Day 10-11-12-13+bonus

Day 10:

Today we took the train to Eltville, a small town outside of Frankfurt that was far more beautiful, interesting, and nicer smelling. The architecture was breath taking, and after ice cream we sat by the river that ran through it. Alex nearly fought a swan (which Sam was quoted, “No Alex, you don’t understand. That is the mayor!”) and the water brought a cool breeze on an otherwise hot day. Sampling the local delicacies with Sam and Alex (doner, whatever that meant. I hope it was vegetarian) and completely forgetting my water bottle, Alex and I ended up begging a closed restaurant for water. The man didn’t speak English, but he was kind enough to give us two (2) whole water bottles for free. Wherever you are sir, thank you.

We had arrived quite early, so we met up with enough time for drinks at a riverside bar. I refrained from buying anything, deciding to turn my friends’ drinks into a sampling bar instead. The flowers along the river and near the castle were so beautiful. I was so surprised by how healthy and plentiful they were, it looked like something straight out of r/earthporn.

               We were allowed inside the castle just as it was closing (ooo, exclusive), where we were greeted with ten times the flowers we saw outside. I think I was expecting another simple, stone castle and I didn’t know Eltville was deemed the city of roses, so it was quite the treat to walk through all the gardens. It was a nice, clear day out too; there were plenty of photoshoots. We were greeted by the mayor soon after and he took us into the interior of the castle for our own private tour. The fanciness didn’t stop there though; after the tour we were offered a lovely set up under a canopy of trees with champagne and soft pretzels. While we waited our turns to talk to the mayor, we had started an ‘extra’ photoshoot where we all took pictures looking off to the sunset, champagne in hand; Truly ritzy and ironically pompous photos!

               I was exhausted when I returned to the hotel, so Alex and I turned in early. We again turned in early, but not before another Smash Bros Tournament!

               Day 11:

               Today was a sharp turn from elegancy to cool nerdy stuff. The first studio tour we had was the Nintendo PR office. While it wasn’t a game development studio, we learned a lot about how they published the games in Europe. There was a lot of legal things to go through with rating and language translations, and I was surprised that so many people worked solely on publishing and distribution. We were taken to a lounge where we could take pictures of all the various games and systems they had on display, as well as have an impromptu Smash tournament (big surprise).

               The next visit was Crytek on the other side of the city. We were given a presentation by one of the HR managers on the game’s industry and how to market yourself for positions. After that was a presentation from one of the main develops of the Cryengine. He put a lot of emphasis on visual scripting and how Crytek is working to add more of it within the next few updates. It was especially interesting to Alex and I, who weren’t as familiar with game engine creation. We had a tour after that, though I was disappointed to hear that there weren’t any animators left in the building. Still, the experience excited me for my future career in games.

               We returned to the hotel for a brief break before dinner. Alex and I walked over to the mall but did not have much time to spend there before we joined back up with the group for dinner. We decided on ramen; the walk was long but well worth it. I had a lot of fun with the other students during dinner, and after we finished we returned to the hotel for the night.

               Day 12:

               Today was our journey to Worms. I went to go wake up Alex, who has consistently been unable to sleep due to allergies. I found his sleeping in a hot bath, and he decided that he was going to take the day to rest instead of joining us. I did wake up early to walk over to the bakery down the street to get us breakfast, where I decided that I wasn’t going to ever go out alone again.

We had to take connecting trains to the town where we went to tour Kalyspo Media. I had a really good time at the studio that produced Tropico 6. They gave a presentation on how the company began and the network of independent studios they publish games with. It was a publishing office, but I still was able to see what I was desperate for: artists. Sure, they were graphic design and video artists, but I was still able to relate to them and talk about their jobs. After a tour around the office, we left to walk around the town.

