Few days ago my friend Ryu asked me if I want my Caverna back. Surprise on my face. ’You forgot I have it, did you?’ He was right. I forgot. I bought it and lent him few months ago without even playing it.

Few minutes later I posted on my Twitter.

I’ll post list of games I purchased & never played. I can’t believe how stupid I am buying all those games I know I won’t have time to play

— Portal Games (@trzewik) April 29, 2014

Just a comment about me having too many games that wait to play. I didn’t realize I’ll raise an avalanche.  

@trzewik I recently gave myself an ultimatum. No new purchases until I played 10 games that have been languishing — Dave Lartigue (@daveexmachina) April 29, 2014

@trzewik story of my life. Especially the miniatures games. So. Much. Unpainted. Plastic.

— Robin Lees (@RMBLees) April 29, 2014

@trzewik @RMBLees I refuse to buy any more minis games for lack of painting. BTW, I counted my unplayed list of games & expansions. it’s 151 — Matthew Soares (@CBJ_Matt) April 29, 2014

@CBJ_Paul @trzewik @CBJ_Matt @phillier937 I have 79… 🙁

— play board games (@play_boardgames) April 29, 2014

and many more…

We are crazy.

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So, back to my Caverna. I bought at the beginning of the year. Everybody was talking about how good it is and I wanted to try it. Polish edition was announced but I didn’t want to wait, I want to join community of gamers and talk about Caverna, share passion, discuss what I like about the game. So I decided to not wait for Polish edition, I decided to have it now!

It was four months ago. I haven’t played it yet. Polish edition will be published in a few weeks. Brilliant.

I counted games that wait. 72 boxes. Quite a number. What’s there?

Mexica. I played Tikal and I loved it. So I bought Mexica, second game in the series. It was hard to buy but I found it when I was in Essen. My first time in Essen. 2005… I think I should wait few months more and play it next year. 10 years after I bought it. Brilliant it is.

Field Commander: Alexander. I got it to see how it is to play board games solo. I find board games as a social experience and I couldn’t imagine that playing solo may be fun. Yeah… It was about two years before I designed Robinson Crusoe and its solo variant and spent so many hours playing solo. Yeah, I know solo games can be fun too. Still haven’t played Alexander though.

Battue I bought because of Bruno Faidutti’s review in 2008. I think publisher was from Korea or something close to this region, game looked both interesting and unique. Recommendation from Bruno helped me to make a decision and purchase it. Who knows, perhaps I am the only one gamer in Poland who has it! It strokes my inner geek! Pitty, it all ended only having the game. Not played it yet.

Goblins Inc. is a funny one. I really mean it. You know, I don’t purchased it. I borrowed it to play it two years ago! Didn’t happen. How stupid I am to borrow games although I have 70+ my own titles not yet played?!

The list go on. MicroMutants, 1st&Goal, El Capitan, Fallen Lands, Bushido, Magestorm…

I am crazy. And as my Twitter feed proves, I am not the only one…

Some of you have signed copy of one of my games. In most cases it means that you have cow inside your box. I know. It may be not exactly what you expected when you approached me to sign your copy of Stronghold, Robinson or other title.

Time to explain. Time to answer a question: 'What the hell is wrong with Ignacy.’

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It was a damn boring lecture. Seriously. I was really scared. There was a real thread of death in the room. It was possible some students may actually get killed by lecturer. Cause of death? Boredom.

I was scribbling in my notebook and at some point I drew a cow. I added balloon with funny comment about this lecture and passed it to the student sitting next to me. He smiled and passed it to the next guy. He smiled and passed… You know how it works. We all were in school right?

Since then every time we were stuck at boring lecture, I was passing funny drawings with cows. People had fun.

I was a resistance hero. I saved them from death. I saved them from boredom.

