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Ignacy Trzewiczek's Blog - Boardgames that tell stories
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Fashion, football, gdj

Why French players should play First Martians!

29 czerwca, 2021 by Ignacy Trzewiczek Brak komentarzy

First Martians is the best game ever designed. That was my only thought and approach every single day when I was working on it. It has 6 unique, extremely different, and thematic scenarios based on real NASA projects and simulations. Additionally, it has 5 mission-long story-driven campaigns with twists that no one did in board gaming yet. On top of that, it has another 5 mission-long story-driven campaign with an incredible story, twists, and voice-over and narration done by Hollywood actor Rich Sommer. It’s three years of my life, day and night, weekdays and weekends. It’s the best game ever designed.

Only that, it is not. BGG website rates it with an embarrassing score of 6.5. First Martian became my most famous and spectacular failure. It also was the best thing that happened in my professional career.

How’s that?

Pride (Latin: superbia) is considered the most serious of the seven deadly sins. Known also as hubris (from ancient Greek ὕβρις), or futility.

It is believing that one is essentially and necessarily better, superior, or more important than others. It’s refusing to acknowledge one’s own limits, faults, or wrongs.

It is believing that you can design the best game ever designed. It is creating 6 unique scenarios and 5 more, and 5 more, and with each of them showing off your design muscles, changing rules, adding twists, hoping to blow the mind of players every time they play the game. First Martians is a pride in the cleanest form.

I failed. I failed and I learned my lesson. Humble is the word that lives with me since 2017 and is my most trusted companion. I believe I became a better designer, and I hope I became a better human being after the First Martians case.

I mention this today because I wonder if French players will become better after the game against Switzerland. I couldn’t help – watching the match – but think about the pride. About this terrible force that makes you so self-confident, so assured that it no longer is your strength. It becomes your biggest weakness.

This Euro had great moments of underdog teams stood up against bigger teams. Moments of humble effort and hard work on the pitch. Moments of team spirit and team play winning against superstars or at least, holding fast, like Scotland against England.

It’s a great Euro to teach about one of the greatest virtues – humbleness.

Denmark. Czech. Austria. Switzerland. I applaud you.

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Thomas Jansen is the designer of Eleven: the football manager game. Ignacy Trzewiczek is the developer of the game. They both will share their thoughts about EuroCup 2021 and also talk about the design or development of Eleven. Be with them every day during Euro! If you like football and board games, please, share the news about Eleven!

You can learn more about Eleven HERE!

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Fashion, football, gdj

A butterfly effect caused me to design Eleven

25 czerwca, 2021 by Ignacy Trzewiczek Brak komentarzy

Thomas:
For a lot of teams, the Eurocup story ended. The group stage is over and we will tumble into the next round. It must feel a bit like relegation to leave the tournament right after the group stage. Although for some participating in the Eurocup was the prize itself.

I’ve already told you the reason why I started to design a football manager game. In short: I wanted to do something different, a bit more complex, and a solo game. It had to be a football manager. I wanted players to start as nobody. I’ve always hated it when people started their pc manager game with one of the big clubs. What do they think? Why would this club pick you as a manager? So, in my game players had to start at the bottom to prove themselves.

I designed the first scenario. You had to fight against relegation in the lowest pro league. It really worked. When I designed the game, I had the English leagues in mind. They were the real inspiration for the game. And that love for the English leagues came from one old documentary. I bet if I hadn’t seen this, there wouldn’t be any Club Stories and Eleven.

It was called: That final day (2003). Made by Dutch presenter/journalist and football lover: Tom Egbers. It’s still on Youtube. Just type the name and the year and you’ll find it. Although it starts with a short intro in Dutch language, almost everything else is in English. You should really watch it!
It’s about Exeter City and Swansea who played in league 2 at the time, which is the 4th division. They are both at the bottom of the league. One of them will be relegated that day. Of course, the documentary is about the clubs, but it is mainly about the fans. People who work hard during the week, to see their clubs play on the weekends. The documentary makers follow every moment of that final day. And then the final whistle blows.

I know thousands of Dutch people fell in love with English lower league football after watching this.

That’s what I call a butterfly effect.

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Thomas Jansen is the designer of Eleven: the football manager game. Ignacy Trzewiczek is the developer of the game. They both will share their thoughts about EuroCup 2021 and also talk about the design or development of Eleven. Be with them every day during Euro! If you like football and board games, please, share the news about Eleven!

You can learn more about Eleven HERE!

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football, gdj

Team spirit in Eleven OR Euro2021 blog!

21 czerwca, 2021 by Ignacy Trzewiczek Brak komentarzy

You can have the best players in the world, but if the fans aren’t happy, morale is low, or the players aren’t fit, they will never become the European champions.

