It was a blink. In one moment I got my new game ready. It just came to my mind and was brilliant. I was so excited. Players are shepherds and have to have the biggest flocks of sheep. Different tiles have sheep with different colors, some tiles have wolves who eat sheep. Your aim is to gather group of 4 sheep in one color. Simple, easy, great.

No orcs. No mutants and tanks.
No „Trzewiczek style”.
Spiel des Jahres jury, I am coming!

I took brushes, I took paints and started to make a prototype. I have huge range of Citadel paints, very expensive, but very good. I wanted my prototype to look great. I used Citadels. I painted 32 tiles with green paint (sweet meadows!). I drew 158 little sheep and then I painted all of them (yellow, white, blue, red). It was great, I was imagining myself coming to the office, showing the prototype to the guys and telling them that I’ve just designed a great game! It took me whole night. Nearly 5 hours of painting little sheep.

The most beautiful prototype I have ever seen.

It was very late in the night, but I was so proud of myself. It had to be a hit! I was excited. I didn’t go to sleep. I took a box of chocolate, I painted it grey, and then I drew a meadow and some sheep on the front cover. It was awesome. Spiel des Jahres jury, I am coming!

Finally I went to sleep.

I woke up the next day. I was so proud. I ate breakfast and sat at the table to play my game. The first test. I was very excited. First time in my designer life I was about to play a test game on such a beautiful prototype. So I played.

Well, not exactly. I didn’t play because it didn’t work. It didn’t work at all! I was sitting at the table and couldn’t believe that I spend whole night painting sheep without first checking if the rules make any sens.

That’s how I didn’t win Spiel des Jahres this year. And my today’s advice for you is – first test, then paint, my friends. First test, then paint…

It’s January. Jokes are over. We begin the Operation: Essen 2012. It’s been like that in Portal for years. October means the Essen fairs, in November we take a break and rest, and in December we look through ideas, prototypes and different sketches we’ve collected over past few months. Then comes January.

In January we begin working on prototypes and new ideas. We analyze and discuss them. Finally, we choose the one we think is best and has the biggest chances for success. The one we want to present during the next Essen fairs.

In 2007, before Essen, Michał Oracz showed us his newest game prototype. He worked on it for the rest of the year and in January 2008 it was all clear – we will publish a game about a wizards duel. This is how Witchcraft was born.

In 2008 I had my idea for a game about a castle siege. It’s been a couple of years but I still remember how nervous I was when in January I came to the firm with a big sheet of paper with a castle drew on it to present my prototype to the rest of the guys. We decided that the game has a big potential. We began working on Stronghold.

We closed 2010 without an idea for a new game… We closed it with a finished game. That year we published Pret-a-Porter in Poland. We didn’t plan to publish it in other countries, but as weeks went by, that idea became more and more tempting. The reviews in Poland were incredible. Everyone was asking us the same question: “Are you going to Essen with this?”.

We didn’t want to do that. Pret-a-Porter was completely different from our previous games – theme was so strange. And cards – they were full of text. We also knew, that if we sacrifice another few months to prepare international edition of the game, we won’t have anything new for the Polish market.

Tough nut to crack. You have a great game on the table and a decision to make. Do you start working on it’s new edition? Or maybe put it on the shelve and begin a new project?

Finally, we decided to give Pret-a-Porter a chance for an international career. We had a lot of time. We designed the best, most legible icons in the history of Portal’s games. We balanced the game even more. We added few new, great cards. We went to Essen 2011 with a fantastic game. Thanks to many months of hard work we polished up Pret-a-Porter in the smallest details.

What’s more, we still had a lot of time to rest, clear our heads, look for new ideas and prepare for the next year.

It’s January 2012. Again, there’s a lot of prototypes on our table. We have second 51. State’s expansion, we have a two-players card game, we have a new cooperative game, and couple of new armies for Neuroshima Hex. January is a month of playing and discussing. A month of decision making.

In a few weeks our publishing plan will be ready and approved. We’ll begin the Operation: Essen 2012.

Last year there were 650 game releases in Essen. A year before – as far as I recall – there were 630 . This year, the record probably will be beaten again. How many of these 600 games will get to players’ wishlists? How many of these games will manage to attract attention and leave players without 20 or 30 euro? How many games will be remembered after a year or two?

Essen 2010? 7 wonders. Vinhos. Troyes. Inca Empire. London.
Essen 2009? Dungeon Lords. Stronghold. Egizia. Small World.
Essen 2008? Dominion. Ghost Stories. La Havre. Space Alert.

600 new games each year. But only a few of them stay with us for a really long time. That’s truth. The Brutal and cruel truth..

The authors and publishers of these upcoming games are on the stand today and they start preparing for the most important race of the year. Race for players wallets. How will they try to seduce?

Theme
Great, new theme? If you have the theme, you will attract players, even if they’ve never heard about you and your publisher. Tell them that you do a 4X game, and you will immediately gather true circle of science fiction geeks. And believe me, this is a very good start. In 2009, I had my Stronghold. I had great theme. That was it. The game blasted off like a rocket.

A year earlier, in 2008, I presented in Essen a game called Witchcraft – wizards fighting each other. Have you ever heard about this game? Well…

Name
Do you have a name that makes people buy every single game of yours? An author with a recognized name is a treasure. People look for his new games, they are driving a spiral of excitement and expectation. Gossips, shots of prototype, sneak peeks from test games…

If your name is Martin Wallace, Uve Rosenberg or Bruno Faidutti, you are probably a lot less scared before Essen than young designer like Ignacy Trzewiczek.

Publisher’s reputation
Does your publisher have a known brand? Did previous games get him good reputation? Has he a bunch of regular customers who go back year after year for his titles? Such a faithful player base is a blessing.

