To begin with, let me clarify that this is the After Action Report for eight people sent to Gamescom to meet, mingle and make the most of their time at Gamescom. Let us start with a brief introduction of them all:
Mats Sideburnout Virtanen, 2D artist extraordinaire. He likes to sing Finnish songs about the Crimean War, which I think our fans got to experience at the Fan Gathering after party... Really lovable person who has worked on Hearts of Iron 4 and Europa Universalis 4 mainly.
Andreas Jazzhole Waldetoft, our famous music composer. He lives in Gothenburg so we don't get to see him that often. Calm, happy person who has worked on almost every Grand Strategy game Paradox Development Studio has developed.
Jake DDRJake Leiper-Ritchie, QA and streamer of games. Loves our games, is Scottish and looks great in a kilt but doesn't drink beer which is a bit strange for a person from Scotland. He likes Whiskey and Gin though, but not right before a Dance Dance Revolution session.
Filippa Distantaziq Gannholm, QA. Been working on HoI4 mostly and is relatively new at Paradox. From Gotland, where she also studied Game design and Graphics and is a huge fan of many different games, of course a select few PDS games mixed with a repertoire of Blizzard games are on top of that list. A listener who is not afraid of speaking her mind.
Mattias (he has a forum account but I don't know the name) Wiking, Studio Head of Paradox Arctic in Umeå who works with Magicka 2. A funny guy who always brings candy to meetings which makes them more tolerable.
Henrik Groogy Hansson, programmer who has mostly worked on CKII. He owns a pet hedgehog which he has brought to the company now and then. Apparently it missed him so much while he was at a Paradox summer party it climbed into his bed, and when Henrik got home he only noticed that when many sharp things poked him when he got into bed. Poor hedgehog!
Tobias The Witch-King Bodlund, lead scripter for CKII. Lived and worked in Spain for a while where he met his lovely girlfriend. A huge fan of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and a veteran of several archaeological excavations and expeditions. Tall man who more often than not has a sparkle in his eyes.
Sara SolSara Wendel-Örtqvist, Associate Producer. Been working at Paradox since January 2010 and has worked on almost all titles since Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi and Victoria II. Only recently became an Ass Prod, last game she worked as a scripter on was EU4: Common Sense. Reads a ton of books, now mostly on an Ebook reader, loves games, skiing and her collection of figurines from movies, games and tv-series (favorite is a Totoro coin bank).
These fine people were chosen by Paradox to go to Gamescom and meet the fans. Wiking had business meetings most of the time but brought some Magicka robes that we could use. All but Wiking flew down on Wednesday, August 5th and most flew from Stockholm, Arlanda. Waldetoft flew from Gothenburg to Düsseldorf and met the rest of us there. After taking a cab from the airport to the hotel and after some confusion from the driver who couldn't find Dagobertstrasse 32 first, we wandered to a restaurant known from earlier visits to get some lunch.
View from the hotel’s elevator… no, I’m not kidding!
Not in the picture: Mattias Wiking and Sara Wendel-Örtqvist.
On our way to Gamescom! The Witch-King is taking a picture of Sideburnout who is taking one of him and SolSara on the bridge over the Rhine river.
The first day at Gamescom have less visitors than the other four, primarily because it’s a Wednesday and the ticket prices are higher. The team was told to spread out, explore all halls of Gamescom and speak to any developers they could find. After mentally making a list of games and places to visit the next day, we met up again in hall 9, booth A-053 where Paradox showcased Magicka 2, Cities: Skylines and Pillars of Eternity for the visitors of Gamescom. It was around 18.00 and we met Dan podcat Lind, Thomas Beuschov Johansson, Henrik Doomdark Fåhraeus and Johan Johan Andersson. They clamored for food and beer, so we joined them and went to Hyatt for a bit to eat and something to drink.
Happy to be in Köln. From left to right: The Witch-King, Sideburnout, Distantaziq, DDRJake, Groogy, podcat and Besuchov.
