Board games 'made in' Ibiza

Origin

It all started unexpectedly when his twin brother, Felipe, returned from his Erasmus in 2021 with a game called Coup under his arm. «I was fascinated by this game, which can be explained in a matter of two minutes, with few rules and quick games of about 15 minutes. "I discovered a very cool experience to share with friends."

From paper to board

Nico's creative process begins with a simple idea, "which was on my mind for a long time," and which then took shape through prototypes and tests. «My friends and my brother were polishing the game based on suggestions. I made a minimum of 150 changes! Using basic materials such as cards, index cards and paper, test each dynamic with friends and family, who become your main collaborators and critics. However, it also highlights the importance of receiving external opinions, such as those obtained through the LUDO association. «The most important thing about the entire process is that external feedback that you receive from those who play, especially from those who don't know you and tell you hard truths to swallow. "If someone doesn't understand the rules well, it's not that they don't know how to play well: it's just that it's poorly designed."

Dream come true

With effort and dedication, Nico went one step further and created his own game publisher, Too Bad Games. Its first two titles, Mala Suerte and Panots, caught the attention of Zacatrus, one of the great references in the sector in Spain, with which it has just brought both games to the market. "These are board games for those who don't play board games," is how the author defines his games.
Bad Luck is a competitive game where the objective is to accumulate as much bad luck as possible, discarding the four-leaf clovers of the rivals. On the other hand, Panots is inspired by the tiles of Barcelona and challenges players to create the most beautiful roads by strategically combining patterns. "The traditional thing is that publishers buy the idea from you to develop it themselves, I opted for self-publishing, covering not only the mechanics, but also coordinating the art, layout and even manufacturing." Cardona remembers that it was "at a gathering of the 'world' in Zaragoza, 'Protos y Tipos', when I met the people from Zacatrus who were immediately interested in my games and the new one I'm working on. Since then we have collaborated together.

Art

For the illustrations of the 'Mala Suert3' and 'Panots' cards, Cardona has relied on the artists Tomás Hijo and Joan Juncosa, respectively. "Tomás is a great artist who always works in an artisanal way, something that is very much in line with what I intend to claim: the purest art compared to what is being replaced with artificial intelligence," explains Cardona regarding the engravings that Hijo has made. for his first game. Regarding 'Panots', he highlights that Juncosa is an architect who "dedicates himself to painting panots, inspired by the decoration of the sidewalks of Barcelona, ​​in his role as a graffiti artist: it was quite a 'match'!"

Many ideas, one love

Nico assures that creating board games has become a creative addiction. Although not all of his projects are published, he continues to explore new ideas with enthusiasm. Among them, he is already working on a new game that promises to be very entertaining, as well as politically incorrect: 'Politics'. "The premise of the game is the internal politics of a party in which the leader retires and we have to look for the new president," explains Cardona while announcing that "there is no shortage of backstabbing, corruption, mud and, of course, the letter with the envelopes with money in 'B'.

Among more future projects, Cardona acknowledges that "I'm toying with the idea of ​​making a game about Ibiza, but I still want to find a different point for it."
Although the distribution of the games fresh from the oven has not yet reached Ibiza stores, "we are working on it and I don't think it will take long to have them in stores in Ibiza." At the moment, they can now be purchased online from the Zacatrus website.