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.

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!

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…

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!

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.

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!

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

I remember being a kid and being honestly perplexed when my school friends were complaining about Robinson Crusoe. Thick, boring book, with no dialogues. They whined. In Poland, Robinson Crusoe was mandatory reading in school. Every kid was complaining. For me, it was the novel of my life, even though my life was like ten years long at the moment. I loved it.

Years passed. High school. College. Life. I was a book worm, and geek, and a gamer. I discovered RPG, found a game company, wrote few RPG games, started a family. Robinson Crusoe was with me all the time. I read it few more times, watch all the movies about it, even designed an indie RPG game about castaways that never got published.

Then I discovered board games. I designed Witchcraft (2008), Stronghold (2009), 51st State (2010), and Pret-a-Porter (2010). Early 2011 I felt I am ready. I felt I have enough skills and knowledge about game design to do Robinson Crusoe justice and make it into the best board game I can ever design.

It was 10 years ago.

As for today, the game has nearly 100k logged plays on BGG. It sold in more than 200k copies worldwide. Released in 12 different languages all over the planet. And exactly today, on Sunday, April 11th, 2021, the new edition of the game, this full-blown fantastic Collector’s Edition, passed 2 million USD on the Gamefound platform. Quite the milestone.

And even though the design is 10 years old, I still look at it with pride and satisfaction, and I strongly believe I did Robinson Crusoe justice.

I like to think that this 10 years old Ignacy would be pretty darn proud of me right now.