               We had decided to split up after this. Some students went to a Jewish Cemetery, but because of the rain and how tired I was, I decided to go to the town center instead. Mike and I wandered around a lot, trying to find cool looking shops and get gifts for his family. I managed to get Alex a candle holder made from cinnamon bark, but by the lack luster response when I presented it to him, I decided I would give it to his mother instead. The day was rainy, and Mike and I were both starting to feel the adrenaline and excitement of the trip draining out of us. We got ice cream and sat under umbrellas until it was time to leave to go back to the hotel. Excited to see my boyfriend, he and I decided to split off to get dinner together and hang out in the hotel instead of going out. We may have missed out on some good German beer, but we had to rest up for the big day tomorrow.

               Day 13:

               Today was zoo day! Alex had really pushed the zoo while we were planning our itinerary back at RIT, and it became a running joke that it was the one thing he wanted to see. Unfortunately, everyone else opted out from the zoo, but it meant a really nice day together. There we’re a surprisingly good number of exotic animals there. We were able to see the sun bears up close and the gorillas came right up to the glass while Alex was looking through that. I seemed to always catch animals. . . mating . . . I guess it was a pretty romantic day. We got lunch and (you guessed it) ice cream before heading back to the hotel. We had to take an uber there and back; the money was worth not having to walk 40 minutes each way.

               We met up with Mike again to get dinner at an “Authentic Japanese Restaurant” that was quite a walk to get to but totally worth it for more noodles. Both guys didn’t seem that keen on more noodles, but I was SO excited that they indulged me anyway. After dinner was the farewell ice cream meetup, where we officially ended the trip with spaghetti ice cream one more time.

               I don’t know how to put into words how much I enjoyed this trip. It had its ups and downs (more like ups and traveling between destinations), but overall it was a life changing experience. I wish I had another month with the Paderborn students, they were all so nice and intelligent; I learned and was exposed to a lot of new video game knowledge that I wouldn’t have gotten just from RIT. I can only hope that all goes well and they have the games lab running in a year. This trip may not be the last time Paderborn university sees of me!

               Bonus blog because I forgot to post some of the others:

               Alex and I would end up taking a train to Amsterdam for cheaper flights, staying there for a day and a half. We were in a sketchy suburb that was a 20-minute train ride into the city, but the actual AirBnB was in a really nice apartment. Ad you won’t believe what I found there. A HUGE ORANGE MAINCOON CAT! I think if I hadn’t met that cat (the host didn’t speak English, so she never told me his name. I decided on Sven in honor of our Scandinavian trip) I would have imploded from not seeing my cat Indy for three weeks.

               When we arrived in Sweden, we spent a day with his professional chef turned flight attendant uncle (the guy has stories to tell) in the most idyllic apartment ever. I’ll spare you the rant about how nice it was; I guess I watch too much HDTV. The day after we were scheduled to go to his grandmother’s summer house, but before arriving we stopped at a chain restaurant called Max Burger. HOLY CANOLI. Imagine a MacDonalds that’s run by Gorden Ramsey. Hallmark of my entire trip.

               The summer house was more of a summer . . . shed. From what everyone in the family does, I assumed it would be a fancy gold mansion on a private beach. Although it didn’t meet those expectations, I still fell absolutely in love with it. His grandmother was so nice (and I found out where Alex’s mother gets all her quirks) and she took us on a tour around her small property. She was retired, so she is going to spend the entire summer there: planting trees, doing yardwork, taking care of a koi pond, and fixing up the houses. She called the area her little America; the hillside has a lot of these small summer homes where retired and vacationing people spent their time. She liked the diversity of all her neighbors. I got to see where Alex and his many siblings and cousins stayed when they came every year and I heard a lot of nostalgic stories. Part of me wants to come here next summer and spend it helping her fix up the place, though I would miss plumbing a lot.

               Germany had been so hot and summer-y that we hadn’t packed many warm clothes. I didn’t even have a sweatshirt (good going me, losing it in Manchester Airport), so I was cold almost the entire time. There weren’t any showers or much running water, so we just bathed in the lake; I guess it was the norm there. If it had been warmer we would have seen a lot more nude elderly soaping up on the beach; nudity is weirdly different in Sweden. Remember how I said it was really, really cold? Alex said it was easier if you just jumped in, so I went straight off the dock and into bone chilling water. I’m pretty sure all our muscles seized at once. We didn’t stay in long.

