Here is interview with me at Indie Cardboard website where I talk about solo games, Imperial Settlers and some other stuff. Have fun!

I don’t remember exact cards that I had on the table that evening. I do remember we were with Merry at the dinning table, it was late, kids slept and we played card game. At some point I put into play a card and my eyes got wide open when I realized what combo I just built. Few cards that I had already in play plus this new one just merged into one smooth mechanism that was just fuckin’ brilliant.

Never before I saw such configuration. Never before those cards worked together. I couldn’t hide smile on my face. I knew I discovered something amazing, something never seen before.

The game we are playing was The New Era. My very own design…

***

I design all those combos you discover when you play. This combos are there not by accident. I put these all tricky cards into the game so you have fun discovering them and building cool mechanisms.

Yes, I put on purpose ’You may repeat any of your action cards’ ability into Egypt deck and yes, I know how amazing it works with this card that says ’Spent 1 gold for 3 Victory Points’.

Yes, I put on purpose ’You may built without Fundament cost’ ability into Common deck and yes, I know how cool it works with Roman deck where the Fundament is the only problem they have.

Yes, I know you will smile when your Daimyo’s Castle is combined with Farmers at Work. First one gives you 3 VP in production Phase, second one makes production card work twice in a round…

I know all those tricks. I know all those combos. I designed them for you. That’s exactly what my job is all about…

***

And yet…

And yet I lost about 80% of my test games against Palmer, my main tester for Imperial Settlers. I knew every damn card in every damn deck, I knew all combos and correlations and yet, he beat me over and over.

He was building totally new combos. He was using my cards in a way I could not imagine. He was building structures I did not predicted. He was taking my cards and he was gold digging – he was looking for ways to play the way I did not expected.

He was finding new cool combos and he was proving me that there is much more there than I thought.

He was gold prospector. He took my cards and looked for gold.

***

Playing card games is a gold prospecting. You play in hope to find gold. You play in hope to find unique combo, deadly combination of cards that you have never seen before. Whenever it is Race for the Galaxy, 51st State or Hearthstone – we all play over and over and we wait for this moment of discovery, this fulfilling moment when our eyes get wide open and when we realize we just did it – we found a combo that is mind blowing and will win the game for us. I love card games, my Merry loves card games and so many of you love them too. Creating this small engines, building structure and looking how it turns into beast that brings you victory. And every time looking for something new, for new set of cards, for new structure on the table, for new hand that will work just like crazy…

Imperial Settlers is for you. With 4 different factions, with more than 200 cards I give you, my dear gold diggers and prospectors, hours of fun and hundreds of smaller and bigger findings. You’ll take these cards and you will find all gold pieces I left them. And you’ll find more gold. Gold pieces I didn’t even know they exist…

***

P.S.  Few days ago, late in the evening I got SMS from one of testers. The game was already at manufacturer, testing was closed but he was still prospecting. He couldn’t stop gold digging.

He wrote: '101 pts.’

101 is a new score record.

That evening he found a gold.

And then he got back to digging…

It’s hot time. I mean it. It’s hot like in hell. Our office is quite a place, with mine cabinet, with our main office, with sales department office, with small warehouse, kitchen, with huge warehouse downstairs… And when I say it is hot time, I am basically saying that not all of these rooms have air conditioning. So you can imagine.

But of course, it’s not just about the temperature. It is a hot time in terms of production too. We’ve just published Ruins expansion for 51st State so there is lots of shipping to retailers and distributors. And lots of questions about The Ne Era (out of print) and Winter (out of print). Releasing Ruins was like awakening the beast. Now everybody is reminded about 51st State line.

We also released Mississippi expansion and we released it both as a 3.0 version and 2.0 version. All players who supported us for years won’t feel abandoned – we still support 2.0 version. So yes, now we have to explain to every damn retailer what’s going on and why there are two Mississippi products in our offer. We produced Polish, English and French edition. Quite a ride. There is lots of fun also because Mississippi is spelled MiSSiSSiPPi in English and MiSSiSiPi in Polish. So this is crazy when I produce marketing stuff for English and Polish markets and I have to remember about this small detail. I won’t lie. There was some misspelling these days.

Did I mention Origins this weekend? I am not there. Pitty. But I will be at Gen Con. And Gen Con is getting close. Oh yeah!

Gen Con operation. This is so much fun. It is going to be the adventure of the year. At this point I am no longer praying for wooden pieces for Imperial Settlers because they are ready. Now I am beginning to pray for safe shipping to US and for mercy at US customs. Customs may mess with our Gen Con release in so many ways. Just keep games for week or two and I am done.

But this is August issue. Now we are in June. In June we need to send files for Polish Resistance to print and answer all questions about reprint of Avalon. And reprint of Winter. And reprint of Convoy. And reprint of Robinson. And this one is huge. In March we announced that Polish new print will be available in late June. So since 8th of June we answer 10 phone calls per day about it. It seems that all retailers find 8th of June as a late June. And because we’ve just presented at our website that new print of Robinson has custom wood pieces and 7 scenarios and stickers for players pawns, and thick cardboard player characters sheets and basically looks fuckin’ gorgeous now we answer 20 phone calls per day from retailers. And you know, 11th of June is still not late June in my opinion.

Most retailers disagree with me on that point. Keep calling and calling.

Which is fun, because our sales dept guys, Mirek and Greg just shipped 500 copies of Boardgames That Tell Stories and are not in a mood to answer phone calls about Robinson every damn two minutes. But the best is coming. We just published Polish edition of Trait cards promo for Robinson and we will offer Beach expansion promo for Robinson next week. And today we put in offer whole line of new t-shirts for Neuroshima (8 different designs!). Yes, there is always something new to send to gamers! Our sales guys know no word 'vacation’

So, yes, it is hot and yes, we are busy, but this is just a glimpse of things that run here. We have new scenario for Robinson (it was supposed to be published today, but I decided to give it one more final round of testing), it will be published as a free PDF next Wednesday and believe me – you WILL love it. I am so proud of it. This was few months of work. Believe me. In the meantime we work on Polish Pixel Tactics and we work on Polish Imperial Settlers and additionally I just finished my old design of kids game (Land of Shadow) and we are at the stage of writing down final rules set. This is Sparta!

Did I mention video trailer for Imperial Settlers?

Did I mention that this week there is Pionek con – biggest board game con in South Poland and our company is very strong involved?

Did I mention Portalcon, con dedicated to Portal Games with keynotes and presentations of our new releases and lots of events for our dedicated fans? It will take place exactly in a month, on 12th of July.

Did I mention that in 2 weeks I go to Spain for a week to run workshops about designing games and such stuff?

And that Michal Oracz is nearly done with Theseus expansion?

There is so much going on. This is crazy. I could work 24/7 and still I would need to catch up.

But there is one more thing.

Tomorrow in Brasil World Cup begins.

So tomorrow I am taking 30 days off.

I have no idea what will happen without me at office. But I believe things will sort out. Somehow. Wish my team luck. Boss quits.