Editor’s observe: Pessoa was launched in early 2022 and shall be out there at SPIEL ’22 after being demoed at SPIEL ’21. —WEM

An Idea Is Just an Idea

I used to be scared to demise when writer PYTHAGORAS requested whether or not I might design a sport about Fernando Pessoa. For Portuguese people, Pessoa is like this literary monster (within the good sense) whose work is so impactful that there’s not a single particular person in Portugal who has not heard about him.

I stated I used to be going to take a look at it — however my first thought was, “How the hell am I going to design a sport a few man who actually created dozens of different guys that lived inside his head?!!”

“That’s it”, I screamed in the course of the road whereas an outdated girl stared at me, fairly scared about my unusual conduct. “I’m going to design a sport that not solely focuses on his poetry, however basically on these characters that he created.” If this had been a film, then I’d have grabbed the outdated girl’s arms and began to bounce together with her and music would play within the background…but it surely wasn’t, and the outdated girl would have for certain known as the police.

Heterowhat!?

Pessoa coined the idea of a “heteronym”. If you google the literary idea of heteronym — not the linguistic idea! — you may study {that a} heteronym is a fictional character created by a author to write down in a unique fashion, a personality who has an imaginary life, a biography, and a particular writing fashion (even a unique calligraphy within the case of Pessoa’s heteronyms). As my good buddy Etienne Espreman stated, Pessoa was the grasp of function enjoying means earlier than function enjoying was cool — or perhaps even existed as an idea!

This was my base: Take the extra impactful heteronyms, and make a sport about them and their poems. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Well…

I had spoken too quickly. Conceptually this concept was straightforward. The actual problem was learn how to mix the poetry-writing theme with attention-grabbing gameplay and entangled choices and nonetheless make it work. Let me insert an emoji right here to precise how silly I sounded

I began by gathering the 4 most iconic heteronyms, supported by the information I had about Pessoa’s work. I do know I sounded utterly misplaced earlier than, however I have to confess that Pessoa was one in every of my favourite poets of all time, particularly his heteronym Alberto Caeiro, so I already had a whole lot of information about him and the opposite three heteronyms explored within the sport: Ricardo Reis, Álvaro de Campos, and Bernardo Soares.

Heteronyms of their prototype ugliness (Image: Meeple of Liberty)

And Then What?

Good that you just requested my heteronymical crowd. The subsequent step was to generate the sport mechanisms from the theme itself. Unlike my earlier revealed video games Porto and Rossio, whose mechanisms had been way more summary in relation to the theme that supported them, I felt that right here I needed to observe one other route, a route I had already been experimenting with for different video games that I used to be (and nonetheless am) growing.

Let the Game Bleed Theme!

If every participant had been a heteronym, a metaphysical creation, then they must be transferring between the top of Pessoa the place they lived and the bodily areas of Lisbon the place they may really do issues.

Solution: The sport board is split into 4 bodily areas and one metaphysical house — the top of Pessoa.

If we’re a heteronym and we have to transfer, then now we have to maneuver and set off actions.

Solution: Create a worker-placement sport during which every participant controls one meeple that represents their heteronym, and on their flip, they’ve to maneuver the meeple into one other house and carry out the motion.

But worker-placement video games usually have restrictions about placement; in any other case, they change into too free.

Solution: Two heteronyms can not share the identical bodily house as a result of, nicely, Pessoa couldn’t “function play” two heteronyms on the identical time.

But then, with so few worker-placement spots, gamers will get utterly blocked!

Solution: Let’s make a fifth meeple that represents the bodily physique of Pessoa. Players need to spend power to take management of it, however when you management it, you possibly can transfer your heteronym meeple or Pessoa’s meeple — and Pessoa’s meeple can share a bodily house with a heteronym and by doing so carry out the motion.

Okay, but when there’s a heteronym meeple on that bodily house and Pessoa’s meeple can also be there? You could be blocked. Imagine it is the final motion of the sport, and you can’t write a poem due to that?!

Solution: If a heteronym meeple strikes again to the metaphysical house that’s Pessoa’s head, they must exert themselves to return by spending power, however they’ll be capable of carry out the motion of the bodily house the place Pessoa’s bodily physique at the moment stands.

Well, and in regards to the heteronyms. How do you characterize how completely different they had been?

Solution: We create a sport mode during which you play with the heteronyms as uneven since they had been conceived by Pessoa as every specializing in a particular writing fashion, with particular powers that break the foundations of the sport primarily based on their recognized traits.

Image: Meeple of Liberty

Okay, That’s All Good, But How the Hell Do You Write Poems?

Well, my heteronymical crowd, I used to be about to clarify that. Please exert your heteronymical persistence with me!

During the sport, you may be gathering inspiration playing cards from two of probably the most iconic cafes of Lisbon from that interval. To do this, you spend your inventive power. Why? Because you may be arguing with all of the artists and poets, and that prices power. After a few heated discussions and a number of other glasses of wine, you may really feel impressed and head to Rossio sq. to write down a poem. Why Rossio, you ask, when Pessoa has written in every single place in Lisbon? Well, as a result of the Rossio sq. is gorgeous, and I could have designed a sport prior to now about that, however that is in all probability unrelated.

Back to our story: When you write a poem, you play playing cards out of your hand and rating factors for the forms of playing cards you might be enjoying (in accordance with how nicely your heteronym writes in that fashion), presumably receiving further factors when you have a poem that has some coherence of fashion. Then, you discard the playing cards, however maintain one as a fraction of that poem that you’ll later use when writing your remaining poem on the finish of the sport.

Image: PlayItYourself

Did I Say There Is a Bookshop?

Pessoa had one of many best libraries of the time, and within the sport, you possibly can go to the bookshop to get new bookshelves full of books of a sure literary fashion. They improve the variety of factors you’ll rating once you write a poem utilizing playing cards of that fashion.

Image: Meeple of Liberty

It’s a sort of poetry engine-building course of — or a poetry engine-writing course of…

Image: Meeple of Liberty

But What’s That Rotating Thing within the Middle of the Board?

Spot on as at all times, my heteronymical crowd. As we’re about to finish this ramble, I feel I ought to point out that the metaphysical house is a rotating plate as a result of it not solely serves as metaphysical house, but in addition has an astral map and the calendar on the skin. Each time a spherical ends, the plate rotates, and when the sport reaches 1935, Pessoa dies and the sport ends.

Pre-production copy; can you see the error? (Image: Meeple of Liberty)

Wait, You Said Astral Map?!

Yes, I did. Once once more, you guys virtually appear to be inside my head!

Pessoa was very mystic. Not solely did he create full biographies for his heteronyms, however he additionally created astral maps for them. In the sport, every time you discard inspiration playing cards (whereas writing a poem or whereas going to the bookshop), you verify to see whether or not any of the discarded playing cards have at the very least one of many two zodiac indicators depicted on the part of the astral map dealing with that motion house. If at the very least one matches, you acquire the bonus and get a digital pat on the again from Pessoa himself for aligning your actions with the celebs!

Image: Meeple of Liberty

Is That All? Can We Go Back to Our Lives?

Well, when you enable me for the final time, I want to say that I did not discover some sport components on this submit that I’ll allow you to probe for your self when you open the doorways of your bodily assortment to those metaphysical creations.

See you inside a poetry e book someplace,

Orlando Sá

Image: Meeple of Liberty