The race begins

Last year there were 650 game releases in Essen. A year before - as far as I recall - there were 630 . This year, the record probably will be beaten again. How many of these 600 games will get to players’ wishlists? How many of these games will manage to attract attention and leave players without 20 or 30 euro? How many games will be remembered after a year or two?

Essen 2010? 7 wonders. Vinhos. Troyes. Inca Empire. London.

Essen 2009? Dungeon Lords. Stronghold. Egizia. Small World.

Essen 2008? Dominion. Ghost Stories. La Havre. Space Alert.

600 new games each year. But only a few of them stay with us for a really long time. That’s truth. The Brutal and cruel truth..

The authors and publishers of these upcoming games are on the stand today and they start preparing for the most important race of the year. Race for players wallets. How will they try to seduce?

Theme

Great, new theme? If you have the theme, you will attract players, even if they've never heard about you and your publisher. Tell them that you do a 4X game, and you will immediately gather true circle of science fiction geeks. And believe me, this is a very good start. In 2009, I had my Stronghold. I had great theme. That was it. The game blasted off like a rocket.

A year earlier, in 2008, I presented in Essen a game called Witchcraft - wizards fighting each other. Have you ever heard about this game? Well...

Name

Do you have a name that makes people buy every single game of yours? An author with a recognized name is a treasure. People look for his new games, they are driving a spiral of excitement and expectation. Gossips, shots of prototype, sneak peeks from test games...

If your name is Martin Wallace, Uve Rosenberg or Bruno Faidutti, you are probably a lot less scared before Essen than young designer like Ignacy Trzewiczek. 

Publisher's reputation

Does your publisher have a known brand? Did previous games get him good reputation? Has he a bunch of regular customers who go back year after year for his titles? Such a faithful player base is a blessing.

In 2007, Portal was an anonymous company from even more anonymous Poland. I remember words from Neuroshima Hex review written by Greg J. Schloesser for Counter magazine: "I honestly do not know much - OK, anything - about the gaming scene in Poland but if Neuroshima Hex is any indication I am impressed." Then, in 2007 we were starting from nothing.

Today, five years later, we are in much better situation, we are those people who made Neuroshima HEX, 51 State or Stronghold. I feel that, through our hard work, step by step we are getting closer to famous brands, slowly approaching CGE, Fragor or Ystari Games.

Demo games and prototypes

Had your game been presented at large cons? Did you go with the prototype and tested it by playing on every possible convention? If so, that is good. There are relations and session reports on various sites written by people who were lucky and played the game before its release. At opiniatedgamers.com there are first opinions, BGG is full of rumors - someone out there was playing, and someone saw, and it was a damn good...

Game becomes legend. You are lucky bastard. There is nothing better than a rumor saying that there is a great game out there, and there are some players who played it and apparently the game is great...

Traditional Marketing

If you can afford it, you will have banners on most important board games' websites. You'll expose the cover, show preorder offer, bundle offer or whatever. Finally, you get some attention, you are positioned in their minds. You show up on their wishlists. Your cover becomes recognized, theme is well known, even - in the end - people remember your stand’s number and Essen promotion price of the game. 

Not very subtle, but it does its work.

Visual side

Okay. Time of honesty. Rise a hand to admit, but honestly, that sometimes a cover was so amazing that you just put the game in your bag not even knowing a single thing about rules. It is just the cover. The board? It's the same thing. Hands up who had never heard of Mr. Menzel. People buy stuff with their eyes. Clothes, furniture, games, doesn’t matter.

Zack & Pack? I knew nothing about this game, yet I bought it. Golden Compass? I saw the board and bought the game. With a good illustration on the box player has zero chance of defense reaction. He sees the artwork and he buys the game.

Two years ago we paid a hell lot for Stronghold’s cover. For Pret-a-Porter we hired Tomasz ‘Morano’ Jedruszek. It was the most expensive artwork in the history of my company. This is the guy who works for the FFG on a daily basis and who made covers for Middle-earth Quest, Battles of Westeros or A Game of Thrones LCG. This is the guy.