Food was plenty and the beer never stopped flowing. David Martinez, former Paradox employee and now at Raw Fury Games, joined us together with a developer currently working on the game Kingdom. The group split into two late in the night, some went back to the hotel and others went to the Nordic party. No pictures taken there, sorry!
After a good and hearty breakfast at the hotel, the gang met up at Paradox’ booth in the morning. Between speaking and writing autographs to adoring fans, we managed to run around Gamescom and take a bunch of picture, some of which were shared on the Paradox Development Studio’s Twitter. Let us continue this AAR with pictures, as they say more than a thousand words.
The clock is 09.00 on Thursday, August 6th. In about an hour these halls will be filled with people eager to play the games presented here.
Some were a bit late and had to stand in line with the rest of the visitors. I believe 340,000 people visited Gamescom this year...
You can’t take Groogy anywhere without having him getting into trouble! After a bribe or two we managed to get him back.
DDRJake protested a bit too much to Groogy’s treatment, and had to surrender quickly.
Distantaziq had to be restrained or else she would have rushed to help her coworkers.
We joined the revolution! Though they claimed we weren't ready for it and should get some better gear… SolSara, Distantaziq, DDRJake and Groogy does not agree.
While some were taking cool pictures, others were working hard writing autographs to the fans.
This sea of people would not part for anyone! If it took three minutes to get from one hall to another before all the people had arrived, now it took at least ten.
Look at that cool press booth! Inside those doors were Beuschov, podcat, Doomdark and Johan, people from Colossal Order and Obsidian talking to journalists about Hearts of Iron 4, Stellaris, Cities: Skylines - After Dark and Pillars of Eternity: White March.
DDRJake and Distantaziq reporting for duty. We had postcards we autographed for anyone who wanted one but we needed a sign to tell people that. It says: “WE WRITE AUTOGRAPHS! Paradox Development Studio…” and then the names of games we had worked on.
Some visitors were very fancy-looking, especially the ones in Paradox t-shirts!
Jonas Mrop Wickerström, Sideburnout and Anna Norrevik managed to free a long-limbed monster! Oh, wait… it’s plastic?
We found Red and Green at the Magicka 2 booth, and decided to join them for some adventure.
Smite were just ahead of the Pillars of Eternity and Cities: Skylines booth, and we had to say Hello.
They kind of found Blue, but didn’t exactly recognise him. And what were he doing, the sellout!? Almost had to stop a magical battle between the three of them.
Red vetoed Green’s suggestion that we buy Mad Max’ car, it was lovely on the outside but mediocre on the inside.
Just had to introduce them to our rebel friends! Still not good enough gear for them, although we tried arguing that Magick can do everything that guns can do, and more.
Green tried to catch a t-shirt but there were too many people in the way.
Red couldn’t see anything and missed the ball entirely.
Yes! Bring that clock to the Paradox office, it will look lovely in Fredrik Wester’s office.
Uh-oh, maybe that was not a good idea. Run Green, run! Had to keep lookout for assassins the rest of the trip just because of this...
Green likes standing in queue to see some awesome game trailers, Red doesn’t.
I agree with Red, Banjo should not be taken from his natural environments!
Green found uncle Toad, and Red grudgingly agreed to be part of the picture.
That’s… not how those things work, Green!
“Come at me bro!” Or at least I think Green said that. Sometimes it hard to understand the gibberish the wizards speak.
I… don't think it is safe taunting that giant Orc, even if Red is willing to defend you Green!
Red found Red! They had both Journeyed far to get to Gamescom, and took an instant liking to each other.
Please, try not to get killed! Green just saw another Green explode, was it Red that orchestrated the whole thing? Our adventures with the wizards were over and they were safely returned to the Magicka 2 booth.
After a day filled with autographs and photo taking, a stop at the Star Wars: The Old Republic cantina was just what everything needed! SolSara managed to win a book and a t-shirt, by claiming that Darin De Paul could remember and recite all of his lines from the Star Wars: Knights of the Fallen - Sacrifice trailer. And he did!
