GamesCom 2013 - Wednesday (Trade Visitor- and Press-Day)

I was kinda tired and my feet still hurt, but I didn't want to miss this year's GamesCom, especially if I was able to enter without buying any ticket |'D

So we arrived at Cologne at around 12:30 and decided to enter at Congress Center Ost (East Entrance), so I would be able to avoid the crowd entering at GamesCom's main entrance (South). Even though it looked rather full in the entrance hall as well, I think it was a good choice to go there. Of course I had to wait for my companions, since they only had "normal" Trade-Visitor tickets, and were only allowed to enter when GDC was officially closed. Anyway, it worked pretty fast! ^^

First, we entered Hall 10, which was rather boring, actually. We just wanted to get some ribbons which would allow us to enter 18+ booths, but the queue was SO long, so we decided to go on without wearing a ribbon. And to be honest, I'm quite happy I didn't try to get one either, since we totally didn't need them, haha! ^^; 

So we left to Hall 9.1 , where there was the Square-Enix booth! It's so flashy!  (๑•ᴗ•๑)♡ Square-Enix had lots of games with them this time - "Kingdom Hearts", "Final Fantasy X" (and X-2), "Lightning Returns", "Murdered", "Thief" and of course "Final Fantasy 14 - A Realm Reborn".  We even gave it a try to play "Lightning Returns" - but I got to say that unfortunately, that's a game I'm not looking forward to. I don't like the main character, to be honest, even if I like her design... but she looks and appears "soul-less" in my opinion. She's not one of those characters you directly fall in love with. She's just... boring? I don't know. And also the new battle system is rather weird for me. I don't like "half-agile" battle mechanics, to be honest. But it's just like that. The player got to change Lightning's outfits several times within a battle, and by doing so her 'class' changes automatically (e.g. "warrior", "magican" and so on). The artists did a very great job on this game anyway, especially on the monsters. Kudos to you, guys.

Some more impressions from the booth <3 

Well, after checking out the Final Fantasy-part of SE, we decided to attend a presentation for the game "Thief", which actually is just a remake... anyway it looked so cool, and I'm totally looking forward to this game! Especially because I already thought that the old Thief-games were totally great! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any photos during that presentation, BUT I totally felt it's the same team workin' on this title which also was responsible for "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" (and, oh you can't imagine how I loved this game!). 

Right after the presentation finished, we headed back to the back side of the booth, where there was another presentation... a presentation about "Final Fantasy 14 - A Realm Reborn" by Naoki Yoshida !! ❤　He introduced some innovations and even fought against one of the bosses, allying with some random attendees :'D He obviously had fun! Unfortunately, he already left the stage quite early again, but I was able to ask for an autograph and additionally I could have a little chat with him in Japanese! He was visibly surprised about that, though ( *´艸｀) ). 

After that, we didn't attend lots of presentations or tests, since most of the queues were already too long (so I don't wanna know what it'll look like on Saturday .... _ _'! ). Anyway I met lots of press people who also did recognize me with a huge smile :) Thank you so much, you made my day! ww And I also met Mohamed and Vicenzo :) (I hope you guys will have a save trip! ).

Later on that day, we were invited to have some drinks at the business area, where we stayed until GC closed :'D I was able to take some "Monster Energy"-drinks with me for free, and well, since I totally love "Monster Ripper", I didn't need to think twice! (￣∀￣)

Nevertheless, we saw a lot. Too much, maybe, to put it into words without hurting my fingers, haha :') But since I want to end this entry with picutres... here we go! ^o^

 

(The Last of Us)

(Assassin's Creed IV - Black Flag)

(World of Warcraft)

(World of Warcraft)

("Rain")

(the "Flying Steps" at the PS4-booth)

 

(Castlevania 2)

Just received my schedule for GDCE!

Yey, so it's been a while again. Anyway I just wanted to share my excitement with you. As I mentioned before, I'm happy to be part of GDCE (Game Developers Conference Europe) in Cologne again ☆

This time will be totally different for me, since I'm not going to be a runner, but got a quite more...well, for me, a job which will cause lots of nightmares until GDC, I think 囧rz

It's decided I'm gonna be a Press Room Assistant, which means I'll participate at the press conferences and meet lots of important people working in the game industry. And, how you probably can imagine, I'm totally nervous. 