A good cover is like Aikodo. It throws a man to the ground and simply makes him defenseless.

Preorders and promo stuff

A great preorder offer? Some promo stuff for free? This is something that can make a difference. If a customer has a choice of two games and cannot decide which one to pick, it is better to have some kind of limited bonus in your game for Essen occasion . A few extra cards. Additional tokens. Unique extra miniature figure.

The player will rather take the game with special Essen free figure. This second game he will probably buy after Essen. Or not at all.

Luck

Or maybe you just have a bust of luck? And maybe your stand in Essen - by accident - will be positioned next to some famous publisher and you will have large traffic? Or maybe you’ll manage to convince people that you printed only 500 copies of the game and they have to buy it now or never? Or maybe the game will be played by the boss of big US game store at a hotel lobby in the evening? Maybe he will fall in love with the game? And the next day he will buy 250 boxes from you?

Conclusion

You'll need it all. In Essen, six hundred new games will have their debut. Famous BGG Geeklist "Top Ranked Essen Games" contains slightly more than 20 titles. So - 20 games make it and the other 580 go overboard and you will never hear about them again. This is brutal. This is cruel. This is Essen.

In 2009 and 2010 I had the honor to have my games in this 20 games list.

However, this year - after doing Neuroshima HEX, Stronghold and 51st State - I'm going to Essen with the game about clothes and fashion. Pret-a-Porter. Fashion. Clothes. Hot models.

This is crazy. I can't believe it.

And you cannot imagine how scared I am.

I created a monster

Long time ago in a far away galaxy My Wife didn't play board games. Then I showed her Cash & Guns and Citadels and she began to play games. My mates were jealous. My Wife played boardgames. Lucky me. It was great time. But months passed...

One day I came back home and said that I just sold Adel Verpflichted. 'What do you mean, you sold it?! Why haven't you asked me?! I like that game! Bring it back!' Man, I felt like hit by a big hammer. She was serious. She was damn serious. I wasn't allowed to sell Adel Verpflichted!

That day I discovered that there are games she likes. Games she wants us have at home. That was something new. That discovery costed me 14 euro. I had to buy Adel Verpflichted back again. No more my games collection. It was our games collection since then.

We were in car, driving back from board games convention in   Vienna and talking about games played there. 'I want you to buy me Ingenious', she said. She was serious. She was damn serious. She wasn't talkin' about flowers. She wasn't talkin' about perfume. Nor about new dress, handbag, ring. She was talkin' about board game. She wanted me to buy her a board game. Woow!

That day I discovered that My Wife - like my true gamer friends - fell in love with new titles. She play new game, she love it and she want it. That was something new. That discovery costed me 20 euro. I had to buy Ingenious.

Early September, few days after holidays. Kids sleep, silence at home. My Wife ask me to play Race for the Galaxy with her. In the last few weeks we played more than 50 games of RtfG. I am sick of it. I can not look at it. 'No, thanks', I say. I hear my voice and I can't believe it. I just refused to play board game. My Wife wants to play board game. I don't want to play board game. This is crazy.

That day I discovered that I am not the only one at home who ask to play board games. And what is more, perhaps, I am not the truest gamer at home. It seemed that My Wife was more 'geeky' than me. I was scared. Terrified to be honest.

Few days ago. 'Do you want to play The New Era?' she asks. No way. I am sick of it. She knows it. I refuse to play it since few weeks. I am asked to play every day and I refuse every day. This is deep deep defense. I refuse and refuse. This is terror. No, seriously, I am in a corner, terrified. I feel like "a geek's wife", forced to play board game every single evening.

'Never mind' she says 'I asked Tycjan to come. He will play with me'. She is serious. She is damn serious. They play New Era. I only watch. I don't play. They play. I can't believe this is real. I can't believe this is happening.

This is my newest discovered. I created a monster. There is a true dangerous geek at my home. Help me.

I'm done

This is it. I am done with The New Era. Since now for a few next months I will be - literally - bombarded with only bad news. I had a great time designing the game. Creating new cards. Finding new strategies. Watching testers having fun or not having fun. Recording results and spending hours for analise. That was fun. That is my beloved job. That is why I am waking up everyday with smile on my face.

