In Black and White: Weekend in Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Friday afternoon, October 21. Time to head north towards Viana do Castelo, for the third convention of the year, after LeiriaCon and RiaCon. This time, finally, for a full stay, to make the most of this opportunity for encounters, re-encounters, and discoveries at the table.

A road trip in tones of gray, anticipating the contrast with the colours awaiting for us. Arriving just in time for the check-in, a glance at Santa Luzia’s hill, already in the darkness, and a quick dinner in an almost deserted place, where a football match was more discussed than watched.

VianaCon had indeed already begun in the afternoon, with a session addressed to schools. For me, it began in the evening, at the Café Concerto of the Theater Sá de Miranda, a different setting for welcoming participants and occasional visitors.

Time for the first meetings, a table to avoid the more traditional seats, a quiz about games, what else, and a first prototype to try out. In the company of Pedro Santos and Maria Mota, both very strong in the questions and answers, and André Santos, the author of the game, which follows a Roll'n Write developed in pandemic times, and Neotopia, soon to be published. Serious prototype riding, stretching strategies to the limit, discussing processes, debating fine-tuning.

Saturday, the first day at the Cultural and Congress Center, with a cozy interior made of wooden tones, and the Lima River just outside the windows. An excellent venue for this kind of events, with tables of generous dimensions. Maybe a coffee zone was the single item missing, to reset the levels throughout the day!

Meeting people. Marlene and Luís, from Salta da Caixa, and their new projects that will bring more games in Portuguese. Manuel, from the boardgame café A Jogar é que a gente se entende, even when having the youngest family member sleeping in his lap (not yet the opportunity to pay visit to the café…). Luís Baixinho, one of the organizers, with whom we talked about science fiction and teaching (both fans of the brilliant short story Profession, by Isaac Asimov), and from Lego to board games of the 80s. Pedro Kerouac, a familiar partner at these conventions. Hugo, with some games in development, and a play test scheduled for InvictaCon. Nuno Rebelo and the future of the Boardgamers of Aveiro. Among others.

Also a first meeting with João Cotrim, partner in recent translations and proofreading of rule books, for the Belgian company The Geeky Pen.

Then, finally (!), it was time to meet Orlando Sá in person. Our first contacts began, like so many others, in Facebook gaming groups. Later, came an unexpected invitation to try out Rossio, one of his boardgames, then in the near-final development stage, and the fine-tuning of the solo mode. The collaborations went on to the most recent published game of his, Pessoa, and extended to various conversations and ideas, cycling included. It is so great that, in this gaming world, we may use virtual and physical spaces, taking advantage of both!

This time around, even with an added bonus: a very interesting workshop on the creation and development of games, from idea to prototypes, from play tests to rule books, from the home table to pitching to publishers.

Afterwards, it was time to play and to discover new games. If, in Leiria, I almost exclusively played prototypes, in different stages of development, this time around I opted to play games already published, recent ones or not that much. Sharing with Tiago, Sérgio, Eduardo, Filipa, Nuno, Pedro Kerouac and Luís Júnior.