الجمعة، 27 سبتمبر 2024

💥 Our biggest Essen Spiel ever!

Hello, this is Ignacy Trzewiczek from Portal Games...

This is Ignacy, and while I am packing for Essen SPIEL and preparing for buying a ton of amazing German cookies🍪, I'd like to share with you some insight on what is happening this year at Essen. And by what is happening, I mean how on Earth we ended up with 8 releases this year!


The initial plan was awesome. We planned to have Robinson Crusoe last year, we planned to have AI Space Puzzle and Resurgence this year, and seeing all delays with production of Robinson Crusoe, we already saw the retail release of Thorgal as a solid 2025 premiere. 


And then things happened.


Robinson Crusoe was pushed to summer 2024 - a brilliant combo of our team's failure, and manufacturer's delay and logistic hell. It dropped just on the head of the AI Space Puzzle summer release. And then this crazy summer ended up with additional surprise - Thorgal: the board game surprise - this time the manufacturer did not mess up, and finished production of the game in time. 


The plan was to have 3 releases in 2024: Printing Press, AI Space Puzzle, and Resurgence.

The reality is, we have these three releases… and Robinson Crusoe, and Robinson Crusoe: Book of Adventures, and Thorgal: the board game


You are confused.

I am confused. 

Distribution is confused. 


I think what I am trying to say is, I appreciate you signing up for my newsletter. I appreciate you trying to get ahead of the constant changes. I appreciate your patience and your loyalty to our company. 


The good news is, all these manufacturers and shipping companies cannot ruin one thing - in the end, you are pretty sure that these boxes with Portal Games logo end up being pretty awesome games. That's one thing that is solid as a rock.


RESURGENCE


It's a great euro-game by Ukrainian designer Stan Kordonskiy. Won Seal of Excellence from the DiceTower, was a very successful KS release, and now we are bringing it to the retail in English, German and Polish languages!

AI SPACE PUZZLE


Brilliant little game of limited communication. We had a great release at Gen con this year, raving reviews from Rahdo, Steph Hodge, or Blue Peg Pink Peg and we are happy to bring this gem to Essen!


THORGAL


One of the biggest European comic book hero comes to Essen. This is a super unique hybrid game, it tells great stories as an adventure game, but at the same time it is challenging euro-beasts that will publish you like Robinson if you don't pay attention to every single action!

ROBINSON CRUSOE

COLLECTORS EDITION


Epic edition of our evergreen! In this box you'll find 18 stunning miniatures, an Open & Play campaign that teaches you the game, dedicated plastic insert and more!


ROBINSON CRUSOE

BOOK OF ADVENTURES


The best expansion we ever released - collection of 50 scenarios to the game, many new scenarios created by our dev team and fans of the game, many older scenarios in new variants! This over 100 pages book is like nothing you've ever seen before!

IMPERIAL MINERS: AZTECS VS WEIRDLINGS


 The first expansion to Imperial Miners adds two new factions to the game! Small box, big replaybility and a lot of fun!


NEUROSHIMA HEX: DESERT TRIBES


We continue the tradition of releasing one new expansion for Neuroshima Hex every year at Essen SPIEL! This time the faction that excels in hidden attacks and surprise! With desert Tribes you are able to put new units face down, hidden in the sand, ready to attack only when they need to!


BOARD GAMES THAT TELL STORIES #3


This year Portal Games celebrates 25 years in the industry. At Essen SPIEL we are releasing third volume of my book, Board Games That Tell Stories #3, the collection of articles and diaries dedicated to some of our most renown games, like Detective or First Martians!


But wait! There is more!

🎲 WHAT'S MORE?

  • I posted a video with 3 most unique mechanisms in Thorgal: the board game. It's a short and good video that presents what is the most interesting in the game. You can watch it here

  • I will be at Essen SPIEL at Portal Games booth on Thursday and Friday at noon - if you want your copy of my game or book signed, please, come to the booth and I will gladly talk with you and sign your games!

  • The one and only Scott Alden, founder of BoardGameGeek.com already played Thorgal: The Board Game and what can we say… Woow! Thank you!