Nevertheless, my shifts are rather horrible. I got to attend to our team meetings at around 8:00 a.m., while my sessions only start at 01:00 p.m. (･･;) It means that I'll obviously need to get up at around 5:00 a.m. ... Holy! 

And my shift just ends at 7 p.m. - adding my travel time, I think I'll be able to take off my shoes etc. at around 9:30 p.m. or something. I already plan to abuse our locker room as a dormitory (*ﾉ∀｀*)ゞｴﾍﾍ

Let's see whether I'm able to make it. 

At least we're gettin' free lunch! ☆ (and to be honest, I really think that GDC's lunch is awesome!! :D). 

Are you interested in GDC-content, by the way? If so, I want to try gathering some information to share them with you :)  (I think I will write about my time there anyway, but you can kinda co-determine to what extent I'll do so ( *｀ω´) )

By the way, is anyone planning to go to GamesCom this year? Are there any games you're curious about? 

I'd be totally interested in your opinions! ☆

Rain - Sony's new game

I'm so sorry to bother you with game stuff again (haha, I lied! ヽ(▼ｰ▼ｷ)).
No, really. I'm almost sorry :')

Well, did you already hear about "Rain" ? I just saw the trailer (even though it was already shown at Gamescom's press conference ... but as you know, I didn't see a lot ;__; ) and I really think it looks totally pretty!  The main style reminds me of ICO, so I'm quite curious about how this game will be... unfortunately, it'll be released only "sometime in 2013", as a download for PS3 _ _!

Whatever! I wanna share this trailer with you and I'm curious about what you think about it! ☆　

GDC - Last Day

Geez, I'm done for now!

☆

I'm sitting here, writing this blog entry with... well, let's say 'mixed' feelings. On the one hand, I'm so happy to have finished my duty on GDC, because it was a very hard time and I'm just...done. On the other hand, my team was such a great team and we laughed so much together, had great conversations and they were, well, I don't find another fitting word for that: great. My boss is also such a lovely person... and I know that I won't see at least 99% of them all until next year, because they're living abroad.

Anyway, this experience was priceless.

Boring me being boring |D

But, to start writing about this day's routine, I want to interrupt my 'nostalgia' (haha, may I call it 'nostalgia' already at all...?), here's what I experienced on my last day at GDC Europe.

I went to bed quite early the evening before, because I was tired as hell and my feet were killing me literally. That's why I woke up at around 8:00 a.m. already, even if my shift just started at 4 p.m. ... So I decided to watch some TV ("Malcolm in the Middle" and "Scrubs") while I was threatening my feet so I would survive the day. Someone gave me some "aromatic skin oils" before, so I wanted to try that on my feet. Actually, it helped quite fine! They still did hurt, but kneading my feet with it helped indeed to decrease the pain a lot (I'm sorry by the way, I also feel totally strange to write about my feet so much. Especially because I personally really don't like feet... %___% ).

My plan was to visit GamesCom before I take my shift, but when I hasted to the bus, it came out that it (which means: the bus) was FAR too late. So I didn't catch my train in time. That's why I decided to keep going by bus to the next town, where I could spend some time buying some food, a drink and new cigarettes.

I love apple turnovers!

Around 5:30 p.m.

Unfortunately, that's why I couldn't visit the GamesCom before my shift - so when I arrived at the venue, I just went to our office where they said it won't be that busy today due to the conferences would end today. Actually, we didn't have any other tasks then to be some kind of "security", so GamesCom visitors couldn't enter the GDC area, but we evolved into an information center quite quickly |D ! Lots of visitors asked us about the lifts, about where to get their catalogues, directions etc. It was quite fun because they all were so nice and hearty!

And then, there was a huge surprise for me: Spellbound's president came to me (I think because he recognized me) and asked me whether I could help him, because he somehow lost his laptop. Fortunately one of my mates (who was actually already quitting shift) took my place so I could take a look at the control room to ask for that laptop. It wasn't there, but they said they'd ask at all the lost-property offices to find that laptop. Et voilá! On the way back home, Spellbound's president came to me again, just to tell me that he got his laptop back. He was so thankful for that, even if I just did such a small thing .__.!

