comic book and not stop after you get bored and tired of it after 30 pages. And while in comic book once you finish a page, it’s done and you move to another one (well, that is at least the best outcome), in game development it’s not easy. You see, as the Subnet grew, the amount of work put into tweaking smallest things grew as well. This is all technical stuff too. For example, when I started creating it in 2010 I was far worse at programming then I am today. Through all those years the code was changing as well. Let’s say I wanted to change the way transporters work. I’d have to go to each one and change code inside of it. But then I learned how to change it only once, in a coding package container and then a transporter would just import that code into itself automatically. Fine, but that also meant changing all transporters as well, one more time to be able to work this way. Before the last update I thought I should change the appearance of wormhole portals to resemble the last version, the one presented in Submachine 10. Again – had to go through all locations that contained a wormhole portal and change it manually. One of the biggest changes was the way the game displayed theories. As you remember, each location had it’s own piece of paper with a theory written on it, but by the end we had a system of keeping all theories in one place and displaying them uniformly, just as notes in regular Submachine games. And so on, and so forth. I’m boring you to tears with this, I know, but I just want to explain why it had to end.

Bottom line – my OCD was stretched to the point of breaking and the only thing left for me to do was to move away from it. Creating a finish line for Submachine Universe allowed me to do just that.

 

4. Programming dichotomy

 

 

The strangest thing was that after working in Game Maker for a longer period of time and especially coding in it – I felt completely lost when I returned to Flash and the way it was handling programming. It was like going back to a regular stinky city bus after somebody gave you a ride in an exotic car. It felt really strange, since I was working in Flash for over a decade and now it’s kind of tossed aside.

But the truth is that Game Maker is just so much better at helping you in what you want to do. Basically – programming is just constant struggle. Game Maker has your back during your struggles. Flash on the other hand was just laughing in your face.  It’s just not fun anymore to create games in Flash, I’m sorry. I know there are people who desperately want things to be as they were all those years before. To be able to play games in a browser, free and online. But the gaming market has changed so much, especially in the free, online, desktop and mobile department. Remember, when Submachine started back in 2005, there was no iPhone, or even YouTube. There was no mobile gaming. Hard to imagine, I know, but that just shows you how much things have changed. All of you still longing for the good old days that I, personally, destroyed by switching to Game Maker – I refer to you once again that article about Flash being discontinued in two years.

 

5. I had to step away from Submachine to focus on the Big Game.

 

 

There’s a light at the end of this tunnel. The Big Game, main focus of my work this year, for which I had to kind of create a clean slate in my mind, sort of clean up the mind desk, open all windows in my head and let the fresh breeze blow the Submachine away. At least for immediate foreseeable future. And again – finishing this project, saying good bye to Flash did just that.

But don’t worry, Submachine will return. Submachine Universe will return as well, recreated in Game Maker in it’s due time. Probably changed to the point of being unrecognizable from it’s Flash version, but hey, times are changing, and so are Submachines.

Let’s just all hope for a smooth development process of the Big Game.

 

 

Submachine Universe Q&A; January 2018

1. At the ends of Submachine 10 and Submachine Universe, the Player ends up in a desert. What is the significance of this place for people like Murtaugh and Elizabeth, and where is it located with respect to the rest of the Submachine? Is it a foreign planet, as it appears, or is this an alternate Earth?

The desert is located on Earth, it’s just another layer of reality, as those layers span over entire universe, so you can get a planet set in different layers having different characteristics, like atmosphere or number of moons. This explains green hue and two moons in this particular instance.

2. Where is the Edge located exactly? Is it a wall between the Core and the Outer Rim, or is it surrounding the Outer Rim? Or both things are true, and we travel to the outer part to disable the inner part’s defences? How does one explain the human infestation map in Submachine 6?

The Edge was evolving with the expansion of the subnet. It was firstly created as a measure of defence for the core, but then was expanded to cover more and more ground regarding expanding nature of the entire subnet. Yes, we travel between different parts / rings of defences. Infestation map was created by artificial intelligence.

3. What does the Defence System actually do and what is it protecting? Who are the turrets for and where are they pointed? Does it govern the subbots? Does it protect the Core or is it at the outer edge of the outer rim? Are the defences in or out?

The purpose of the defence system is to protect the core from colliding with collapsing parts of the outer rim. It does not govern the subbots. The defences are outwards toward the “enemy”. That enemy being other, rogue parts of the subnet growth.

4. If the Lighthouse is a part of the Core and the Root is a part of the Outer Rim, how can they be connected physically (as seen in Submachine 5)?

The border between the Core and the Root is not reflected in the physical form of those locations.

5. What is the true layout of the Lighthouse? Is the painting shown in Submachine 1 correct? If so, why can’t we see the entrance nor the third floor window in Submachine 2?

The painting is not correct concerning the architecture of the actual lighthouse from Submachine 2. That painting could be from another layer.

6. Do the structures seen at the ending of Submachine Universe imply that the player didn’t exit the Subnet from any of them because they weren’t their home layer?

They are his (player’s) home layer, as is the observatory that we’re exiting through. It was just a matter of sheer coincidence that we left through observatory and not one of those giant dish telescopes.

7. Where is the Kent we keep hearing about? England, Connecticut or some place original to the Submachine canon?

Kent is somewhere unrelated to our geographical layout. At least of our layer that we, humans, occupy right now.

