25 February 2020

A matter of balance



Mardi Gras.

A day suitable for bright colours, contrasting with the grey skies above and the falling light rain, for creatures with smiling faces, and for the search for a way through, between achieving the right balance, the risk of stumbling and, eventually, the collective fall.

In here through a game almost reaching the age of fifty, which has been shared by many hands and by people from many ages, and which is still in good shape for a few more decades to come.


A clown, or acrobat, in shades of red.

10 x 1, in shades of yellow.

One, laying the foundations.

Hop! And there's two, in an easy balance.

Three and four, one of each colour, not touching the ground.

Plus more, many more, as many as possible, going upwards and sideways!









With several designations around the world, such as Stacrobats or One too many, this game is called Um para todos, in the Portuguese version by the publisher Majora.

Designed by Theo and Ora Coster (1971), founders of Theora Design, Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1965, and which is still in business today.

Interestingly, on the web page telling the company history, they both appear in a photo, playing this very same game with their grandchildren.




Stacking, and or unstacking, games and balance. Always out there, across time.

Firstly, and even today, using components from other games, such as dominoes or cards, to build castles, like this one I built in the early 1990s, near a beach in  Galicia, Spain.

Then, making use of other shapes, materials, stories, or rules, using clowns (One too many, 1971), blocks (Jenga, 1983), chairs (Chairs, 1999), roads (Tokyo Highway, 2016), elements of modern art (Junk Art, 2016), construction workers (Men at Work, 2019), and more.

16 February 2020

The art of stained glass



There are projects. Then, there are those projects of almost an entire lifetime. And then, there are yet the other ones, those that go beyond life itself! Such as this one, authored by Antoni Gaudí, standing high in Barcelona, still unfinished. One hundred and thirty-eight years after the initial sketches, outlined in the late 19th century, circa 1882, the unmistakable silhouette is now a solid body. While the spires keep reaching for the sky, time continues to tick away.

We will not retrace the history of the temple nor that of the man behind it. We will not build or even try to complete the work. We won't try to overcome the creator.

Instead, we will play with light, mediating between the strong sunlight under the blue sky, tasting like the Mediterranean, and the inward fresh shadows, where believers and tourists mingle.

Let's make stained glass!

Joining the small fragments that allow you to see inside, pushing the darkness away, casting colours over stones, revealing images.





The raw material for stained glass.
That's 90 dice, in 5 different colours.
Only a few will be available in each round.
Randomly taken from the black bag and thrown over the table.




Each craftsman will make his own stained glass window.

Respecting the constraints defined by the base pattern selected, regarding value or colour of the fragment to be placed in certain positions.

Respecting the restrictions defined by the theory of stained-glass creation adopted for this occasion: always start from the outside; proceed through adjacent spaces (diagonals included); ensure diversity by not repeating colors or values in adjacent spaces (diagonals excluded).

As for the rest, creative freedom!

Competing for the raw material, over only 10 rounds, as one must not further delay the monument completion! Acting in two moments in each round, following an oscillatory pattern: from the starting player to the last, and then from the last one back to the first player.

Therefore, you must choose the right fragment at the right time. Or wait. Or even use tools to retouch the work.




In the search for the most appreciated stained-glass window there are some objectives to reach for.
One of them is individual, secret and different for each craftsman: the color that will be specially rewarded at the very end, through the sum of the value of each of their fragments.




The others are common goals, three per game.
So that a certain coherence in the style of all the works is achieved.
Colors, patterns or values to benefit from.
Some easier than others.
Some more valuable than others.




As the work progresses, it becomes more and more difficult to reconcile restrictions and the available raw material.

It is then time to reach for the tool kit, enabling one to retouch the stained-glass window under construction, to change the positions of some fragments, to obtain permission to ignore some restrictions, to gain access to more material, or to change values.




The use of tools comes with a cost, being only cheaper for the first one to do so. Since these artisans are not exactly rich, the decision must be well thought. Save it to the end, as a last resource when everything may become more difficult, or use it beforehand, benefitting from a lower cost?




After the work is finished it is time to contemplate it, to let the light falls upon the stained-glass window and to marvel at the magic of the rich colours.




Although contemplation is brief, because there will always be someone impatient to ascertain who has best fulfilled the common specifications for the work, and the touch of personal taste!




This is Sagrada, a game with dice, which is not the same of being a dice game, in which each player-craftsman has his own puzzle to solve, following a single individual goal and sharing the remaining goals, features and tools.

The interaction between artisans relies on competition for the raw material available in each round, and on access to the tools.

It is also possible to play it in solitary.

A game enjoyed here, at home, and that is played under 60 minutes, even at a 4 player-count, being suitable for a very wide range of ages and tastes.

Sagrada (2017), by Daryl Andrews and Adrian Adamescu, Floodgate Games, presented here in the Portuguese version by MEBO Games.

1 February 2020

Much more than just numbers



Numbers. Of projects, inventory, attendances, sales.
Numbers. Marking moments, dates, meetings.
Numbers. That are not mere numbers.
Numbers. With people behind them.
Numbers. With connected people.
Numbers. Lived.


                1   own game under development
                1   rule book translation under way
                3   games of other designs being tested
                5   unplayed games in the collection, if I counted right
              10   compound annual growth rate (%) for the boardgame market 2018-24
              12   games in the shortest list of all the future acquisitions' list
              15   editions of Leiria Con, Leiria, Portugal, completed next March
              20   years of BoardGameGeek (BGG)
              25   years after the publication of The Settlers of Catan
              64   squares in a chess board
            100   blog entries so far
            108   games from Portuguese designers on BGG
            361   intersections in a Go-board
            437   members of Boardgamers de Portugal, on Facebook (FB)
            570   components in CO2 - Second Chance
         1 939   year of the foundation of Majora game company, Porto, Portugal
         1 952   year of the foundation of Avalon Hill, Maryland, USA
         1 980   first number of french magazine Jeux & Stratégie
         2 020   the current year, according to our time counting system
       18 514   games ranked in BGG
       40 761   members of The Boardgame Group, on FB
       70 000   visitors to GenCon, Indiana, USA
     100 000   visitors to Cannes Games Festival, France
     209 000   visitors to Essen Spiel, Essen, Germany
     219 382   backers of Exploding Kittens on Kickstarter (KS)
  1 135 258   euros pledged on KS, by Madeira and On Mars, games with Portuguese design
12 393 139   dollars pledged on KS by Kingdom Death Monster