Irony Curtain: Revolutionary Update #3
Comrades! Here comes another glorious update! If you appreciate our work for the bestest country in the world, don’t forget to leave a Steam review! The newest revolutionary update includes: added manual saveslots; added gamepad vibrations; added cheats for GORK Park Competition
Comrades!
Here comes another glorious update! If you appreciate our work for the bestest country in the world, don’t forget to leave a Steam review!
The newest revolutionary update includes:
- added manual saveslots;
- added gamepad vibrations;
- added cheats for GORK Park Competition and for skipping minigames;
- fixed block that could occur while skipping one of the cutscenes in the Hotel with a gamepad;
- fixes in gamepad controls for better user experience;
- minor gameplay fixes;
- minor SFX fixes;
- outlines for active inventory items;
- fixes in German and Polish localizations.
Comrades!
It’s been over two weeks since Matryoshka has opened the Iron(y) Curtain to the Western World and we’re overwhelmed by all positive feedback we’ve received from you and from the press.
(By the way, if you didn’t leave Irony Curtain steam review yet, 
Comrades!
Our Leader has granted us another glorious update! If you appreciate our work for the bestest country in the world, 
Comrades!
Thank you for purchasing the Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love! We hope that your journey to the bestest country in the world was as great as babushka’s compot! If so, 
Comrades!
We’re at the finishing line of accomplishing a dream we’ve had for a very long time – publishing our own point and click adventure. Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love is now live!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/866190/Irony_Curtain_From_Matryoshka_with_Love/
Throughout the years of avid gaming, sleepless nights filled with solving puzzles and laughing at all the jokes we kept dreaming of bringing something to the table, enriching the genre somehow – and now we put Irony Curtain in front of you to gauge how we did. We tried to give you a classical point and click with all the things we loved about the old-school games such as the Monkey Island series, but also do something based on the experiences that shaped us – such as the reign of communism in Poland, which affected most of us in one way or another.
https://youtu.be/UIMTQysqbOg
We joked about Irony Curtain being Deponia meets Papers, please – and we hope it’s true! It’s a classic point and click adventure, with a story that will keep you hooked, with fleshed out, relatable characters, full of humour and well-placed easter-eggs, riddles that will keep you puzzled, with a familiar interface, known from other p’n’c titles – all that without the elements that made us grit our teeth in the classics – the riddles can be solved by rational thinking (no dream logic!), some of them even have more than one ways they can be solved, it has good music – created by Peter McConnel and Arkadiusz Reikowski – and will keep you entertained for up to 10 hours!
So, we’re calling on all point-and-click fans – we know you’re out there! Play Irony Curtain, tell us how we did! We hope that we managed to bring you a wave of nostalgia, laughter and some insight into the absurdities of communism.
If you'd like to reach us, please don't hesitate to check out 
We love classic point and click adventures. That’s why we decided to write a love letter to classic p’n’cs - in the form of Irony Curtain. Creating a game that channeled our nostalgia and allowed us to include our collective experiences of the communist regime in Poland in a humorous way was a dream come true.
We believe there still are people who love this particular genre as much as we do – and maybe that there are more who will be hooked on point and clicks after playing the right game, hence the mixture of nostalgia and improvements we presented in Irony Curtain.
Since the story is one of the most important elements in classic p'n'c games , so we made sure to have a well-written plot and interesting characters - Irony Curtain is about a goofy pen-pusher who gets tangled up in the spy-standoff between two powers. We wanted Evan to be likeable while also making him Guybrushingly funny – he's an unwilling troublemaker and works really well juxtaposed with all the other characters, such as the ruthless Leader or Anna - who's smart, capable, mysterious... We wanted strong personalities to match the story and then we peppered it all with puzzles. A lot of puzzles.
And when we say “a lot” - we mean it. And mini-games too. This is where our HOPA background comes in – we're really good in mini-games. They’re not a classical p’n’c mechanic, but we know they enrich the gameplay, allow to pace it and also are a good excercise for the brain. It’s also a tribute to our legacy – we even have one hidden object scene in Irony Curtain as an easter egg! And believe us when we say - there’s plenty easter eggs for you to enjoy – try to find out if there really are 1951 hidden around Matryoshka. You can also read our previous Steam announcement on the topic
We strived to create a game both familiar but also somehow innovative – that's why the interface is exactly as you know it from other games. If you’re a p’n’c player, you’ll know your way around from the getgo – the inventory, the icons telling you what kind of an action is available, etc.
