About wearing two hats
As you probably heard already, Martin Wallace decided to close his company – Treefrog Games and focus on designing games that will be published by other companies. As he wrote in his statement: „We will cease to produce our own titles and focus instead on designing games for other companies. There are numerous reasons behind this decision, but the main factor has been the increased costs of running the company from New Zealand. This does not mean the end of 'Treefrog’ style games, it just means they will appear with another companies [sic] logo on.”
I am this guy who wears two hats too, I am designer and I am publisher. I totally understand his decision.
Managing company is a huge task, no matter if you work in software industry, food industry or board game industry, it is a huge thing. Being entrepreneur means being at work 24/7. It’s answering hundreds of emails, it is having tens of Skype meetings, it is catching up every single day. Never good time for setting up prototype and testing for few hours.
I have a team behind me, I managed to build a pretty solid company here with seven full time employees who do all that crazy work that has to be done. And yet, it is a rare time that I can sit in my office and do actual design. When I am in the office, for most time I have to be CEO of Portal Games. I can wear my designer hat after hours, in the evening, at home. That’s how it is.
That’s why I am happy for Martin. I actually envy him. I know it is best for him and I know it is best for all of us, fans of Brass, Steam and all other great designs he made. When he cuts off all those business emails, when he cuts off all those customer service emails, when he cuts off all those shipping issues, production issues, delays issues, he will be finally able to breath.
And then he’ll give us plenty of amazing designs.
Can’t wait.
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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