25.07.2009 22:28
[Sonstiges (englisch)]
BBQ report by foobar
(Seite: 1)
foobar's report from the Deep Silver Community BBQ
What's this about?
At the 24th of July, 2009, Deep Silver invited a few selected members from the community to their headquarters in Munich, Germany. I was part of that group. They showed us their main base of operations and we got the chance to play the newest beta version of RISEN.
This is my report from this day. Yes, yes, yes. I know what you think: Another second-hand article. Given to the german community first and then recycled for you guys. Some crumbs off our table, as usual. But no, not today! This time, I'm actually writing this article in english and YOU will be the first to read it. And the germans have to wait for the translation. Now how is that?
This article is divided in two parts. First, I will talk about the meeting itself. Basically, about everything but RISEN. Then I will give you my impressions of the game and some new infos about it. The last part may contain mild spoilers, so if you are afraid of those, you probably want to stick to the first part. If all that community stuff and how nice the guys at DS are bore you, then you should scroll forward to part two.
Part 1: The Community BBQ
The Beginning
The official part of the meeting started at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. After driving about five hours, I just made it in time. I had planned to arrive at 1 p.m. to have one hour in reserve for traffic jams, etc. But a lot of holiday traffic on the autobahn caused me to loose that hour completely. The Deep Silver HQ are in a large office building in a suburban area of Munich called Martinsried.
Another fan who had won the participation in a german game magazine, came in right after me. I was greeted by Marcos Duarte, the community manager of Deep Silver, in the forums also known as "Pixel". He took us up to a conference room on the sixth floor where the others were already waiting.
An incomplete (I did not memorise all names) list of people who were there:
The Secret
Deep Silver started the day with a nice little bang. They showed us something completely new to get us in the right mood. Worked for me.
Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to tell you what it was because we all had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. But I think you'll find the coming days to be interesting.
We also had the chance to eat some pastries and drink a coffee or a cold beverage, but sticked to mineral water. I wanted to keep my appetite for the BBQ.
The Presentation
Then we watched on a large canvas how Daniel played RISEN and showed some interesting things in it which we might not have found for ourselves later on. He showed us the game's start (although we were not allowed to watch the intro *sob*), how things work out in the game and how decisions you make have consequences. He also showed us some places like the bandit camp, the vulcano fortress or the harbour city and demonstrated how the skilling affects the combat behaviour of the hero. And of course, how to use magic.
Daniel also unlocked the camera to show us some idle animations of a few gnomes. They stood there and looked from left to right with waving nostrils. They sure are the most detailed and affectionately designed monsters in the game.
I think Daniel is not just trying to sell fridges to some Eskimos here. He really got into it and the other Deep Silver guys had to remember him to stop the presentation so that they could keep the schedule.
The Tour
Then, we were divided in two groups and while the first group played RISEN, the other group was shown the building. Then the two groups would switch places. I was part of the group that had to wait to play the game.
Pixel showed all relevant floors of the building. One level was completely reserved for music stuff because Koch Media is also a distribution partner for Universal Music. One of the Deep Silver staff said that they also developed sonic weapons there. At first, I thought he was joking. But when I saw a poster of the "Kastelruther Spatzen" (a folklore music group from South Tyrol), I changed my mind.
The floors are divided into the german branch and the international branch and we met the people who are responsible for keeping contact to the media, designing the game's box, deciding on the content of the collector's edition (no, they did not tell us what it will be), assuring the quality and a lot of other stuff. It was really interesting to see how many tasks are involved with just publishing a game. But all in all, both the staff size and the building itself seemed rather modest. No comparison with big publishers like EA who have their own compound with a handful of buildings. I did not count them but I guess there are only about 30 people working on all games which Deep Silver is responsible for.
The working atmosphere seemed open, relaxed and yet professional to me. All people were wearing casual clothes. I did not see a single suit or even a tie in my time at Deep Silver. They were sitting in real offices in groups of 2 to 4 people. No cubicles or something like that. A bunch of rather young and creative people, as OnKeLDead put it.
