Hey everyone! We're back from Gamescom and be warned-- I have a lot to say and share, and not all of it is necessarily Gamescom related, either. So, brace yourself for a very large journal! First off, I'll write about Gamescom according to day:

-Tuesday-
We headed out to the developer's conference to see the creative director of Ubisoft's presentation, which was both hilarious and informative. Afterwards we met up for some fun conversation (greeted with hugs, squee!), he signed our copy of Red Steel 2 to epic laughs, and we agreed to meet up again later in the week. We then wandered around the developer's area a bit to see some of the new technology the companies came up with before calling it an early day and heading home.

-Wednesday-
First official day of Gamescom! We were off to do meetings in the business center. We stopped by Nintendo to try some of the new titles and such-- Mario Kart 3DS is a BLAST, as is Super Mario (w/Raccoon Mario, etc). I also played Skyward Sword and was officially the first (at least of the event/Nintendo Europe etc) to kick Ghirahim's butt. I also cruised through the dungeon without any pointers, so it fed my ego a bit. The controls of Skyward Sword are very different, but in a good way I think-- it's very enjoyable! I got some Zelda pins for my accomplishment and was told I could come pick up the Link and Zelda promotional stands sitting around Skyward Sword to take home on Friday! We also stopped by CDProjekt Red to check out The Witcher 2 upcoming for XBox 360, and it looks TRULY fantastic-- by far the best looking RPG and graphics I've seen on an XBox, and this baby is still in development. So good in fact, they specifically tweaked and designed their engine so it could take ALL the elements from the PC version and put them on the XBox 360 and better: THAT is amazing, and that is true dedication! They also let me take home three T-shirts, each featuring a different color, "title", and character from the game (red= "Rebel", blue= "Patriot", and grey= "Assassin"). Also, Lollipop Chainsaw= .

-Thursday-
Another day of appointments, and this time ~Acsoj came with us. The showfloor officially opened on Thursday, but no public was allowed! I got to play a bit of Dance Central 2 on stage-- a little embarassing, but I hear I did an awesome job and it was very fun! We also did our 3DS ambassador program and got our "Official 3DS tester" T-shirts. Also: SEGA had a giant 30-foot inflatable Sonic. That was pretty awesome. While we were poking around the showfloor, Nintendo was doing shows every couple hours for various games, and they were about to start a Zelda one while we were there. My husband grabbed one of the plush rupees that would enable him to become a participant and was selected to take part in "Das Zelda Quiz!" Despite neither of us speaking exceptional German, he WON FIRST PLACE! The first place prize was the gold Zelda statue you can see on Club Nintendo for 15,000 points or w/e it is, so we won that, however we already have one at home so we arranged a trade with the 2nd place winner: he gave us the 25th anniversary Zelda treasure chest + contents (exclusive to the event!) and 50 euros and we gave him the statue in return. We all felt we came out of that on top.

After that, we had more appointments, including a play session with RAGE at Bethesda. While there and playing, I happened upon an exceptionally rare Easter Egg. I asked the overseer about it, who had no clue who I was talking about, so he went and got Tim Willits. (In case you don't know, Tim Willits is the creative developer and former co-owner of id Software. He created famous levels of DOOM and has also worked on many Quake titles, and now RAGE). I asked him about the Easter Egg and he got this huge smile on his face and asked if I had found it. I described it to him and he confirmed I was the very first, other than the development team that programmed it in, who had ever found it! (). He got me a special RAGE mousepad and signed it for finding the Wolfenstein level, and also put the date on it. Most exclusive goodie of Gamescom!

Post-RAGE, we went to 2K and saw The Darkness II and Borderlands II (and of course got our goodie bags <3). Then we went to Ubisoft and I had an hour-long appointment with various Kinect titles in development. It was very fun and interesting, and I had some great discussions with some of the developers. I must have made an impression, because after the appointment I was approached and asked if I would take their business card! Very very cool. Then we met back up with Jason (from the GDC, FarCry 3 etc) to hang out for a while. We decided to go out and have dinner (he treated! omg!), and we talked for hours about games, creativity, my artwork, etc, it was just fantastic! Also left on hug-basis again. The train ride home was a nightmare and we didn't get back until well past midnight, but we made it and that's what matters. It really wasn't so bad considering how excellent the day was!

-Friday-
Last day of Gamescom! We were up first thing in the morning and met ~EsaKris at Gamescom. We quickly scooted her to the front of the line for Skyward Sword before the public mass moved in, and it was a good thing, too! Within 5 minutes of us getting in line, the line duration increased by over 2 hours. All said and told, we only had to wait 15 minutes or so. We had a FANTASTIC time! Also, she got me a wonderful gift called "Pretty Kitty"-- a glass and swarovski-crystal figurine of a cat and a butterfly that I just adore to pieces. She was able to tag along for almost all our appointments, too-- Anarchy Reigns, Sonic Generations, Soul Calibur V (though that one I did alone), etc. We got EXCELLENT goodies, including a Sonic 20th anniversary bag and we all got Sonic hats! We also visited PopCap and got wonderful Plants vs. Zombies goodies while enjoying all the food the booth had to offer: I'm talking about free Bavarian sausage, hot dogs, hot pretzels, fruit sticks, free drinks, ice cream, and chocolate fountains-- no joke! We especially had fun playing on the 3D TV they had at Sonic Generations. It really was simply a fantastic day, and once Kirsty headed off we went back to the press center to relax for a bit, when lo and behold, Jason popped by to say hello! He also brought one of his developer buddies with him and introduced me as "This is Tawny. She deserves no introduction other than simply 'This is [the one and only] Tawny'!" I felt so honored, and I can't tell you how wonderful it feels to feel genuinely appreciated and to be treated so incredibly well. I will always, always treasure that. We did some more hall-walking and talking before bidding our good-byes for the year, then we went by Nintendo to pick up our Zelda stands and finally headed home. We had some Japanese food for dinner and slept 15 straight hours when we finally hit the sack. Gamescom is thoroughly exhausting!



So! That was Gamescom! It was exceptionally busy this year, but by far the best so far. It's incredibly hard to choose my "favorite" part, because there were so many highs, but it was probably dinner on Thursday for so many reasons.. Now that Gamescom is over, I'm far from back to "normal" yet! This week I have more places to go and day trips to make, but I won't delve into that. I also had a bit of a breakthrough moment this week regarding my art, and what is MY art and connects with me. I want to capitalize on that in the weeks, months, and years to come, that I can show my art for what it is, not what "is visually pleasing for the masses and what the common conception of it should be". That probably sounds incredibly vague, but trust me, it's a good thing. It's a reset I've been needing and it's properly motivated. I don't know when you'll start to see or hear more from that, but look forward to it in the future.

By the way, before I end this journal, a few things! There are photos of goodies that we got just below here (we will be selling some!), and I wanted to shout out to =Anilede for the EPIC trade half she did! I will be featuring her trade half artwork in the feature box below, be sure to check it out!



Much love everyone.