               Most of our time was spent on walks or playing video games on our switch. They surprisingly had cable, but there was only one channel, so we watched a lot of Simpsons and Ink Masters. We were lucky enough to catch Alex’s cousin’s high school graduation film viewing. It was comfortingly familiar, just like our screenings back at RIT, and although they were in Swedish I was still able to enjoy all the films. The one weird thing is that they all used going out to have a smoke as an establishment for dialogue scenes; I thought America still had problems with cigarettes, but I guess every 18-year-old smokes here. Although I am pretty far and consistent with Swedish on DuoLingo and have been using it for years, I was still so lost and couldn’t understand a single thing.

Oh, and our flight was delayed for seven hours so we got to spend a lovely 12 hours in Manchester airport. I was so glad to get back to Connecticut and then back home. I missed my cat so much and although I had a great time I was ready to be back and get to work on my summer jobs and personal projects.

Thursday and Friday – The Final days in Germany

Thursday and Friday were the final two days in Germany. Because of how short Friday turned out to be, I decided to include it in this blog post as I primarily used it as a resting to day to prepare for the journey back to the United States.

Thursday began as an earlier than usual day, as I had to wake up early to prepare myself for the journey to the town called Worms. We went to the train station to catch the first of two trains required to get to the town. The two train rides were not particularly long, though I did spend some time on the first train napping to try and get as much sleep as possible.

Once we got through both trains and arrived in the two, we began the day by walking around the town and seeing some monuments as we made our way to visit Kalypso Media.

At Kalypso Media, we were given a presentation about how the company is structured and the various locations and roles within the company and its various other studios/offices, as well as some sandwiches and soda to snack on (Tropico themed soda at that). From then on we were given a tour of the office in Worms and shown the various departments and given a rundown of what the responsibilities of the different roles were. After the presentation and office tour, we were then let out to go explore the town of Worms. Some in the group opted to visit an old Jewish cemetery within the town, while others opted to go out exploring on their own.

I personally opted to go exploring on my own with Amanda, and spent a large portion of the time in Worms visiting various shops looking for souvenirs and neat things to buy to bring back home and give to family. We also stopped to get Ice cream along the way (a running theme for this trip) and saw many different areas of the town.

After shopping for a bit around Worms, we met back up with the group at the train station, and departed back to Frankfurt. Once we got back to Frankfurt, we decided to get dinner at a restaurant that was what seemed like a half hour walk away, give or take some time. I was told while walking to this restaurant that it was incredibly “German Themed”, and this got me excited as I really wanted to have more traditional German food. These claims did not fall short, this restaurant was incredibly “German Themed” with plenty of wooden carvings and beer to go around. I decided to order a dish called, if memory serves, the “Frankfurter” which was set to be a bit of everything in regards to some of the more traditional German food. It was quite delicious, and something I would definitely eat again. In addition to that meal, I also tried some of the restaurants Apple Wine, which was also quite tasty.

After dinner we decided to head back to the hotel, and some of us decided to go to the “O’Reilly’s” pub one last time as a sort of farewell dinner for the German students as they would be leaving before us early on Friday.

After the pub, I went back to the hotel to call it a night for Thursday, and rest up for the final day in Germany on Friday.

On Friday, we were given a free day to explore the city and finish up and business or shopping we needed to do. As such, I decided to go to a place called Skyline Mall, as I had been recommended to go there by a friend who had been to Frankfurt in the past, and I still had some shopping I needed to do. Before going there, however, I got the chance to say goodbye to the German students before they left to return to Paderborn, and it was quite the sad farewell as I was and am unsure if I will ever get to see them again.

After wandering around the mall for a bit and doing some light shopping (and getting ice cream), I returned to the hotel to spend some time sleeping as I began very tired while walking around the three different shopping floors within the mall (and I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before). After a quick power nap, I met up with Alex and Amanda to go get noodles for dinner at an “Authentic Japanese Restaurant” that was a several blocks away. The noodles at this restaurant were fairly good, however they were not as good as a noodle restaurant that we had gone to as a full group with both German and American students a few nights before. After finishing up at the restaurant, we began heading back towards the hotel as we were told the farewell ice cream meetup was going to be starting soon. Once we got back to the hotel, we met up with the other students, and proceeded to an ice cream shop that was only a few blocks down, where we had our farewell ice cream dinner then headed back to the hotel, officially ending the trip.