As both players and creators we know that being frustrated is not fun – the game is supposed to be a challenge (like in the old, golden days) but at the same time we wanted the solutions to be more reasonable than “use chickend and bucket to make a helicopter”. The point is to get the satisfaction of solving a riddle using your brain, not a walkthrough. The puzzles in Irony Curtain can be ambigous, challenging but never absurd (and some of them can even be solved in multiple ways). The only absurdity you’ll encounter is the historical absurds that we really lived through. Yes, bribing people was normal. Yes, TP was a precious commodity and we stood in unending queues. But we hope that thanks to this you’ll not only get some mind excercise but also will learn about the oddities we had to live through back in the day.
When we pitched the game as ‘Deponia meets Papers, please’ we were hoping to add value to the genre we loved talking about topics we cared about. And we believe we did. We hope we brought to the table all the things classical p’n’cs represent: humour, wit, riddles and story that’ll draw you for long hours (up to 10 😉) so that the fans of classical point and click adventures will feel at home with Irony Curtain – and those who are new to the genre will get hooked!
Irony Curtain premieres on the 16/05
https://store.steampowered.com/app/866190/Irony_Curtain_From_Matryoshka_with_Love/
16 May 2019 marks one of the most importantest events in the country of Matryoshka! The Great Leader will be celebrating his birthday – and for this reason the Enlightened Father of the Nation has decided to bestow Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love to the Matryoshkans! The game will be available on Steam !
The Departament of Propaganda prepared a short teaser introducing the citizens of the West to the details of Evan’s visit in the bestest country in the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH42MjPlGBg&feature=youtu.be
Irony Curtain: from Matryoshka with Love is a satirical point and click adventure game set in the weird, totalitarian country of Matryoshka. It's the backdrop of the misadventures of the lowly pen-pusher Evan who accidentaly becomes a pawn in a spy war between two powers.
Irony Curtain will be available on Steam on May 16th 2019.
If you’d like to disscuss or ask questions – talk to us on our 
Agents!
Today we have a top secret, exciting message from our on headquarters! When we first announced Irony Curtain, we promised – no elevator music! That’s why we have established a Matryoshkan collaboration with an extremely esteemed, experienced agent: Peter McConnell.
All fans of classic point and clicks will recognize that name – such hits as the Grim Fandango or Monkey Island series would not be complete without the splendid soundtracks that enhanced the adventures of the wacky, weird heroes. The enormously successful composer collaborated with Arkadiusz Reikowski - best known for his work on Layers of Fear, Kholat and AM’s My Brother Rabbit - on the OST to Irony Curtain, which resulted in an larger-than-life Original Soundtrack. Peter created the Main Theme, which inspired Arkadiusz's further work on the OST - the effect of their endavors is available on 
Operation File no: 13498172391
The plan is in motion [stop] We have commenced the implementation stage [stop] New materials on the Matryoshkan Case can be found below [stop] Agents, do not reveal your identities yet [stop]
You slump into your chair after another day of investigations. Just as you start to lose yourself in the glow of the TV screen, the telephone rings. The museum curator needs your help - a tourist has gone missing. You smirk at his warning of paranormal goings-on; that's what Demon Hunters are for.
Demon Hunter 5: Ascendance will be available at a discount for 7 days after the launch.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1020270/Demon_Hunter_5_Ascendance/
Here’s how it looks in Irony Curtain:
1. Every game character usually has more than one dialogue line. One of the ways to operate it is to use logical TRUE/FALSE flags. These flags helps us determine the state of knowledge of a specific character or whether an event of which the character speaks has already taken place.
2. Each dialogue is built in the editor as a separate “tree” consisting of successive “nodes” connected with each other by lines defining the order in which the dialogue of the character appears.
3. To be honest, “writing” dialogues is just filling the form fields. It looks more or less like this:
5. Thanks to this we can assign a specific Key to a Node, and not just the text. All texts with Keys can be saved to a shared Excel sheet with different languages. As a result, the different language versions of the game have the appropriate dialogues.
That is all in this episode of Behind the Irony Curtain. We hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to add Irony Curtain to wishlist!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/866190/Irony_Curtain_From_Matryoshka_with_Love
Comrades!
Today we’d like to introduce you to our process of making a stop-motion animation. In one of the previous updates, 
2. Then the animator prepares everything that was requested in the specification in an animation software (we use Toon Boom Harmony for that). First comes the rough sketch, then the more detailed lineart and some colors and shadows at the end.
3. When the animation is ready, the animator exports each frame as a separate file. Our animations have usually 80 frames on average, so it’s a lot of files to export! Those files are put into our inhouse tool that does all the magic – cropps them, sets the frame’s size and creates a file that manages animating all the cropped images.
