It’s time for El Blogerino again!
After having worked with the Black Pants for a few months now and getting to know my fields of work in Kassel (which still get more complex and exciting) the time had finally arrived to visit the Berlin office. The university is still on winter break so this was the perfect moment to pack up my things and get onto a train.
For the duration of my visit I would stay with Stamm and his girlfriend Julia (whom I had been in one class with at school way back in 8th grade and who is still one of my closest friends). Visiting those two always fills my heart with joy, because it’s like watching an episode of a TV-show that could be called “The perfect life of Stamm and Julia” or something like that. They are that one couple in my circle of friends that I am secretly in love with for being such a great couple. Oh wait! They can read this. Dammit! Oh well…
So then: Berlin! I arrived near the office and Jones, Stamm and Julia picked me up and we went to get some Indian food. At the office we started planning what we wanted to tackle in the next two days and came up with rearranging the FTP server and some other office stuff like overhauling the calendar so everyone was able to see other member’s business dates and meetings etc. They had been a bit lazy with using the calendar so we need to get a strict regiment going.
Everyone went back to their desk and I just sat down with them one by one and they showed me what they were working on at the moment, to give me a better understanding of their workflow and what it actually means for them if I Skype in and tell them that I need assets for my blog or a Facebook post or whatever.
This lead to the best -work related- moment of my visit. I sat down with Tobi and played through all (more or less) finished of our next game. I am not yet allowed to tell you about the game but: holy shit! I can’t wait for the first teasers and trailers. It’s like knowing this big secret and waiting for the moment you can finally tell everyone about it. I already love the game!
After our day of hard labor we went for some drinks in a bar called the pony saloon and tried to come up with names for the game which ended in pure (drunk) laughter and nonsense. Right now it only has a working title and we are not sure yet what it will be actually called like. I guess “Call of BOLU” or “Rucksack Online” won’t be in the race for very long…
BOLU is actually a turkish supermarket right next to or office where the Berlin pants often go to buy food and snacks for their lunch break. Just to clarify where that name is from. The amount of utter nonsense that is produced on a daily basis in that office is amazing.
Day two started with a late breakfast at Stamm’s and then off to work again. I took some pictures of the office for the blog and we went over some contracts, because I am learning how to read them and understanding what key-words to look out for. Like “exclusive distribution rights vs non-exclusive distribution rights” and business stuff like that. Obviously we went to BOLU to get our food.
Interesting enough Berlin is full of people who lived in the near vicinity of my hometown once (about 300 km away from Berlin in North-East Bavaria) and so I went for drinks with a good old friend of mine called Flix and Stamm and Julia. We went over some awesome stories from our youth, like getting arrested for blocking the road to stop a demonstration of Nazis, or being at a party at a friend’s house and just speaking french with everyone, without either the right grammar or vocabulary for two hours. Good times! The bar was called “Vögelchen” which is German for “little bird” and I fell in love with the most beautiful, french bartender. That accent of hers! If reads this by any odd chance, she probably won’t remember who I am and maybe that’s even for the best 😉 Maybe I’ll come back soon and will have the guts to talk to her.
Today I went to work again just to drink coffee, talk silly and have some fun and then I went to visit my relatives which I hadn’t seen for quite some time. Right now I am sitting in the train back to Kassel, writing this blog and having 90 minutes to go until I’ll be home. Then it’s off to bed and tomorrow I’m back on duty in my office.
I can’t wait for my next trip to Berlin! Great city, great people, beautiful women, great BOLU, great everything.
That’s enough for today! Thank you all for reading! I had some people talking to me about my blog over the winter break and everyone was super cool and made me want to write even more.
Cheers,
Murmel