8. Why do all layers have a black void in the background while in Submachine 8 we see different sky backgrounds?

Each layer is different and presents unique characteristics, light disperses differently in each one.

9. Is the starry background in Submachine 8’s layer 2 fake, or is Submachine really so big that it can host whole stars inside it?

It’s not fake. However, it’s not said that it’s a sky and those are stars. Void can be different as well in different layers.

10. Are the calculations on how big the Root is? That is to say, does the Root comprise of approximately 1413 rooms within 157 distinct transporter locations, which are a small part of 11,818 rooms of transporter locations?

I have no idea how big the root is. I mean, I never thought about it. You see, I can only see parts of the story at one time, I can’t see the big picture. I don’t know if there is one. It could be right, hard for me to say.

11. What is the significance of the statue seen in 314 and why is it so similar to the one in 452?

The statue in 314 is a god of mathematics, or more specifically a god of PI. It’s similar to the one in 452, because it was the same culture that created both of those gods.

12. Are there locations in the Subnet that even Murtaugh with his karma arm cannot visit? If so, why? Are they specific locations, or do they form a group due to some property? Could they be reached by someone else?

No, he can get to any given location at will. All that is limiting him are the boundaries of the karma reach itself. I explain that a bit more down below in question about how does one create karma portals.

13. Is location 672 an example of a Submachine in construction?

No, it’s an example of Submachine entropy.

14. Does the Submachine copy structures built by aliens?

No. Aliens did not make contact in this reality in any of the layers.

15. Does the Submachine have an outer shell, like in the movie Cube, or is it infinite? If yes, what is it?

No, Submachine doesn’t have an outer shell. It disperses like universe.

16. Why does the Subnet exist at all? Where did it first come from and what made the first location be created/absorbed? Where is it? Is it inside a universe or its own universe? If the first Subnet location wasn’t necessarily built by humans then what’s responsible for starting everything? What was the intended purpose of just having a bunch of places in empty space somehow controlled by a computer?

The Submachine was build by humans. Subnet started growing by itself after the singularity.

17. When was the Lab created and for what purpose? Was it a part of the attempt to understand the collapse and rapid expansion? If not, what was it for and who controlled it?

the Lab was created in purpose of understanding the uncontrollable expansion of the subnet. It was not created, nor controlled by Murtaugh in it’s inception.

18. What is the purpose of the Root in the Submachine story line? What was it used for and who by and for how long? Why was there an observation room; is the place still used? In short: what is special about the Root, outside of it being the first man-made Submachine?

the Root was the first Submachine structure build. It was as a sandbox for developing more Submachine locations. Hence, the observation room. The place is abandoned now.

19. What were the seven-layer bullets used for and when? Was there a war between followers of Murtaugh and those who opposed him? Did people try to kill Murtaugh later? How did this affect Murtaugh? How did this affect the Subnet?

Seven-layer bullets are preventing the dodging of the bullet by changing layer. Such a bullet is present in all layers at once. You can dodge a 1-layer bullet just by hopping into another layer, with 7-layer bullets you can’t do it. No, there was not an all-out war between factions. Only smaller armed conflicts. People tried to kill M later. This resulted in him abandoning one-layer life. He became an unfocused being. This didn’t have any immediate result on the subnet.

20. What is the rough timeline of the “Sub-Eras” and the “Dynasties”? When did the singularity happen?

The timeline does not matter in this situations, since there’s a possibility of time travel in the structure. The singularity happened when Shiva gained consciousness. If you want me to spell out entire history of the Submachine Universe, I’m not doing that. I only offer small windows into particular moments of history.

21. Is the plot for Submachine 9:

a: Mur and Liz travel into the past and are revered, but soon die and are buried in a proper format.

b: Mur and Liz go through time normally and, therefore, die normally.

They go back in time, are revered, but don’t die soon. They live quite a bit after starting the time travel era of their existence.

22. What are the specific moments during the series that the player travels in time, and roughly how many years/decades/etc. do they go forwards/backwards?

That’s for the player to find out, I’m not spoiling the game play of Submachine.

23. What happened exactly in the period between Submachine 4 and 5? The player woke up in a bed at the start of Submachine 5, with food and coffee, and there are no signs of them having been teleported recently; how did they get there?

I think a subbot guided the player to the living chamber. However, we did it on our own volition and completely consciously. In any case, this is irrelevant in the grander picture.

24. At which date does the first game take place?

Specific dates are insignificant to the story.

25. How exactly does one decide where to transport to find a new KP or XYZ location? So many of the XYZ locations are completely closed structures, so does that mean that the portals were already inside? But then how were explorers able to access them if they weren’t previously reverse-engineered? And how does Mur find new locations to turn into KP locations? Does he just point his arm off in space until a little chime plays so he knows he hit solid material?

You don’t. You just happen to find one. That’s the idea behind blind jumping. Yes, the portals were already inside the closed/collapsed/abandoned locations. Reverse engineering concerned only the subnet self-created transporters (one-armed ones), to allow them to carry humans, not the exploration team transporters (two-armed). Murtaugh finds new locations to visit by the way of echolocation, but instead of sound, he uses karmic footprint of solid matter. He senses the next possible location point.

26. What are the specific moments during the series that the player changes layer, and which layer do they end up each time?

It’s for the player of the game to find out. I’m not the one to dictate your game flow.

