Peter Struijf
Netherlands
Zoetermeer
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This is the tenth and certainly final part of my Essen story, which may have been a fairy tale to some, possibly a dreary load of rubbish to others. Such is life: all are different, which makes us all the same.
I will reach the end of this story with a sigh and also with a smile. I will sigh, because it is easier to start writing a story than it is to finish one. I will smile because I might read this story again in twenty or thirty years time, if so much time is given to me. And I foresee I might again have a few laughs, or at least fond memories, about this foolish great boardgame design and publishing adventure I jumped into headlong and starry-eyed in 2008. I will certainly remember the conversations and banter on this forum, which followed each episode. Thanks to all of you, the readers, for your patience and interest in possibly quite a mundane story. It was a slightly embellished mundane story, of course: who wants to read about reality? We already live in it every day.
Sorry for my five days' delay in finishing the story: I was letting Testosterone Peter (I call him Bob) out of his cage for a few days at the Grenadier ASL tournament in Germany, not that far from Essen. For those of you who care to know, Bob won the tournament! Unfortunately, my final game against Francois, a top player from France, could not be finished in time and had to be adjudicated. We had only 6 hours available to play this final game, you see.
Anyway: back to Essen a few weeks ago. My story had reached the closing stage: the last demo game was over, the lights were starting to dim. It is Sunday, 26th of October at 1845.
10.1: Pandemonium
As soon as the last visitors have been herded out of the great halls, the whole place erupts in new, different noises. The entire scene reminds me strongly of the Lord of the Rings movies, when Saruman turns his peaceful vale into a massive arms workshop. Instead of the slow and weary footsteps of the public, one can now hear the determined sounds of engines, boots and machines. The friendly chatter of salespeople is replaced by the short orders of the foreman, the driver and the owner. Cars, forklifts and small trucks roar into the scene from all sides. Groups of people tear down their stands, load games into big boxes or onto pallets, load boxes and pallets into trucks and lorries. Little metal hooks are returned to the lending counter, where clerical books are now balanced. Entire walls and partitions made of cardboard and plywood disappear easily, leaving new and exciting vistas for all of us, who were now used to our safe little corridors.
In stand 4-415, we of course join in this ritual cleansing ceremony. We need to pack boxes and drag them around. For Kraków, there are only a few boxes left, but we have to take them all the way to the parking garage. We cannot even pray to find ourselves a cart of any kind, let alone hope to take it out of the Messe area, so we resign ourselves to carry the 30 games (5 boxes) out by hand. The Legendary Jack Pope has made a brilliant deal: an American distributor present in Essen has agreed to buy and take home "everything he has left". So several hundreds of (admittedly, small) boxes of "It's Alive" will make their way across the Atlantic Ocean, to make new monsters and friends there.
All of us work together to load the boxes (Jack got the distributor's push cart) and manouver the cart on several journeys through three halls. I will never forget this short journey: avoiding the reversing trucks of stand holders, in the din of breaking up and closing down, we push our way forward. After more than 10 minutes we reach the place, where we find a very large American man sitting in a wasteland of pallets, boxes and papers. He sweats, breaths quite heavily and wipes his forehead with a handkerchief: he has clearly been pushing and carrying large and heavy loads for the last hour or so. I wonder where the nearest defibrillator might be located: it would be most unfortunate and possibly ironic for the poor man's heart to malfunction in the middle of unloading our "It's Alive!" boxes.....but we manage to deliver the goods for Jack and high-tail it out of Dodge.
After this work, it is almost 1930. We all sit on the floor (carpet hire was part of the stand, well done Jack!) of what used to be our Kingdom: stand 4-415 is history. Most of us are really exhausted, especially from up to four days of standing and talking (two things which are quite natural and enjoyable, until you do them for days until breaking point). We all realise this enormous event, of which we were such a small part, is finally over. We did it, we made it to the end!
Of course, there is some final business to take care of: we need to do The Reckoning. Jack is obviously the kind of Legend who is used to such closing scenes, so we agree to walk over to their apartment for the final sums. It's only 10 minutes walk, according to Jack and Mal.
