Cortiça was officially released in April 2024 through the Board Game of the Month Club, Button Shy’s subscription service where backers receive a new game every month. This meant that the physical game was not sold on Button Shy’s store – except for a brief moment when 30 or so spare copies were available and quickly sold out.
One of my favorite things about Button Shy is how open they are to distributing their games as Print and Plays, which are files you can use to print your own copy. This has a lot of advantages, from making the games cheaper (the files are cheaper than the physical game and there are no shipping costs to pay), it is more environmentally friendly because it skips the logistics of shipping the games around the world and it keeps the games available for longer because the digital copies don’t run out.
When Button Shy does crowdfunding campaigns for their games they always include the option to back it as a Print and Play. They also run PNP Arcade, an online shop for print and plays, where you can also find Cortiça.
It was a joy to receive my copies of Cortiça. Due to the high shipping costs (and now tariffs) from the USA to Europe, up until now all of the Button Shy games I had played were Print and Plays. The first Button Shy game I’ve held in my hand was the one I designed myself! I took the opportunity to take some photos:
If you’d like to get a physical copy of Cortiça, good news! Cortiça is a part of Button Shy’s Reprint Campaign which is currently running and will last for 6 more days.
I’m very happy that the game is getting a wider physical distribution and I hope that everyone that wants a copy is able to get one. If you’re reading this at a later date, I’m sorry you missed it!
Before we go, I’d like to highlight these fan projects from the Button Shy community:
Ava Jarvis (sinopiasaur) created an elegant solo variant that allows you to play the game whenever you want! For such an interactive game, I am impressed by how well it works. I invite you to try it. The rules are available here.
Lee Smith (DragonWizard9) opened my eyes to another advantage of Print and Plays. You can print the games in different sizes and materials! First they printed a miniature foil version of Cortiça and they took it one step further by making a version out of cork, with a box and everything! How cool is that?
The best part is this happened before I had revealed the earlier plans for a cork version!
And with this, the design diary for Cortiça is up to date! If you’ve just found this article and would like to read it from the start, here is Part 1.
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In the following year Gil d’Orey from Mebo Games contacted me about another of my prototypes and since they’ve published several games with Portuguese themes I brought up Cortiça. He tried it out, liked what he saw and for the next months we iterated on the game, both in terms of gameplay but also production.
Gil wanted to make the game out of cork, which sounded wonderfully fitting! They investigated several options. The first was to make the cards out of cork, but the production costs would skyrocket. They looked into only making the resource cards out of cork, bringing the number down from 18 cards to 6. Then they took a different approach of having a cork box instead, then a cardboard box with a cork sleeve to keep the lid shut.
One of Mebo’s prototypes, with resource cards made of cork
In the end there was no option that would be cost-effective to produce, which meant they’d be forced to charge a price that would seem too high for a tiny game of only 18 cards. In that price bracket it would also be competing with much bigger games that are well established. They politely declined and returned the rights to me.
A few months later Jason Tagmire from Button Shy Games got in touch and showed interest in publishing Cortiça, which sounded great since it had been designed specifically for them. He handed the game to his playtesting team, who regularly sent me helpful feedback and suggestions.
Some of the most notable changes:
The Action cards are no longer shuffled at the end of the round, with the first one getting turned over. Instead, the player whose worker is at the bottom of the pile gets to pick which action leaves the line on the next round. This gives the players more control, works as a catch-up mechanism and makes the game more strategic, giving players a better idea of what action cards might be available next and in what order, and letting players choose to have a sub-optimal round in order to cue up the next one in their favor. It also reduces the hassle of having to shuffle and rebuild the action line every round.
The Action cards are now horizontal instead of vertical. This gives the art more room to breathe and form a landscape on the table. It greatly simplified things by placing all of the action spaces on the bottom of the cards, which was a lot easier to parse.
The Plan cards now show what’s on the other side as well, so players don’t have to memorize them or flip them to check, revealing their plans.