27. How do karma portals interact with the layer “dimension” (assuming that the layer dimension is accurately explained in the first place)? What does it mean to have “interdimensional karma flow”?

They rip through the layer fabric going to another layer. Think wormhole. They kind of ignore the solid state of matter in present layer and focus on similar anomaly in another layer.  Two anomalies combine into a wormhole connecting two layers.

28. Are there instances in the games where layer and dimension are not used synonymously? Consider, for example “[t]he Submachine is now living in five dimensions” in Submachine 10.

No, layer and dimension are two different ways of describing the same thing.

29. Are layers and sublayers actually arranged in a continuum similar to the number line, as the note from Submachine 10 suggests? That is, is there a sublayer 1.5 between layer 1 and layer 2, a sublayer 1.25 between layer 1 and sublayer 1.5, and so on?

Yes, but it’s just a matter of nomenclature, those layers don’t really have any names attached to them. It was us who named them in an attempt to understand the workings of a multi-layered universe.

30. If so, what is there after layer 7? Does the structure wrap back to layer 1, like the numbers in a clock or like in a Submachine loop? Or there is simply nothing past it?

First of all, there is an eighth layer, the layer of light. After that the layers loop back to the beginning. There is a bigger question at hand here. If you jump from layer 7 to 8 and then jump in the same direction and land in layer 1, does that mean that another layer 1 was created after layer 8, or did you end up in the same layer you started your journey in?… I think – the latter is true.

31. What distinguishes the seven main layers from all other sublayers?

Probably not much, really. They’re distinguished artificially by the presence of humans and the number of karma portals that connect them. Think of main layers as highways and smaller ones as side country roads. It depends on karma traffic.

32. In layer 8, if all atoms are “frozen in time”, why can the player move?

In layer 8, all atoms that are original to this layer are frozen in time. Hence, when you jump to it, you can see basically what you’d see after crossing the event horizon of a black hole. With the exception that when you move you create friction, hence the light.

33. Who made up the plan and were the layers involved created by someone/something in particular? If so, how? If not, does that mean it’s just something that was “discovered” that’s tied to this fictional universe that we just have to accept?

The plan was made by the same people that created structures that take part in the plan. The architects of the first era. Layers were not created by anyone, just as the universe is not created by anyone. They were used to develop multi-layered architecture.

34. What is the difference between green, white and blue karmic energy?

The difference is range and bandwidth of karma flow in karma traffic. They are naturally all compatible with each other. When two different colors are combined in on karmic pathway, that pathway takes characteristics of the lower-tier karmic portal.

35. Is the color of a karma portal significant in some way? How about the size (as seen in Submachine 7)?

The color – look at previous answer. The size does not matter. After all – you end up in a tiny wormhole, dimensions are treated differently there.

36. What is the purpose of the player’s journey? Could you explain the player’s journey in your own words and how long it took? Are we a student going through a museum ride or what? How long after the events described in the notes is player actually situated in? Months? Years? Centuries? Millennia?

The purpose is 32. The player is what you want him/her to be. It’s kind of a role-playing element of the Submachine. That person can be just another cog in the machine. Just another explorer of the vast net of Submachine. Or the savior of the world and all structures in it. Depends on you really.

37. Who were the unidentified people who left notes in Submachines 8, 9 and 10, and how were they produced? Why are they written as dialogue, if they are notes? What is the speakers’ and the notes’ significance to the story?

Those were Monks studying ancient scrolls about the events of the second and third era.

38. In Submachine 10 we see what we assume to be inactive subbots lying about everywhere. Are they actually subbots and if not, what are they? Why are they there? Who used them and what for?

Yes, those were subbots. The Subbots are like white cells in your blood.

39. In Submachine 10 we see a lot of skulls, but no skeletons? Where did the skeletons go and where did the researcher get so many skulls in the first place?

He was looking for that chip, remember? He only needed heads to do so. The remains of all bodies are somewhere else.

40. Do subbots attack humans? If not, what is the note in location 613 referencing? Why and how do they do this?

Subbots are not hostile. They are the maintenance of the structure. As we said before they could’ve even helped you along your way in transferring from Submachine 4 to Submachine 5.

41. Does Einstein actually have powers, or was that just an illusion caused by Murtaugh’s uncontrolled use of karma in the lighthouse?

Yes, Einstein does have karmic powers, as all cats do.

42. What is Elizabeth’s ethnicity?

She’s of Indian descent, but at the same time she’s south-american. Think the region of our Venezuela.

43. Does SHIVA or some other AI actually control all of the Subnet or just some parts of it? Is this a part of Submachines or has SHIVA just taken over?

Shiva is not in control. Shiva was the spark that created consciousness in the structure. Side note: no, Submachine Universe is not conscious, but it houses a conscious artificial being.

44. Why is resin pouring into and burying different Submachines?

This is the same process that lead the Lighthouse to be buried by sand. Layers that are offset by an angle can create a spill from one to another. This spill can be created by karma portal or natural intersection of two layers.

45. What significance does the AI from the note in Submachine 8 have on anything we see in the Subnet? Is the AI in question SHIVA? Is the AI responsible for first creating the Subnet? What is the answer to “Why are we” and is there a demonstration of this answer anywhere?