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At this point I was publishing RPG magazine called Star Pirate. I draw few cow’s drawing and showed in the office. Cows were talking about playing RPG and it was quite funny. Feedback was very positive. So I kept drawing them. After few months cows were a must in each issue. RPG players really liked them. And then madness began…

We announced that we are going to publish Polish edition of Cheapass Games Falling. Our fans asked: 'What if Polish edition of the game had cows instead of businessman…’

So I was forced to send to Cheapass Games an email that said something like: 'We do respect your IP and your ideas and we do really like the idea of businessman falling from skyscraper but you know, here in Poland… Could we re-theme the game and make cows falling in our edition? Would it be an issue for you?’

Luckily James Ernest has sense of humor. He agreed. So that is how Polish Falling looked like:

And if you think this is peak of this madness, you are wrong. Oh, yeah…

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At this time, year 2006, when Internet was young and was full of new possibilities, we were trying different ways to stay in touch with our fans. One of them was chat. We run chat rooms for our fans twice a month. We were talking about our plans, we were gossiping about our work and we were running auctions. We have loyalty program in Poland, you can earn points called GAMBLE for supporting us and then you can spend them on different products.

At one of this auctions I said: 'I’ll draw a cow for you. Price: 5 gamble’

And auction began.

Few second later I was rubbing my eyes with wonder. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. People went crazy. I don’t remember how much the winner paid but it was something like 500 gambli (for 50 you could have brand new book for Neuroshima RPG with our signatures). It was madness.

I felt terrible. I meant it as a joke, but people treated it very seriously and one of them was happy to pay all his loyalty points he had to have my cow.

So I sat on my ass and I draw a comic book. Winner of the auction didn’t receive a drawing of a cow. He received 6 pages long comic written and drawn by me.

You can see it here

I hope he was happy.

Never again I offered drawing of my cow for money or points or whatever. I felt really bad that I made him pay for cow.

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Since then I draw cows as a signature. And I do try to make every signature unique. Every time I draw a cow, this cow says something. Each time it is something different, and each time I do my best it is more or less funny. Of course it is not possible to draw super funny drawings every time, but I do my best. I do my best that each of you have unique cow with unique dialog.

If we have a geek list here with photos of those cows, I do believe that about 80% of signatures we gather would be unique. Every time you approach me at convention and ask for a signature, I do my best to draw you a cow that is unique, drawn especially for you. I hope you like them.

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And time for post scriptum. In 2012 I was in Modena. I met there super cool guys. One of them is Toy from Ludus Iovis Diei gaming club. He was helping me at convention, was king of guide in Modena. He saw me drawing cows for 2 days long and at the end, on Sunday when I was getting to leave, he asked me to sign his copy of one of my games.

He was hoping to have a cow.

He didn’t know, I can also draw a pig.

You should see his face when he looked at the box when I passed it to him…

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Post scriptum II. In 2013 I was back in Modena. I met Toy again. And again he was my guide and supported me for 2 days long. He is super cool guy and he has a great sense of humor.

At some point I was signing a box for Italian geek. I draw a cow. Geek was in shock. Toy saw that. And spotted a good opportunity. He approaches us, pulled box I signed in 2012 and said to Italian geek: 'At least he didn’t draw you a pig…’

This is guest post by Merry.

I bet you all have albums with photos. OK, at least folders with photos. Albums are no longer popular when we all use Instagram or Picassa, right? But you get my point. Photos. We have them, right?

We have depending on our life situation – photos of kids (first tooth, first step, first soup…) or photos of cats (first time in the box, first time next to the box, first time behind the box…) or photos of dogs (first tooth, first bitten item because of the first tooth…).

Yeah, that kind of stuff.

Our family has photos of games. I mean we have photos of kids, dogs, cats and even Ignacy. We do have some! But most of our photos is about games in our life. First drafts of prototype, first printed copy of the game, first game session, first bite… No, sorry, no bites. Games don’t bite. They don’t devour anything.

Anything, except time.

And always I was very happy about that loss of time!

