off topic

[Vortex]

我知道...
XD

[RuloCore]

yin byhtk tiadcawycai ok?

it doesn't work dis wey

OK, can someone tell me what does Mateusz say in his interview? Does he speak something important about Submachine series?
(I'm bad with English...)

Ok, I only got that he was talking about how much the series had grown, about the fandom, he talked that he got some ideas also from the fan theories, and he explained how many episodes there are and when they were released (9 in 2013, 10 in 2014)...

[Vortex]

he talked that he got some ideas also from the fan theories

[The Kakama]

Gemini?

[Anteroinen]

He doesn't really talk about anything relevant to the story in the interview. It is mostly about how he works behind the scenes, and how the creation of Submachine has gone through the years. He says some things about how Submachine series will continue after Sub10 (i.e. this storyline ends, but questions that are left open will be answered in future games.)

Gemini?

He didn't say, but I wouldn't think so.

EDIT: Let me see if I can write some of the interview out.

[The Abacus]

He mentioned, as he has previously, that submachine not about escaping, it's about exploring.

[Sublevel 114]

He mentioned, as he has previously, that submachine not about escaping, it's about exploring.

yeah, this phrase I could hear...

Let me see if I can write some of the interview out.

GREAT THANK YOU!

[Anteroinen]

Let me see if I can write some of the interview out.

GREAT THANK YOU!

Rest assured it will take a while. I'm at 15 minutes mark now.

[Anteroinen]

Well that took a while. The amount of uhhs and errs I transcribed into text for varies throughout the interview, but here it is. I apologise I misheard a word or a sentence.

Interview with Mateusz Skutnik

Clearly I think there is something special and valuable in Escape the Room –style puzzles, and I actually got to talk to a game designer recently, about his work on the Submachine-series.

M: Ah, okay, so, my name is Mateusz Skutnik and I’m the co-founder of the PastelGames. We are located in Poland and I’m the sole creator of, err, the Submachine and Daymare Town and also 10 Gnomes and I creat-, co-created the Covert Front series with Karol Konwerski, who is my business partner in PastelGames.

Ooh, and how long have you been involved in game design?

M: Mmm, that will be from 2004, so it’s, like, eight years and going. Err, as we know it’s Flash, so, so, that’s, actually that’s the first and the only scripting-language that I’ve learned and mastered – to some degree of course – that lets me, uuh, express what I wanna do in games. So, uuh, from that point on I’m just involved in, in Flash.

So, uuh, you say what you want to do in games is [as] though you sort of have a philosophy. Can you share that with us? Is there something you wanna accomplish in your games in particular?

M: Uuh, well, not exactly a philosophy. I, I wouldn’t go that much, but, uuh, I have a, my own perspective of what I wanna do in games and, uhh, the best ones, I think, are those created by, uuh, very small designing are, perhaps, only one or two person, because then the so called artistic vision is most clear.

So, in particular I’m interested in, in this Submachine series that’s been going on for quite some time now. Can you talk about what that series is for those listeners who don’t know what it is, and a little about why you started that series?

M: Well, the Submachine is… It’s not exactly an Escape the Room –game, more of a exploration game, but we learn that in the second part of the game that was released in 2006 and the whole series started in 2005, with a first installment that was like a very small project, only for, I don’t know, ten, fifteen minutes of gameplay. In Submachine, you’re trying to, presumably, escape series of rooms that are interconnected and you move between them and solve the puzzles, but as you go you learn that it’s much more interesting to stay in those, err, structures than to leave. So, let’s say, from the second or third chapter the idea of the game is exploration – not escaping.

A lot of the Submachine series in particular is very atmospheric and environmental. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of that tone when you’re designing these games?

M: I think the tone is the second, or maybe the first, the second most important thing after the gameplay such a games, because the immersion is quite difficult ‘cause there is no protagonist, no hero in this game. There’s just you and the set of rooms and you don’t know what to do. So, to achieve the proper immersion, you need to lay down some heavy arms like ambient and whole atmosphere. The gameplay has to be very smooth and very forgiving and very inviting for a player, which could be found a little bit counter-intuitive because it is a puzzle-game, but this has to be, you know, inviting all the same. There a fine line between making a game that’s just very difficult for a player and, you know, borderline not, not- That you wouldn’t be able to finish it without a walkthrough or solution.
Right.