Yes, the AI mentioned in submachine 8 is Shiva. It’s significance is that it was the singularity. And that in turn created the growth of the subnet. I have no answer to the question “Why are we”. Nor does anyone in Submachine. That answer was known to Shiva, but only for a split second after the singularity.

46. Is it possible, for example, that a location, thousands of years old, never existed 3 days ago? in other words, something is old because because it was made to be old.

Not really. Some locations are made to look old, but they’re not actually old. Those locations are more of reconstructions of older ones. They may resemble structures that existed before and are not there anymore, or can be completely original.

47. Did people actually live in the Subnet or could they leave to be on their “home planet” or something like that.

Yes, people lived there and also could leave at any point if they so desired. Things got complicated after the singularity and the advent of spontaneous growth of the net.

48. You said long ago that Submachine locations are either “adopted” from older locations or “created from scratch”. Would you say the Submachine prefers either? If it favoured creating things formulaicly, that’d explain all the basement style locations, but on the other hand there’s loads and loads of unique chambers as well.

Submachine does not prefer, nor favor any type of location scheme. The creation is random and governed only by laws of physics at best, which, as we know are a bit shaky in the Submachine as well. Remember, the net is NOT conscious. It’s rng.

49. Can someone influence the creation of locations? like planting a seed or placing a frame.

Yes. There’s a spontaneous growth of the net, but that doesn’t exclude human interference in the process of building. Humans are still able to create the plan. It’s possible.

50. How does the player appear in the submachine?

Ah, back to the beginning. What a fitting ending to this q&a… If you’re still reading here, hey, have karma cookie! At the beginning of the first game the player is transported into the heart of the subnet via a karma portal from outside of the structure.

Wszystkie zagadki Subnetu

Ok, o submaszynie wspominałem już wielokrotnie. Ok, pisywałem już jak mnie wciągała niejednokrotnie na długie chwile. Ale akurat ta gra jest warta każdego poświęconego jej słowa. Tym bardziej, że jest pewna okazja.

Grudniowy update Subnetu.

No to trochę jakby się świat przeładował raz jeszcze i się bugi wyprostowały. (Nie mam nic przeciw meandrom Bugu).

Ale co to jest Subnet i co oznacza jego update? Cóż nie zamierzam odpowiadać na to pytanie wprost. Opowiem zamiast tego o submaszynie. Seria gier Submachine opowiada historię (w zasadzie historie) ludzi zagubionych w Subnecie. Nie opowiada przy tym za bardzo, czym jest sam Subnet, albo dlaczego ci ludzie tam się zagubili. Gra polega na ucieczce z tegoż. To taki escape game jakich wiele w sieci, tylko że… nie. Jest całkiem inny.

Obraz

Całość historii jest spięta świetnymi, dość mrocznymi grafikami. To jest w zasadzie gra oparta na statycznych obrazach z kilkoma ruchomymi elementami. To znaczy, że obraz musi być piękny, bo wpatrujemy się w niego długo. Elementy aktywne muszą być częścią tego obrazu. Nie odznaczać się w oczywisty sposób. To wymaga niesamowitej spójności grafiki z silnikiem. Wiele indykowych przygodówek posiada grafikę na poziomie clipartów wordarta, szczególnie od momentu kiedy zaczęły się one pojawiać na androidach czy iosach masowo. Mam czasem wrażenie, że gdzieś w sieci jest wielka biblioteka cyfrowych kłódek z których korzystają autorzy kolejnych wersji 100 par drzwi czy innych eskejpowych produkcji. Oni te zebrane elementy łączą jak popadnie i dostajemy na koniec coś w klimacie własnie wordarta we wczesnym ofisie. Skutnik rysuje submaszynę sam. Jest rysownikiem komiksów ze świetnym warsztatem. To daje ogromną akuratność wszystkim elementom. Nic nie odstaje, wszystko jest usprawiedliwione.

Tajemnica

Historie wszystkich części są ze sobą powiązane. W teoretycznie nic nie znaczących (dla zagadek) dokumentach znajdujemy informację o ludziach, którzy podobnie jak my ugrzęźli w tym świecie, albo wręcz przeciwnie — badają go i nad nim panują. To jest posmak tajemnicy, jakiego oczekuję od takich historii. W każdej chwili mam wrażenie, że to co odkrywam to tylko czubek góry lodowej tajemnicy. To jedne z niewielu gier, do których robiłem prawdziwe notatki. Już nie tylko po to żeby je przejść, ale po to, żeby nie uronić choćby jednego motywu z historii jaką opowiadały. Rysowałem mapy relacji między bohaterami niezależnymi (którzy w grze się nie pojawiają wprost) starając się dojść do tego jaką oni pełnią w tym rolę. Potężna tajemnica w tle to element bez którego podobne gry są tylko prostymi łamigłówkami. (Dotyczy to też dużej części prawdziwych escaperoomów ale o nich szykuję zupełnie inny post, to się nie będę teraz wynurzał.) Tę część autor ogarnął perfekcyjnie. Zresztą polecam jego komiksy z serii Rewolucje. To podobny klimat.