The Games Industry: Germany Edition

Wednesday, after resting up from our fairy-tale like adventures in Eltville, we ventured out to visit the Nintendo and Crytek studios in Frankfurt. While I am not able to share the finer details of my trip to these studios, I will share what I believe I am allowed to.

The first studio that we went to go visit was the Nintendo studio in Frankfurt. We boarded a train that took us relatively close to the studio itself, and then walked the final short distance to the business plaza the Nintendo building is located in.

While at this studio we learned that it isn’t focused on developing the games, as most if not all of the Nintendo game development is done in Japan, but this branch manages marketing as well as the publishing and legal aspects of getting Nintendo games in Europe, and more specifically in some cases in Germany. From then on we discussed more aspects of the processes involved with what this branch does in Europe, and some of the experiences that those that worked there had.

From then on, we went to a room where we were allowed to take pictures in, and this room contained many (if not all) of the games and consoles Nintendo had published and created, many of which were setup and ready to be played.

After spending some time in this room playing video games and competing in a few impromptu Super Smash Brothers matches (where I learned I cannot play Bayonetta to save my life), we then left this office building and made our way over to the Crytek studio building on the other side of Frankfurt.

At Crytek, we were given a presentation by our gracious host on getting into the games industry and some of the various positions one might expect to fill while getting a job in games. After that, we were given a demonstration on how to use different elements of Cryengine, and how some of the different tools in the engine work together. There was a big emphasis during this presentation on the visual scripting tools built into the engine, and the various game development roles that could utilize these tools for building different aspects of a game. After that, we were split into groups, one which got to play one of Crytek’s latest games “The Climb” which is a VR climbing game, and the other group got a tour around the office. After the first group finished the tour, the two groups swapped so that everyone got to see how the studio was laid out, and gome some brief glimpses of what was going on around the studio. After the tours were complete, we ended our journey around the Crytek studio, and began our journey back to the hotel.

Soon after getting back to the Hotel, we set out once again but this time in search of dinner. We decided on getting Ramen at a place a bit far away from the hotel called “Ramen Jun”. Over the course of the day I had gained a significant hunger, as did many of my other fellow students. To quench this hunger, Alex and I decided to order Large portions for our ramen bowls. This resulted in the two of us receiving bowls of ramen that were bigger than our heads. While I did manage to finish my bowl of ramen, it was definitely a challenge (a delicious one at that). After finishing up our Ramen, we all went back to the hotel where we ended the day to rest up for the next one.

Eltville and Elegance

Tuesday we took a train down to a town called Eltville. Little did I know that I would be visit one of the most stunning towns I had ever been to, or that we would be finishing the day in pure elegance in the town’s castle.

Tuesday morning, after taking the train down to Eltville, we briefly spent some time walking around the town together. After seeing some of the streets and looking at the older buildings, which I learned some of which were older than the United States, we decided to break up to get Icecream and some people went off to explore the town for a bit, before meeting up by the river that runs through the town.

I went with Professor Jacobs, Volker, and Sam to get ice cream and a smaller shop than the other people on the trip were getting ice cream at. We ordered our ice cream, and sat down to enjoy it as people typically do. Once I finished my ice cream, however, I remembered that I had seen a restaurant that had the word “Doner” on it. I was told by a friend of mine that had been to Germany many times in the past that I needed to go to a restaurant with this word in the title, as it would be some of the more delicious street food I had ever eaten. As a result, I decided to briefly step away from my ice cream companions to go order something from this restaurant. I decided on ordering a “Doner sandwich with cheese”, and was not at all disappointed with the results!

After getting my Doner sandwich and returning to the group I had gone with to get ice cream, we walked down to the river bank, and not only did I get to see a stunning ground-level view of the river, but also got to sit down and enjoy my delicious sandwich. We also some some bits of the old town wall on our way down to the river, which fit perfectly in with the old style buildings of the inner town.

