ICv2 sat down with Portal Games’ Ignacy Trzewiczek at the GAMA Trade Show to learn more about three big projects the company is planning for this year:  Detective, Alien Artifacts, and First Martians.

In Detective:  A Modern Crime Boardgame, designers Trzewiczek (Robinson Crusoe:  Adventures on the Cursed Island, Imperial Settlers) and Przemyslaw Rymer have created an immersive gaming experience that deliberately breaks the fourth wall and invites players to use every resource the modern world offers to help solve a series of five connected crimes. 

Trzewiczek described the experience, saying, “You have a game book with some witnesses saying something, with a description of the crime scene.  Then, you have your smart phone.  You can go to the Google stuff and double-check if they guy in the game book is telling the truth.  We are using Google Maps to see the distance between the locations.  We are checking facts on Wikipedia, tracking if the guy is telling the truth.  We are doing everything we can to solve the case, right?”

To support the game, Portal will be creating websites and other online resources that players will be able to access during the game.

Alien Artifacts is a quick-playing card-based take on the 4X style space conquest genre, created by Marcin Ropka and Viola Kijowska (the creators of Take a Train and Taste of Poland).  Designed to play in 45 minutes or less, players use cards to discover planets, build advanced technologies, and wage war on their opponents.

Development continues on Portal’s app-enhanced adventure game First Martians:  Adventures on the Red Planet, originally announced last year (see “‘First Martians’ Digitally Enhanced Exploration Game”).  This game starts with the engine from Trzewiczek’s own Robinson Crusoe:  Adventures on the Cursed Island, and combines it with an artificial intelligence game master in the form of a downloadable smartphone app.  The app is designed for three different levels of difficulty, and will control the events that happen during the game.

“We are looking into new technologies, how we can enhance experience of the players without leaving the cargo.  There’s still cargo on the board and on the table, there’s still rolling dice, but there’s some support to give it even more value,” Trzewiczek explained.