4. Now it’s time for the Level Designer. They use the graph you see below (a kind of a state diagram) to control which animation should be used in which state (e.g., idle or end of the conversation) by referencing the files generated during step 3.
And that's all! Don't forget to add Irony Curtain to wishlist to stay updated!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/866190/Irony_Curtain_From_Matryoshka_with_Love/
There are dark secrets that have an annoying tendency to crawl back into the light, escaping oblivion. But there is also Sarah Pennington, the most skilled agent of the ever-watching Secret Order, who is there to face them.
The Secret Order 7: Shadow Breach will be available at a discount for 7 days after the launch.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/1004860/The_Secret_Order_7_Shadow_Breach/
Hello fAM! We have fantastic news! We've been nominated in the prestigious Aggie Awards by the redaction of Adventure Gamers. Aggie Awards are an award for adventure games for merits in several categories from concept, art direction, and story, to the adventure game of the year.
This year's nominations have been released and My Brother Rabbit has been nominated in two categories - "Best Graphic Design" and "Best Sound Effects"! We're very happy and very proud that our work has been appreciated!
If you'd like to know more about the whimsical artwork of My Brother Rabbit, you can read up on Gamasutra - Daniel Gizicki has written a 
Comrades!
Before we announce some more details about the Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love (
Don't forget to add Irony Curtain to wishlist!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/866190/Irony_Curtain_From_Matryoshka_with_Love/
Comrades,
Usually, d̶i̶c̶t̶a̶t̶o̶r̶s benevolent Fathers of a Nation don’t tend to answer questions – they ask them!
But today the tables turn – go ahead and ❓ask anything❓: the Irony Curtain dev Team will answer all your conundrums in an Irony Q&A!
Ask away in the comments below and at the beginning of February we'll answer them all in a Q&A video. 🎥
Meanwhile, don't forget to 
This time we’d like to acquaint you with the creative process that goes into creating the scenes in the game. Here, for example, we have one of the first locations in the game – the conference Evan attends in order to present a speech on Matryoshka.
If you'd like to support the game, don't forget to 
1. First off, we begin with a very rough concept art - mapping out the placement of active elements of the scene (the interactive parts that will contain moving objects), and on this, we build the gameplay (with placeholder dialogues and text and placeholder screens instead of minigames). This is usually the fastest part of the process. If we don’t like it or something doesn’t play out quite as well, we re-do parts of it until everything fits the way we want it to.
PS. Drawing each location out by hand means, that we have concept arts for each and every location in the game! Would you like to see them as bonus material?
2. After the sketch is completed we create a mood board, which sets the color schemes for all locations (we wanted it to not only be cohesive throughout the whole game but also reflect the passing of time – morning, afternoon, evening, etc). This is possible thanks to the “macrolocation” system we have – once you go through a set of locations you will not return to them again, so we can give you this sense of passing time.
3. Based on the concept we then proceed to fill in the details – this leads us to a complete lineart. A lineart is (just like the name suggests) a picture that has only the outlines, usually in black. If you haven’t seen one, it resembles a page taken out of a child’s coloring book.
4. When we’re happy with the result we create a color palette from the mood board and roughly place them on the lineart. At this stage, we check out if everything works together – if the scene conveys what we wanted to say and if it’s also pleasant for the eye.
5. Then come the flat colors – literally filling in the line art with flat colors. Just one color layer, no shadows, no color blending. You could think of it as colorful paper cutouts placed on the lineart.
6. The second-to-last step is creating all the shading, light reflections, and all small details that will make-or-break the picture, bringing it to life and helping us tell a story even before there’s a single word spoken or even before we introduce any of the main characters.
7. Then, of course, with games comes the step of creating the animations, different states of interactive elements (etc. closed/open doors), etc. But that’s a different part of this tale.
So, did you enjoy this little tour? Would you like to see more from Irony Curtain?
In the world built on the shoulders of sleeping giants, join your sister Adrianne to prevent a terrifying annihilation that may irreversibly change the world. Explore the history of a forgotten civilisation to save the citizens of Skyland and reveal the mystery of your father's death.
Skyland: Heart Of The Mountain will be available at a discount for 7 days after the launch.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/949800/Skyland_Heart_of_the_Mountain/
There are very few things as great as the Matryoshkan Nation - but The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity - WOŚP - is definitely one of them. It's a Polish charity dedicated to improving medical care for the youngest and oldest patients - if you'd like you can read more about them at the 
You get:
You get:
Comrades!
Some time ago we showed you
AFTER:
AFTER:
In the next episode of Behind Irony Curtain, we’ll show you the creative process behind creating the locations in Irony Curtain. Stay tuned!