Leipzig Day 2

8:00 am
 
(Live band at the Volkspalatz in Leipzig)

What would a convention be without a party? 
Before we could even answer our own rhetorical question we are once again whisked away in our XBOX 360 party van.  Before long we are back in our small room at the convention center that has become our home for the past couple of days.

9:00 am
 
(Wake up time…)

We are just about to kick off another marathon session of demos.  If it’s anything like yesterday then we are going to need our strength.  So it’s time for our pre-show ritual of great espresso on our favorite patio.

12:00 pm

(Graeme talking about the controls)

We have been going strong for a few hours now and finding that today is equally as demanding as yesterday.  We have standing room only in several sessions and are actually having to tell some people that they won’t get hands on time with the game but can watch if they really want to see it.  That seems just fine for some and we continue to see smiling faces leaving our demo.  The word is that we are looking good and people are “getting” Halo Wars in Germany.

12:30pm Lunch
 
(Graeme Devine, Stephen Rippy, Jason Pace)

It’s just enough time for a quick break for lunch and time for another coffee.  Perhaps that party wasn’t the best idea we had last night? 

The demos have been rolling along.  For each group we do a quick control overview and then give as many people as possible a chance to play against the AI.  We actually had to bump the difficulty up for a few of our groups.  Some people need almost no instruction on how to attack this game.  It was fun to just sit back and watch them play.

I am a bit worried about Graeme’s voice holding out for the whole show.  Not only is he doing the full intro presentation but he’s also handling all the television and radio interviews.  I bring this up and he looks at me like I am worried about nothing. 

2:00 pm
 
(convention floor)
We had a scheduled break this afternoon and I took some time to actually walk the show floor.  They really do put on a great conference here and the show floor was full of excitement and buzz.  The closest thing I have seen to this is the old E3 format.  This show seems even bigger and its definitely cool to see the looks on the fans as I walk around with my Halo Wars shirt.  I think most of them just wonder where they can get one of these.

(XBOX 360 Live)

I also took a moment to check out the XBOX stage.  This place was pretty insane, and the crowd was really into the proceedings.  It just goes to show that people will do absolutely anything for a free faceplate.

6:30 pm

(Here we are … perhaps a little tired)

The final demos were packed and we had standing room only for the rest of the afternoon.  This was great and we knew that it was our last chance to get Halo Wars in front of these people before our long journey back to Texas.

My worries about Graeme’s voice were mostly unfounded.  Although he did have me do the final two control overviews so that he would still be able to talk at dinner.  He’s a real pro at this and was a great sport about everything we asked him to do during the show.

Now, about those beers…
 
7:00 pm
 

Leaving the show the plan is to have one final night of celebrating and see if we can keep up with our friends from Rare and Lionhead.  It’s been a whirlwind show and our Halo Wars build performed like a champ.  By my calculations we showed the game to over 130 members of the media during this event.

We packed up our stuff and left the show with our hard drives in tow.  Halo Wars has left the building. 
 
Leipzig Day 3 – Prologue

 
(Auerbach’s Celler)

Last night we did indeed head out and celebrate.  We had one great German meal at the famous Auerbach’s Keller (Celler) restaurant.  This restaurant has been going since 1538 and is the setting for the play Faust.  I don’t know what type of Faustian bargain the chef’s have made, but the food was just as delicious as the flowing German biers. 

A couple of us are actually heading to Berlin for a day of sightseeing, but this seems like a perfect place to bid farewell to Germany on behalf of the Halo Wars team.

Germany has been a great place to show off Halo Wars.  The German fans really seem to understand what makes a strategy game like Halo Wars so fun to play.  After this trip it’s even easier for us to remember why these games are so much fun to make.  We can’t wait to get this out in front of our fans all over the world.

auf Wiedersehen!