April 1st. Early morning. This Friday wouldn't be a work-work day, as usual. The backpack was ready. Camera, the indispensable notebooks, pen, and pencil, some brand-new business cards, water, and a couple of snacks. The car was sitting by the sidewalk, waiting. The road, further ahead. Destination Vieira Beach. Goal: LeiriaCon. It was April 1st. But this was not an April’s Fool joke!
The last LeiriaCon which I attended, also the first, was held back in 2019. At the time, I was still in the process of rediscovering the world of boardgames and the gaming industry, in its 21st century version. This blog has been started in 2018, collaborations for translations shortly ensued, as well as participation in various forums, and all the while the collection of games continued to grow.
One year later, expectations were high. Contacts had been multiplying, so many names became familiar ones, and my boardgame-focused activity had widened. The anticipated menu for that year included a participation in LeiriaTalks, a session on demonstration and game teaching conducted by Paul Grogan, experimenting with prototypes, playing, and of course meeting the people behind the games, and sharing tables with them.
But then, the pandemic struck. Everything was suspended, postponed, cancelled, confined. Well, not truly everything, because the virtual dimension allowed this area to keep running. And those secluded times included games played in family, the most frequent way around here, after all. But it just wasn't the same. And two years have passed... Three doses of vaccine later, things finally started to change.
The reunion was then scheduled for April 2022! The plan was set. I would miss Thursday, the start-up day. Friday, typically a day with fewer visitors, would be the perfect opportunity to meet, for the first time in person, so many of "those people". Plus, it would be a good day to try out some prototypes, those games yet to be, in the presence of their creator. For Saturday, a fifty-year journey with “my games” at LeiriaTalks and, most likely, a full afternoon of playing. At some point, a visit to the games-sales room, to check some used games, an irresistible temptation. Sunday would be mainly unplanned for. Three days, always starting in Aveiro, in the morning, and driving back home by the sunset, with the radio turned on, on an almost deserted road.
And so it was!
Three intense days, filled-in with so many nice conversations, some longer, other shorter, around tables with boards and tokens, or a mere cup of coffee. Talking about games, naturally, past, present, and future, creations, and projects, possible collaborations. Reunions and new acquaintances. From the digital world to the physical one. From the written words to the spoken ones. From emojis to laughter. With that prevailing feeling that, after all, we've known each other for a long time!
A few are likely to be missing here, but it's worth taking the risk. Thanks Bruno Ribeiro, Pedro Kerouac, João Pimentel, Micael Sousa, João Neves, Uli Blennemann, Citie Lo, Karthik Setty, Marc Gerdts, Carlos e Sónia Sousa, Manuel e Dina Silva, Mariano Inannelli, Rodolfo Gomes, Hugo Marinho e Rita Jesus, Carlos Ramos, Carlos Martinho, Luís Costa, Carlos Santos, Pedro Silva, André Santos, Paulo Soledade, Nuno Santos.
Plan for 2023: the complete experience, with night-time games and overnight included!