This was part 1 of 2, continue to the next post for more!
Mats Sideburnout Virtanen, 2D artist extraordinaire. He likes to sing Finnish songs about the Crimean War, which I think our fans got to experience at the Fan Gathering after party... Really lovable person who has worked on Hearts of Iron 4 and Europa Universalis 4 mainly.
Andreas Jazzhole Waldetoft, our famous music composer. He lives in Gothenburg so we don't get to see him that often. Calm, happy person who has worked on almost every Grand Strategy game Paradox Development Studio has developed.
Jake DDRJake Leiper-Ritchie, QA and streamer of games. Loves our games, is Scottish and looks great in a kilt but doesn't drink beer which is a bit strange for a person from Scotland. He likes Whiskey and Gin though, but not right before a Dance Dance Revolution session.
Filippa Distantaziq Gannholm, QA. Been working on HoI4 mostly and is relatively new at Paradox. From Gotland, where she also studied Game design and Graphics and is a huge fan of many different games, of course a select few PDS games mixed with a repertoire of Blizzard games are on top of that list. A listener who is not afraid of speaking her mind.
Mattias (he has a forum account but I don't know the name) Wiking, Studio Head of Paradox Arctic in Umeå who works with Magicka 2. A funny guy who always brings candy to meetings which makes them more tolerable.
Henrik Groogy Hansson, programmer who has mostly worked on CKII. He owns a pet hedgehog which he has brought to the company now and then. Apparently it missed him so much while he was at a Paradox summer party it climbed into his bed, and when Henrik got home he only noticed that when many sharp things poked him when he got into bed. Poor hedgehog!
Tobias The Witch-King Bodlund, lead scripter for CKII. Lived and worked in Spain for a while where he met his lovely girlfriend. A huge fan of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and a veteran of several archaeological excavations and expeditions. Tall man who more often than not has a sparkle in his eyes.
Sara SolSara Wendel-Örtqvist, Associate Producer. Been working at Paradox since January 2010 and has worked on almost all titles since Hearts of Iron III: Semper Fi and Victoria II. Only recently became an Ass Prod, last game she worked as a scripter on was EU4: Common Sense. Reads a ton of books, now mostly on an Ebook reader, loves games, skiing and her collection of figurines from movies, games and tv-series (favorite is a Totoro coin bank).
These fine people were chosen by Paradox to go to Gamescom and meet the fans. Wiking had business meetings most of the time but brought some Magicka robes that we could use. All but Wiking flew down on Wednesday, August 5th and most flew from Stockholm, Arlanda. Waldetoft flew from Gothenburg to Düsseldorf and met the rest of us there. After taking a cab from the airport to the hotel and after some confusion from the driver who couldn't find Dagobertstrasse 32 first, we wandered to a restaurant known from earlier visits to get some lunch.
View from the hotel’s elevator… no, I’m not kidding!
Not in the picture: Mattias Wiking and Sara Wendel-Örtqvist.
On our way to Gamescom! The Witch-King is taking a picture of Sideburnout who is taking one of him and SolSara on the bridge over the Rhine river.
The first day at Gamescom have less visitors than the other four, primarily because it’s a Wednesday and the ticket prices are higher. The team was told to spread out, explore all halls of Gamescom and speak to any developers they could find. After mentally making a list of games and places to visit the next day, we met up again in hall 9, booth A-053 where Paradox showcased Magicka 2, Cities: Skylines and Pillars of Eternity for the visitors of Gamescom. It was around 18.00 and we met Dan podcat Lind, Thomas Beuschov Johansson, Henrik Doomdark Fåhraeus and Johan Johan Andersson. They clamored for food and beer, so we joined them and went to Hyatt for a bit to eat and something to drink.
Happy to be in Köln. From left to right: The Witch-King, Sideburnout, Distantaziq, DDRJake, Groogy, podcat and Besuchov.
