Hania lives in Krosno, which is nearly 300 km away from the headquarters of Portal Games. Hania has been working at Portal Games since 2020, and I’ve only met her in person barely twice because first COVID struck, and then we had only two more company retreats during which I had a chance to chat with her for maybe 15 minutes in total. A lot has been happening on those retreats! Of course, there are regular Zoom conferences, daily exchanges of emails and messages on Discord, but let’s be honest – in the era of remote work, the contact with the team is different from the daily chitchats during lunch breaks and playing board games together after hours.

I’d have to say that I hardly know Hania, in essence.

„I think you should see this,” Chevee says. I’ve been waiting for these words for over five years. I’ve waited for them since he took on the responsibility of testing prototypes. He’s had dozens of meetings, examined countless prototypes, and each time, nothing managed to meet the high standards we set for them. I haven’t seen any of those games he played with my own eyes.

Until now.

„I think you should see this.” How beautifully it sounds.

Over 5000 miles, over 20 hours on the road, over a week away from home and the office, all to make it to The Dice Tower con and play Imperial Miners with a few people.

Doesn’t make sense, right? Well, let’s look at it realistically. Let’s assume I go crazy with demos, spending the whole day playing, constantly looking for people interested in the game—I’ll probably do about 6 presentations in eight hours. If I’m lucky, each demo will have four players. With some good luck, I might get to play with around twenty people in Imperial Miners each day.

Flying across the ocean, traveling 5000 miles just for that? Doesn’t make sense.

And yet, I’m going.

The most important is the last base, and I would very much like to be there already, to check it off, and breathe a sigh of relief, but it’s not that easy. It’s a long, many months process and a lot of bases to run to. It all starts with the prototype.

You get a prototype, it’s awesome, and you’re as fired up as Stannis’s fleet because you’ve just got your hands on a project that will turn into an awesome board game. You play it at the company’s offices, then with a few friendly focus groups, it’s good, everyone congratulates you on your luck, that someone sent you a really cool game. That’s base number one.