Nikki and I have recently launched two art books. Both of these books are available for sale online through Lulu.com, as well as local stores.


Paintings, by Michal Wisniowski


Paintings is a 44 page art book featuring my selected work from 2000 to 2008. The book contains 16 full color images of my paintings. To see a preview, or purchase the book for $19.99, click here.


Doodles, by Nikki Wisniowski


Doodles is an art book of 19 pages, with full color artwork by Nikki Wisniowski. It features 17 selected works done in pen, watercolor, and illustration marker. To see a preview of Doodles, or purchase the book for $14.99, click here.

Both books are available locally at Old Books On Front St, as well as Sawgrass Gifts. If you purchase one of our books either online or in stores, or have already seen it, we encourage you to write a review on Lulu.com for the appropriate item by following the above product links.

Starting Monday, we will begin a trip 13 years in the making. This journey is one of the pivotal events in my life, and each day leading up to it my excitement and anxiety about it build. I moved to America over 13 years ago from Poland, and have not been back since. This is the first time that I will see my home country since our immigration.

At first I could not leave the US because of citizenship process restrictions. After I became a permanent resident, I could have technically traveled, but other issues added risk to doing so. First, the political climate in the US has been strained since 9/11. I did not want to risk traveling without a US passport. Additionally, even now you still have to apply for a visa if traveling from Poland to the US. I would have had to do so if in the possession of a Polish passport, without any guarantees that I would even get a visa. All of those factors combined influenced my decision to wait until I became a naturalized citizen.

With that out of the way almost two years ago now, I was able to get a US passport and start saving money for traveling to Poland. Now that time is so very very near, just a few days, and it is still hard to believe. After you wait for something 13 years, it doesn't seem real even when it is finally and actually about to happen.

Very soon, we will be on a plane crossing the Atlantic, and then a wonderful month of absorbing the culture I have missed for so long awaits. I look forward to so many things, like seeing my grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins and friends. I also look forward to simply being in my home country, in my home city of Wrocław, and of course the food!

I shall bring back more pictures than I'll know what to do with, and subject everyone I know to them. So, ha! Better watch out. Oh yeah, maybe I'll bring back some gifts, too. Just maybe. However, be forewarned that this means I'm not likely to be very communicative during the next two months. Though I will still get some posts up in draft so I can blog our journey when I get back.

On account of a time crunch, and multiple posts waiting to be finished, this is going to be more of a news recap. I had intended to write some profound kind of commentary on the recent developments in art games, yet unfortunately that will have to wait.

Rest assured, some important games have come out in the genre this spring, while notable personages have tackled the subject in some form or other. An insightful critique of Rod Humble's new Stars Over Half Moon Bay was posted on Arthouse Games by Jason Rohrer. Meanwhile, Destructoid addresses art games in their podcast.

Additional comparisons were made between Portal and Rohrer's art game Passage, as well as Portal and Immortal Defense. Much of this has been mentioned in the Indiegames Blog feature Games As Art.

Which brings us to more notable art game released worth mentioning since my last big post. Though not exhaustive by any means, most of these have come out fairly recently.


Stars Over Half Moon Bay



The Graveyard



Questionaut



The Hangover



Hush



Gravitation



Knytt Nano



Passage



Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist (coming soon)