Meeting Thomas and Magnus in Copenhagen (and in sweden)
by Martin Schultz · 02/03/2008 (1:52 pm) · 8 comments
Just wanted to post some little report and photos about the fantastic weekend I had. My friend Thomas Lund invited Magnus Blikstat and me to come to Copenhagen (CPH) / Denmark and to his home which is a few kilometers away from CPH behind the swedish border. Idea was to meet in person (although we know us already over a year now from chats and projects) and try to find out if we like to make a small nice game together. So we surely accepted and made us on the way up to CPH. I drove by car with my wife to CPH which was a 4 hours ride approx. from Hamburg while Magnus took the plane from Uppsala/sweden to CPH.
On the first day (friday) we meet first in a conference room in CPH which Thomas organized for us to first discuss the general things about working together and sorting out what kind of game we like to do. Later on friday we moved over to a nice cafe/bar called "Bankerat" (means: Bankrupt) which was located near the conf room to continue our discussion and have a nice beer (forgot to say thanks for the beer, Thomas!). :-)
(from left to right: Magnus, Thomas)
Again later we then met with our families together in an awesome Sushi restaurant called "Sticks 'n'Sushi" (best in CPH!) and had a super nice evening with lots of laughing, talking and fun.
Next day after having a sightseeing tour with my wife in the morning through CPH I went in the early afternoon by train over to sweden to meet Thomas and Magnus in Thomas wonderful house to continue our discussions and decide on one game concept and nail things down.
Although we thought on friday we found a game concept we all like and get completed (Codename: "Paradise Cat Saloon Marble Ultra Blaster" if I remember right...) we switched plans again on saturday because we felt it might be too big as first project together and we didn't want to risk having a failed project ("not another failed indy project"). So Thomas came up with a game idea that is super simple to code and can be extended to something really awesome. Although we still love the first game idea (the "cat" game), we decided to do this game later and focus first on a game that can be _really_ done.
This is btw something we all agreed on upfront to make sure our new team works good together and to clear already upfront expectations to not come into a situation in the project where we split up because we all had different expectations:
- Make a game we all like and stand behind
- right sized game idea
- all members spend a good amount of time per week on the game
- Get game done (polished) in about 2 or 3 months max.
- Have fun developing this game
- No feature creep
- If first game does not sell, no problem. First game to test team and if "chemisty" between us is right.
So we took the time then to write down the basic game concept and made some drawings how the game could look like. See here the overall game screen (super secret... sshhhh!) :-)
Then we fetched our notebooks (we're all equipped with Macs now) and started testing the first things out for our new game:
(from left to right: Thomas, Magnus, Martin)
Magnus quickly prototyped already some art for the game:
In-between we had some session "Guitar Hero 3" on the Wii and I have to say Thomas and Magnus really kick ass in that game (not to forget Thomas little son also called Martin which is a real guitar hero!).
(Magnus playing Guitar Hero 3)
(Thomas playing Guitar Hero 3 too :-)
Later the day Thomas wife Lone made a fantastic dinner for all of us and we chilled then the rest of evening and talked and talked and talked and had a great time.
On sunday my wife and me left early around noon back home then while Magnus flew later the day back and was prototyping a bit more with Thomas on the game before. Btw: On sunday night we already had a simple prototype working!
Overall it was an amazing weekend, awesome to meet Thomas and Magnus in person (and for sure the families) and work now together on a game. Thanks to Thomas and hife wife Lone for beeing so fantastic hosts! My wife and me plan to go to CPH again sometime soon again.
Will be back here once we have something to show and tell!
Best,
Martin
On the first day (friday) we meet first in a conference room in CPH which Thomas organized for us to first discuss the general things about working together and sorting out what kind of game we like to do. Later on friday we moved over to a nice cafe/bar called "Bankerat" (means: Bankrupt) which was located near the conf room to continue our discussion and have a nice beer (forgot to say thanks for the beer, Thomas!). :-)
(from left to right: Magnus, Thomas)
Again later we then met with our families together in an awesome Sushi restaurant called "Sticks 'n'Sushi" (best in CPH!) and had a super nice evening with lots of laughing, talking and fun.
