The daily chaos

Hey, how're you, guys? 

I'm quite busy lately, because I got to prepare my internship and additionally, we'll have some video-conference with a Japanese University in a few, for which I have to prepare a presentation. In Japanese. ''orz

I'm totally nervous about that, but luckily I don't have to present it all on my own, but with three other people...! 

Anyway, it's weird to "present" something in a foreign language (which is not English) to foreign people in such an invironment; I think it's so different from presenting something within the safety of a course |'D

Today will be the last rehearsal before the presentation will take place next week. Geezuz!! 

(Our topic is "German cars", by the way, haha (*ﾉ∀｀*) )

I'll be so glad as soon as this hell is over, because I just had to work so much for that, researching and writing the full script afterwards...

I even worked on my birthday, and I still have to write several essays as well. So, yeah, as soon as it's over, I might just take a day off so I can get some sleep and recover (I caught a cold as well, by the way. And it's a pretty ugly feeling to lack of sleep in this situation - Why am I telling this anyway? I think you all can imagine, am I right..?)

Well, and about my internship, I finally got to know about the exams. Like when they can be taken and stuff. It's so important for me to know about that, because depending on my schedule, I can book different flights etc.

And they kept me waiting for just too long T_T'

I really hope that my boss (the one I exchanged e-mails with) still has some interest and won't drop me because it took too long or something.... _( •́ ​ω •̀ 」∠)/_

Did anyone already experience an internship in a foreign country? Is there anything you think I should be careful about? Or what do you think about internships in foreign countries in general? 

I'd be happy to hear (or rather read) your opinions ☆

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)

GDC Europe 2013 - "Crafting the World of Crysis" (Crytek)

During my time at GDC Europe 2013, I had the possibility to attend one of the sessions. I decided to visit one of Crytek's presentations, regarding their "visual arts" and the process of creating the world of "Crysis" (1-3).  I personally think that the presentation was totally interesting, and so I want to share some information I got there with you :)

[[Attention: This entry will be ONLY about Crytek's "Crysis"-series and their CryEngine 3. So if you're not interested in either one of these, I recommend to skip this entry :') ]]

The presentation took place on Tuesday, 19th of August at 11:00 a.m. in congress hall 2 at the 4th level of "Congress-Center Ost" (Eastern Congress Center) and was held by Felix Leyendecker, who's working for Crytek's 3D-Artist team.

Crysis (1) took place in a kinda tropical environment (including frozen areas and an alien spaceship), Crytek decided to change the setting to a more urban style, since several critics argued that the CryEngine was only able to put a good look on tropical and more natural settings - so they wanted to prove and show what their artists were able to achieve with their engine.
Anyway, Crytek didn't want to drop the image of a "jungle" as such, what's the main reason for their decision to launch an "urban jungle" which was inspired by the city of New York.

(Screenshot by www.cinemablend.com)

(Screenshot taken from vg247.com)

Since both of those titles were a huge success, they directly started developing Crysis 3 - just right after Crysis 2 was released. Crysis 3 was inspired by nature, by NYC (again) and - of course - by Crysis 2. In the following picture (I hope you can see it properly...? D: ?) you can see both, the inspiration (nature, left) and what they managed to create out of that (right).

Even though Crytek was open minded regarding some new settings, they tried to fulfill their fans' wish to obtain another "jungle" for their new Crysis. While they were already working on the game, they set up an own team to arrange new patches and to optimize their engine (and so, their games as well) for consoles, because it was obvious that their main storage differs a lot compared to a computer's one.

Crytek benefit from using their own level-editors and their own engine, since it allows to "see what you're working at". The engine works in real-time, which means that you can actually already see what it will look like in the game, just from that moment when someone starts to create it. Additionally, the art team, which was responsible for both the design and the textures, was completely involved in the level design as well, to provide the best results. Crytek Ukraine worked on the levels in small groups of 2-4 people, while the multiplayer scenarios were created in England. And again, there was a special team to optimize the main storage problems caused by hi-end graphics and the so-called "statoscope" (a special effect reflecting light, creating lights shining through canopies of leaves and adjusting the color of 'dark' and 'light' areas automatically without any additional work for the artists (see example below)).

Anyway, there also were several problems within the process of creating the game. For example, they were lacking of senior artists, which meant they needed to adjust their working plan to their capabilities. That said, you can probably imagine that it was hard to finish the game like they wanted it to be in time. Not every level had its own so-called 'level owner' (this shouldn't be someone who acts like a director, but more likely someone who tries to bundles the team's ideas and to organize it), but 5 out of 7 levels were just passed to each other group member. Crytek decided to work with this leaderless stucture because they hoped to achieve a more agile development. 

However, "the next gen"-consoles are coming up soon, and Leyendecker indicated that the Crysis team still is interested in working on that series. Nevertheless it's still unleaked if (and if yes, when) we can expect another game.

By the way - as a bonus, Leyendecker explained that they were totally inspired by "Jurassic Park" when they came up with the aliens hiding in the long grass ... ;) 

(Screenshot taken from games.on.net)

Last but not least, here's the tech trailer for "CryEngine 3", which is - of course - already kind of old, since they built "Crysis 3" with this engine and presented it already on last year's GDC. Anyway I want to share it with you on here. It's just amazing. (Please watch in HD!)