This is it. Since now no more smile on my face. Since now I wake up and think what is the bad news today. What's coming?

Cover.
The cover of the game is in progress. I am eager to see it. And you know, I have no idea if I like it or not. I like cover of my Stronghold, but I don't like cover of my 51st State. I like cover of my Pret-a-Porter, but I don't like Witchcraft. It is Russian roulette. So I am waiting. Will I like cover of my own game? Not for sure. It may be the good news or bad news for me.

Components
You wouldn't believe how many things can happen with components. Components are a bad news generator. That is why I will not be able to sleep well till Essen, when I get my game in hands and play it. When Stronghold was in print I was terrified - there were so many tokens, I was absolutely sure that something will go wrong. No chances that everything will go smooth. Luckily, no mistakes with Stronghold. But we got screwed year later, with 51. State. You can easily forgot about one tiny token that is used in very rare situations. Your graphic designer may misunderstand some token and design it with some errors. Your printer may screw up cutting tokens and they will be wrong cut. Every time I open box with my new game I am terrified. What gone wrong this time...

Rulebook
OK, rulebook for my game... Should I write anything more? This is hardcore. I can't write rulebooks. I hate rulebooks. I can not sleep because of my rulebooks. You can't understand my rulebooks. OK, let's stop it. No more about rulebooks. This is one big bad news.

Demo games
I love to teach playing my games. During conventions I spent endless hours showing my games to new players. I also love Essen fair. This is the moment. This is a culmination of many months of hard work. I love this crowd, I love meeting players from all over the world, I love this great event.

And still, at some point it will be nightmare. I will be happy doing hundred demo games. I will be happy doing another hundred demo games. But at some point I will be able to no longer talk about the game. No more. And I will be forced to say: "I hate my game. I really do."

Joy will finally come back. Two years after publishing Stronghold, I am thinking about playing it again. I think I like the game again. I no longer hate it.

In a three years since now I will like The New Era again. I only have to wait.

I am getting better.

It was last summer, two months before release of Stronghold: Undead. I was demoing the game during Polish convention called Kaszubkon. It was Ryslaw, fan of Stronghold, who was playing Undead with his opponent – Tele – that night. At some point Ryslaw said: „Damn, it is great. Undead is much better than base Stronghold. I loved Stronghold and this one I love even more.”



„It has to be better. I learn. I get experience. Every year I improve my skills.”, I said. I really believed that Undead is better than base game and I really believed it is exactly how it should be. Every new project has to be better. My Zombiaki2 are better than Zombiaki1, my Undead is better than Stronghold, my New Era is better than 51st State. That's how it is.


I really do like all my games. Almost 10 years after first release of Zombiaki, I still like the game and I am proud of it. I love Witchcraft, I am damn happy that I designed Stronghold. But I also know that if I do them today I could make them better. Every month I play new games. I observe other players playing my games. I read game blogs, reviews, I am in the very center of gaming world. I learn. Every day I am getting better as a designer.


I am writing today about it because this week I did something exceptional (from my point of view).


Last year I designed Pret-a-Porter – an economic strategy game about world of fashion. It was published in Poland in late November. (Few days ago it was nominated for Game of the Year in Poland.) In Pret-a-Porter there are more than 50 cards (representing employees, buildings, contracts) with text on them explaining how they work. Since November I was worrying about international release of the game. It was impossible to make international edition of the game with so much text on cards!


For long long months we were - here in Portal - unable to change Pret-a-Porter into language independent game like our previous releases (NS HEX, Witchcraft, Stronghold, 51st State). It was a huge problem for a small company like Portal. Since months we were trying to make some iconography for the game and it was failure. Failure over and over.

In a fact few weeks ago we finally decided to do only English edition with English text on cards. We saw no other option.


Last week I decided to sit once again with Pret-a-Porter and try once again.

Last week I sat and this time it turned out I can do it! I can design icons for Pret-a-Porter. I finally did it. I finally got rid of text. I am happy as a hell. I waited for that moment since last year.