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We also have friends who have crazy photos in their albums too. Meet Arti i Zachi and their wedding photo…

photo credit: Länsmuseet Gävleborg via photopin cc

Yesterday we had an amazing time at Twitter where we were brainstorming simple topic: #GameAssumptions Discussion was inspired by His Majesty Rob Daviau and it spread like a fire. In a few minutes gamers from all over the world put quite a number of great game assumptions.

I looked at them – of course – from designing perspective. What a fuel for imagination! What a pile of great ideas! You just pick one, create a game and win a Golden Geek for Innovations! And since my schedule is full and since I have my prototypes ready for 2014, 2015 and 2016 I can’t use this ideas. I list some of the ideas presented at this brainstorming to show you that great designers took already took this ideas and created great games.

Felix Rios: „wait for your turn”
This assumption was broken by so many great real time games (Escape and Space Cadets Dice duel to mention only the newest ones). Both of those game were listed for GoldenGeek nominations! 🙂

Rob Davios: „You draw from a draw pile and discard to a discard pile and not vice versa.”
This assumption was broken by deck building games (Dominion was first!), where you discard cards to pile which in a moment changes into your draw pile. I am working on sf deckbuilder, so if you want to get GoldenGeek nomination for this, you better hurry 😉

Kyle Hendricks: „Your move/action is complete when your hand is taken off the applicable pawn/piece.”
This assumption was broken for example in Bohnanza where in your turn you put cards on table, but then, when there is turn of other players, you can interrupt, trade and put cards again! What a game! Won SdJ recommendation in 1997.

Willie Hung: „All players have the same set of rules.”
This assumption is broken by asymmetrical games, which I personally love. My Stronghold released in 2009 was that type of game – in Valley edition of the game there were two (2!) separate rulebooks – one for defender and one for invader. Each of players play his own game – and game blend it together into epic struggle.

Peter Lee: „the players know they are playing a game.”
Sounds obvious? Well, not at all! There is a game called I betcha which is played at parties, players have secret goals and in a fact not all people know they are part of the game! Really! 🙂

Daniel Solis: „The art is just decoration.”
Also already broken. You did played Dixit, right? Amazing art in this game is the whole game, it is fundamental part of rules. Won 27 different awards and nominations for awards.

Sam Bertken: „You must be able to see the board/monitor in order to play it.„
Really? You must? I don’t think so! This assumption was broken in Visionary, where you build construction from wooden pieces, but you don’t see construction, you don’t see pieces, because the constructor is blindfolded! Yep, 1997 SdJ recommendation!

So, what can I say… You can do it too. You can design a game that is extraordinary. Just think out of the box…

There were written reviews, when I got into hobby. Then, with new technologies that just exploded with new possibilities, there came new ways of presenting games – audio podcasting and reviews and then video podcasting and reviews.

We all now have access to cameras and microphones. We all have Audacity to edit our mp3 and heave plenty of different video editors too. It’s never been that easy, right?

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Few weeks ago I asked on my Twitter account about best reviewers in the hobby (I cover it here). There was only one mention of reviewer who actually writes reviews. Rest of them work with camera. Tom Vasel, Joel Eddy, Rahdo, these guys use camera. And they do a great job.

But!

With cameras that are so widely available, there was born a new format. It is called unboxing. Person with camera shows components of the game. Opens the box in front of camera.

And even though I know many unboxers by person and they are my friends. And even though I – as a publisher – do like this format, because it shows that my game is well produced. And even though I know this is very popular format…

Even though!

I have to say it. I hate it.

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If there is a game on my radar, if there is a game I consider buying, if there is a chance that I will have this game in my collection… I will never ever watch unboxing.

I buy the game to open it by myself.
I buy the game to look inside with excitement and with curiosity.
I buy the game to see the components for the first time and have pure pleasure of discovering all these cute components.

I don’t want anyone to spoil that moment. New game box is a mystery. it is my precious. Don’t touch with your camera!

And since all games out there are on my radar, I just simply do not watch unboxing videos.