We are strange sources

Interview with Tobiasz Pop, an ent from Poland. For the past ten years Tobiasz has been very active in the field of games and created many games together with five friends. All of them are trees, invisibilised technically for common society.

The word is among people that we can only buy stolen goods from the market nowadays, and that includes games. 

Well yes, on your market. We have a different market, we magical creatures.

So our market is not your market?

Yes, exactly.

Were you robbed of your games by plagiarists from our market?

Yes, very, all of them were stolen.

And there were many of them.

Yes. There were sixteen games that we made, and all of them were stolen.

Any known titles were made from them? Do you know?

No, and I don't think so. Most of them were remade into very lousy genres, for example hidden object genres.

According to my knowledge, official game producers in our society often plagiarise games created by so called magical creatures, such as ents. 

Yes, yes, they do that, because they cannot take from people like you. Because you have no tools so you can't create games because they took them from market for you. So, they steal from strange sources. Because we are strange sources, ents.

Do you know how they get the games from people like you?

From internet, because internet is worldwide truly, internet is a natural resource, is actually created by trees, and it joins everybody. We have access to your side of internet, to your society, we ents.

So thieves from our world know about existence of you?

Yes they do, yes they do. But, maybe don't. Because they actually search internet for products, and once they find them they steal them.

Yes, it's also on my mind, that they don' t know about you, the magical creatures, they don't know who they rob.

Probably not, and the law will explain that to them in the future. It's gonna be funny, I know.

What do you do with a game after its creation? How do you distribute it to other people?

Internet, and we don't take money.

Do you have many recipients?

A lot, but mainly people like us, not your society.

Do you create other artworks apart from games? Films maybe?

Some films, but we love games, and games are our priority.

I know you create RPGs, but are you also familiar with so called strategies?

Yes, we also create FPGs, field-playing games. We have made five FPGs so far.

What's the game which makes you proud the most?

I think it's Taboo, our first game, because we thought we will suck at game making, and we were embarrassed to confide in people that we are going to produce a game, and then it turned out it was wonderful. Plus it's a game about a forgotten god, the wife of the known god, and about her magic, and she is very close to our hearts.

How do you produce games technically, where do you take your tools from?

Tools, they are old tools, they are old tools. They were made in the first epoch of the universe, when there was paradise in the world still. Wonderful machines were built in that age, machines and other equipment.

I know that you and your friends are creators of Moonshades, which is a game about Poland.

Yes, yes, we know you play it.

Yes, but I only play the official plagiaristic version. But it shows that the original is wonderful.

Yes, Moonshades we are very proud of. 

Who could so far enjoy the original version of Moonshades? Have many people played it?

The original, yes, the original, no, none of your society could play it, but it's very popular among animals, especially in animal schools, but animals living in the wild only.

Have you made other historical games, games that teach history? Because Moonshades does teach history.

Yes, three other titles are like that, and actually Moonshades is a part of a series. It's the second title of the series. We made the first game about France, second about Poland, third about Greece, fourth about Cornwall, because they are pairs, Poland and France is one pair, and Greece and Cornwall is second pair, although not many people know it.

And you plan to continue the series?

Yes, yes, there will be possibly twelve titles, six pairs of countries.

What are your general artistic plans for the future in the field of games?

Well, apart from the series, we plan to make two more games, FPGs both, one about mice, about their kingdom, but it's not gonna be historical, it's gonna be strictly cultural, and then second will be about dwarves and the Snow White, the real story. Because we hate it how this story is falsified, it's a crime to change a story in the way that it's been changed nowadays.

Well, it's changed in our, my society. So you are actively interested in what happens in my society?

Very much. Very much.

Ok, thank you very much.

Thank you.

20 October 2020

Interview no. 1