10.2: Drug Dealer
As we set out into the dark and rainy Sunday night, I start to notice some difficulty in walking. To be more precise: the pavement seems very hard, my shoes seem very thin and the soles of my feet unusually sensitive. Every step hurts. After a few hundred meters, the muscles in my legs also start complaining: I feel like a factory owner who watches one work crew after another downing tools and switching off the ovens. Only this factory is my own previously reliable body - it is not a perfect specimen, but at least a durable and low maintenance one, fortunately. I try to remember how far Jack's apartment really was, but I can only tell you it was terribly distant like a desert oasis. I believe the supposed 10-minute walk somehow changed into a 30-minute stagger....after which we finally reach Jack's Dingy Den.
The neighbourhood was far from impressive - some of the faces and torsos we meet in the streets would not look out of place on a card in "It's Alive!", if you catch my drift. The apartment building had once been considered for use as a shoot location for the movie "Seven", I believe, but was dropped because it was too gloomy. When we walked up the dark stone stairs of the apartment building it really looked like we were drug peddlers: we were all either carrying bags or loads of cash, while we barely spoke and staggered up the stairs. The apartment was quite ordinary, although it offered the amazing life-saving inventions called chair and sofa. We fell down on the furniture, took off shoes to save our tormented soles. It was time for business.
Of the actual drug deal I distincly remember only three elements: Jack had reportedly sold 140 copies of Kraków 1325 AD to the Essen public; there was an endless counting and re-counting of cash Euro notes; and papers with crucial information were forever missing. "Look in the bag, look on the table, look in Liz' handbag, look in Jack's money bag, where did you put this piece of paper, where are the numbers of games, where is the contract, how many games did you sell to Leif the Icelander and his colleagues". It was quite a long-winded affair, executed by a group of people clinging to their sofas as if they were life rafts - but after about an hour we all agreed enough counting had been done, the crucial papers would never be found, and we could all be happy with the magical number 140. I stacked the many many Euro notes into my money bag (Jack wanted to send me off with as many notes as possible, especially the small denominations - maybe he thought my rental van was not fitted with airbags?). Then we said our final farewells and hugged Jack, Mal, Lucy and Duncan, went down the dark stairs and into the dark night. Goodbye Reiver Games - and thanks for everyting.
As I walked out into the street, I hugged my money bag and suddenly realised that for the first time in my life, I had actually MADE and SOLD something to THE PUBLIC. That is a really weird experience for someone used to selling only his labour and not having any real customers to deal with, ever. As we limped back to the cars, I did a bit of counting to take my mind off the pain in my feet. Next to the 140 sold to the public through Jack's stand, I had sold nearly 100 games directly to various games shops and another 20 to Reviewers, Magazines, Blogs, Gaming Clubs and Leif. My Dutch distributor had already taken 120 copies of the game; while both Melchior and I still had a good number of pre-orders among people we knew. I had once feared and felt I had risked so much to print these 2,000 games. And now, within ten days of receiving the games, we had already sold 400! Of course, under extraordinary circumstances at Essen - but people still had to pay real money for them, we were not giving the away like plastic buckets in Aceh!
10.3 Powerpizzas
It was around 2030 by the time Melchior, Liz, the money bag and I reached our car and van. Melchior agreed to accompany me in the van, while Liz would drive behind us in her car. Those guys had gotten superbly lost on the way out on Friday night, so she was happy to drive slowly but surely this time. As we were about to get into the vehicles, we discussed the road ahead and plan for the night. The drive to our home would be around 3 hours time, so we would reach there around midnight. We had not really eaten anything all day (for me, make that four days)....what to do.
Suddenly Melchior asked: "Would you like to come and eat home-made pizza at our place?"
"You want to start home-making a pizza at midnight, tonight?" I asked in disbelief.
"No. I home-made a pizza last week. I froze it and kept it especially for this night. I thought all of us might like to eat pizza on Sunday night, after Essen."
We all agreed. There would be only one way to "celebrate" our Essen adventure: home made pizza a la Melchior. We did drive for three hours in really awful weather as it poured with rain most of the way - but it did not seem that far at all. All the way, I drove the car and talked to Melchior van Rijn, The Artist of Kraków 1325 AD. We couldn't stop laughing, talking about our experiences and all the people we met. We were daydreaming about the future of our game, trying to keep things in perspective, but also enjoying all the positive energy that had come our way in the past four days. And we were looking forward to pizza at the end of our drive. Katja, Melchior's wife, got our phone call while we were near Utrecht: "Please switch on the oven and stick in the frozen pizza, we are all starving!" "Which Pizza?" "The Essen one!"
