by Tony Boydell
Ow! Ow! Ow! My feet ACHE, they THROB...the bloody well hurt!Saturday at the Messe is a mad affair with the main Halls (10,11,12) soaking up insane quantities of people. Rumours of Hall 7 being closed down (the Hall next to us in 4) saw lots of companies moving their wares in the 9AM-10AM 'getting ready' period - including our pals from Chaos Publishing (Miles et famille) - with the luscious 2nd edition of Medieval Mastery - who moved in next door.
We had reorganized the tables to prepare for a couple of pre-booked Snowdonia games - one for a German group who couldn't get demo space on the Lookout stand and one for such Benelux guys whom I recognize from years passed. This is the great thing about Spiel - and the 10 years we've been coming here: those friendly fan-faces who always stop by to see what SSG have been up to next! I do feel, though, that while we have a company goal to be interesting and innovative it may be time to build on the fantastic reception of Snowdonia by settling in to a more conventional groove...what do YOU guys and girls think? The problem with 'being different' is that this seems to be an off-puter for many gamers rather than a 'come hither'.
Oh, I don't know.
Today was a half-day for me and Benedict; demos and sales were steady and we had a lot more people coming up and telling us about their plays in Hotels! This is brilliant because why else did I design the game but for people to enjoy playing it :-) With all the stock checks, finance, anxiety about deliveries and everything its easy to forget that we're fundamentally in this to entertain and divert! Beebs and I mooched (the soles of my feet unable to support anyhting more than a painful shuffle) through Halls 6 and 8 scouting for gifts for the family, through Hall 9 (hi, Felix! and Uchronia pick-up), Halls 10/11 and 12 (Eclipse: Rise of the Ancients? You...are...mine!) and the U11 (Messe Ost) to the Hauptbahnhoff. After a snack, I left Beebs watching Cosmo and Wanda (in Deutsche) as I had a sleep - feeling REALLY bloody knackered! I woke 90 mins later with a massive fuggy headache, so we wandered into the town centre for supper and White Chocolate Mocha.
Back at the Ibis, we met up with Pete and his crew and played LOADS of games of the riotous - and utterly brilliant - Escape: The Curse of the Temple! A frantic, dice-rolling co-op with an Indiana Jones/Temple Run theme that had six of us howling and cheering in equal measure - totally mad and a proper winner!
Early to bed - still seriously-short of the recommended Zeds - and ready for the last day of the Spiel: how the HELL did it come so quickly?