Submachine (series)

"Submachine" redirects here. For the automatic carbine gun, see Submachine gun.

The Submachine (short for Submerged Machine) series is a series of point-and-click adventure games, created by Mateusz Skutnik, that was first released in September 2005.[1]

In all the games you play as an unidentified character who explores new locations of the "Subnet", which is a broken and distorted reality that features decaying buildings and abandoned structures. The buildings and structures are categorized into groups called "submachines" based on architectural style. You have to solve different puzzles and examine the environment in order to escape. The series has been generally well received. There are ten installations in the main series as well as four spin-offs. Two of the spin-offs were made for a Jayisgames contest and another for the website of the band Future Loop Foundation.

In an interview with Igor Hardy, Mateusz Skutnik stated that "This series should go at least until Submachine 10. After that, I don't know."[2]

Games in the series

Part of the main series

Various versions of this game can be played through Mateusz Skutnik's Submachine 1 Changelog.

Spin-offs

Submachine: Ancient Adventure was made for the 2006 Jayisgames Casual Gaming Design Competition.
Submachine: Future Loop Foundation was created to promote the band Future Loop Foundation.
Submachine FLFHD is the only HD version of a Submachine game that contains different puzzles than its original online free counterpart. Mateusz Skutnik removed all references to the band Future Loop Foundation in FLFHD, making it more consistent with the Submachine world.
Submachine: 32 Chambers was made for the 2010 Jayisgames Casual Gaming Design Competition.
Mateusz Skutnik has updated the SubVerse every few months since he first released it. It currently contains 101 "locations." Each update usually consists of adding one or more "locations" to the network, which contain theories, photographs, and video clips from fans.

Other Submachine-related projects

The Submachine 2 Sketch is an unfinished version of Mateusz Skutnik's original idea for Submachine 2.

Development

All of the Submachine games made so far are created in Flash. Each game has regularly been released online (minus Submachine: FLF) to play on Mateusz Skutnik's own website and other popular Flash game websites. Downloadable fullscreen versions can also be bought through the developer's store, and they are known as "HD versions".

In 2016 Mateusz Skutnik formally announced his decision to move away from Flash as a game-building platform and started to use GameMaker to develop his future games. Whether he will still use Flash to create future Submachine games or not is unknown.

Future Submachine projects

In July 2015, Skutnik put "Submachine: The Engine" on his Patreon page as his $2000-per-month milestone goal. The game was at some point taken off the page by Skutnik, but in October 2016 he put the goal back.

When he reached $1400 a month, he announced a Submachine Universe update consisting of 10 new locations. He will release it in 2016. He said on October 26, 2015 on the Pastel Land Forum that if the Patreon goes back under $1400, he will remove the goal. He then clarified and said that removing a goal doesn't mean that he won't make the project. He then said that he is still going to make all the projects that he removed from his Patreon page, like Daymare Town 5 and Submachine: The Engine.

Skutnik also has plans to release a downloadable HD version of Submachine Universe. Because of the periodic updates, a downloadable version of the SubVerse would be more inconvenient for players. However, Skutnik has stated that he has made an HD downloadable version and will release it soon. He further said on November 6, 2015 on the Pastel Land Forum that he might not release the HD version in 2016, as he wanted to take a break from Submachine after releasing Submachine 10.

Community

The Submachine series has drawn a multitude of fans to join Pastel Forum, created by the developer. On this forum the fans have developed many theories, which are the main backing of most people's ideas on the story behind the Subnet, due to the often vague storyline of the series.

Some of these theories are included in the Submachine Universe, which was described as a "lovely way to include the player community in [...] a series of solo adventures" by Andrew Plotkin of GamesShelf in his review of the game.[3]

Awards

The series has won numerous awards, including four from Jayisgames:

References

  1. ↑ http://www.mateuszskutnik.com/archive/submachine-1-changelog/ Submachine 1: the basement – changelog
  2. ↑ http://hardydev.com/2009/06/27/interview-mateusz-skutnik-submachine-daymare/
  3. ↑ http://gameshelf.jmac.org/2010/06/audience-participation-in-sing/ Audience participation in single-player adventures
  4. ↑ http://jayisgames.com/best-of/2009/adventure-results/
  5. ↑ http://jayisgames.com/archives/2010/08/cgdc8_results.php

External links

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