See you next week!

Thank you!

Ignacy

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الأحد، 22 سبتمبر 2024

📖 Read the first chapter of my new book for free!

Hello, this is Ignacy Trzewiczek from Portal Games...


This is Ignacy Trzewiczek from Portal Games, and today I'm here to introduce you to the first chapter of my new book – Board Games That Tell Stories 3!



"At some point she – out of nowhere actually – says something like: "This weekend we played Robinson, me and my family. We had a great time. My mom was so excited that she was standing next to the table, because she just couldn't sit still. And you know, she is not a gamer, she never plays board games. We won. I know, I know, we played a few rules wrong, I double checked the rulebook after we finished the game. We had an amazing time together, though. It was great."


This is my oxygen.


This is why I work. This is why I stay up till 1AM cutting out prototype pieces and trying to play test the shit out of this mess. This is why I have the strength to struggle with a prototype that is not working the way I want it to work. This is why I will trash bad ideas and look for good ones over and over again. This is why I am ready for sleepless nights and for long weeks of bad mood when I can't find a solution and the prototype is not working.


I am ready for all this mess.


Because at the end of this struggle there is a family somewhere out there that will have a great time together.


And this is my oxygen."


"This book is a collection of articles I've written in recent years, a collection of reviews, reflections on the industry, and sometimes notes from working on one of my games. I hope it's interesting, I hope at times it's funny, and I hope it's worth your time. But at the same time, I know this won't be my last book.

 Even though after these 10 years, I finally took a break, stepped back into the shadows, stopped tinkering with another game, resigned from the position of CEO at Portal Games, returned to playing RPGs and wargames, and took a break from board games, you can still be sure that another book will come in a few years.

Either I'll return to game designing and want to tell you about my next projects, or I'll finally retire, and as you know, retirement is a great time to write down the most outrageous memories. To tell you about how Eric Lang and I got stuck in a taxi with a crazy driver in Birmingham. About how I invited Bruno Faidutti for pierogi at the market square in Wrocław. Or how Bruno Cathala taught me to hunt hares.


I wish you a pleasant read and promise - to be continued..."

Our latest vlog episode is now available! 👇 We're diving deep into the 3 unique mechanisms that make the "Thorgal: The Board Game" an unforgettable adventure!

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الجمعة، 13 سبتمبر 2024

👋 What's happening at Portal Games?

..and a little story about Resurgence >


This is Ignacy Trzewiczek from Portal Games, and I am here today to tell you a little story - a story about how a few years ago I discovered Resurgence. 


I hate playing board games using Tabletop Simulator. I really do. It's a great tool to playtest prototypes with international partners, it is a great tool to present a concept for a game, but man, it feels like work for me.


That is why I said "No, thank you," when Greg Polewka, CEO of Portal Games asked me to join him at TTS with another game we get to playtest.


"Ignacy, it is important. It was a successful Kickstarter, it has the Seal of Excellence, we have a chance to sign rights for it."


'Let them send us a physical sample," I asked.


"It's one hour, I read the rules, come," he insisted.


You can imagine my mood when we started. 


"This is your player board. It depicts your base. You can upgrade it by renovating each room. Each room gives you new actions," explained Greg, and I kinda liked it, it looked like X-Com base.


'This are your people. You have a boss and few average dudes. Here is how you hire more people. You put them into bag. It's like deck building, but with tokens," said Greg. I love deckbuilding. Building my team seemed fun.


"These are quests. When you make one, you add them here, below your board and it increases your production for the whole game, like production cards in 51st State," said Greg. I love engine building in games…


I don't know, it could be an hour, maybe 90 minutes, when we were done with demo. I still hated playing on Tabletop Simulator, I still wished we have a physical copy, but most importantly I no longer complained on playing it. I no longer complained, because the game was pretty awesome, and I fully understood why it got the Seal of Excellence. 


A few weeks later we signed contract for worldwide rights. This Essen you will have chance to play it. And you won't need Tabletop Simulator for that. 

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