Food was plenty and the beer never stopped flowing. David Martinez, former Paradox employee and now at Raw Fury Games, joined us together with a developer currently working on the game Kingdom. The group split into two late in the night, some went back to the hotel and others went to the Nordic party. No pictures taken there, sorry!
After a good and hearty breakfast at the hotel, the gang met up at Paradox’ booth in the morning. Between speaking and writing autographs to adoring fans, we managed to run around Gamescom and take a bunch of picture, some of which were shared on the Paradox Development Studio’s Twitter. Let us continue this AAR with pictures, as they say more than a thousand words.
The clock is 09.00 on Thursday, August 6th. In about an hour these halls will be filled with people eager to play the games presented here.
Some were a bit late and had to stand in line with the rest of the visitors. I believe 340,000 people visited Gamescom this year...
You can’t take Groogy anywhere without having him getting into trouble! After a bribe or two we managed to get him back.
DDRJake protested a bit too much to Groogy’s treatment, and had to surrender quickly.
Distantaziq had to be restrained or else she would have rushed to help her coworkers.
We joined the revolution! Though they claimed we weren't ready for it and should get some better gear… SolSara, Distantaziq, DDRJake and Groogy does not agree.
While some were taking cool pictures, others were working hard writing autographs to the fans.
This sea of people would not part for anyone! If it took three minutes to get from one hall to another before all the people had arrived, now it took at least ten.
Look at that cool press booth! Inside those doors were Beuschov, podcat, Doomdark and Johan, people from Colossal Order and Obsidian talking to journalists about Hearts of Iron 4, Stellaris, Cities: Skylines - After Dark and Pillars of Eternity: White March.
DDRJake and Distantaziq reporting for duty. We had postcards we autographed for anyone who wanted one but we needed a sign to tell people that. It says: “WE WRITE AUTOGRAPHS! Paradox Development Studio…” and then the names of games we had worked on.
Some visitors were very fancy-looking, especially the ones in Paradox t-shirts!
Jonas Mrop Wickerström, Sideburnout and Anna Norrevik managed to free a long-limbed monster! Oh, wait… it’s plastic?
We found Red and Green at the Magicka 2 booth, and decided to join them for some adventure.
Smite were just ahead of the Pillars of Eternity and Cities: Skylines booth, and we had to say Hello.
They kind of found Blue, but didn’t exactly recognise him. And what were he doing, the sellout!? Almost had to stop a magical battle between the three of them.
Red vetoed Green’s suggestion that we buy Mad Max’ car, it was lovely on the outside but mediocre on the inside.
Just had to introduce them to our rebel friends! Still not good enough gear for them, although we tried arguing that Magick can do everything that guns can do, and more.
Green tried to catch a t-shirt but there were too many people in the way.
Red couldn’t see anything and missed the ball entirely.
Yes! Bring that clock to the Paradox office, it will look lovely in Fredrik Wester’s office.
Uh-oh, maybe that was not a good idea. Run Green, run! Had to keep lookout for assassins the rest of the trip just because of this...
Green likes standing in queue to see some awesome game trailers, Red doesn’t.
I agree with Red, Banjo should not be taken from his natural environments!
Green found uncle Toad, and Red grudgingly agreed to be part of the picture.
That’s… not how those things work, Green!
“Come at me bro!” Or at least I think Green said that. Sometimes it hard to understand the gibberish the wizards speak.
I… don't think it is safe taunting that giant Orc, even if Red is willing to defend you Green!
Red found Red! They had both Journeyed far to get to Gamescom, and took an instant liking to each other.
Please, try not to get killed! Green just saw another Green explode, was it Red that orchestrated the whole thing? Our adventures with the wizards were over and they were safely returned to the Magicka 2 booth.
After a day filled with autographs and photo taking, a stop at the Star Wars: The Old Republic cantina was just what everything needed! SolSara managed to win a book and a t-shirt, by claiming that Darin De Paul could remember and recite all of his lines from the Star Wars: Knights of the Fallen - Sacrifice trailer. And he did!
This was part 1 of 2, continue to the next post for more!
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