I am happy to know that I am getting better. Every single week.

Through the Ages

It is called Das verructe labyrinth. Known also as The aMAZEing Labirynth or just Labirynth. Published by Ravensburger in 1986 roku was then republished in 16 different editions and gave a birth of whole range of games with Labirynth in name. True classic. Best-seller. And – what is more – the boardgame of my childhood. I do really have no idea how it got into my home. It was a deep communism in Poland then, no boardgames in stores. It must have been sent to us in some package from Germany. I don't know. It doesn't matter. What matters is that I spent countless hours with it.


It's been more than 20 years ago. I still remember playing it with my parents and brother. I still have photo in my old photo album with me playing the game. I loved that game. I believed then I will play it till my last day. Unfortunately, I grew up.


I got to know Role Playing Games, I got to know hundreds of exciting things to do. My box with Labirynth disappeared. Lost in time. Adventure has been finished. It seemed for ever. Well... Not for ever.


Three years ago my friend Adam Hammudeh brought his copy of Labirynth to our gaming club. When I saw box, I felt thrill. My eyes opened wide. Heart beat stronger. Memories become live again. I asked Adam if I can borrow the game. 'No problem. Have a good time with your kids' he said and I took Labirynth with me. It was nearly 15 years since I have it last time.


It was amazing. It was time travel. I was sitting at my table, with my kids and I was playing Labirynth. Magical moments. Could I – 20 years ago – believe that when I will be adult, I will still play this game? I couldn't.


We played for a few months. I sat with my kids and together we fought to find best track to our goal items. Every single game of Labitynth with my kids was like a best game ever. I had a great time.


Unfortunately, finally my kids grew up...


I' ve just packed my Labirynth to box. The adventure is finished, again. My son wants to play Galaxy Trucker, Nina wants to play Kingsburg, and in a fact, Descent is their favourite. 'Dad, Labitynth is a kids game' they said. It is over. Labirynth goes at the bottom of wardrobe. I will miss it for few years.


My youngest daughter has 2 years. In three years I will pull out the box from wardrobe. I will put it on my table. And again, I will be the happiest man on the planet.

Theme in 51st State

'Mariusz sent us new artwork. Look at 'Mr. President' card. It is awesome.' , said Michał and showed me the artwork.

'You must be kidding', I said.

'What?', asked Michał. 'What's wrong with this ilustration?'

The artwork was really nice. Smiled showman was pointing at us.

'Mr. President is a men who rebuilds the city. He is a tought guy. Not showman'

'What?!'

'Look at the card. He gives on free rebuild action and he gives you Victory Points anytime you do rebuild action again. He believes he is a new president of US. It is clear. Obvious. He is tought guy with mission.', I explained.

'Do you, really, believe that anyone find it obvious?' asked Michał.


Michał might be right. I may be the only one men on this planet who sees theme and story in 51st State. I am the guy who knows exactly why Excavator gives you – while Invaded – two bricks, and why Bulldozer ignores type of the card when you make rebuild action.


So here I am. I tell you about story in 51. I hope you will have more fun with the game when you will understand what is happening on your table.


Card icons
Every card in 51st State represents location that you can find in neighborhood. What you have in your hand, this few cards, represents locations that you've heard that are around your home. That is why the draft phase is called Lookout phase – when you take cards, you are looking for interesting places near your Base. When you have cards in your hand, it means, that you know about these locations and that you can try to make a contact with them.

That is why when you put Pub into play, you may – during every turn – take new cards. You have Pub, Pub is a place where people share information. You listen to stories from wanderers and you know what is interesting behind horizon.

If you have Noticeboard, you take more cards during draft – you have access to information. When you Invade it, which means burn and destroy, you take all announcements that were there and that's it. You take 3 cards – that is all knowledge you get by reading these announcements.

If you put Tavern into a game, you will be able to sell information. That's how it works – discard a card from hand (which means you share some information about interesting Location) and gain Victory Point.

What does Baby Swift? She discards cards, which means she sells information... I will not describe it in more details. You get the picture, do you?