The “Get Help” card is no longer a permanent upgrade. In tthe earlier version the players who did this early had such a big advantage that it was hard to catch up. It also meant that action card was pretty much useless once the players upgraded both of their workers. Now the action is cheaper but it doesn’t last as long. It’s a bet on your next turn, so use it well!
Sara Mena developing the art direction for Cortiça
When it came time to think about the art, I mentioned I’d love it if the artist was Portuguese since they’d be more familiar with the topic, aesthetics and culture. I suggested Sara Mena, a talented artist who’s been an integral part of Cortiça’s development from the start, helping me with brainstorms, playtesting and overall support. She’s also my partner and we’ve long wanted to collaborate on a game. I was delighted that both Sara and Jason were up for it.
Cortiça’s wallet is revealed, in great company!
Once Button Shy posted the wallet design, everything was suddenly more real. It’s finally announced and people are wondering what it is. It’s happening! One step closer to the launch.
The deadline for Button Shy’s design challenge was fast approaching so it was time to prepare the materials to submit. The cards and rulebook were in a good state but there was one thing left to do: the pitch video. These videos are an important part of the process. Button Shy gets so many submissions for the challenges that they need these short videos in order to speed up their triage process. They’re also great practice for the designers so they can learn how to pitch their games and the video itself could be sent to publishers.
There were a few technical challenges. It was hard to find a place that didn’t create glare on the cards so I ended up recording on top of our bed, which meant I had to be on my knees. I had to rely on the camera’s microphone, which isn’t the best and left the sound a bit muffled.
Am I really that hard to understand?
I took the chance to try youtube’s automated subtitle feature, which is handy but gets confused with Portuguese names and words. Still, it was quicker to correct the transcriptions than to write everything from scratch.
Given the constraints, I’m happy with how it turned out. It gives you a quick overview of the game’s theme, rules and an example turn from the middle of the game, with five seconds to spare from the three minute limit.
Cortiça’s pitch video for the design challenge
I must add that I kept working on the game after the contest so these rules and cards don’t match the published version (spoilers!). I left it up as an example of a simple pitch video for other designers and people like you who are curious about how the game came to be.
Despite the demanding briefing there were over 150 games submitted to the design challenge! I was very happy that Cortiça made it to the 10 finalists but in the end the winner was Food Truck Feud, by Jay Yeates. It’s since been published by Button Shy as À la Food Cart.
Button Shy’s announcement video with the finalists and winner
At that time I was living in Ireland, and was a member of the board for IMIRT – The Irish Game Makers Association. One of my tasks was to help organize the IMIRT Irish Game Awards, which spotlight games made in the country. That year we were short on nominees, including for the Best Analogue Game category, which only had one. It was suggested I submit Cortiça.
I checked with the board before submitting because it could be seen as unfair since I was part of the organization, but since I was not a member of the Jury or part of the judging process, it was approved. I didn’t expect much because the other nominee was a published game with professional art. Mine was a tiny prototype, 18 handmade cards and rules in a ziploc bag.
Cortiça won Best Analogue Game and was the runner-up for Best Game Design at the Imirt Irish Game Awards 2020!
They’re so pretty!
One of the big winners that year was Empire of Sin, by Romero Games. It won the awards for Best Game Design, Best Game Art and Best Technical Achievement, and was the runner-up for Best Game Narrative, Best Game Audio and Game of the Year. I was one of the game designers on the team! That was my day job. Cortiça was created in my spare time.
You can check the full list of winners and nominees here.
But that’s not where Cortiça’s story ends! There’s a couple more posts left to go.
I’ve been working on a new prototype which I’m calling “The Machine”.
It started about a month ago. I wanted to make a game to play with my family, so it had to be accessible and easy to learn. It should fit into a small box. And I wanted the players to be able to change the rules as it’s being played. It’s something I’ve wanted to try for years, so why not give it a go?
You might be wondering “Isn’t that just Fluxx?”. Not exactly. Back when I first read about it, Fluxx sounded incredible! Fun concept, easy to teach and to set up. But when I played it I found it far too random. The game dragged on as players stole cards from each other and kept changing the goal. It made me think “What would my take on Fluxx be?”.
