5 things I will do at Essen 2014
7 days left. Essen is close. And since Essen is far too big to improvise I need a plan. A little bit of experience from previous shows, a little bit of wicked Trzewik and a little bit of craziness from my Twitter feed added together, shaked and here we are: my plan for Essen Spiel 2014
1. Find a hidden gem
As I wrote last week – Gen Con is all about huge releases from FFG, Asmodee, IELLO, Stronghold Games, Plaid Hat Games… At Essen you can find much more publishers that are small, that have no reputation yet, publishers who come to Essen with a small but a great game. Just like Portal Games in 2007 with Neuroshima Hex did.
My goal is to find a small publisher with an awesome game. It won’t be easy, because I will be stuck at Portal Games booth for most of the time and I will be unable to walk around and test little games, but hey, that’s where my cunning plan comes into play!
Here is a pocketbook. I will ask you guys about little games you found and you recommend. I will note down all titles you recommend and I will use you as my scouts, as my eyes and as my resource. With your help, with all of you gamers walking around here and there and searching for Essen2014 gem and reporting me results, I will find it.
So be prepared – you meet me, and I will ask you about a gem! A superb game from small publisher! This notebook awaits for your recommendations!
2. Meet designers!
Excalibur suggested on my Twitter feed that I should: „get autographs of 10 dev”
This is actually an awesome idea!
Here is what I am going to do – I will have a diary with me. I will gather autographs of every designer I know and I manage to meet at Essen. I will ask them to write something to this Essen diary. I will try to get as many entries as possible. And when it is ready, after Essen I will give it for charity auction as a Designers Diary Essen 2014 and hopefully this will bring some money to those who are in need!
3. Socialize!
I want to meet as many of you as possible! I want to do selfie with you. I want to sign your boxes of games. I want to chat with you about games you bought at Essen. I want to have fun with you guys.
Do not hesitate to say Hello, do not hesitate to stop me when I am running through halls! Chat with me. I am coming to Essen exactly for this reason – to meet you!
If Essen was only about selling games, trust me, I would send to Essen my Sales Team and spend weekend at home. But Essen is not only about selling games. It is mostly about meeting people!
I put most of my scheduled meetings for Saturday and Sunday so I can be at Portal’s booth for most of the Thursday and Friday. Please, come to us (hall 1-C120) and let’s have some fun! Make photos, draw cows, chat about games! This is my plan for Essen 2014!
4. I will buy games!
This year I am going to catch up with some titles that are not in my collection and I find it a serious mistake. I want El Grande. I want Concordia. I want Jaipur. And Telestrations. And Tamsk, Risk Legacy, Downfall of Pompeii… Yes, I plan to buy more than few games that my collection misses and Essen is the right place to hunt them all and bring home.
That’s the plan!
Any recommendations of old great games worth hunting?
5. Present Imperial Settlers!
I will present Imperial Settlers like crazy. This game had an amazing debut at Gen Con – we sold all copies we had in 26 minutes and for the 4 days of Gen Con we were able only to say: 'We are sorry, it is sold out!”. It was freaking crazy!
Imperial Settlers is most important release for Portal Games this year. We will have a table to run demos, we will have space to present short explanation and we will be doing our best to show you this great game.
We will also have expansion for Theseus, we will also present Legacy, our great game released in 2013. Our special guest – just like the last year – will be Michiel Hendriks, designer of Legacy. You can come to our booth and congratulate him this superb design. And yes, ask him about expansion! 😉
6. And more!
Please, follow me on Twitter at @trzewik and please, subscribe to my You Tube channel. For all 4 days of Essen I will post photos and video right from the Essen, right from the biggest board game event in Europe. That’s gonna be 4 amazing days!
I strongly believe that good board game is the one that tells a good story. You play it and suddenly you are sucked into it, you feel chills on the skin. Emotions grow. In a moment you defend castle. You hear roar of warriors. You smell boiling oil. You are into it.
That's how I design my games. I always want to tell a good story. I want players to be into it. As deep as possible.
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