Atlantica Online : Disecting the GDC Experience

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The floors have been swept, the projectors turned off and the thousands of bustling industry folk have returned to their respective companies. GDC 2009 is over and with it NDOORS Interactive took its first step into the stormy waters of gaming conventions. This was "serious business" for our team. For weeks we had been combing through the development schedule to see what would be ready for public presentation, coordinating with our localization team, writing scripts and drinking copious amounts of energy drinks during those long nights of preparation. We wanted to do this right and make sure we not only showed our dedication to the North American market but also present as much as we could about our development plans for the next year to our players. The pressure was on.

This was not only my first experience presenting at GDC but it would also be the first time NDOORS Interactive has revealed new content exclusively in North America. The community was anticipating big announcements and we aimed to deliver. With plane tickets in hand, we loaded a small mountain of computer equipment and swag on board and took flight to San Francisco. With swollen, weary eyes we worked late into the night to set-up, finalizing our media presentations and stuffing bags with what seemed to be an endless amount of swag for our players. Everyone was a little frantic, running around half of the city making sure everything was in order. Finally, Thursday morning came and the moment of truth had arrived. With a few forgotten words and a small technical hiccup here and there, we delivered the biggest announcements NDOORS had made about Atlantica Online in North America to date. All was right in this small corner of the world but the weeks leading up to this moment proved to be quite a ride.

The first task in the long road to GDC was to prepare and pour through the countless items currently in development to find the biggest and best of what Atlantica had lined up. This would require a good deal of coordinating with our Korean development team. To our surprise (and delight) Atlantica's producer, Kim Tae Gon, was extremely excited about the prospect of presenting Atlantica at GDC. So excited in fact that he flew out here to work with us directly in the weeks leading up to GDC and he didn't come alone! An entire team of developers arrived to help us prepare for the presentation. During this time we scoured through our upcoming content to see what would be the most interesting for our players. There was so much we wanted to cover but we decided to focus on two things, Titan server, which we launched only a few weeks ago and the 100v100 tactical battle system that is in the early stages of development right now. This was a tough decision because there was so much content still in the planning stages, such as the new continent of Titan, that we had to leave out because much of the details we not yet nailed down.

I would definitely say that the hardest part of GDC was keeping my mouth shut during those interviews and Q&A sessions! So many times throughout the day I had to catch myself from spilling the beans about the content we had decided not to reveal at GDC. The promising side of this is that we have even more to show you in the coming months and with a little more experience under our belt, we are ready to take on GDC 2010, next time though I think I'll need a stronger energy drink!

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