Quite half an hour later, our boss passed. She was so surprised that the workers already almost finished dismounting the conference rooms, so she said "They're almost ready!? Omg, why you guys are still working then? Please feel free to do whatever you want to!" At first I was like "WTF!?", but , yes, she couldn't have known, could she...^^;; 

Of course we finished our shift then and said "Good Bye" to all those other workers who were working with us since last Saturday. Same as I said before: with mixed feelings...

Buuuuut! We were allowed to attend the Gree Aftershow Party, to which we directly went ;)

At GREE Aftershow Party! ☆

At GREE Aftershow Party（´ω｀） 

I left earlier (even though I wanted to go back early) to see some halls of the GamesCom before it would be crowded from tomorrow. I didn't manage to do so, even though I just saw 2 halls T__T;!  But, ey - here are some expressions from my little walk (please don't forget that GamesCom was almost over, so it wasn't that crowded anymore).

GDC - Third Day

Wow, so today was very busy.

As I mentioned yesterday (actually, it was "today" already. Geez...), I had to get up very early (5:00 a.m., to be concrete) and tried to 'fix' my right foot (which still hurts). Used some ointment and cooled it before I left the house, but it didn't hold on for long, so when I arrived at the station in Cologne and wanted to walk down the street to GDC, the pain was back _ _' I'm still not sure what it is or what caused it. Maybe I'll find out after I finished working :')

 (I'm sorry for looking like a dork in this pic, it's just because it was around 5:30 when I shot it and as you might can imagine, I was utterly tired...)

So, I arrived quite early and was able to have some "great" breakfast, which consisted of...RedBull. If I say "RedBull", I mean there weren't like the normal RedBull cans which everyone knows, but some really strange ones. So one of my co-mates brought one for me as well (RedBull sponsored them) and it was like... blueberry taste???I didn't even know that something like that exists at all!

(But speaking of that: it tasted disgusting, I think.... |D )

My task for today was almost just to check badges. Which was - in fact - totally boring and absolutely nerve-racking due to some of the visitors. Some of those didn't even know that "GDC" (Game Developers Conference) and "GC" (aka GamesCom) are two totally different things. So they wanted to enter the East Entrance, which is "GDC ONLY" until it's over. I think you might use the East Entrance from Thursday, as soon as the GDC is over. So we always had to send them to another entrance, explaining them why they couldn't pass GDC's entrance. Sounds not that difficult, does it... anyway, if there's the hundredth visitor at the wrong entrance, you kinda get annoyed. Still we did our best to gave them our best smiles and help whenever we could. Unfortunately, some of them were becoming some kind of 'rude', as if it was our rules or our faults (even some of those people which were obviously working for the GamesCom). To make it clear, of course not all of the visitors were like that ^^  We really had some very nice conversation with some visitors! Some of them did even hold our for some minutes to chat :)  (I especially enjoyed talking to the old man who asked me about the lunch. It just was as if we knew each other for years, when I saw that he was VIP - obviously even some big company's boss!! I was quite ashamed to be honest, but he was just laughing and acting like we're buddies anyway ☆）.

Speaking of VIP; I had to search someone in the VIP-area later. That was a mess...  anyway, the guy (who was the president of "Spellbound") was totally nice! ^^ We had a little conversation on our way to pick up his conference partner downstairs so he could take him to the VIP-lounge.

After some time of working, we had a "coffee break" (even though it wasn't a break, lol!). Nevertheless: Free coffee is the best ☆　
When I checked out from work, I just had a look around some booths again, when I saw "Marmalade".  Geez, this is freakin' cool shit! Marmalade is a new Integrated Development Environment (short: IDE), supporting several programming languages, including native languages such as C/C++, but also Adobe AIR, IOS, Android, HTML5 etc. etc, bringing them to one level, which means that they 'convert' your program/app  to the operating system you'd like it to be.

They say: "We take care of complexities of each platform so you don't have to". 

(I'm sorry for spam-posting you with this stuff, I don't think anyone is interested in this at all... but I'm just quite enthused by that ^^;; ).

So, after this day, I gained some (rather unintentionally) great contacts in between - so maybe you'll hear some of my pieces in an app or a video game (haha, doesn't that sound great!?).  

And just to end this post for now, I still want to share some photos with you I did this morning (when GDC was still closed):