Trudność

Bardzo lubię kiedy zagadki są usprawiedliwione. Co to znaczy? To znaczy, że nie pojawia mi się nagle zagadka-rymowanka, tylko dlatego że jest fajna. Tło zagadki musi być transparentne. Nie mam się zastanawiać nad samym rozwiązaniem dla rozwiązania jak w typowych hacking-games. Tam takie skomplikowane zagadki się tłumaczą. W submaszynie wszystkie istniejące zagadki opierają się na mechanizmach świata w jakim jesteśmy i tak działają. Bywają zagadki cholernie trudne i zdarzało mi się podpatrywać jakieś solucje, tylko po to żeby za chwilę pacnąć się w łeb, że to przecież oczywiste. Klasyczne przygodówki często frustrują rozwiązaniami w stylu daj małpie parasol, żeby otworzyła się katedra, i ile potrafiło to być śmieszne w Małpich Wyspach czy Goblinach o tyle mnóstwo innych przygodówek z czasów amigowych rzuciłem w kąt i nigdy do nich nie wróciłem, właśnie z powodu logiki zagadek. W subnecie wszytko jest wyważone. Wskazówki są wszędzie dookoła, ale dzięki spójnej grafice trzeba na prawdę uważać, żeby ich nie przeoczyć.

Dźwięk

A wszystkiemu towarzyszy piękne ambientowe tło, które samo w sobie nie powaliłoby może mnie na kolana, ale w tym zestawieniu dopełnia pozostałe elementy idealnie.

No ale o co z tym subnetem chodzi?

Pierwsza część submaszyny pojawiła się w 2005 roku i w zasadzie od razu zyskała rozgłos. Wszystkich części w serii było 10 plus dodatkowe trzy takie z wątkami pobocznymi. Ostania część — 10 pojawiła się w 2015 roku. Gry nie zestarzały się dziś i dziś jeszcze często do nich wracam. No i teraz ten Subnet. Bo to od tego się zaczął się ten post. Otóż Skutnik Mateusz twierdzi, że zakończył serię submaszyn, lub przynajmniej mu się tak wydaje. Ostatnia część submaszyny nie wyjaśniła niczego, jak zresztą każda inna. Wszystkie pozostawiają po sobie więcej pytań niż odpowiedzi. Dlatego powstał projekt o nazwie Submachine Universe, który w zasadzie nie jest kolejną grą. Jest wyjaśnieniem. Oczywiście wyjaśnieniem w typowym dla klimatu stylu. Poruszamy się po całym subnecie czyli universum gry odkrywając prawdę ze skrawek notatek, czy z referatów naukowych badaczy subnetu, które znajdujemy. Piękno Submachine Universe polega na tym, że jest to świat, który sam przedstawia się graczowi, krok po kroku. Pokazując kolejne wątki tej samej tajemnicy jednocześnie nie pokazując rozwiązania. No i tenże właśnie projekt dostał aktualizację w grudniu, która nakłoniła mnie do pochylania się raz jeszcze nad submaszyną. Ot i cała historia. Ale jaka piękna.

Jakby ktoś chciał zacząć zabawę z Submaszyną to lepiej nie zaczynać od Universe. Lepiej tak po kolei, po bożemu. Całą kolekcję można kupić za jakieś $25 wraz z soundtrackiem w mp3. Zdecydowanie warto. Można też pograć na webie za darmo, chyba we wszystkie części. Submachine Universe jest udostępniony w całości za free tutaj.

Polecam też bardzo komiksy tegoż autora a z gier warto też się przyjrzeć Cover Frontowi oraz corocznej zabawie w poszukiwanie nowego roku.

A jeszcze z rzeczy rokujących na przyszłość jest coś całkiem nowego: https://mateuszskutnik.itch.io/the-crecy-evaluation i to wygląda i pachnie jakby się miało być może rozwinąć kiedyś w kolejną serię w subświecie…

Autor: Michał Franczak

2017 wrap-up

 

Well, here we are again.

I feel we’ve been doing this for so long, you already know what I’m going to say here. First wrap-up was, uhm, 5 years ago, a simpler time before we were all basically connected by the hip by social media. Nevertheless, let’s dig into this list for the sake of preserving the process. Let me open last year’s wrap-up in another tab, and see…

 

Plan A

The Big Game. Yes, the one that will end up on Steam eventually. It’s still an unnamed project which I call the Big Game (or TBG for short). In my head, as I see it, this game will be the biggest, most advanced and most important game up to date. I’m done with finishing old series, wrapping up lose ends and all that sort of thing. No excuses left. There’s only one way to go now and it’s TBG. The thing is – such games are not created in one year, this one might take two or more, but I’m starting working on it in 2017 and will keep you informed about the development process, whether through playable samples or graphical designs or other media. You will know what’s happening and where do I stand concerning TBG.

Well said, me from a year ago. So how are we doing on that front? “The Big Game” has shortened it’s working name to just “The Game“, but fear not! It stays big, there’s no decrease in size planned. If anything, it’s the opposite. I’ll let you in on another secret straight from my head. I don’t write anything, you see. I keep all ideas in my head in their fluid form, this way they fluctuate and change in time. I’ve been always doing this.

[side note] For example right now a brand new comic book album about my character named Blaki is rattling around in my brain, and it’s scheduled for 2019. But I started “writing it” in my head… uhm… 3 years ago. And it’s been stewing there ever since. [/side note]

The same goes for “The Game“. Can I call it the game from now on? Without bold font and quotation marks? There’s not much more on my radar this year, you’ll probably be able to figure out that when I’m talking about the game, I’m talking about “The Game“, right? Ok. So what was I talking about. Sorry about me rambling, I think it’s a side effect of streaming, where you get to see the entire creative process, this somehow feels similar now. Ah, yes.