One of the challenges of a designing a game like this is that you have to make two games at the same time. There’s the game the players play from turn to turn and there’s the meta layer of rules which can be changed every so often. In a way, it’s similar to Fortune Tellers, a design I often return to but have yet to complete. You have to make sure that no matter how twisted the rules get, the game doesn’t get into a state where it cannot end.
To make it accessible, I started sketching rules on cards. I don’t want players to have to rely on their memory as the rules change, so they go on the table where everyone can see them.
I first played around with action programming and found that it could quickly get out of hand. If the rule sequences grew every turn, the game’s footprint would keep increasing, and so would the length of every turn. And if every player was too engrossed by their own sequence of rules, it would be a more solitary experience than I was after.
The first playtest of The Machine
I landed on the following: There is a line of action cards on the center of the table, which will resolve from left to right. On your turn you add a new card to the end of the line and resolve them in order. Then you take the first card into your hand. This allows the turns to keep changing without growing endlessly. Timing is an important factor, because when you play a good action it will stay in the line for a few turns and other players will get to use it too. Since there’s only a handful of actions the game is very easy to get into. The fun part is combining them in surprising ways.
This felt novel and exciting! However, research showed that a similar system had been used in the game Impulse, which was far more complex than I’d like this one to be. While not totally original, it felt like there was design space to explore.
It’s not easy to find a suitable theme for this game! There aren’t too many ways to explain a sequence of actions that you cannot rearrange, at least in a way that doesn’t feel forced. For now I went with: The players are factory workers who need parts to complete their orders. The parts are built by a machine that is very powerful but slow to adapt to change. Hence, “The Machine”.
I had never seen a system like this in action so I was very curious to try it out. I was shocked by how well the first playtest went. Teaching it was a breeze, the game went smoothly, the players liked it and it took exactly as long as I was going for. There was almost nothing to change!
It’s a good game but I think it would be great. I already have a few things in mind in order to make it more tense, exciting and allow for more varied strategies. Stay tuned!
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Now that I had a playable prototype (with a theme and everything!) it was time to show it to more players. This time however, I didn’t have a playtest group. Not only that, it was July 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone was at home in quarantine, and it would have been irresponsible to break it to get someone to playtest my game. Time to get creative!
My cousin Miguel wanted to try it, so I improvised a setup with a tripod and a webcam in order to run a playtest through Skype. Since Cortiça has no hidden information, I could handle the cards for both of us. All he had to do was tell me his move.
Playtesting via webcam on an improvised streaming setup, on an improvised desk (Thank you, Ben!)
It worked but it was not ideal. The tripod had to be very close to the table and I had to be extra careful not to bump it with either my arms or my feet. It was tricky to light the cards without getting glare on the card sleeves and my camera’s resolution was a bit too low to keep up with the text on the cards. It was finally time to take Tabletop Simulator for a spin.
Recreating the game in Tabletop Simulator was straightforward. Once I had properly formatted files (one image with all the card fronts, another with all the backs), importing the cards was a breeze. That took care of the components! At this stage I didn’t want to get into scripting or automation because the game was still in a very fluid state where it could change drastically from one playtest to the next.
All the card fronts in one image, ready to import to Tabletop Simulator
Tabletop Simulator has a lot of potential but its interface often gets in the way, complicating simple things such as tucking a card under another. Even after learning its controls, it still feels like playing a game while wearing boxing gloves. This can affect playtests in a number of ways. Due to its cost and controls, the players who are willing to playtest are often very involved in the hobby. A more casual player would still have to go through its learning curve, and it will color their opinion of the game. In addition, games tend to run longer than they would with a physical prototype.
In this occasion though, it suited me very well. I was even able to find a workaround for several of the technical issues such as its price and interface. Just like my playtest with Miguel, I could run Tabletop Simulator on my machine and share my screen, moving the cards for both players. This allowed me to playtest with people that didn’t own Tabletop Simulator, and they didn’t even have to learn the controls!