We arrived soon after midnight. We drank red wine and wolfed down the Essen pizza (fantastic!), sat around talking and laughing for several more hours. It is a night I will never forget, because it was one of those times when the future doesn't matter: the present was just too good to be true.
The three-year process of creating a boardgame together with Melchior (and everyone else who helped us) was an amazing journey. Taking that game to Essen, experiencing the response and enthusiasm of people from all over the world live, in the flesh, for four long hard days, was honestly an experience of a lifetime.
After I reached our home and Liz went to sleep, I realised I was too full of excitement and ideas to fall asleep. I updated the Kraków website for a bit. Then I had an idea: maybe I should write something on Boardgamegeek about my experiences at Essen.
And I did. And I thank you all very much for reading it and responding to it - this whole story would never have been written without you.
All the best, maybe until Spiel 09 ?
Peter Struijf
Designer and Publisher
Kraków 1325 AD
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RUSH May 21st 2011
England
York
North Yorkshire
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As a 2 copy Bag Man, I salute you. One was for Beyond Monopoly!, paid full price mark you. We've spent £700 on games this year (so far), and your Krakow got played in Hull this weekend, with very positive comments.
See you next year (or maybe not) with your new game.
Cheers,
Jon.
400 copies at 35 euros is um 2000 no wait 5000 er no um....
140 copies at 35 euros is very useful pin money.
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Christopher DeFrisco
United States
Ashland
Oregon
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Quote: the future doesn't matter: the present was just too good to be true.
Congratulations.
I couldn't think of a more fiiting feeling to have after your incredible adventure.
And thank you so much for sharing it with us!
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David Reed
United States
College Station
Texas
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Thank you for sharing all of this with us! I have to admit that Krakow 1325 AD was on my short version of want list from Essen, but got edged out to allow others to get their choices. I hope that I will get a chance to play it at BGG.Con and that I will be able to get a copy on this side of the Atlantic in the future!
I'm glad that your game has had an initial launch!
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Melissa
Australia
Melbourne
Victoria
Best wishes to you all for 2011. xxx
Mostly offline, but trying.
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Thanks for sharing your story, Peter - and congratulations!
I can understand your feet problem - I found that my knees didn't bend properly by about Saturday lunch time - I developed this weird controlled fall that let me go up and especially down stairs.
So will Melchior be making pizza for you next year as well?
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Tom Rosen
United States
Arlington
Virginia
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Thanks very much for sharing your story with Peter! We're glad you were too full of excitement to fall asleep that night and wrote the first article in this series, which have led to so many very interesting articles. Best of luck with your game. I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my pre-order so I can try out Krakow.
For people who want to read any of the previous 9 entries in this series, check out this GeekList 
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Thomas Taylor
United States
Pleasanton
California
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Congratulations on a job well done. I would imagine you're feeling a sense of fulfillment few of us ever do.
I'm envious. 
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Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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Does "letting Testosterone Peter out of his cage" sound as dirty to the rest of you as it does to me?
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Peter Struijf
Netherlands
Zoetermeer
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EYE of NiGHT wrote: As a 2 copy Bag Man, I salute you. One was for Beyond Monopoly!, paid full price mark you. We've spent £700 on games this year (so far), and your Krakow got played in Hull this weekend, with very positive comments.
See you next year (or maybe not) with your new game.
Cheers,
Jon.
400 copies at 35 euros is um 2000 no wait 5000 er no um....
140 copies at 35 euros is very useful pin money.
Hi Jon,
great the game got played in Hull and was liked. That is still the best reward in the whole adventure - to see or hear that complete strangers have enjoyed our creation.
The calculation is great, too. Of course, a few things interfere with the calculator, (before you all expect me to retire to Malta now): the tax man would like his VAT part, thank you very much, and Jack would like his fair reward for letting us be part of stand 4-415, selling our games, counting the cash etc. Of course my Dutch distributor does not pay me 35 Euro per game - he would have quite a tough time selling it onto the shops!