The BBQ
After the tour was finished and we had our first chance to play RISEN (see part 2 for that), we got something to eat. I totally lost myself in the game and when Pixel tipped on my shoulder, I realised that everyone else was already on the roof terrance and eating. I quickly joined them because it was late afternoon and I had not eaten a thing since breakfast.
When it comes to hospitality, Deep Silver sure knows how to do things in style. They were not content with just grilling some cheap bavarian veal sausages (I hate those things) but they put real steaks from beef cattle on the rack. I believe that Don-Esteban, KaiRo and myself each ate at least three of them. They also had some delicious salads and some bread.
After the greatest hunger was satisfied, we talked a lot about all kinds of things and got to know each other a little better. I did not let the chance slip by to tell Kai in person how much I liked his music. Of course, the main topic for us was what we saw in RISEN and how we liked it. Every single one of us fans was very pleased with the game. The biggest problem we had with it was that DS got us hooked on RISEN and now we had to wait for over two more months until we could finally play it through. That is still a tough one to swallow, let me tell you!
After a while, it started to rain and we quickly had to move all the furniture back inside.
The End
After the BBQ, the official part of the day was over but Deep Silver did not throw us out on the street. We could stay and play a little more RISEN, if we wanted to. Daniel (doberlec) showed us some more interesting things in the game, we talked some more and then I played on my own again. Since I'm interested in the mages (I'm probably going to play as one first when I get my own copy of the game) I did not want to leave until I had seen and talked to at least one of them.
At about 9 p.m., I had to call it a day. I was getting a little tired (not that much sleep in the past days), still had about five hours to drive back home, it was raining heavily and I did not want to risk to fall asleep while driving. So I after fighting myself for some time, I said goodbye to the others, told Kai to give my regards to the rest of the Piranhas and left.
Pixel gave me a very nice parting gift, including some other Deep Silver games and led me out.
Overall, it was a very nice experience and although the money I spent on fuel to drive through half of Germany sure hurt my purse, I think it was worth it.
What's this about?
At the 24th of July, 2009, Deep Silver invited a few selected members from the community to their headquarters in Munich, Germany. I was part of that group. They showed us their main base of operations and we got the chance to play the newest beta version of RISEN.
This is my report from this day. Yes, yes, yes. I know what you think: Another second-hand article. Given to the german community first and then recycled for you guys. Some crumbs off our table, as usual. But no, not today! This time, I'm actually writing this article in english and YOU will be the first to read it. And the germans have to wait for the translation. Now how is that?
This article is divided in two parts. First, I will talk about the meeting itself. Basically, about everything but RISEN. Then I will give you my impressions of the game and some new infos about it. The last part may contain mild spoilers, so if you are afraid of those, you probably want to stick to the first part. If all that community stuff and how nice the guys at DS are bore you, then you should scroll forward to part two.
Part 1: The Community BBQ
The Beginning
The official part of the meeting started at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. After driving about five hours, I just made it in time. I had planned to arrive at 1 p.m. to have one hour in reserve for traffic jams, etc. But a lot of holiday traffic on the autobahn caused me to loose that hour completely. The Deep Silver HQ are in a large office building in a suburban area of Munich called Martinsried.
Another fan who had won the participation in a german game magazine, came in right after me. I was greeted by Marcos Duarte, the community manager of Deep Silver, in the forums also known as "Pixel". He took us up to a conference room on the sixth floor where the others were already waiting.
An incomplete (I did not memorise all names) list of people who were there:
- Don-Esteban from our fine website
- AenimaAut, a user from our german forum who won that participation in a little contest, with his girlfriend
- Arthus of Kap Dun, from the Piranha Fanart Portal
- OnKeLDead, who you also know from our forum, with a friend of his
- Kai Rosenkranz (KaiRo) from Piranha Bytes with his lovely, pregnant wife
- Two winners from a print magazine
- Some people from german game magazines
- and of course a lot of people from the Deep Silver staff: Daniel Oberlerchner (doberlec), Mario Gerhold, Martin Wein, Stephan Schmidt and others.
The Secret
Deep Silver started the day with a nice little bang. They showed us something completely new to get us in the right mood. Worked for me.
Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to tell you what it was because we all had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. But I think you'll find the coming days to be interesting.