Cortiça’s prototype on Tabletop Simulator
All the while I continued playtesting at home with Sara, always patient and supportive. The game took shape as we tried different strategies and made adjustments. My digital notes gradually turned into the game’s rulebook – but that’s a topic for the next article, where we’ll cover the contest submission.
The first prototype for Cortiça, handmade and still without a theme, or a name.
At the end of Part 1 I had a high level idea of how the game could work, but it hadn’t been tested and I had yet to define what it would be about.
At this point I could either look for a theme to design the game around, or try to get the game’s basic rules to work and then find a theme that fits. The good thing is, there is generally no wrong answer here. As long as they’re in tune in the end, you can start however you want.
Given the strict component count for the competition (18 cards!) there was a risk of falling in love with a theme that demanded more components, or that would make me want to stretch the definition of a worker placement game to the point where it would no longer qualify for the competition. Gameplay it is, then!
There was still one question left to answer before assembling the first prototype: I knew what 13 of the cards will be used for, but what about the other 5? I gave each player an additional resource type to allow for more depth in their actions. The other three were made into public double-sided goal cards which would change throughout the game. These were meant to add variability and to help prevent a dominant strategy, which is when you have a strategy that’s so powerful that there is no reason to do anything else. Watch out for those, they can sap all the fun out of a game!
The first playtest went well. The core system worked, the economy needed another pass (but that’s to be expected!), and the game took exactly one hour, which is a lot longer than I would like. After a few tweaks, it worked a lot better! It was finally time to start looking for a theme.
Putting together a prototype in Affinity Designer
As I wrote in Part 1, I wanted this game to be about a facet of Portuguese culture that I hadn’t seen represented in boardgames before. Turns out, there are plenty of those! After a fun brainstorm session with Sara Mena, we ended with an A4 page full of possibilities. There was one tricky aspect, however…
The core of the game is resource conversion, which could suggest a theme of harvesting or manufacturing something, but there is an extra wrinkle that doesn’t line up with the standard manufacturing process. In the game you use your workers to gather A to turn into B, which you can use to get C. Think of C as points: once you reach a specific amount, you win. There are several ways to turn combinations of A and B into C, but you can also can turn C back into a larger amount of B! That’s because I wanted to give players the option to spend their hard-earned points for a chance of getting even more later on – but will they have enough time to do it? This could also work as a catch-up mechanism, because it gives a losing player a chance to sprint ahead.
The obvious solution would be for C to be money, so exchanging it for B could represent buying it, but since getting C is the goal of the game, that could easily be interpreted as “money is good”, and I did not want that at all. I’d much prefer if my game could help people forget about capitalism for a bit.
Fortunately, there was one theme on the list that could fit all of the gameplay so far: Cork!
Three wallets made out of cork fabric.
Cork is a big deal in Portuguese culture. You may have only seen it as wine stoppers, but has long been used to make tools and the recent invention of cork fabric has greatly expanded its possibilities. Not only can you make things like wallets, umbrellas, hats and even postcards out of it, but it can also be recycled.
So now I have a theme! When applied to my game, the result is: The players will assign their workers to grow cork oaks, extract the bark and process it into different products made out of cork. Players can also recycle their cork, which gives them raw material which they can turn into other products. I also had a name: “Cortiça” (/kuɾˈti.sɐ/), the Portuguese word for Cork.
On the next design diary we’ll cover playtesting during a pandemic: Part 3 – Playtesting.
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Photo of a cork oak tree in a dry Alentejo field, by António Carrapato
At long last, let’s talk about Cortiça! What is it, and where did it come from?
After Blight Chronicles: Agent Decker wrapped up, I was done. It was such a negative experience that it left me incapable of working on my own projects for a while. It taught me what a panic attack was, even if I didn’t have a name for it yet. Every so often I’d come up with an idea for a mechanism or a theme that seemed interesting and would write them down, but as soon as I started to develop it into a prototype, there would be instant splitting headaches and my heart rate would go up. The message was clear, I had to take a break. This was supposed to be a hobby. This was supposed to be fun.
This went on for a few years.