After I finished my Doner sandwich and had some time to admire the river, we were informed via the group chat that there was a place down the way along the river that had delicious cold drinks, which was perfect as it was a rather warm and sunny day. I, as well as the nearby students from Germany, decided to make our way down to this building that we had been sent a picture of. Inside, I quickly learned that they had a drink called “Longwein” which was a mixture of lemonade, mint, ginger, and the local town’s special wine. This drink was absolutely delicious, and a perfect drink to have while relaxing at a table alongside the river. In the end, I ended up ordering two of these drinks because it was so amazing, and I had several flashbacks to lounging on the beach and a sea-side restaurant from a trip I went on to the island of capri many years back. It was an amazing and relaxing experience.

After enjoying our “Longwein” and talking for a while, we decided it was time to go explore the nearby castle, and as I soon found out would we actually be meeting the Mayor of the town in that castle.

We walked castle gardens for a fair bit, and I was amazed at how beautiful the flower displays around the castle grounds were, as well as the overall architecture of the castle itself. After a while I began to feel like I was no longer actually on earth, but in a fairy tale of some sort.

After walking through the gardens for a while, the castle began to close up for the day. Despite this, however, we went up to the interior part of the castle, where we met up with the Mayor of the town. We were then invited to climb up one of the towers in the castle, where several historical displays were setup, and when we get to the very top we were able to get a higher up view of the river and the surrounding town.

After concluding our tour of the castle tower, we then joined the Mayor in an upper-garden section of the castle where we enjoyed champaign, pretzels, and a dip for the pretzels that was incredibly delicious.

The reception lasted for about an hour and a half I believe, but after that we thanked the Mayor for this wonderful gesture, and sooner after returned to the train station in order to get back to our hotel. After getting back to the hotel, I decided to call it for the day there, as I had experienced a wonderful but eventful day.

The Rocky Road to Frankfurt

Monday began our departure from Paderborn, which was a very sad event as I had grown rather attached to the small but beautiful city. Alas, Monday morning we headed down to the train station so that we could take two trains in order to get to our destination.

On the first train we were all lucky enough to have our own assigned seats. Because of my exhaustion from the Game Jam, I was in and out of sleeping during this train ride, but when I was awake I spent most of the time just looking out the window at the surrounding landscape. I learned firsthand that Germany seems to have a lot of windmills scattered around, as every few minutes I saw a new one.

AFter some time we got to our transfer stop, and once we boarded the new train it was discovered we didn’t all have assigned seats like the first one, and it was a sort of free-for-all treasure hunt in order to get one. Unfortunately, I did not find a seat in time, and was too tired to walk up and down the halls of the different carts looking for one. Instead, I and a few other students, opted to sit on our suitcases in a semi-spacious hallway near the restrooms. My fellow students decided it would be a perfect time to pull out their switches to catch a few games of Super Smash Brothers. I initially joined them for a few rounds, but once my Switch battery was getting low I decided to just check the news on my phone and play some games on that device until we got to our destination.

After getting to the Frankfurt train station, it was a surprisingly short walk from the train station to the hotel. We all traveled together to the hotel, then got checked in and sorted into our rooms. After that, some students opted to go on a bit of a tour/walk around of the City with some of the students from Germany, while others were allowed to get settled in and spend some time resting and recovering. I opted for the latter, and after unpacking a bit in my room and getting the essentials setup like my laptop and switch charging. Once that was complete, I decided I wanted to go get food and walk around slightly in the direct area. I teamed up with Sam from our group so that I wouldn’t be traveling alone on my first day, and we went to the ” Sapôres Sàigòn Street Food ” restaurant, which was only a block or so away. I initially though from the name of the restaurant it would be more like a food stand giving away street food, such as gyros and sandwiches. I was, however, completely mistaken. This restaurant turned out to be more of a sit down restaurant where you ordered food and it came in plates that you shouldn’t just walk away with. I decided to order something I couldn’t even pronounce, but was not disappointed with the results.

