This was originally posted on the now-defunct Random Fury! videogame blog.
Some time in the past/future we featured a game called “Where Is 2014?” by Mateusz Skutnik. He has made quite a few other games, and they are a lot better than the one we featured, randomly.
Probably his best known work, Submachine, is a series of games that trap you inside networks of rooms and you have to find objects, and then use those objects on your environment, sometimes in a certain order, to solve the rudimental puzzles and escape. It’s all very thoughtful, if a little obtuse, and there are some inventive ideas in there, as well as a distinct and very eerie visual feel. The same could be said about any of his game series though, especially the ones in his trademark “environmental puzzle” style.
For example, 10 Gnomes is very similar in concept, but not in tone. This particular series of games task you to find ten gnomes, funnily enough. You navigate around black and white cityscapes and urban streets, zooming in and out, wandering around corners, searching for the little buggers. Daymare Town and Covert Front are again similar in content and game mechanics, but visually different, which gives them a totally different vibe. Daymare Town is actually genuinely creepy, whereas Covert Front can be quite thrilling at times. All of them are very rewarding when you manage to find the random item that corresponds with the random part of scenery.
There are other styles of game on there but I have noticed that even different genres have similarities – they all gravitate towards finding an object that enables progression rather than, say, pure platforming skill or time-management. And then factor in having to find a second object which enables progression in a way that sometimes hinders the first way… Well. It gets complicated. I found the Mothball series of shooters in particular to be an interesting diversion, but to be honest the vast majority of the games on his site are worth a look.
As always, that link again: http://www.mateuszskutnik.com/archive/flash-games/