It had been almost eight years since me and my partner moved abroad for work. I wouldn’t describe myself as a patriotic person, but as time went on I started to miss facets of Portuguese culture that couldn’t be found anywhere else. It was heartwarming to see new, popular boardgames using Portuguese themes but they seemed to focus on just a few aspects of the culture such as wine and azulejo tiles. There’s so much more! One day I brought this up on Twitter and a random user responded with an angry version of “If you’d like to see more games with Portuguese themes, why don’t you make one?”. I think they were just trying to shut me up, but I wanted to make something to answer back. Is it wrong to make a game out of spite?
In June 2020, Button Shy Games announced a new design contest: “Create an 18 card worker placement game. Cards only.“. This seemed impossible! Worker placement games usually have plenty of tokens for workers, currency, resources, sometimes even victory points! How can you compress it all into only 18 cards? It got my brain going. I still wanted to take things easy so I didn’t commit to the contest right away, but I had to see if I could crack this puzzle.
Boardgame designers often get asked “Do you start with the theme or the mechanics?”. In this case the component constraint was just as important. If it can’t fit those cards, it’s no good. So I started to do research on worker placement games. I had to get to the essence of what makes them work, because there wouldn’t be room for much more. Action drafting, timing, blocking, action resolution, collecting and converting resources, multiple paths to victory. In 18 cards…!
This needed a new approach. I figured one way to make sure the game would fit into 18 cards was to sketch what it could look like while in play. This really helped! I still didn’t know what the game was about or how it played, but this let me allocate cards for different functionalities to see how many I would need for a basic worker placement game. After multiple attempts on paper I moved to the computer and sketched something that started to look like a game:
Mock screenshot of Cortiça
There is a central row of action cards with one or two slots where you can place workers. Each player has their own worker and resource cards, in their color. Workers are double-sided so they could be upgraded. Resources are counted by rotating the card. The amount on the top edge is your current total and they’re double-sided, so each card can count up to seven. And the best part is, I have five spare cards!
Now that I had an idea of the general shape and limits of the game, I could start to figure out what it is about, and how it plays.
Remember this blog? It’s been a while since I posted regularly about what I’ve been working on. Sure, there was the odd update and catch-up here and there, but there was so much that wasn’t mentioned here, from new game prototypes, to a new design being picked up by two publishers and even winning an award before it was out!
Why did I stop posting? Let’s get into it.
If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen me talk about most of these things. It was so easy to tweet a photo or a quick note about something, compared to writing a proper post here, and there was an eager audience that engaged with it. But at the rate that Twitter is imploding, I can’t count on it being there for very long. So I will be turning some of those tweets and threads into blog posts, and possibly turning Twitter URLs into screenshots instead, to make them more future-proof. Also, if you follow me on Twitter I’d like to ask you to follow me on Mastodon instead, because I’m not using Twitter anymore.
I still work in videogames during the day, just as I have for the last 13 years. Doing so has required five international relocations so far, which certainly had its fun aspects but it also meant having to leave my design group and playtesters behind more than once. It’s no coincidence that my games started focusing on smaller player counts. They’re the ones I can playtest at home.
Last but definitely not least, I spent several years working with a very controlling boardgame publisher who kept their eye on my social media and complained whenever I posted about other projects, so I stopped posting – but I didn’t stop sketching other games. I had to. It was the only creative outlet during those years working on games I did not want to make. It burned me out and I’m still recovering, so naturally the pace has had to change.
That chapter is over. I’m not working with them anymore, the games are out of print and the rights have reverted back to me. But I am getting ahead of myself. I’ll have more to say about that later.
So welcome back, and I hope you stick around for the new posts!
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Every so often I look for talks about the process of designing games and only found a few. Maybe I’m spoiled by all the postmortems that happen in the videogame medium but I’d love to see something similar from boardgame designers, especially about working with IP or adapting games from one medium to another.
So when Gamedev Camp invited me to do a talk and let me pick the topic, I knew what I had to do! I went with the design process of adapting SUPERHOT from a videogame to a card game.
