On my way home from the office. We are again with Mark in the car, and again we are talking about the game, bit by bit, every detail gets discussed. It was very tight. Until the very end, everyone was in the game, everyone had a chance. Each of us made a mistake at some point, made a facepalm, and groaned that it was the wrong move, that they were mistaken, that they would lose, and that they wasted their turn. The factions in the game were excellent, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The battle mechanism, revolutionary then, in 2016, today, in 2022, is still innovative. A mega clever idea to add crystals to battles to encourage conflict, mega cool terrain rules, and corresponding tactic cards, and a smart rule for a spherical planet … I was driving, and we could not stop buzzing.

Cry Havoc is a game that we created in 2015, nearly a decade ago. It is still one of the 5 best Area control games on the market. It’s good to play such an awesome game. It was good back then to test, improve, and live with it for literally months. It came out nicely. I am a proud daddy.

In 2009 I had my Nokia with an awesome battery and Snake game. I paid no attention to Iphones, had never heard about Ipad, and was far behind the hot new trend. My friend Marek approached me and told me he is starting a video games company, and they want to do Neuroshima Hex for iPhones and all other upcoming mobile devices. We met, he showed me the prototype, which blew my mind, and I signed the contract the same day.

In 2010 Apple launched Ipad. Sold bizzillion of copies. And thanks to my friend Marek, who took some correct guesses, Neuroshima Hex became the second board game (after Small World) available on Ipads ever.

You guess right. We sold a shitload of Neuroshima Hex app that year.

Some time ago Rob gave me this topic for a blog post: „Bits, it’s all about the bits in the box. Do you get component-envious and how do you decide how much to spend on in-game components? When do cardboard tokens become wooden pieces?”

It’s a good one. Most gamers really love good pieces and value quality components. Just today I had a discussion with a friend of mine who brought The Gallerist to show me the quality of production. 'Look how thick these are!’ he said showing me the game’s tokens. Oh, yeah, thick they were!

Thick tokens, custom wooden pieces, miniatures, metal coins. It’s an amazing time for gamers.

I would risk a thesis that the biggest influence Kickstarter had on board game industry was not a flow of new revolutionary ideas, not indie designers and publishers, not promoting our hobby outside our circles, but the huge change in production value standards.

Because of stretch goals, because of competition, because of user demand, games published on Kickstarter raised a bar for production value to an incredible level. Soon after it turned out that gamers are looking for the same quality and production value in a regular games, games published without upfront funding, without stretch goals, without KS support.

Take any game published in 2010 from your shelf and compare its components with those of games published these days. You’ll clearly see the difference.

Try to find custom wooden pieces in games published in 2010. What about those released in 2015?

Try to find miniatures in games from 2010. Compare with these released in 2015.

Look for custom dice in games from 2010. Compare with 2015.

And my favorite – money. Do you remember how we dissed paper money in 2010 and we praised games that had cardboard tokens instead?

In 2015, money in the form of metal coins is not a standard yet, but we are so damn close to this point, huh?

***

With higher production value comes higher production cost and  higher MSRP. Even though our market grows, and trust me, it grows fast and it grows worldwide, game prices stay the same or – as we could see lately – go up. You would expect publishers to offer better MSRPs for their games because they print more and more games and the market is growing but it’s not happening. Quite the opposite. Prices go up.

I watch it happening and I analyze this every single day. I see what other publishers put on the market and I watch out for your – gamers’ – feedback. I look carefully at every piece in The Gallerist, I look at the MSRP and I hear what you say. I see announcements coming from FFG about another 100 USD game and I eagerly listen to what you say. I publish Rattle, Battle having pushed the production value to my dream level and I wait for feedback…

If Rob asks me about components I can say only one thing – our market has changed a lot in the past few years. It’s fascinating to watch this, to be a part of this and to wonder what’s next.

What do you think? Can publishers add even more good stuff to their boxes?

Imagine old city. Italian, beautiful city with narrow streets, small squares and decorated gates. With small shops on every street and hundreds of small restaurants and cafes on every corner. It’s sunny in the day and it’s bright in the night too, with all those lamps and lighting from windows, cafeterias and moon. Imagine Lucca.