M: And finding the little spot that’s, you know… I know what my player wants to do, I know what he will do, and following that path that’s the main thing in escape games: to predict the thinking of a casual player. Maybe not casual, but you know, the average player.

So, when you’re designing one of these games, how do you decide what sort of theme you want to take with it? Does that modify the puzzles you’ve- you create? Or do you start with the puzzles first, and then, sort of, move into the storyline and the atmosphere?

M: Well, you know, the designing takes place right with the… the exact creation of the game. I don’t… You know, create comic books also? So, I brought my working processes: create as I go. We have the atmosphere, the locations, the puzzles and everything is, you know, done quite on the spot. As I find myself in some situations that I need to create a puzzle and a location then I just think of it and, you know, make it. So there is, like, no foreseeing of what I would do, of what I’ll finish, but it will come to me. That’s a nice thing. When you start yourself creating a game, a world and you find the right things to do.

So, according to the website you actually have some training in architecture, and you describe yourself as a Flash games –architect. Can you talk a little bit how your knowledge in architecture shapes your process of game design – in the Submachine series in particular?

M: Well, it goes beyond the architecture. The actual outlet of buildings of course is in the games, but that is is a big part of it. The main thing about being an architect is that you have to think about every single aspect of building and the design process simultaneously. so, when you’re thinking about laying the pipes, or , you know, making the electricity or the roofing or everything you have to, you know, put it all together at the same time, and that’s how I approach my games. I make the programming, the art, the music, the puzzles – everything at the same time.

What is the hardest part of making games like these?

M: Hmm, “what is the hardest part?” That, that is a hard question. Honestly speaking, there’s no hard parts making those games. I just love the making of those games and I don’t really see what could be… maybe, you know, there is a point after when you finally make all the story in your head, make all the puzzles then you have to - somehow – force yourself to just create it. So, so, the… so, to draw it, and script and everything like that. So after you this creation, let’s say, thinking part, then you just have to do and maybe that’s the hardest part, when you… Because, you know, the creational part is the most exciting thing about making games.

So, earlier you had mentioned that the Submachine series isn’t exactly an Escape the Room –game.

M: Yeah.

How would you define it in terms of genre? Is there a clear distinction to you between – say- point-and-click –adventure-games and the Submachine –games and the Escape the Room –games?

M: Well, that is a point-and-click adventure – that I’ll admit it is – but Submachine is just Submachine and that’s a puzzle adventure and that’s it. And… it don’t know what genre I would slap onto that, but, you know… That’s an adventure, I think. I don’t know. [laughs]

Err, and then also you have mentioned difficulty. I’m curious to know what are your thoughts on hints and cheating and how important challenge is to the experience of playing these types of games?

M: That’s completely irrelevant, actually, because there are always the people who like to solve by themselves. I mostly enjoy when they are commenting on my games and say they were playing for four days, for example. Grinding and grinding and finally did it and they feel fantastic. That’s, that’s the right spirit. And if somebody wants to, you know, somehow spoil the fun of solving everything then OK, that’s OK. The walkthroughs are usually few hours after the release of the game, so it’s, it’s pitiful. Anyone can… the main challenge is to not to look at the, right? To solve the game by yourself. I think that’s the challenge of Escape game.

One of the interesting things I thought about the Submachine series is that there’s this sort of ardent community around it and discussions on the forum of what the game means and all of that… What do you think… What do you think is special about this series in particular that makes it have such a strong community response?

M: You know, I completely don’t know.

[Laughter]

M: I’ve been thinking about this, but… that deludes me. I know this game is kind of special because of the mechanics involved in the gameplay: the specific movement between rooms and such… I know there are hints of a greater story that is only uncovered in some parts, maybe this, and somehow it’s probably the community of people who like to theorize and who like to talk about the Submachine and I’m just loving it and I’m… I must agree. I listen to them very carefully. Some of their ideas ARE in the Submachine, because they were, uhh, they were thinking about things that I wouldn’t even know… that didn’t even cross my mind, but were so, uhh, so in the right place for Submachine so that I just used them and that’s a… That, for me, is a… That’s a phenomenon I really don’t understand.