In 2007, Portal was an anonymous company from even more anonymous Poland. I remember words from Neuroshima Hex review written by Greg J. Schloesser for Counter magazine: „I honestly do not know much – OK, anything – about the gaming scene in Poland but if Neuroshima Hex is any indication I am impressed.” Then, in 2007 we were starting from nothing.

Today, five years later, we are in much better situation, we are those people who made Neuroshima HEX, 51 State or Stronghold. I feel that, through our hard work, step by step we are getting closer to famous brands, slowly approaching CGE, Fragor or Ystari Games.

Demo games and prototypes
Had your game been presented at large cons? Did you go with the prototype and tested it by playing on every possible convention? If so, that is good. There are relations and session reports on various sites written by people who were lucky and played the game before its release. At opiniatedgamers.com there are first opinions, BGG is full of rumors – someone out there was playing, and someone saw, and it was a damn good…

Game becomes legend. You are lucky bastard. There is nothing better than a rumor saying that there is a great game out there, and there are some players who played it and apparently the game is great…

Traditional Marketing
If you can afford it, you will have banners on most important board games’ websites. You’ll expose the cover, show preorder offer, bundle offer or whatever. Finally, you get some attention, you are positioned in their minds. You show up on their wishlists. Your cover becomes recognized, theme is well known, even – in the end – people remember your stand’s number and Essen promotion price of the game.

Not very subtle, but it does its work.

Visual side
Okay. Time of honesty. Rise a hand to admit, but honestly, that sometimes a cover was so amazing that you just put the game in your bag not even knowing a single thing about rules. It is just the cover. The board? It’s the same thing. Hands up who had never heard of Mr. Menzel. People buy stuff with their eyes. Clothes, furniture, games, doesn’t matter.

Zack & Pack? I knew nothing about this game, yet I bought it. Golden Compass? I saw the board and bought the game. With a good illustration on the box player has zero chance of defense reaction. He sees the artwork and he buys the game.

Two years ago we paid a hell lot for Stronghold’s cover. For Pret-a-Porter we hired Tomasz ‘Morano’ Jedruszek. It was the most expensive artwork in the history of my company. This is the guy who works for the FFG on a daily basis and who made covers for Middle-earth Quest, Battles of Westeros or A Game of Thrones LCG. This is the guy.

A good cover is like Aikodo. It throws a man to the ground and simply makes him defenseless.

Preorders and promo stuff
A great preorder offer? Some promo stuff for free? This is something that can make a difference. If a customer has a choice of two games and cannot decide which one to pick, it is better to have some kind of limited bonus in your game for Essen occasion . A few extra cards. Additional tokens. Unique extra miniature figure.

The player will rather take the game with special Essen free figure. This second game he will probably buy after Essen. Or not at all.

Luck
Or maybe you just have a bust of luck? And maybe your stand in Essen – by accident – will be positioned next to some famous publisher and you will have large traffic? Or maybe you’ll manage to convince people that you printed only 500 copies of the game and they have to buy it now or never? Or maybe the game will be played by the boss of big US game store at a hotel lobby in the evening? Maybe he will fall in love with the game? And the next day he will buy 250 boxes from you?

Conclusion
You’ll need it all. In Essen, six hundred new games will have their debut. Famous BGG Geeklist „Top Ranked Essen Games” contains slightly more than 20 titles. So – 20 games make it and the other 580 go overboard and you will never hear about them again. This is brutal. This is cruel. This is Essen.

In 2009 and 2010 I had the honor to have my games in this 20 games list.

However, this year – after doing Neuroshima HEX, Stronghold and 51st State – I’m going to Essen with the game about clothes and fashion. Pret-a-Porter. Fashion. Clothes. Hot models.

This is crazy. I can’t believe it.

And you cannot imagine how scared I am.

It was last summer, two months before release of Stronghold: Undead. I was demoing the game during Polish convention called Kaszubkon. It was Ryslaw, fan of Stronghold, who was playing Undead with his opponent – Tele – that night. At some point Ryslaw said: „Damn, it is great. Undead is much better than base Stronghold. I loved Stronghold and this one I love even more.”

„It has to be better. I learn. I get experience. Every year I improve my skills.”, I said. I really believed that Undead is better than base game and I really believed it is exactly how it should be. Every new project has to be better. My Zombiaki2 are better than Zombiaki1, my Undead is better than Stronghold, my New Era is better than 51st State. That’s how it is.

I really do like all my games. Almost 10 years after first release of Zombiaki, I still like the game and I am proud of it. I love Witchcraft, I am damn happy that I designed Stronghold. But I also know that if I do them today I could make them better. Every month I play new games. I observe other players playing my games. I read game blogs, reviews, I am in the very center of gaming world. I learn. Every day I am getting better as a designer.

I am writing today about it because this week I did something exceptional (from my point of view).

Last year I designed Pret-a-Porter – an economic strategy game about world of fashion. It was published in Poland in late November. (Few days ago it was nominated for Game of the Year in Poland.) In Pret-a-Porter there are more than 50 cards (representing employees, buildings, contracts) with text on them explaining how they work. Since November I was worrying about international release of the game. It was impossible to make international edition of the game with so much text on cards!

For long long months we were – here in Portal – unable to change Pret-a-Porter into language independent game like our previous releases (NS HEX, Witchcraft, Stronghold, 51st State). It was a huge problem for a small company like Portal. Since months we were trying to make some iconography for the game and it was failure. Failure over and over.

In a fact few weeks ago we finally decided to do only English edition with English text on cards. We saw no other option.

Last week I decided to sit once again with Pret-a-Porter and try once again.

Last week I sat and this time it turned out I can do it! I can design icons for Pret-a-Porter. I finally did it. I finally got rid of text. I am happy as a hell. I waited for that moment since last year.

I am happy to know that I am getting better. Every single week.