But I was of course very satisfied with the sales - diplomatically and correctly I can tell you that I was able to pay the van rental for the week (500 Euro) from the profit of the sales. I didn't stay at a hotel, as Michael and Babsi hosted me. So I had some Euros left over, too!
But as a way to riches, I would not recommend it. Banking might have more profits in it (especially in England where the bank thinks you can pay 20 Pounds of bank transfer costs on a transfer of 70 GBP to import some boardgames from Europe....)
Cheerio,
Peter
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Jackson Pope
United Kingdom
Newcastle upon Tyne
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Hiya Peter,
peterstruijf wrote: I try to remember how far Jack's apartment really was, but I can only tell you it was terribly distant like a desert oasis. I believe the supposed 10-minute walk somehow changed into a 30-minute stagger....after which we finally reach Jack's Dingy Den.
It really was only 10 minutes away!
peterstruijf wrote: The neighbourhood was far from impressive - some of the faces and torsos we meet in the streets would not look out of place on a card in "It's Alive!", if you catch my drift. The apartment building had once been considered for use as a shoot location for the movie "Seven", I believe, but was dropped because it was too gloomy. When we walked up the dark stone stairs of the apartment building it really looked like we were drug peddlers: we were all either carrying bags or loads of cash, while we barely spoke and staggered up the stairs. The apartment was quite ordinary, although it offered the amazing life-saving inventions called chair and sofa. We fell down on the furniture, took off shoes to save our tormented soles. It was time for business.
You malign the place It wasn't that bad:
Jack's apartment was a veritable palace. Everything glistened and glowed and the air smelt sweet and fresh, like a summer meadow - a welcome change from the murky after-hours Messe, where the smell of exhibitor sweat permeated everything as the unloading occurred.
Jack made short work of the complicated finances, quickly distributing everyone's fair share with bank-teller-esque speed and accuracy.
Cheers,
"The Legendary" Jackson Pope
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Matthew Bond
United Kingdom
Norwich
Norfolk
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A great read and an inspiring story. Thanks for sharing all of your Essen experiences.
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Roland Weiniger
Germany
Nuremberg
Frankonia
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Hi Peter,
thank you for your great story which pulled me out of a dive into the usual black hole after Essen. Unfortunatly my personal bag man list did´nt include your game, which I do regret by now.
I´ve been exhibiting over 10 times in Essen with my own small publishing company W&B Verlag (I think the last time we were there was 1998) and looks like things will never change ;-) So I enjoyed your story which reminds me of my own very similar experiences and this made me smile every new part you´ve shared with us. Thank you so much for that.
We are preparing our come-back at the moment and if it happens that we are on the fair also for business again I´am happy to share our cart (after 10 years carrying boxes around, next time I will bring along some for sure!) with you and shout a beer.
Keep on gamepublishing and writing...
cheers Roland
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Suzan
Netherlands
Enschede
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After all this, Spellenspektakel will be easy
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Gavin Wynford-Jones
France
Ferney-Voltaire
Just across the border from Geneva, Switzerland
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A fabulous ending to a fabulous tale! It was great to meet you and play the game, and I hope you'll be able to return with a second game at some future fair. I, for one, would look forward to that with eager anticipation!
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Peter Struijf
Netherlands
Zoetermeer
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Raubritter wrote:
We are preparing our come-back at the moment and if it happens that we are on the fair also for business again I´am happy to share our cart (after 10 years carrying boxes around, next time I will bring along some for sure!) with you and shout a beer.
Hi Roland,
I have written down your name and company name, I will not come to Essen again without taking you up on this cart-sharing deal !
Cheers,
Peter
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Peter Struijf
Netherlands
Zoetermeer
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Suzan wrote: After all this, Spellenspektakel will be easy :D
Zwolle Uit, altijd lastig !
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Tim Goose
United Kingdom
Hitchin
Hertfordshire
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Peter
Great story! As one of "they who would play" I have to know whether your decision to let us play your treasured game was a good one or not? Would you have sold as many copies if you had stuck to your original plan to just demonstrate it? Would your legs and voice have been less damaged?