Victory points

Victory Points represent power. Victory Points show how our faction is perceived by others. If you have Wreck of tank it makes impression, isn't it? Size does matter. That is why you get 1 Victory Point when you have Tank. Everybody in neighborhood knows that you are the one with Tank at your doorstep. You do more, you put Wreck of plane next to Tanks and you will rock. You will be famous. You will get many VP.

What about Museum? You Invade it you get 1 VP – everybody's heard that you was the guy who destroyed this big, famous building. And you get 1 card. Why? There were some old maps and you know something interesting now...


Guns
Arena gives you possibilites to attack other places. You have Arena, so you have thugs who can invade. That is why Arena produces Guns. Guns trader makes you famous in the area. You are they guy from whom everybody can buy a gun. That makes you rich. Powerfull. That gives you VP. Well, when you will build Gun shop, it will be something!

I really do like Kelly's Pawn Shop. Kelly is a big fish, as you can see when you look at the card. If you have interesting Spoil, and you not use it, but you go to Kelly and give it to him – you will gain lots of VP. Everybody will notice that you are Kelly's good buddy. You make business with big fish. You got 2 VP. Your power grows.


Other

In Old depot you will find lots of iron. With Radiostation you may contact other locations and sign deals. At School you will find free workers, in Old factory you have space to hide good stuff... I believe that 51st State has interesting rules but I also do believe that there is a great story behind cards. When I play 51st State I always imagine my faction growing stronger and stronger with new buildings, deals, and spoils...



Post Scriptum
About these Bricks in Excavator... You sent your thugs to bring you stuff. You say: 'Overe there, two miles from here, there is Excavator. Do your job!'

Few hours later they are back. They are happy as a hell.

'Boss, you will be proud of us. We hunted it down. You won't believe! It had a locker in front, and lots of stuff there. We have it!'

And then they give you two backbacks full of bricks. Stuff, they found when destroying Excavator...

Visit

I spent some 35 minutes at Bazik’s house, we were in a hurry – Merry, me and Folko. We managed to have some tea and play two short, very quick games. That visit has cost me 10 Euro, because Merry absolutely fell in love with the first of the two games. So it resulted in an order and a money transfer.


I spent 90 minutes in total at a two-day convention in Belk. You could say that I just dropped by, said hello to friends, had some tea and went back home. Costs? 40 Zloty for petrol and as much again for “To Court the King”. To be honest I didn’t even play it. I just came in, saw the cards, listened to how it’s played and went home. Then I switched on my PC, fired up the browser and ordered the game from Rebel.


Seriously, one is scared to go out, to meet with friends. Wherever I go, costs follow. One visit and the shopping list gets longer, a game catches my eye and the wallet goes like crazy.


Anyway, what can I say, I’m not innocent myself. I take a heavy toll too, you could say. You go and visit me, or invite me to your place and you can be sure it’ll cost you dearly.


I came back from Warsaw yesterday, one evening at friends’, and those friends are now 10 Euro down. They rather liked Adel Verpflichtet, which I brought with me to show them. One meeting with Folk at “Pionek” where I demonstrated Verflixxt to him and his wallet suffers. I invited Bogas and the visit has cost him a bit, you know – petrol, delicious cake, and a decision to buy Mall of Horror…


Unfortunately it’s like good games screamed to us: „You have to have me, you have to have me!” And with friends it’s like they never put some unplayable Pinocchio on the table, oh no! You’re barely past the doorstep, barely manage to agree to a cup of tea, when you hear they had recently bought a fantastic game which you have to see and play. And so the best game from their collection lands on the table, the pearl they want to show off, the wonder making you think on your way home: “Great, awesome, I have to have it.”


I’m looking at my shelf and see these titles – Dungeon Twister? Bazik’s fault. The Pillars of the Earth? Pancho’s doing. Heckmeck? Revenge for Adel Verpflichtet. Yes, it’s the friends from Warsaw...


How are you supposed to socialize? How to meet gamers? How to visit friends? Seriously, it’s a scare. With terrifying consequences...