I was interviewed by Alice Vilaça for the radio show “Portugueses no Mundo”, which is about the experiences Portuguese people have when they’re living abroad.
If you speak Portuguese you can listen to it on their website or on the subtitled video below.
In addition, here is the transcript in English:
Alice Vilaça: Manuel Correia is 34 years old. He’s from Lisbon and is in Ireland. He arrived in Galway in January 2020 and it was here, in Ireland, that it all began – in 2013, followed by other international experiences. The two years in Ireland were followed by two in Germany, then two more in Sweden, until a return to Ireland in early 2020.
Manuel, is it predefined that these experiences are meant to only last two years?
Manuel Correia: Not at all. It’s just that I work in a very volatile industry and I don’t always have any control over what happens next.
AV: We’ll get to what happens next, this was just a bit of a tease.
2013, Ireland. What makes you leave our country and head towards Ireland, at the time?
MC: I think this needs a bit of context.
I never found a career I identified with in Portugal. I was quite lost for a while and eventually I was able to find a group of people which were also interested in making games. From then on I tried to head in that direction. It took a while but I got there.
I started at a studio in Portugal. About two years later I went to another. And at a certain point, when I started planning the next steps, I realized that there was no other worthwhile studio in the country, at least in my opinion, and I started to look for a job abroad. So when I had the job offer it wasn’t a surprise. It was because I had been sending CVs to other studios for a while.
AV: Was it at this time that you realized that Portugal is small – or at least your industry is small here – that you considered going abroad? Or was the international experience always present in your mind?
MC: It was always present. Games have always been a part of my life and I didn’t know of a single one that had been made in Portugal until fairly late. This lead me to think that it wasn’t possible to make games from Portugal. I didn’t know anyone who did this. I didn’t know of any studios in the country. It felt like a career that could only happen to other people.
That’s why I was lost, because I was looking for a career that resonated with me and I couldn’t find it.
AV: Is it fair to say that you found your path when you got this offer to come to Ireland?
MC: I believe I found my path when I was able to get into the games industry, which was still in Portugal, but I felt limited and blocked. So yes, being able to leave unblocked my path and broadened my horizons.
AV: And what a path it has been!
How was your first experience in Ireland? How was it when you got there? At the time, a different city from the one you’re at today.
MC: Oh yes, different for sure. At the time it was Dublin, now I am in Galway, but I must say it wasn’t completely new to me because I had already studied in the United Kingdom for six months in 2008 and Ireland has a lot in common with it. In fact, I’d say it only has the good parts of the UK.
AV: In any way, it was a different experience this time. You had already studied in the United Kingdom but I believe that the feeling of heading out to start a new life makes the experience quite different.
How was the experience of adapting to this new life, Manuel?
MC: It was very interesting. Naturally there were a lot of cultural changes, it was a new country, one I didn’t know yet. In fact, I moved here without ever having visited before. The whole process of finding this job was done through the phone.
And to add to the new experiences, it was also the first time I moved in with my partner! We lived in different houses in Portugal and took the chance to live together here. So there were a lot of new things at the same time.
The first encounter was already very positive. We found nice people right away. We started in a rented room in the city suburbs, in the home of a lady named Louise, and I remember that one of the first culture shocks, for us, was when she offered us tea and poured milk in it. It was something I had never seen, but it works quite well with the tea that they drink here.
AV: A different habit but sometimes you can see it in movies, when you hear someone asking if they want milk in their tea.
Before we return to Ireland and hear about the experience you’re having now, I’ve already mentioned at the start that you’ve also been in Germany and Sweden. We won’t be able to look into all these experiences in great detail but I will ask for a word, or moment, that defines each of those experiences and we’ll include Ireland.
Let’s start there. How would you resume your first experience in Ireland in a word or a moment?
MC: I’ll go with the word “Community”. Here I met a lot of people with similar goals and values to mine, so I felt very welcome. It was hard to leave and it’s a relief to find them again here, even in a different city.
AV: Germany.
MC: Efficiency. I know this is a bit of a stereotype, but right when I started working at the studio they promised their players that there would be something new in the game every week. If you know how these games are made that sentence is enough to give you vertigo but we were able to do it, at a great cost.