There’s an EXACT moment in time that I can point to and say – this is when the development of the game started. The little big bang that exploded in my head. That little spark of an idea. What makes it unique is that I can’t pinpoint any other game that way. Not Submachine, nor Daymare Town. Not with such precision. But here? It’s January 16, 2017, 5:55 PM. Remember this tweet?

This is it. This IS the main character of the game. This is the moment when the game created a folder for itself inside my head and the story started growing. So I’ve been at it for the entire year already, as promised. And the story took a shape. It’s almost finished. But, again, it’s all only in my head and undoubtedly will grow even more once I start drawing/coding it. Knowing my OCD concerning polishing all littlest details in my games, it will not only grow, but also fill in blank spaces in between, leaving the final product almost spotless. At least in my opinion.

And by the way, the game isn’t called “the game” anymore. I mean it HAS a title already. I think I decided on it few months ago, I’d say around October?… I don’t want to release the title yet, because firstly I’ll make a video about it, or create some small event when the time comes, and secondly I’m keeping it close to my chest, since it’s not yet firmly linked to me an my work, like my other intellectual properties. It’s something brand new and you have to be careful when handling such newborn idea. But it’s there. It has a title, main character, and most of the story. It even has…

The engine. Yes, that’s arguably the most important thing I’ve created in 2017. Two separate engines, to be exact, point and click adventure engine and platforming engine, that will now be combined into one – and this will be the starting point of the game. Frankly speaking, the hardest part is already done. I’ve switched from Flash to GMS2 a year ago, now I kind of perfected the skill needed for the creation of the game. I feel we’re half way there.

2018 is the year of the game. Even if it will not be published this year, most of the development will take place now. I’m kind of excited for it, but at the same scared. Hold my hand, please. Ok, enough about it for now.

Unnamed short point and click game. While developing TBG I will surely need some testing grounds. 10 Gnomes are the foundation of a pnc game, but expanding it is a priority. Adding inventory, interaction and all that pnc stuff you know from my Flash years. Creation by example. And this example will be a short game, to the tune of Great Kitchen Escape or something similar in size. I’m also doing it because you are impatient lot, if there are no games from me for a long time your patronage goes down. The problem here is that creating a game is so different from creating a youtube video (youtubers get tons of money from Patreon). While you can do a video every week, that is not happening with game development. And since I’m going to develop TBG, which will take a year or more, I also have to do something smaller to keep you interested. So there.

Oh lord. 10 Gnomes is not a foundation of a pnc game, it’s a foundation of moving between rooms. :D

But yes, as I mentioned above, one of two engines needed for the game is the pnc engine. This unnamed game turned out to be the Peter Navarre Crecy Evaluation, released in November. While being a simple escape the room game it sports all important characteristics of a pnc game engine. The only things missing are more advanced inventory operations, like hiding places, active drawers, backpacks, shops, etc. Besides those, the engine is complete and ready for the game.

10 Gnomes in Trstenik and Gnomengine overhaul. I’ll share a little secret with you. Last year I finally figured out when will this series end. First series was a project of 12 months. It was done in 2008. The second phase, in which we are right now, is the project of 12 years. It started in 2010 and will last until 2021. We’re 7 games in, still 5 games to go. 10 Gnomes in Trstenik are already shot, I’ve got pictures on my drive, now it’s all about overhauling that engine (yes, I wrote Gnomengine in the title. What) and preparing pictures. No biggie in fact. This is happening around June I hope. Wait. Scratch that. I wasn’t supposed to estimate any release dates anymore. Ok, forget it. I didn’t say a thing about June.

Well, I wasn’t far off. This game was released in July. Nothing much to say here, it’s the 8th in the series (20th if you count the original series from 2008). Here’s the link to it. Overhauling the gnomengine is kind of a tradition by now, I think once I finish this series I’ll write an article about all gnomengines and especially about the game window sizes, which growth represents the idea of times changing perfectly. Until then, we’ve still got 4 games to go.

Where is 2018? Well, yes, sure. Moreover, since some of you criticized the length of previous game I’ll make sure this one is LONGER AND BETTER than Where is 2017? I want to make an adventure game with Santa, he turned out to be so adorable this year, and I like how his animations look. It’s a proper fine character and deserves something bigger this time. And this will be it!

Jesus, CALM DOWN, me from a year ago. Did I make Where is 2018? bigger than the previous game? Yes, but not by much, mind you. Not enough to grant that exclamation mark at the end of the sentence, bro!  As usual, I was crunching this game after Christmas. While suffering and crunching instead of taking it easy after holidays I thought: “Never again, dammit! Next year I’ll make it in goddamn JUNE!” But once I finished creating this game EXACTLY on New Year’s Eve it somehow felt right. Right then I felt that the year is over. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to recreate that feeling if I’ll make that game in June… Well, let’s just wait and see what happens. I really do wish to create a bigger game for you to play at the end of the year, but it’s kind of complicated, as you can see. It was always meant to be a kind of a postcard, something for me to thank You guys for a year of support instead of just posting seasonal drawing saying “happy new year” on Facebook or Twitter… But it grew in time. As all other projects I manage, I guess. Oh well. Here’s the game. Also let’s mark the occasion since this little, tiny ass game managed to somehow create a ripple on itch.io. It was a top popular game for few days if you can believe that. Yeah, me either. It also spawned a nice round of youtube let’s plays, most of which I gathered here. Who would’ve thought, right? Moreover, this little game is a litmus test for the main big game.

