Shortfuse Blog

We’re finally home again, but even though it’s been an excrusiating couple of days I sort of miss Leipzig and all its craziness. I bet it’s a psychological effect similar to the Stockholm syndrome. A lot of things have happened on this trip and it’s really hard to encompass all the different states of mind and emotions we’ve have gone through in this eye-twitching endeavour. A phrase that comes in to mind is Information Overload. I think that pretty much sums it up, but I’m going to give you a play-by-play anyway.

Day 1 – Steaks and Kiddie Traps
Our hotel was located in the not-so-fancy part of Leipzig, but the hotel itself was pretty nice actually. Clean, simple and comfortable. It had a wierd smell though; like something really toxic. I wouldn’t be surprised if we sustained some minor brain damage from whatever that smell came from. Another weird thing was the suspicious little vending machine hanging on a wall in a dirty backstreet. For just a few cents you could acquire a tiny ball of chocolate wrapped in colorful tinfoil or a nice little plastic figurine of some sort… Something about that jovial little contraption felt like a trap.

Right after we had checked in we received our GC passes from Tom Felices – Conference and Event Director at Nordic Game Program – and went straight to our rooms to unpack and prepare for dinner.

Halfway to Leipzig we had already decided on what we would eat later that night; we wanted steaks. After some pathetic attempts to locate a good restaurant in our part of town we came to our senses and took a ride in to the city, to a place where we had eaten at last year; a restaurant called Maredo.

We ordered a big barbeque plate and a couple of beers, had a couple of good laughs and went back to the hotel to prepare for the next day.

Day 2 – Business and Watery Drinks
We were up and out of bed at 6:30 in the morning, took a shower, had breakfast, got into our business suits and went to the enormous Leipziger Messe. On arrival we got right to it and set up our little demo stand, which was a rough tenth of the Nordic Game booth. This year the Nordic Game people had really put an effort into their booth – roomy and equipped with all sorts of couches, tables and beverages – it was pretty awesome.

Our first meeting was with the good people from a company that Big Boss says I can’t disclose. They had a look at Colosseum, shared their opinions on it, had a brief business discussion with Big Boss and were off to their next meeting. That’s pretty much how things are done – short meetings with a couple of handshakes and a smile – everyone is on a tight schedule.

Furthermore, we had six appointments that day. Unfortunately one of them didn’t show up, which was sad because I really wanted to talk to them about a certain game i want, and perhaps sweet-talk myself in to getting a free copy of it once it’s released. That would make me a very happy man, to the extent where I would praise them all over the interwebs, and make everyone want to buy it…

We managed to take a stroll through the consumer halls as well, where we briefly glanced at all the different exhibitions and took some pictures of some of the booth babes. They were all really cute in their skimpy outfits but most of all so obviously bothered by our presence and demands. Even though we just wanted to take a couple of innocent pictures with them they where completely disgusted by the idea and probably thought to themselves – Oh no, not another pair of horny nerds. I have a lot of respect for those girls – walking around all day in outfits like that, in that mind breaking environment – they must cry themselves to sleep every night. So, I don’t blame them for being a bit cold. Oh, we also got to play Bionic Commando for a while – which was sweet.

One of our meetings was a little weird. I’m not sure what their agenda was, and after a while I didn’t understand what the hell we where talking about, but hey, it’s always nice to meet new people.

At five we celebrated a successful first day with some beer and went back to the hotel. Later that night we went to the Nordic Game Cocktail Party and had like 50 drinks each, which wasn’t very impressive since they only contained vague traces of alcohol. That was probably for the best anyway; last years Cocktail Party wasn’t pretty, for Niklas and me that is.

We bailed out early and went to bed.

Day 3 – Work Work
The night before we found that our 9 o’clock appointment had been cancelled, so we took the opportunity to sleep in until about 7:30. After a quick breakfast we packed our little cart with all our stuff, put the whole thing in our minivan and went to work.

This was the big day with the tight schedule; eight appointments. I had an interview with Play Right and missed one with Game Reactor because I was in a meeting (I am so sorry for that Bengt). A little scheduling error and things just pile up on you like that.

It was cool to get to know a certain person – whose name I cannot disclose – a little better and just chat about gaming in general for a while. A nice break from all that work.

All in all, a good day.

Later we had steaks and beer. Again.

Day 4 – The QA Treatment
Up at seven, breakfast, car ride, demo stand reassembly – We’re up and running in four minutes, ready for our first appointment – an interview with Xbox Life. The guys from Xbox Life were cool and took their time with Colosseum, but I was pretty beat by then and didn’t really know what I was talking about. I just hope I didn’t say anything stupid.

Today’s schedule was a little softer on the Shortfuse away team. We only had three appointments scheduled for this day, but I think that Big Boss managed to squeeze in one more unscheduled meeting over at their booth.

Little did we know that the soft start was only the calm before the storm. Unexpectedly Big Boss managed to bring a certain man to our booth. That’s when all hell broke loose…

I presented Colosseum to this man just the way I had done to all our previous visitors. He played with it for a while and then unleashed the brutal honesty all over me. To say the least it was quite refreshing to hear how “stupid” and “idiotic” some of our solutions are. Although harsh, it will surely help us go from making good game to making a great game. I really appreciate the constructive criticism and wish that everyone would care enough to be that honest.

Once we had accomplished our mission for the day we basically threw everything on the cart and bolted the hell out of there. We drove hard and really fast on the German death trap known as the Autobahn and made it to the Border Shop 10 minutes before they closed, stacked up on liquor and got on the boat. We we’re back at the office at like 3 in the morning, rolled the cart into the programmers’ den, barely made our way home and crashed like a couple of corpses.

The End.