I spent Christmas playing games. Of course I played with Merry for most of the time, but I played with my kids too. And after this – nearly two weeks – of pure gaming I have this reflection: For Christ’s sake! Stop designing memory games! Don’t you have any other ideas? Don’t you know that kids like adventures. They want fun. They want princess and dragons. They want enchanted forests and magical potions. Cool stuff. Not another fucking memory game.

My this year’s Essen game is in jeopardy. I may sit at my desk and start work on a kids game. I am really sick of poor kids games. Children deserve something more.

Christmas at Trzewik and Merry!

Essen, the most important event in board games hobby is done. This is the event you can not ignore. This is the fair where you have to be. This is the release date you can’t miss.

Let me tell you about my every year calendar…

***

February
In February many publishers meet at Nurnberg fair and show new games and talk about plans for end of the year. This is beginning of the year, we are all excited about our new ideas and prototypes. Great time.

But months slowly pass…

May
In May many publishers and authors meet at Alan R. Moon Gathering of Friends (US) or at Bruno’s Faidutti Gathering of Friends (Europe) and play and test prototypes. This is much different story than Nurnberg – prototypes are almost ready, final tunning takes place.

Last year I didn’t go to Bruno’s gathering because my Robinson was all in blood after play-testing with Vlaada. I had to work very hard and very fast to meet deadlines…

May is not fun. May is lot of work and stress. Every single day you see that you have a few last weeks of testing and that’s it. You need to finish the game!

You play every day. Like crazy. June and July are so damn close…

So months pass…

July
Average manufacturer needs about 6-8 weeks to produce the game. That means you need to send files to print in August, so the game is produced in September and is ready for October (Essen).

July is not holiday time if you work in gaming industry. July is 100% opposite of the holiday time. July is a hell.

That is why I spent my holiday at Hungary working very hard on Beagle with my Merry mad at me every single day.

That is why I was kicking Mateusz Bielski (illustrations for Legacy) so hard that my leg hurt.

That is why Michal Oracz was nearly living at Portal’s office with finishing works for Theseus.

July is the moment of the year, when you literally hate your beloved hobby. Stress, bad tension, much too much work to do and deadlines that are so close, that you can not sleep without nightmares.

July and August pass like a blink…

September
End of holiday season. Either you have your files in print already, either you are begging manufacturer to do some miracle work and deliver the game even though you failed with schedule of sending files…

This is the month when you do some final things, but basically it is all too late. Every single day you are closer to Essen. It is too late to do anything about it. Either your game is at manufacturer, either you missed Essen…

When manufacturer calls, you have heart attack. And they call every single day. Few times a day.

’There is problem with your board file’
’Your font lost Polish symbols’
’Your insert is too big, components doesn’t fit.’
’We think cover is too dark, you better see that.’

Every single day new problem arises. And you have no time, no space, no chance to react the way you want. You react the way you can, but let’s face it – you have not too many options at this stage…

September pases…

October
Essen fair. If you were lucky.

2009, Stronghold. First copy of Stronghold I saw, was copy that was sent directly to Essen. We were so damn close to miss the fair. It arrived to Essen on Wednesday, day 0.

2011, Pret-a-Porter. First copy of the game I got into my hands was copy that arrived to Essen on Thursday morning, day 1 of Essen. It arrived 2 hours before opening the gates for visitors. Never before I was so close to miss the fair with my release.

2012, Robinson Crusoe. First copy of the game I got into my hands on Wednesday, day 0. Once again, so damn close to disaster.

Whole October you just wait and just pray…

October passes…

***

Essen is done. Tension, stress, huge emotions faded away. Now I have holidays. Now I can do all that stuff I couldn’t do in July. Read books, watch movies, play computer games… Yes, board games too. I brought from Essen 27 games…

Guess, what I am going to do for the next 8 weeks…

Time for big news, right? The big news is – I go to Kickstarter. Not with new game, not with new prototype, not with cool edition of some of my older games.