Once I had finished up eating this delicious dish of meat, noddles, and various vegetables, we learned that we were meeting in a nearby pub called “O’Reilly’s”, where some were getting food but most were just getting drinks. We walked back in the direction of the hotel, as this pub was basically right outside it, and found the table our fellow journey members were sitting at. I ordered some drinks, and spent the rest of the evening hanging out with the students from Germany until I decided to return back to the hotel to get some much needed rest.

The Last Couple of Days and the Tale of the Overbooked Flight

This past Friday was the one day over the trip I did absolutely nothing of importance. I slept in until almost noon… then checked out of my current hotel room into my new one. It took several hours for the hotel staff to move my bags into the new room, due to a confusion in their system. I had Burger King for breakfast/lunch; a chicken sandwich with french fries. I’ve noticed that but mayonnaise tastes different in Germany than it does in America. Perhaps they tend to use more egg yolks? That would explain why it’s more yellow in color, as well.

Afterward, Stephen treated us to ice cream, and that was about the end of my day. The next day, trying to get home was quite an adventure. I checked out of the room and took a taxi to the Frankfurt airport, as planned, and went through airport security, and noted that in the Frankfurt Airport I was not required to remove my shoes, as I was in Boston Logan. The fun part of my trip started right as I printed out my boarding pass; it had no seat number assigned. I talked to a few staff members at the airport and they told me my flight was “overbooked” and that I might have to re-book a different flight, most likely at an additional cost, or upgrade from economy to business class, which apparently has free seats available, but would cost 900 euros to do so, which was more than the initial cost of my ticket. After explaining my problem to the Lufthansa service desk, they told me I could still book take the flight anyway if I ask for a seat at the gate, and that it “looks good” if I were to do that. After walking to about 4 different locations, talking to several clueless staff members, going through security and then reaching the gate, I was fuming when the gate staff offered me a flight the next day at 6am as an alternative to the flight I had already booked 3 weeks prior. Trying my best to contain my anger, I kindly told them that would not work, as I had been exhausted being away from home for two weeks and was really hoping to go home that day. They told me that they “are working on it.” The situation became even more frustrated when I briefly lost my CBG kit. Thankfully, the gate made an announcement over the intercom about 10 minutes later about a lost item, which happened to be my kit. After I picked it up, they also informed me that they assigned me a seat on my original flight after all. After the frustrating day I had already been having, the relief I felt at that moment was indescribable.

Almost back home…

Despite my failed attempts to take a nap in the plane, the 8-hour flight I had to the Boston Logan International Airport felt more like 4 hours. The bus ticked I printed out had surprisingly little helpful information. Even though it says right at the top, “Boston Express,” the bus I ended up taking at 10:30pm was a Concord Coachline, after missing the 9:30pm bus because I didn’t think it was my correct bus.

My parents picked me up at the North Londonderry bus stop in New Hampshire, thankfully bringing water and ibuprofen for my aching throat, as it was extremely sore after an entire day of coughing, due to what seems like an oncoming sinus infection. All in all, it was a very fun and eventful 2-week trip. Definitely one I will remember for the rest of my life, and I look forward to traveling around the world again some day ✌

Frankfurt and the Hard reset

I woke up at 5 am sneezing like a plague victim. It sucked. While I camped out in the shower I realized I had to put my foot down.

I called down and listed off all the issues and was swiftly given a new room. Everything was fixed except the AC because they literally just don’t have it. Plus I have a bathtub now.

Amanda, Mike, and I went exploring around the area. We did some laundry at a very confusing laundromat. We got some tasty Vietnamese noodles and found a comforting starbucks nearby.

Amanda and I even walked to a super mall a couple blocks away. But as we did so we got a call and had to immediately head back to the hotel because apparently, we had to go to some fancy political dinner a town over. Now I had no idea what he actual plan was but we hopped on a train an headed to a cute german town with winding alleys and a cool breeze from a nearby river. We were perusing the streets and ended up getting ice cream and sitting on some benches in front of the river and near a big castle. We were told to meet back up in 2 hours. So Amanda, Sam, and I went for a walk around the river and to some of the local shops. We took a lot of pictures of flowers and almost fought a swan. Then we met up at a wine bar with some of the other students.