I can think of several examples in both the Euro cup and World cup. Can you?

As an ‘Eleven manager,’ you need to consider this too. You can only become a champion if everything is perfect. On the contrary, I definitely recommend just letting all the bad stuff happen. Just for once. Just for fun. It makes up a good story. Great to tell your fellow players. You need to be able to complain once in a while, don’t you?

Here are some examples of things you would be able to say to your friends:

“Oh no! My striker got a red card again! He started a row on the pitch. Now he is suspended for two weeks! What a ………!”

“No way, my players don’t listen to my coach anymore! Total anarchy! I can’t use any tactics!”

“My fans say I don’t listen to them! They told us we’re playing in an empty stadium next match! But I do care for them! I just think they are all glory hunters!”

I’ve always been a fan of a good story. Of course, I’d like to win, but if the story is good, I don’t mind losing, as long as I’m responsible for it.

In Eleven, you create a story. Your story. After you play the game, you can tell the story of the season as if it really happened. I think it is an amazing experience.

***

Decision day in group A. I think Italy is the well-deserved winner of the group. For me, Turkey is the disappointment of the tournament. I really think they could do so much better—unfortunately, a well-earned 4th place. Wales and Switzerland are two equal teams. I can live with this final table.

Yesterday I talked about the bad stuff that can happen to your club if you take things too lightly in Eleven. You’ve got to control team spirit (morale), popularity, form, and income. Of course, you can take the actions needed to keep these stats up. Unfortunately, you are not the boss at the club. There is a board that makes important decisions as well. They have a meeting each week. If I were you, I would try to attend those meetings and tell those board men and women what you think. Maybe they will listen and don’t mess up.

For example: Playing a friendly match for a sponsor will bring you income but will lower the team’s form. What do you think is wise? Do you think we should play the match? If you don’t convince them, the board will make the decision for you.

It’s important to have the right people on your board. Some see your club as a company and will do anything to earn money. Others have a good relationship with the fans and will do anything to make them happy. And some just want to have the best team in the world.
Who do you want to hire?

Decisions, decisions…

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Thomas Jansen is the designer of Eleven: the football manager game. Ignacy Trzewiczek is the developer of the game. They both will share their thoughts about EuroCup 2021 and also talk about the design or development of Eleven. Be with them every day during Euro! If you like football and board games, please, share the news about Eleven!

You can learn more about Eleven HERE!

Share:
Reading time: 2 min
football, gdj

Footbal is coming home OR Euro2021 blog!

19 czerwca, 2021 by Ignacy Trzewiczek Brak komentarzy

Ignacy:
#ENGSCO
Did we see goals yesterday? No.
Did we see brilliant passes? Not much.
Did we see dribbling, trick shots, special effects? Not at all.
Was it one of the best matches of this year? Absolutely.

It was football we call ‘box to box.’ It was football that, instead of special effects, brings passion, heart, and energy to the table. It’s running with the ball from one side of the pitch to another, it’s playing as it is your last game in life. It’s 0:0 that is so much more interesting than 1:2 Poland versus Slovakia or 1:1 Czech vs. Croatia.

Sometimes fans make fun of England, and Football is coming home slogan. After yesterday’s match between these two great teams, I must say: East or West, home is best.

Thomas:

Football’s coming home. Or is it… soccer’s coming home?

In Europe, most people don’t like the word ‘soccer’. Honestly, I’m not a fan of it either. It is what Americans use when they talk about ‘our beautiful sport’. But why do we, Europeans, get grumpy when it is called that way? It probably has to do with the popularity of the sport, among other reasons.

To European football fans, there is only one sport you play with your feet. And that’s football.

In the United States, there is another sport which they call Football. American Football. Europeans don’t get it; Players wear strange outfits, and most of the time, they carry the ball instead of shooting it. And the worst thing: Théir football is called ‘soccer’. It feels like their sport comes in second now. Not a great feeling.

Saying things like: “I like football, but I do like soccer as well”, only makes it worse.

But where does the word soccer originate from?

It was invented in… Europe.

Modern football was invented in the 19th century in Britain. The more formal name of the sport was Association Football, to prevent confusing it with that other British sport, which was called: Rugby Football. The word soccer was old English slang based on shortening ‘Assoc.’

Sorry, fellow Europeans, we invented the word ourselves.

“But our football is played with our feet all the time!” I hear you scream.

True. But I bet you never considered why the game was called football in the first place. Too obvious, right? They called it football because the game was played on foot instead of horseback. So, in that perspective, American Football is just as much a football game as our football is.

But don’t worry, I will continue calling ‘our football’ football. But I won’t mind if someone calls it soccer. I’ll try to.