Good luck for the future. If you're at Essen next year then we shall be sure to drop by. (The pressure to produce a follow up game to Krakow must be very daunting!) If, however, you are off in some far-flung corner of the world with your humanitarian hat on then all the best for that!
Tim
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Greig
Canada
Peterborough
Ontario
www.castlecon.net
I went out there in search of experience, to taste and to touch as a man can, before he repents...
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Peter,
Thank you.
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Jacob
United States
Lexington
Kentucky
Go Pats!
My awesome son =)
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Ok, people - tip the man!
It's the least you can do if you enjoyed the 10 chapter story like I did =)
-Jacob
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Peter Struijf
Netherlands
Zoetermeer
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Shandazar wrote: Peter
Great story! As one of "they who would play" I have to know whether your decision to let us play your treasured game was a good one or not? Would you have sold as many copies if you had stuck to your original plan to just demonstrate it? Would your legs and voice have been less damaged?
Good luck for the future. If you're at Essen next year then we shall be sure to drop by. (The pressure to produce a follow up game to Krakow must be very daunting!) If, however, you are off in some far-flung corner of the world with your humanitarian hat on then all the best for that!
Tim
Hi Tim,
without any doubt, trying to use my table as a shopwindown would not have worked at all !!!! My legs and voice might have enjoyed a quiet first day - but I even think the many Essen veterans like you (and many after you) would have thrown me through the cardboard wall if I had tried to stick to this ridiculous idea.....but if you are a beginner, you are allowed to make beginners' mistakes of course! As long as you listen to the subtle hints !! Thanks a lot for putting me in touch with how Essen works immediately, it was great help for sure.
I have started some work on the 3-player extension, which should be fairly easy to put out in the first half of next year. The way things are going (especially after shipping off an order from Poland for 100 games, which are on their way to 50 shops there!) there may be a lot of reasons to make a second edition....also very exciting of course.
As for a new game - my embryonic idea of a second game is going to get some energy committed to it over the next few months. Then I need to judge if it is worth a lot more effort or whether it has no particular merit. I might still consider playtesting it in the humanitarian field -the evenings are pretty boring in South Darfur, you know !! But this time, I might also get in touch with some of the boardgame groups whom I have now met, see if someone else wants to give it a try and help the game along....
It is lovely to dream like this....but in three days time I will switch off the dream engine, crank up the voice and legs for 3 more days of demo-work at Spellenspektakel in Zwolle, Netherlands....
At least no time will be wasted in the "shop window" mode !
Cheers,
Peter
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Robèr Boonmann
Netherlands
Geldrop
Noord-Brabant
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Thanks for the wonderful story.
I hope Zwolle gives you as much joy as Essen.
But you know what they say.
"It's never as good as the first time"
good luck to you.
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Suzan
Netherlands
Enschede
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peterstruijf wrote: Suzan wrote: After all this, Spellenspektakel will be easy Zwolle Uit, altijd lastig !
Na Essen is Zwolle toch wel thuis? (of in iedergeval halverwege )
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Hi Peter
I can relate to your story it was my first time at Essen were I arrived with my first card game Solairis.
The feeling of first arriving was one of nerves and excitement.
I have never seen so many people over 4 days in my life it was truly amazing and tiring and you get to learn so much about your game and the way people perceive it in a whole new way.
The place was so big that I don’t believe I truly got to see it all and appreciate it.
did you also get a weird sad feeling after wards because all these great people had put so much effort in for the 4 days during and before that when it was over i guess it was like a void as every one packed up and the place became a quiet empty shell again until the next lot of people rolled in to set their exhibition up.
So what did I come away from Essen with not only wanting to go back next year but also I met some really great people but more importantly I made some really nice friends.
Until the madness of next year I hope all goes well and will look out for you
Tony Carr
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Amazing story with great writing. I enjoyed it a lot. And a great ending. Pizza and wine with some friends past midnight is the best ending for any adventure. A envy such magnificent experience.
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john coggeshall
United States
seabrook
Texas
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This makes me feel like I was there at the con.
Your "pre thoughts" of what producing a game would be like, and what I have always thought it would be like are similar. Your actual experiences are fascinating.
If they ever have a "so you want to be a game designer?" forum, this story should be a FAQ or a sticky.
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Posted Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:56 pm
