Alien: Isolation Midnight Launch At Horsham GAME, 7th October 2014

 

My first Midnight Launch to Horsham GAME was really worth it as I got to meet the developers behind the game - The Creative Assembly Team as well as meet some nice guys who were also keen to buy the game too. Surprisingly only around 20ish people turned up.

After heading to the Gym and finishing at 10.00pm, I thought it was best to head straight to town and get in the queue in case it would be packed (I mean the creators were turning up) but by the time I got there for 10.20pm, only 2 guys were there. We chatted for a while and over time a little more people turned up and we all had a good laugh talking about interests, talking about Family Guy, South Park and other games we've all played. I read up on Twitter and Facebook that the doors were opening at 11.45pm which soon turned out to be a real midnight opening.

Whats... that... claw?!

Soon The Creative Assembly team were all heading towards us and were all let inside as a few GAME staff members arrived and let them in first to get prepared. We were all making witty jokes about all the members taking selfies and taking pictures of the night, we were all freezing out butts off and couldn't sit down on the near-by benches due to the rain that had occurred all day. We even saw a lady turn up with a suitcase, we all guessed it was the games (I suspected it was the Alien Xenomorph costume as I read on the Facebook event that an actual Alien Costume was going to be here).

Honey, I'm Home!

And would you believe it, at Midnight, the lights went out and this f**ker came to the door and made everyone jump (I wonder if they too saw it coming?)

I was first.
Oli is the guy behind the dude wearing the
beanie,and Thomas is the guy with his arm out

As we all queued up and took photos of the freaky specimen who banged against the glass doors, the doors open and the lights came back on and all was prepared, I even got in first which was brlliant.

I paid for the Game which luckily I got a special, you see the first 20 people to turn up would receive a Poster, the Game, a Patch to sew on and a short-comic of the game itself, and because only around 20 people turned up we were all given the same stuff... yay for me!

I then headed over to the table where everyone was gathered and they offered to sign either the game disk, the game cover or the double-sided poster. I went with the poster as the game cover is too short and the disk would make it non-playable. Everyone signed it and was very eager todo do this for us.

I then stuck around for a little and grabbed some of the guys (Thomas and another guy Oli's) Facebooks and we all got photos with the Alien Xenomorph cosplayer, I said out loud "By the way, no tongue on the first date!" Ha the reaction from everyone was priceless and perfect. As the others took off, I stuck around a little more so I could talk to the creators.

I also met Gary Napper, the Lead Designer, behind the game and got chatting to him about how I intended to come with my CV but decided not to as it would break the atmosphere and seem desperate. I told him all the work I did at Collyers with my BTEC in IT and got a Double B for making a 5-page website with Javascript, I had made a 1 minute Flash animation using stop-motion and had used the software GameMaker to make a small Pokemon side-scrolling game. He was impressed and interested that I had used GameMaker before as that's the software they use too and on their website do an event where people create a small game using the software within 48 hours and submit their work to the company. I felt proud that he said I "was on the right track" and I clarified that I am not ready at the moment to try and apply for an internship but I was most honoured to have met them all and got to chat honestly and receive very helpful advice.
When I told Gary all about my game and how it's still unfinished (but passed the Collyers grade), he helped me with some advice methods on how to fix it and asked if I could send it to him once it's finished sometime. You have no idea how wonderful those words felt to me and I was very pleased and honoured. I got his Twitter right away and said "Thank you" to everyone and shook hands with Gary and said "Thank you for the exciting game, the tips and advice and everything!" I now aim to get round to fixing it again and make him proud as I felt.
Just before leaving, one of the guys shouted "Try not to get eaten on the way home!" I turned round and laughed while asking as I left "You're not gonna set the Alien on me, right?!"

Very surprised that I got home for 12.45am, I was expecting to be home near 2.00am or something due to thinking it would be crowded like any Halo, Call Of Duty or Fifa midnight launch as we can all guess how packed and crowded those nights sound. Still, this pleasant event was worth it and I got more than I expected out of it. It has also woken me up and reminded me of my love for ICT especially in websites and animation and generally gaming. Even I don't know which ones to go for in a career I hope to have someday. But looking back on some memories on some websites such as CodeAcademy.com, Code.org and Generalassemb.ly are the real obstacles for me to conquer and work with someday so that I'll be the  programming nerd that I've always wanted to be (despite Collyers never giving me that chance to learn Programming because I lacked the GCSE Maths at the time and they didn't give me a chance).

Stand by for a Shadow Of Mordor and now Alien: Isolation review and just see how these two games are really keeping me busy and interested thanks to their special features and mechanics for these unique games.