Now I’m going to watch England – Scotland at Wembley, London. Football’s coming home! Right? Well, the Scots know better.

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Thomas Jansen is the designer of Eleven: the football manager game. Ignacy Trzewiczek is the developer of the game. They both will share their thoughts about EuroCup 2021 and also talk about the design or development of Eleven. Be with them every day during Euro! If you like football and board games, please, share the news about Eleven!

You can learn more about Eleven HERE!

Share:
Reading time: 2 min
gdj

Soak with a spy theme

25 maja, 2021 by Ignacy Trzewiczek Jeden komentarz

I received the story script and several additional pages of rules for the game from Jakub Łapot and Przemysław Rymer. I read them and was really impressed by the new concepts. The idea of different zones where players could act, the exposure rules, and even the death of the agents! There was a ton of theme in that first draft.

I built the prototype and played it by myself to see how it all worked.

An hour later, I had my answer. None of these ideas worked—literally, nothing, not a single piece functioned as planned.

Was I devastated?

Not at all. That’s how it all starts. Every damn time.

***

It took us another few months of research to make a comprehensive list of ideas for the mechanisms of a spy game. I watched lots of movies and TV shows about spies. I read books. I read comic books. I did the same gig as always—I soaked with the theme. I had a notepad full of ideas.
What’s important for the spy theme:
– codes
– secret messages
– gadgets

I combined it all with the initial ideas from Łapot and Rymer. I was ready to build a set of rules that would work. Testing began.

***

Rymer wanted to use real code cards from the Cold War era. I was skeptical. I was afraid it would be too difficult for players to understand. But after all, it wasn’t that bad. And I admit, when I gave playtesters a real code card from the Cold War and told them it was real shit, they were ecstatic.

This is a real thing. We are receiving messages from the CIA. We need to decode them. We are spies.

I wanted players to also decipher KGB messages. That was, for sure, the task players would not be able to do. We had to come up with a supplementary idea, something that would feel like deciphering the message and yet, would be doable by a random geek who’s not working in secret intelligence. I bought Ken Russell’s books about puzzles and looked for some ideas. Few hours into reading, I had my first Soviet cipher. I used simple mathematical tasks and equations to challenge players. I tested this idea with the playtesting group a few days later. It worked awesomely. First try, the first score, touch down.

I also wanted players to look for the secret words and sentences in the intercepted messages and understand the additional meaning of what was said. This is yet another essential element of all spy movies. They always say something like: “King beats Bishop on C4,” which means that explosives are prepared, and assassination of the cardinal is in the works! Stuff like that is always a part of the spy movies! KGB agents don’t talk like that, but nobody cares—it’s the theme, it’s how it’s done in books and movies. We did the same in the game—players must intercept messages, listen to them, and then think about what was said and what each word meant. That’s silly fun, that’s us, geeks, being smarter than Soviets, that’s what being a freaking spy is all about!

***

Vienna Connection. Decoding real code cards. Deciphering secret messages. Reading between the lines. We put it all. We build the experience. We made you a spy.

Are you ready, agent?

***


More about the game: https://portalgames.pl/en/vienna-connection/

My vlog: https://www.youtube.com/c/PortalGamesStudio/videos
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/trzewik

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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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We are publisher of Detective, Robinson Crusoe, Imperial Settlers, and many other great Board Games That Tell Stories

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Nobody in the USA cares for soccer.
Also, half of the print run for Eleven sold out in 4 weeks.

I appreciate you. Thank you for being awesome.

Link: https://shopportalgames.com/collections/eleven

Nobody in the USA cares for soccer.
Also, half of the print run for Eleven sold out in 4 weeks. 

I appreciate you. Thank you for being awesome.

Link: https://t.co/9u1ztHzmi9
Portal Games US @PortalGamesUS

OMG! It's only been a month since the release of Eleven: Football Manager Board Game and half of the print run is already sold out!

We are incredibly proud, thanks to you! 😁

Check out here:
https://shopportalgames.com/collections/eleven/products/eleven

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PortalGamesUS avatar; Portal Games US @PortalGamesUS

Today we published our monthly debrief, so buckle up and see what’s happening at Portal Games!

https://portalgames.pl/en/monthly-debrief-march-2023/

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Great selection of the new releases, including our Eleven at Games and Stuff!

Great selection of the new releases, including our Eleven at Games and Stuff!
Games and Stuff @gamesandstuffmd

Happy Monday! Time to start the week off right with some board game excitement 🥳

Which game are you itching to add to your collection this week? Let us know in the comments 👇🏼 and let's make this week a blast! #boardgames

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If you missed this news, you can find all the most essential information about the two expansions for Eleven here 👉 http://bit.ly/Solo-Stadium-release

Be the best football manager on the board and expand your collection! ⚽

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