Wacken Open Air was our very first public appearance with A Year Of Rain. We were excited and a little bit frightened by the thought that strangers can play our game for the first time. Our doubts were unfounded. Players loved it - especially those with an RTS background in the past years.
We had a small tent with six game stations. Four of them dedicated to A Year Of Rain. We offered a local 2 vs 2 Skirmish setup. Most of the time, we were able to fill all 4 spots. Only on rare occations we had to get back to our AI opponents to show the game.
We were not only showing the game in our event tent, but also on a stage! Thanks to our friends at HyperX, we had daily spots for matches on the HyperX eSports Truck stage.
On the image above, you see the Folk-Metal band HARPYIE practising for their big match against strangers on stage. Two of them versus two players from the audience. Those matches were brilliant!
Thanks to our stage moderators Jonathan from the HyperX eSports Truck stage crew as well as the German video game expert Uke Bosse with whom I (Cleverbyte) moderated two of four shows. One of the matches had to be ended manually because both teams successfully harvested all wood from the map and cleared all mines on the map which resulted in a dead end of the match. Our game design team is onto this issue now.
Meet Arne (image above). Arne was a regular guest at our booth as well as on the stage. He not only beat Game Designer Ahri and me (Community Manager) in a match with a stranger as a team mate, but also beat HARPYIE on-stage single-handed!
Arne is truly our Wacken Open Air A Year Of Rain Champion. Together with his team mate Alvar, he won some HyperX and Daedalic prizes on stage - and earned our recognition. GG WP, Arne and Alvar.
We would like to thank everyone who made this event such a great happening: The HyperX eSports truck crew, the Full Metal Gaming Village crew, our booth neighbor Lukas on one side and our booth neighbors from IF(game)SH and eSports Nord e.V. on the other side.
Next up on our Event Summer: Gamescom
We'll be at gamescom 2019 in Cologne, Germany! Play A Year Of Rain in Hall 10.1, Booth B078/C079 at LOOTBOY. Pay us a visit and play our second faction, the Undead Restless Regiment, for the first time!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/319540/A_Year_Of_Rain/
Until next time.
The A Year Of Rain Team