We also had the chance to eat some pastries and drink a coffee or a cold beverage, but sticked to mineral water. I wanted to keep my appetite for the BBQ.
The Presentation
Then we watched on a large canvas how Daniel played RISEN and showed some interesting things in it which we might not have found for ourselves later on. He showed us the game's start (although we were not allowed to watch the intro *sob*), how things work out in the game and how decisions you make have consequences. He also showed us some places like the bandit camp, the vulcano fortress or the harbour city and demonstrated how the skilling affects the combat behaviour of the hero. And of course, how to use magic.
Daniel also unlocked the camera to show us some idle animations of a few gnomes. They stood there and looked from left to right with waving nostrils. They sure are the most detailed and affectionately designed monsters in the game.
I think Daniel is not just trying to sell fridges to some Eskimos here. He really got into it and the other Deep Silver guys had to remember him to stop the presentation so that they could keep the schedule.
The Tour
Then, we were divided in two groups and while the first group played RISEN, the other group was shown the building. Then the two groups would switch places. I was part of the group that had to wait to play the game.
Pixel showed all relevant floors of the building. One level was completely reserved for music stuff because Koch Media is also a distribution partner for Universal Music. One of the Deep Silver staff said that they also developed sonic weapons there. At first, I thought he was joking. But when I saw a poster of the "Kastelruther Spatzen" (a folklore music group from South Tyrol), I changed my mind.
The floors are divided into the german branch and the international branch and we met the people who are responsible for keeping contact to the media, designing the game's box, deciding on the content of the collector's edition (no, they did not tell us what it will be), assuring the quality and a lot of other stuff. It was really interesting to see how many tasks are involved with just publishing a game. But all in all, both the staff size and the building itself seemed rather modest. No comparison with big publishers like EA who have their own compound with a handful of buildings. I did not count them but I guess there are only about 30 people working on all games which Deep Silver is responsible for.
The working atmosphere seemed open, relaxed and yet professional to me. All people were wearing casual clothes. I did not see a single suit or even a tie in my time at Deep Silver. They were sitting in real offices in groups of 2 to 4 people. No cubicles or something like that. A bunch of rather young and creative people, as OnKeLDead put it.
The BBQ
After the tour was finished and we had our first chance to play RISEN (see part 2 for that), we got something to eat. I totally lost myself in the game and when Pixel tipped on my shoulder, I realised that everyone else was already on the roof terrance and eating. I quickly joined them because it was late afternoon and I had not eaten a thing since breakfast.
When it comes to hospitality, Deep Silver sure knows how to do things in style. They were not content with just grilling some cheap bavarian veal sausages (I hate those things) but they put real steaks from beef cattle on the rack. I believe that Don-Esteban, KaiRo and myself each ate at least three of them. They also had some delicious salads and some bread.
After the greatest hunger was satisfied, we talked a lot about all kinds of things and got to know each other a little better. I did not let the chance slip by to tell Kai in person how much I liked his music. Of course, the main topic for us was what we saw in RISEN and how we liked it. Every single one of us fans was very pleased with the game. The biggest problem we had with it was that DS got us hooked on RISEN and now we had to wait for over two more months until we could finally play it through. That is still a tough one to swallow, let me tell you!
After a while, it started to rain and we quickly had to move all the furniture back inside.
The End
After the BBQ, the official part of the day was over but Deep Silver did not throw us out on the street. We could stay and play a little more RISEN, if we wanted to. Daniel (doberlec) showed us some more interesting things in the game, we talked some more and then I played on my own again. Since I'm interested in the mages (I'm probably going to play as one first when I get my own copy of the game) I did not want to leave until I had seen and talked to at least one of them.
At about 9 p.m., I had to call it a day. I was getting a little tired (not that much sleep in the past days), still had about five hours to drive back home, it was raining heavily and I did not want to risk to fall asleep while driving. So I after fighting myself for some time, I said goodbye to the others, told Kai to give my regards to the rest of the Piranhas and left.
Pixel gave me a very nice parting gift, including some other Deep Silver games and led me out.
Overall, it was a very nice experience and although the money I spent on fuel to drive through half of Germany sure hurt my purse, I think it was worth it.
geschrieben von foobar