AV: Sweden.
MC: Innovation. I had the opportunity to work with tools which weren’t public yet. Several were secret, related to new technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, and it was really, really interesting to explore what could be done with them before they were commonplace, before standards were set.
AV: Manuel, were all these relocations caused by your professional life?
MC: No doubt. They were either the result of job offers or ambitions to progress my career further.
AV: So the return to Ireland in January 2020 was also motivated by your professional activity.
MC: Exactly. I was invited by personal heroes, which I’ve long admired, so I could not refuse.
AV: Is it fair to say you currently have your dream job?
MC: I’d say so. I am working at Romero Games, which will sound familiar if you’re into games because it was founded by John Romero, the creator of DOOM.
AV: I confess it’s a whole language I’m not familiar with, but certainly those who are into games will know what you’re talking about.
Manuel, did the return to Ireland feel like coming back home?
MC: Yes, in multiple ways. As I said, it was a chance to work with friends, heroes and people who I already knew but after two countries where we didn’t speak the main language, it’s such a big relief to be somewhere where I can talk to everyone.
AV: Language is a very important factor in an experience like this. The process of adapting and integrating is so much stronger and deeper when you can speak the local language.
MC: Oh yes, absolutely.
For example, English has opened many doors for me but in Germany not everyone spoke English and there were even some proud people who did not admit they did.
No matter how hard people were to deal with, machines were so much worse. Whenever I needed to speak to automatic answering machines in a language I didn’t understand, without the chance to ask them to repeat or to speak a bit slower, it was very discouraging.
AV: In this return to Ireland and with the feeling of returning home, was there still a process of adaption? Was there some continuity to the process which you had begun back in 2013? Was it easier because you (or both of you, because this was something you’ve lived together) already had some experience moving to other countries?
MC: Yes, there was some continuity. Much of the paperwork had already been taken care of in the first time. We had the equivalent of a Social Security number. This was the easiest out of all the relocations.
AV: All that experience must have helped.
How would you define the Irish? Are they very different from the Portuguese?
MC: No, I wouldn’t say they are very different from Portuguese people because they are also very warm, kind and have a good sense of humor. The main difference for me is that they are excellent at telling stories. You can probably tell by the amount of celebrated Irish authors but it’s not just those. This is also true of people you meet in your daily life.
AV: Do you feel at home?
MC: Yes. But really, given the situation, that question is a bit of a trap. Due to the pandemic I have been at home for over a year and a half (laughs), so I very much feel at home. I feel very comfortable here.
AV: When I ask if you feel at home it’s to know if there are any aspects of the daily life there which you find hard to adapt to, so you don’t feel completely at home. Is this happening, in your case?
MC: Not really. If it had been my first time here I’m sure there would be some, but this time we knew what to expect.
AV: You were talking about the pandemic and the fact you’ve been at home for a year and a half. You could say the same is true for a big part of the population. Do you feel that is preventing you from experiencing this fully?
MC: Yes, but I don’t think that is a bad thing. In the other times, after a year and a half I felt like I knew all there was to see in the area. Here, given the health guidelines we’ve had to take it one step at a time but that only leaves us with more to see in the future. I can’t complain.
AV: How is your daily life at the moment, Manuel? Are there still any restrictions? Are things slowly going back to normal?
MC: Yes, exactly. There are still some restrictions and things seem to be getting back to normal. The pandemic started right after I got here (it wasn’t me!) so I didn’t get to see a lot of what normal life was like. It’s hard to compare.
The vaccination rates are rising, some places are reopening with some caution and some controversy, but things seem to be progressing at a good pace.
AV: Let’s look at the professional side of the experience, since it seems to be driving it. We know you work with videogames. You might have worked on some games people are playing at the moment. What do you do, exactly?
MC: I am a game designer. I create videogames and boardgames. It can be tricky to explain to those outside the industry so I’ll compare it with cinema: I am somewhere between a screenwriter and a director. I have to come up with ideas, understand how they work and describe them clearly enough so that the team can bring them to life.