Next day after having a sightseeing tour with my wife in the morning through CPH I went in the early afternoon by train over to sweden to meet Thomas and Magnus in Thomas wonderful house to continue our discussions and decide on one game concept and nail things down.
Although we thought on friday we found a game concept we all like and get completed (Codename: "Paradise Cat Saloon Marble Ultra Blaster" if I remember right...) we switched plans again on saturday because we felt it might be too big as first project together and we didn't want to risk having a failed project ("not another failed indy project"). So Thomas came up with a game idea that is super simple to code and can be extended to something really awesome. Although we still love the first game idea (the "cat" game), we decided to do this game later and focus first on a game that can be _really_ done.
This is btw something we all agreed on upfront to make sure our new team works good together and to clear already upfront expectations to not come into a situation in the project where we split up because we all had different expectations:
- Make a game we all like and stand behind
- right sized game idea
- all members spend a good amount of time per week on the game
- Get game done (polished) in about 2 or 3 months max.
- Have fun developing this game
- No feature creep
- If first game does not sell, no problem. First game to test team and if "chemisty" between us is right.
So we took the time then to write down the basic game concept and made some drawings how the game could look like. See here the overall game screen (super secret... sshhhh!) :-)
Then we fetched our notebooks (we're all equipped with Macs now) and started testing the first things out for our new game:
(from left to right: Thomas, Magnus, Martin)
Magnus quickly prototyped already some art for the game:
In-between we had some session "Guitar Hero 3" on the Wii and I have to say Thomas and Magnus really kick ass in that game (not to forget Thomas little son also called Martin which is a real guitar hero!).
(Magnus playing Guitar Hero 3)
(Thomas playing Guitar Hero 3 too :-)
Later the day Thomas wife Lone made a fantastic dinner for all of us and we chilled then the rest of evening and talked and talked and talked and had a great time.
On sunday my wife and me left early around noon back home then while Magnus flew later the day back and was prototyping a bit more with Thomas on the game before. Btw: On sunday night we already had a simple prototype working!
Overall it was an amazing weekend, awesome to meet Thomas and Magnus in person (and for sure the families) and work now together on a game. Thanks to Thomas and hife wife Lone for beeing so fantastic hosts! My wife and me plan to go to CPH again sometime soon again.
Will be back here once we have something to show and tell!
Best,
Martin
#2
02/04/2008 (12:39 am)
wish you luck guys :) 
#5
For a moment I was confused with the pics, since in Martin's Profile Pic you're wearing shirt similar to what Thomas is wearing (in first pic - Navy, V-neck, and the doublestripy "collar") :)
02/06/2008 (5:17 am)
That sounds awesome... I think our South Africans should do something similar. For a moment I was confused with the pics, since in Martin's Profile Pic you're wearing shirt similar to what Thomas is wearing (in first pic - Navy, V-neck, and the doublestripy "collar") :)
#6
Yes, I could only recommand this very very much to meet in person. It's a whole different story if you know somebody only from "the internet" or if you have met in person. I liked it really much to finally meet the guys and have a talk to them.
Thomas told me that next years "Casual Connect Europe" conference will take place in Hamburg. So a perfect time to meet anyone who comes to Hamburg and wants to have a talk.
02/06/2008 (6:01 am)
Oh yes, haha, haven't noticed the similarity our shirts, funny. :-)Yes, I could only recommand this very very much to meet in person. It's a whole different story if you know somebody only from "the internet" or if you have met in person. I liked it really much to finally meet the guys and have a talk to them.
Thomas told me that next years "Casual Connect Europe" conference will take place in Hamburg. So a perfect time to meet anyone who comes to Hamburg and wants to have a talk.
#7
great work btw
03/04/2008 (3:10 pm)
Looks like very faint stubble on Martin's chin. Is a shame with those two beards in the group, you are letting the trio down =P 'Men with Beards' have laptops will travel.great work btw
#8
03/12/2008 (4:20 am)
Magnus revealed the game we're working on. It's called Balls of Steel and is an air hockey like game. See Magnus blog. 
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