Imagine convention that takes place in a whole city. Not in the exhibitor hall. Not in the convention center. Imagine convention that absorbs the whole city.  With exhibition tents on every square. With geeks on every street. With events, cosplays, fun taking place on every corner.

They say Gen Con has about 50K visitors. They say Essen has about 50K visitors.

Lucca has 180K visitors…

Imagine convention that takes place in a whole city…

Every little shop celebrates convention. Whatever it sells jewelry or clothes, whatever this is a grocery store or small pizza place, it celebrates convention. Comic books, video games, cosplay. The whole city… You walk those narrow streets and you see comic book store and another comic book store, and store with action figures and store with cosplay accesories and you don’t get it. How’s that? This is some sort of a dream city? With only geek dedicated stores on every street?

They explain you. For the 4 days of convention local stores close and rent the space to geek stores who open only for those 4 days.

So you walk those narrow streets. Geeks all around. Comic book store on the right, action figures store on the left. Dream city it is…

You are fan of Dragon Age? They built actual village for you. Have fun. You are in a Lucca. Dream city…

So you are comic books fan. Or Warhammer fan. Or Munchkin fan? It’s not gallery that waits for you. It’s actual performance area, where your favorite artists paint in front of you, create masterpiece paintings right there, right for you. Imagine Lucca, can you?

Awards ceremony? Of course, it takes place in a fancy theater. Guest panels? Of course in press room. And so on and so on…

Last weekend I’ve been in Lucca. Biggest con I have ever been. Con that takes place in a city. Literally. Imagine that. Imagine Lucca…

When I was a kid video games were much harder than these days. In most cases you needed to use cheat codes and other tricks to handle bosses and hard core levels. In magazines dedicated to video games there were sections like „Tips & Tricks” where you were able to learn how to get unlimited ammo or find all hidden doors. Remember those days? I bet so!

Few days before Essen I came up with crazy idea – I will gather „Tips and Tricks” for board games. Ultimate Guide to win! Oh, yeah!

And then I will give it for charity.

***

I had a small notepad, I had a pen and I had this dead simple idea – approach as many as possible game designers at Essen and ask them to contribute to this little book. I know many designers by person so it looked like easy and fun task. The fair began.

On Wednesday I had no time to get any entries to my Ultimate Guide. I was too busy and in a fact there were not that many designers in the halls yet.

On Thursday I had… On Thursday I had no time to get any entries to my notepad. I was way too busy to even have a hot dog or cup of tea. That was crazy busy Essen day. In the evening I came back to my room and looked at my notepad. It was empty. No entries. I was sad. I was worried that my crazy idea has no chance to succeed. Essen was overwhelming this year.

On Friday I had…

OK, Friday looked just like Thursday. It was crazy. But, I didn’t give up. I managed to get entry from Kristian Ostby (designer of Escape) who visited our booth. I managed to get entry from Brad jr. Tolton (designer of Pixel Tactics) who visited our booth. And then breakthrough happened. My friend from CGE, Peter Cernak came to our booth with Matt Leacock (designer of…  c’mon, do I need to say it?!).

I asked Matt to contribute to my book and to write a tip how to win Pandemic. I explained him that I gather entries about winning games and I am creating Ultimate Strategy Guide and then, after Essen I will give it for charity. Matt, of course agreed.

„What a cool idea!” said Peter.

„I wish I had more time to go around halls and gather more entries.” I said.

„I’ll help!” replied Peter.

He took notebook. Few minutes later he was back with entries from all Czech designers that were at their booth.

And that was just beginning. Peter began to walk around the halls and talk about my project. He was asking designers to visit Portal Games booth and put entry into the book. Antoine Bauza came. Then designers began to tell each other about project. And then Merry helped. In a few hours my notebook had entries from Martin Wallace, Friedmann Friese, Bruno Cathala and many many other great designers.

I have tips and knowledge how to win Ghost Stories and Forbidden Island, and Chaos in the Old World, and Cold Express and Timeline and even Story Cubes! 😀

All together 23 entries from 23 designers about winning in 23 great games.

Here is a quick look at this piece of craziness…

***

I am happy to tell you that you can have my Ultimate Strategy Guide for Boardgamers. This is all unique item, this is great designers contributing for a good cause.

Here is the auction!

How cool our hobby is, huh?