Apparently the town is known for its local white wine (long wine) so I got their local wine cocktail. It was a ling wine cocktail but I’ve had longer.

Suddenly the bells in our minds started ringing and we made our way into the castle. It started as a courtyard and a flower garden but ended when the Mayor of the town appeared. It really caught me off guard because there was no event. He just walked in like “Hey guys lemme show you the castle.”

So we got a private tour of the castle, climbed the tower and got to see some ancient tome. The tour ended with champagne, and fancy pretzels in yet another flower garden. I honestly felt like royalty. A private party in a German castle drinking champagne with the mayor. Never thought I’d do that one before.

More like Frank FART HA

We started this day as we started many. Oversleeping and panic packing all of our stuff. We raced down to the taxis and hoped in just in time. We drove over to the train station we came into Paderborn at and took our seats. While Amanda power napped, I got to see a lot of the german countryside. I still love seeing the turbines in the distance. They’re literally the most aesthetic things. It like oh look at that thing that’s environmentally friendly, futuristic looking, and reassuring to my planetary moral compass. The first 2 hours passed quick, but the second half involved sitting on the floor outside the bathroom of the train which was less fun.

We got to Frankfurt and I was overwhelmed. It was nothing like Paderborn. It felt like I had stepped into a refugee camp. People were crying and yelling and sleeping on the ground and begging for money. It really came out of left field for me. We got to the hotel and I was put in probably the worst hotel room I’ve ever seen. Broken sink, broken toilet, no AC, a view of literally just cigarette butts and dumpsters, and smelled like a cigar took a piss on the walls. It was appalling. Not to mention my allergies absolutely hate this place and my nose was running like a faucet. But I was too tired to complain. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Beat The Boss

The final day of the game jam. I was a little groggy from the night before but only had a couple small tweaks to do before the final submission. I sped up a couple animation loops and UV’d a few more models and suddenly it was 3 o clock and we were lining up to go present our games. I was nervous and excited. I’d never participated in a game jam let alone produced a finished game and I was anxious to see how our game would hold up. And I may be bias but holy crap we blew these games out of the water. Our game was gorgeous and “functional” and most importantly fun. Plus it had 4 player capabilities while some games barely had 1. I was so proud of my team and myself.

Afterward we took a big group picture and said our goodbyes. I’m not sure if I’ll ever see any of these germans again. Maybe if they come visit RIT ill opt in to be one of the guides. We took a big group photo which I’m told will be on the wall of fame in the games lab.

After a tasty burger dinner and some tearful goodbyes we headed back to the hotel to start packing for the next half of our german adventure.

Animation Nation

After finally getting the kinks out of the boss rig I went on an animation power grind. I had to do like 15 movements with all those tentacles moving. It was nuts. But I loved it. I made a couple assets for the rest of the group and animated a walk cycle, a couple attack cycles, idle movement, falling and getting up, the whole shpeel.

Around the time my hands were starting to deteriorate we got to go on a barbecue with the germans to a nearby park. I had so much fun. I don’t know what came over me but something about the fresh air, and my feet in the grass just made me so happy. I found a sharp rock in the grass and I somehow made a hatchet. Like a working one. I’ve never been outdoorsy or crafty, but I was somehow both today. Then we got to play this fun drinking game with the Germans that involved a ball and drinking which was obviously perfect. And we got barbecue schnitzel and burgers which were soooo tasty. I knew I had a lot of work to do so I really didn’t want to go back but eventually things started powering down so I got back on the grind.

Or so I thought. As soon as I stepped into the games lab Tobias and Christina invited some of the americans to go out to this indie night club. Now I haven’t gone clubbing in a long time but I had so much fun dancing and drinking and repeating. The dance floor had a smoke machine and some ceiling lights that offered a fantastic visual effect. Plus the dancing was a great way to not feel like I had been sitting for 9 hours earlier that day. We headed home late into the night and prepared for our last jam day.