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Anthony Boydell
United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified
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What I love about Essen Spiel:
[1] The journey over: I start in Wycombe (chez Richards) at 6AM - its dark and, usually, damp / spotting with rain. I trundle along the lanes to the M40 at Beaconsfield and thence to the M25 and M20 (via Maidstone services for a restorative Costa Latte) to Dover. Podcasts a-playing on the old iPhone. It's quiet (coz its a Tuesday morning) in Dover as I trundle through Customs, check-in and park-up at the ferry dock. Just time to nip into the shop (almost deserted this time of year) to buy a magazine and some mints. We board and I settle in at the canteen for a full English fried breakfast. We disembark at Dunkirk and it takes 15 minutes to exit the Port complex (huge expanses of reedy grass and empty warehouses) and join the main motorway. Up through France, hang a right at Brugge, a left at Gent, go through the Kennedy tunnel and round the east-side (anti-clockwise) of Antwerp heading for Eindhoven. Then its Venlo and Essen as the working day is ending (usually get caught up in a little traffic)
[2] Setting everything up: paying the 50 euros deposit and having three hours to unload the van and get it out into the official parking area. The building of shelves, the pasting-up of posters, the quiet wanders to see what preview / pre-order stuff I can pick up. We're usually done and dressed with the stand by lunch-time, but it's such a buzz having easy access to everything that you just don't wanna leave the Messe!
[3] Meeting up with old pals: while the public are absent, getting the chance to chinny-wag with Zev or the Lamonts or Peter Burley or the Treefrog folk.
[4] Buying stuff on the set-up day: always happens on the set-up day - after all, we'll get little chance when the show kicks off for real!
[5] Selling stuff on the setup day in 2008, we saw 200+ copies of Confucius immediately pallet-trucked off to the FRED Distribution stand; with Fzzzt! we sold nearly 100 copies on the Wednesday! There's quite a lot of Press folk who've sneaked in, so it's becoming almost a proper Spiel day...
[6] Eating Out: meat, chinese buffet, sushi, mexican et al - lots of scrummy stuff to scoff. When you're in the Messe at 9AM and leaving it at 7.30PM (phew!) you don't want to be cooking for yourself! Helpfully, Essen is replete with delicious restaurants.
[7] Gaming in the Evening: when else are you going to cut loose and try other peoples stuff / the games you've bought? Usually accompanied by much beer, retiring BEFORE midnight is seen as rude, really. Long days, short nights - it gets a bit draining after a while (but its only one day a year, isn't it?)
[8] The Show Itself: What a buzz! What a rush! If you're busy its the greatest thrill in the world, if you're stagnating its the worst pit of Hell in which to reside. Proper f*cking with your mind, it is! When we launched Tara, Seat of Kings in 2006, the game was in the top 10 Fairplay list and we were demo-ing non-stop for four exhausting days! In 2007, train strikes and international cashpoint failures conspired with the lack-lustre presentation of Scandaroon to make it the most unhappy show ever (at least for me - I was contemplating driving home two days early, it was so de-moralizing).
[9] The 'Last Meal': traditionally, the SSG crew debunk to an excellent Mexican restaurant on the Sunday night (with the van restocked with remainders, furniture and all of our purchases) to gorge ourselves on spicy selections, riff comedically (and slightly-deliriously) on the week's events and generally collapse in a heap.
[10] The journey home: up early (6AM), checking out and belting it back across Western Europe to catch the ferry back to Dover. A couple of fuel / coffee stops for sanity, and before you know it you're rumbling off the ramps at Dover and down the M20 and onto a congested M25. I'm usually home by 9PM and I leave everything in the vehicle - the next day (half-term holidays) will see me distributing gifts and goodies.
It's only four weeks or so away...getting VERY excited about Essen.
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