I go to Kickstarter with something unique, I go there to fulfill one of my dreams – take best of my articles I wrote about games and put them into one real book. Have collection of stories about creating 51st State, Pret-a-Porter, Robinson Crusoe and all other more or less funny stuff I wrote here for the past few years.

I took 35 articles I like most. I choose photos and pictures that are connected with these stories, photos of prototypes, conventions I attended, people I work with.

Yes, Merry pictures too.

In some cases I added some comments (from today’s perspective), in some cases I deleted some parts. I put as much love as I could to give you unique book. And here I am, with a Kickstarter.

Why Kickstarter? Because this is an answer platform. This is a place where I can ask: 'Is anybody interested in a book about boardgames?’

You give me an answer.

Why back a book with materials you can find online?

To have all the best from this blog in one volume?
To have unique book on the shelf?
To have unique gift for some of you gaming or not gaming friends?
To say 'Thank you mate, I like your blog!’
To… I don’t know.

This is a Kickstarter. This is a tool to show dreams and try to make them real thing. So here I am, with my dream and my book.

What is your answer?

I was afraid of 2013. No, really. Look at our previous years. There was a sad cycle going on…

2007
We published Neuroshima Hex. It was amazing success for our small company then! We were first time in Essen, we got great reviews, licenses were sold to ZMAN and IELLO. We were in heaven.

2008
We published Witchcraft. I love this game, but we had no success with it. It wasn’t popular, it was too abstract and heavy, barely we managed to sell all copies. No reprint ever done. No licenses sold…

2009
We published Stronghold. Man, that was ride of my life. We were sold in a few weeks, we sold licenses to US, German and French market. Countless nominations for awards. Great ratings. We were in heaven indeed.

2010
We published 51st State. It wasn’t that bad. Although we screw up with rulebook, with tokens… We did lots of mistakes… Game got good ratings, got some nominations for awards, was licensed… But it was few miles away from being in heaven…

2011
Well, 2011 was far from heaven. It was quite opposite than heaven. We published Pret-a-Porter. What a crazy idea that was! Yeah, game had great ratings at BGG. Yeah, was nominated to IGA, Polish Game of the year, even Tom Vasel said he may like fashion… But sells were terrible. After two years we barely sold all copies. No licenses sold. No commercial success. Never again I will do a game about fashion

2012
OK, that was heaven. Robinson Crusoe. What can I say. You know everything…

2013
And here we are, 2013. I was scared. It seemed that for the past few years we had this sucking cycle – after very good year for us, there is a year of much smaller success. It seemed like for small company like ours creating worldwide known game is very exhausting. Game that goes year after is never that popular. It is good, it has good reviews and ratings, it even gets awards, but it has no commercial success.

So here we are, 2013, year after Robinson. My experience say this year may suck. I was really scared.

***

Last week I announced pre-orders for our bundle pack, for Legacy, Theseus and Voyage of the Beagle. 

Soon after you decided to send me an email.

Yes, you. I mean… All of you.

I should expect unexpected…

This weekend I sent 290 (two hundred and ninety!) emails as replies to your pre-orders and questions. There were moments when I almost cried in front of monitor. I spent whole damn Saturday and whole damn Sunday answering your emails. It was hardcore weekend.

I replied one email, I received 2.
I replied one email, I received 3.

At some point, Saturday evening I got breakdown. After spending 6 hours with my laptop replaying emails, I got more emails in my inbox, than before I start replaying. Never had such situation in my life before. emails were coming faster than I was able to answer…

But I survived. I will remember this weekend for a long time, but I survived and I replied every single email I received from you guys.

***

Today I am happy to announce that it looks like Portal Games has grown up. We are adult company now. We had a tremendous success with Robinson Crusoe and this year, second time in a row we are doing damn good again, this time with Legacy and Theseus. 

At this moment I have twice as much pre-orders for Legacy as I had for Robinson.

And you keep sending me new ones. Every. Single. Hour…

Essen 2013, we are coming. Second time in a row, we are going to rock and roll!