[Laughter]

Uhm, is there something about the experience of this type of game that makes it unique, do you think? That can’t be done in either in a written form or even in a sort of a real life… sort of… puzzle game?

M: Uhh, I don’t know… I… I think that it is kind of unique, because you have the author of the game somehow standing behind you and you know that, from the player’s perspective, you know that solving the puzzle to only means that you’re clever, that you did it, but there is someone that says: “Okay, you’re clever, I know you are clever.” There is some kind of a connection between the creator and the player and it’s kind of important, because when I create those games I know that, I know that there is dialogue between me and the player. And this is very important because, uhh, I feel that the, the important part about playing such games is knowing that the player is intelligent and letting him know that. And that happens through making such puzzles that are difficult, but something that, you know, are very logical. So when you create illogical stuff you’re… fine, you’re okay… You create some crazy things that no one would ever think of you’re just, you know, throwing obstacles on the player and that’s… that’s not those games are about and my… I think that, that the main thing is the dialogue, as I said before, between the creator and, you know, the player and talking to the player through the game. I’m saying: “You can do this! This is right for you! This is puzzle, but you can solve it.” But when a player does it, I get a response from them.

Yeah, from my own experience is… I think there’s something special about being in a room or being in an environment and knowing all of the pieces of the puzzle are there – I just need to put them together, and there’s a sort of faith that the game has any of that, “well, here are the pieces, use your mind to…”

M: Yeah, that’s a thing. But you know, the pieces can be completely, err, insane! Let’s say you have to… use a hammer on a flower and then you get a rainbow.

[Laughter]

M: It’s just completely idiotic. And there are games that do just that, but that’s a false premise of being difficult, because that’s not difficulty that’s just insanity.

So how do you make a game difficult then, from your perspective?

M: Krhm. The difficulty of a game is, first of all, making a puzzle that’s logical. That’s very important. It can be very, very tough but it has to be logical. And when you stick to this rule, it is the only rule of making a puzzle.

So, what’s next for you then, in the case of the Submachine series?

M: Well, the Submachine series continues happily to ten, at least. We have the next one coming this year and the final one in 2014; however, that will not mean the end of the series, because after that I am… I want to do more Submachines in the form of stand-alone games, because in Submachine 10 we’ll just finish the main storyline, which will end… err, umm… all those episodes from one to ten. This is all one story, unfolding in each game. So when that’s over, I’ll just stick to this. Like, let’s say, when the Lost finished, right, there were many, many questions left unanswered. So, that’s what I wanna do when I finish the Submachine with a ten. I know people will have more questions that will be answered in those stand-alone games after that and that’s the future of Submachine. And also, I have the Submachine Exploration Project, which is on-going online, let’s say, massive singleplayer. When you enter and you have, I don’t know, about eighty-three locations now. That will be about three hundred rooms.

Wow.

M: For me that’s mainly, for now, just exploring. That’s just exploring and finding your new locations. But that’s just a canvas for me and when I finish all the locations, I will think of creating puzzles in them and that will be massive.

Wow, that’s quite a… quite an adventure.

M: Yeah, that’s… that project started in 2010 and it is on-going and I’m about to create a new addition to the system. I came up with the idea after playing the game called… What’s it called? Uhm? The Mystery of Time and Space. You’re probably familiar with this, because it is one of the founding fathers of the entire genre.

Yup, yup.

M: And they were adding the levels, as they went on and I thought of that… I thought of this idea, that you could have some kind of, uhh, gameplay system that you can add on more bricks in the time. And…it appear it’s working and it’s online and it’s free, and, as I said, for now it is just exploration, but it’s turning into a massive game. I think, I hope.

What attracts you to designing this type of game specifically? Is there something that is particularly special to you?

M: Yeah. That would be the opportunity to tell a story, which is kind of strange, because in Submachine there is not much of a story, but there are hints of a story and we have this world that is unfolding in each game and the story progresses, but for me creating games is just another medium of telling the story. As I said before, I started with comics, created comics and I somehow translated that into, into gaming. And this type of game, puzzle or adventure or exploration, allows me to tell the story to the player, and I think that’s the way I, you know, connect with this genre on another level of just being someone who tells you a story.

[Cheerful music]

[Sublevel 114]

Thank you very very very much, sir Anteroinen! :D