Portrada Devlog 00 - Introductions

Hello everyone,

My name is Max Willman, the lead designer of Portrada, and I really just want to get things started by explaining more about what our game is and what has gone into it so far in the past year or so of its official development.

To start I’ll write about the origins and inspiration of this product. Portrada originally started out as a trade route building game inspired by the route making of Klaus Teuber’s Settlers of Catan and the exploration map building Play Monster’s The Island of Eldorado. The game originally revolved around traveling and building a map of hex tiles to discover resources like trees, clay, metals, gems, and more. The game included caves for fast travel, cities for trading, and Towers that gave bonuses to adjacent tiles.

The game in its early stages lacked complexity and the end was not defined. With the help of artist and design Aspen Pinkston and Creed Zetzman we were able to theme the game around space exploration and create a prototype that would be tested by many during conventions and design events.

(To be continued…)