AV: Are you fulfilled, professionally? Or is this a path in which every new project, every new game, offers a chance for higher fulfillment?
MC: (laughs) Both. At the moment I am fulfilled but it was that search that lead me from place to place. The industry is very volatile and it’s hard to control what the next project at the studio will be, and if it will be something you’ll like.
AV: Is there any project which you particularly enjoyed working on, or is the next one going to be the best one yet?
MC: That’s very hard to answer. There are two games that come to mind.
One is a game called Cookout, which is a virtual reality game about making sandwiches with your friends. There are four people around a table and they have to prepare the customer’s orders. That was very fun to make because, contrary to the trend, this is a cooperative game so you have to coordinate and work together.
The other is Multiuniversum, the first boardgame I was able to publish. That one is very important to me because all the games I had worked on until that point had been sold digitally, which makes it very easy for them to disappear without my control.
It’s a lot more fulfilling to be able to hold something I made with my hands. It’s here, it’s in my shelf. It’s mine and I can pass it on to my grandkids. To me that makes it a lot more valuable than the rest.
AV: We can hear that in your smile.
Manuel, when you were a child, if someone had told you that at 34 you would be in Ireland and working in your dream job, would you believe it?
MC: Not at all! As I said, for a long time I hadn’t even realized that games were made by people. They just appeared in stores and they were fun.
AV: Let’s explore Galway! What kind of city is it?
MC: It’s relatively small but very vibrant, it has a culture of arts and music. There are buskers on the streets, but naturally not as many at the moment. The restaurants are excellent and I can’t wait to explore more.
I’m really enjoying it here. It is close to the sea so there are always boats, seagulls and rain. But it’s not as intense as in Portugal. The raindrops seem smaller and most people don’t even own an umbrella.
AV: Since it rains more often the rain itself not as intense as here. When it rains here, it’s no joke.
Have you found a favorite spot in the city, Manuel?
MC: Yes! I think the answer is predictable but it’s a place called Dungeons & Donuts. It’s a boardgame store that also makes their own donuts. They have a large game library and room to play, so it’s a great place to try new games instead of having to buy every single one.
When things were normal I went there every weekend to play with others and it was great. I really miss it.
AV: I started the conversation by asking if the plan was to be there for two years but you said it depends on your professional activity. Is this Irish adventure meant to last?
MC: I believe so, but judging from past experiences I can’t be completely sure. The two years in each place look deliberate but they were never planned. This is always so tied up to how things are going at the studio that it’s always hard to say.
AV: What has been the biggest learning of this game, or this experience?
MC: Learning how to live with this uncertainty. We plan things as best we can and stay prepared for whatever might come next.
AV: Do you miss our country? What do you miss the most from Portugal?
MC: I miss the people, naturally family and friends but I also miss the places I used to go to most often. Train stations, Gare do Oriente, downtown. These are places I like to revisit when I go to Portugal but with the schedule so full of people to meet, I don’t always get the chance.
AV: Due to the pandemic these visits to Portugal have become more limited. Have you been able to travel during the pandemic?
MC: No. We haven’t even tried. In the current situation we wouldn’t feel safe in an airport or a plane, surrounded by so many strangers. The last time we went to Portugal was before we moved here. Mine was in October, almost two years ago.
AV: In the last year and a half, was it more difficult to be abroad? Did miss it more, did you feel like you were even further due to the current situation?
MC: Strangely, no. I’ve been talking to my family more often than I used to, in part because social isolation has also forced them to use apps to communicate, so now I can follow the conversation too! I end up being a lot more in touch compared to when they were talking to each other face to face.
AV: So you feel closer, despite the distance?
MC: I’d say so, yes.
AV: Manuel, the only thing missing is a word! What word would resume everything you lived in these years since you’ve left Portugal?
MC: Horizon. I felt very limited in Portugal and leaving broadened my horizons.
AV: We can tell! Thank you.
Manuel Correia is in Galway, Ireland. He is a Portuguese person around the world since 2013.
Games by Manuel Correia 