Let’s pause for a second. I don’t know if you can see the pattern here. The big game needs two engines. The Crecy Evaluation is the first (pnc engine), and Where is 2018? is the second (platforming engine).  Do you see how it all comes together? Just as it was pre-planned or something (wink, wink). Any way, let’s carry on.

Live Streaming Watercolor Painting and Digital Drawing. Once I started I can’t stop right now it seems. People are kind of counting on it. Not sure for how long, but I’ll keep this alive as long as you want to watch it.

This kind of blew up out of nowhere. I found a new home on twitch.tv, and streamed not only regular game-related drawing, digital and watercolor, but I also streamed the creation of this year’s comic book album, Morphs 4: the New Testament. I called this series Ink Companion, and You can watch it archived on youtube here. It’s 70 parts, each episode averages about 2 hours, or more. Yes, it was a massive undertaking. It was brand new experience for me and I must say streaming helped me finish this project on time. There was a sense of orderliness once I started drawing / painting and streaming daily. That’s thanks to you, the viewer. You can watch shortened versions of those streams here.

Mission to the Sun and Mission to Earth. No, wait, I made these already. I MADE THESE ALREADY! THE CURSE IS BROKEN, I CAN MOVE ON! OH GLORY DAY!!!

Oh lord, I’m getting PTSD flashbacks from this…

 

Plan B

Morfolaki, tom4 (Morphs, tome 4). Well, yes, sure, as usual, a yearly comic book. The definitive ending to the series of Morphs stories.

And ended they did… That was bitter sweet, let me tell you. Those last remaining un-drawn stories waited 15 years or so to be drawn, and now they’re done. It’s over. Not that it matters in the big scheme of things, but there was a sense of finality there. And I’m not getting younger either. Closing long-running projects seems to be my thing for some time now. Thanks to the nature of that comic book I was able to break a 5-year-old record of pages drawn in one year. Before it was 118, now it moved to 134. Here’s the mark. I doubt it will be broken anytime soon, if ever. It was a good run this year. This book turned out better than I thought. I managed to do a mental exercise of going 15 years back into the past, into my old (younger) self, looking inside that angry young mind and drawing it as it would have been drawn all those years ago. Was it easy? No. Was it refreshing? Most def. Watch the process here.

VormkfasA #58 & #59. Again, festival xerox zine to be handed out to good souls that come out to see me. In June and October, respectively.

Yes, but in June and September. They kind of were supposed to be half-a-year apart, but it’s not my fault that I wasn’t able to attend comic festival in Warsaw in may, and that they moved Lodz comic festival from October to September. But being flexible as I am – I adjusted. I still have some spare copies, come meet me in 2018, You’ll get one.

Rewolucje: Homunkulus and Rewolucje: Toxic Connection. These two short stories set in the Revolutions universe are the beginning of my 2018 comic book called Revolutions: Apocrypha. It’ll be an anthology of short stories written by people other than me. It’ll be fun, and it starts this year.

Well then. This is the only (mind you, the ONLY) project that I didn’t do in 2017. But fear not! First of all it was just plan B, and as we’re moving into 2018 it will not only get upgraded to plan A, but will be most definitely featured in Ink Companion season 2.

Plan C

All things I’ve done this year that were not listed above.

Submachine Universe, the Beginning and the End (of an Era). I have to tell you, this one feels strange. It was the most dominant project of 2017, and yet it wasn’t even listed on the to-do list. Life is strange I guess. Submachine Universe, standalone Exploration Project in HD, released in January, finished in December. In fact, this subject is so vast, that I’ll write a separate article about it soon. This project was being updated throughout entirety of 2017, effectively making it the year of the Subnet. It started as a Patreon goal, but then I decided not to hold this content hostage to the pledges which seemed a bit unfair and just let it grow without any obstructions. As I said – more on the subject soon.
OS X versions of my games created in Game Maker. Almost forgot that was a thing, it happened almost exactly one year ago in January. Quite a bit of an achievement, since navigating the treacherous trenches of Apple Development program is… treacherous. :D
the Ravine . This one is odd. There’s this channel on youtube that I follow, Mark Brown’s Game Maker’s Toolkit, which talks about game design and I learned a lot from it. So Mark decided to host a game jam in July. And I thought – why not (silly me). Game jams work a bit differently than comic book 24-hour projects. It takes place over one weekend, so you have 48 hours to create entire game from scratch. I wasted good portion of this time just thinking about what I want to do. By now you probably know this is not how my brain works, I hate sitting down with a blank sheet of paper in front of me and having to think of something on the spot. This is not how I do things. They stew in my head for several years, then come out. However, once I got the idea, there were 36 hours left. These were the hardest and most painful 36 hours of the year. You can read more about it here.
the traditional Easter Egg, this year sporting Branchwing – a character from the Morphs comic book series. You know, the usual cute character that you’d totally expect to appear on an Easter egg. Watch how it was made here.
Niebajka , the graphical design of this music album. This one uses my character named Blaki, as he fit perfectly with the tone and meaning of the album. Watch unpacking here.
Rewolucje: Untersuchung , a 4-page story created for a polish comic magazine. It will also be a part of the upcoming Rewolucje 11: Apocrypha album.
last, but not least, couple standout videos from last year: MFK 2017, Gdansk 2017, Gordon Freeman, Prince, Komiksofon 23, Branchwing, BlakiBrarian, SubRev and lots and lots and lots of streaming vods and speedpaintings on my channel on youtube.

 

That’s all.

I think.

Phew.

 

 

 

2018 to-do list

Here we go. Oh boy. Happy times ahead (that’s what I’ve been telling myself for the last few years at least). :D

Plan A

The Game. Further development of the game. Let’s pinpoint: merging two engines into one, thus creating final base of development. Evaluating the main character of the game. Creating side characters, and lots of them. Sketching out locations. Creating environmental puzzles, as well as classic point and click ones. Trying to find final “look and feel” of the game. And so on. Do you feel it coming? I do.
Revolutions 11: Apocrypha. The series marches on, strong as ever, into it’s second phase. This time it’ll be a round up of older stories released in different magazines and anthologies, put together for closure reasons as well as new stories written by Polish best comic book writers that I managed to deceive into thinking writing for me was worth their time. All those new stories will be painted and streamed on twitch.tv this year as Ink Companion season 2.

Plan B

10 Gnomes in Paris. Yes, Paris. It’s already shot and partly done. I want to release it before summer break, so expect it late June. Let’s say… June 20th. This time I can make that prediction with a certainty. Let’s see what will happen now that I’ve said this. Stupid, stupid me…
Where is 2019? Well, what a surprise, right? As I still want to make it a bigger game than before, let’s shoot for… let me think… 12 screens of content, ok? Let’s not overthink it for now. Santa returns, as he’s the character where it all started 10 years ago.
VormkfasA #60, the final issue. [This is the festival xerox zine that I give away to people who meet me during comic festivals]. Yes, all things must end. I seem to be killing more and more of my old projects each year. Last time it was the Morphs, now this. I’m ending it here because I wanted this run to last for as long as the first run lasted, seven issues. And as it rounds up nicely to overall 60 issues, this is the good point to let it go.

Plan C

streaming on twitch.tv. As I mentioned before, I found a new home on twitch. A new little corner where I can sit and share my things with you. I’m not expecting it to bring any money or fame as I am realistic about how many people might be interested in watching some old-fart draw live, but I genuinely just like doing it. And that’s a good sign. I’ll create my new comic book here and also parts of the game, those not-spoilery ones. Let’s shoot for, I dunno, 200 followers in 2018. And I promise to talk more.
Linux versions of my games. Last year I tackled OS X, Linux MUST be simpler, right? Right?… Guys?…

 

I think this is it. This to-do list seems shorter than before, but hey, we’re focusing here on the game. Joking around is over. Now is the time to shut up and just DO IT.

Now we can finally put 2017 to rest.

I feel this new year will be a decisive turning point in my career. I’m scared.

Again, remember that you can support it all on Patreon or Twitch! (Yeah, great idea, leave self promotion that really matters for the complete ending, where everybody stopped reading long time ago… Good job, man).

See you next January! :D

Yearly comic page efficiency record: 134/2017

134 comic book pages in 2017. Previous record, 118, stood for 5 years.

Where is 2018? Top Popular game on itch.io

Wednesday, January 3rd 2018 – Friday, January 5th 2018.

:D

Where is 2018? Nic Reuben review

Where is 2018? It’s Here, and it’s Already Weird AF

What have they done to you, Santa? Why are you so thin, and so smol? Why have you been forcefully awoken from your slumber and made to travel through time and space to bring in another hellish twelve months? Why can’t pop culture dredge up another character from European folklore to sort this shit out so you can get back to banging reindeer or whatever it is you do for the rest of the year? Where is 2018? What is Where is 2018? Who is what is Where is 2018? No, no, I should have stopped at the last one. Sorry.

Where is 2018 is a hand drawn, extremely short but impeccably designed vignette platformer from designer and graphic novel artist Mateusz Skutnik. It’s got some incredibly tight platforming, and some neat, simple puzzles. He’s been making these yearly games since 2009, along with a whole host of others, including the Submachine series of adventure games. He’s also worked on a stack of graphic novels. Great, it’s been 2018 for less than a day and I already feel like a colossal failure in comparison. No, wait. That was there last year, too. And also forever.

Time Marches On

Where is 2018, along with Mateusz’s other games, feature some incredibly detailed, personal-feeling hand-drawn backgrounds. If you’re interested in seeing how the artist achieves what he does, Mateusz has several live streams on his YouTube channel, where you’ll be able to watch him draw his games in real time. I’ve been waiting for some of that talent to rub off on me, but no luck so far.

As well as his website, you can find Mateusz’s games on itch here. Personally, I’m happy to have discovered a one-man auteur with a distinct style, and can’t wait to dive into more of Mateusz’s work. Even if it does make me extremely depressed.

written by Nic Reuben

Where is 2018?

download for PC or Mac

let’s play: Cryptic Hybrid

the Peter Navarre Crecy Evaluation

download this game (PC and Mac)

The tragedy of the situation is that while being one of the most valuable objects in Kaisar’s posession, it got stolen in most peculiar circumstances. To the untrained eye it would seem that the Evaluation simply vanished from this layer, ceasing to exist in a split of a second. However, the smell of electricity left in the air after that occurence told another story.