Lucca Comics and Games 2008

View Gallery
(20 Images)

After a successful covert operation at Essen Toy Fair in Germany we sped down to Italy in our trusty ambulance. Along the way, we took in a bit of Bavarian history, a winding detour through the Austrian alps and an overnight stay in Verona, arriving relatively refreshed in Lucca but with just a couple of hours to spare for set-up. Luckily, a couple of hours is all we need these days, seasoned pros that we are.

The medieval and beautiful, walled city of Lucca has hosted an ambitious, large-scale comics and games fair for the past 17 years. This year they had a record 135,000 people show up - maybe somebody told them we were coming? They did apparently place us on their homepage as 'honoured guests'. Awwww...

Super heroes, bizarre comic book creations, lots of Manga orientated costumes and a healthy smattering of school girls The word "fair" however doesn't even remotely do it justice. It's more like a carnival. Imagine getting a hundred thousand extroverts, locking them away from public view for ten years and then unleashing them all at once on a dressing-up box the size of France. The result is Lucca town centre for four days solid. Imagine walking through winding, cobbled medieval streets and bumping into not one, but three Little Red Riding Hoods. Picture, if you will, a gaggle of Corpse Brides sheltering from the rain. Or more disturbing, try and visualize, under heavy skies, running into a group of 12 identical-looking blank-eyed girls dressed up as half the class from Battle Royale, carrying assorted weapons from frying pans to a ball-and-chain. It's nothing short of otherworldly.

But not everything was quite as fantastic as it sounds. Things got off to a slow start thanks in part to torrential rain that didn't show any signs of letting up until Saturday. We had real worries that the Italians maybe weren't as ready for playing an English game as the Germans were after we sold just five games on the first, wet and quiet day.

The sun came out for the for the weekend though and that's when the place really burst into life. More people descended on Lucca on Saturday than in the previous two days put together. Everyone looked amazing: super heroes we knew and some we didn't, bizarre comic book creations, lots of Manga orientated costumes and a healthy smattering of school girls for no other reason than it's an easy costume to make (not that we're complaining). We even had photo requests and shouts of "Terrorist!" while out and about in our orange jumpsuits.

Interest picked up dramatically and suddenly the 10 hour days were rushing by in a blur of demonstrations, signings, stilted Italian and frantic hand gestures. Somehow it all came good in the end and the entire hall soon recognised our megaphone siren that we let off after every sale. We even managed to achieve our goal of getting some Italian shops and distributors to take on the game. In fact, during a meeting with one of the larger distributors, Andy T and Andy S were trying to ally the manager's fears that WoT simply wouldn't sell in Italy since Italians don't buy games in foreign languages. As if on cue, a distant siren cut through the air from Tom racking up another sale back on our stall.

We ended our five days in Lucca far too soon. Happy with the result, but sad to be leaving. A long, non-stop, caffeine-fuelled drive back home through the night awaited us.

We'd like to sincerely thank all the Lucca staff who supported us so kindly. We'd also like to thank the generous and selfless store owners who helped us sell and explain the game in Italian for absolutely zero personal gain. And finally, all the people who put up with Andy T and Tom grunting, 'Do you speak English?' in pigeon Italian. Saying that, Andy T came up with the most ingenious way to communicate with the locals, hurdling international language barriers with nothing more than some pieces of card and a Sharpie. We think it might revolutionize the way the world communicates with each other. But we've said too much already - maybe one day this 'revolution' will need its own blog, or perhaps even its own website.

After such a mind blowing trip we are now following up some generous offers of rule translations, so hopefully at some point in the not too distant future we will be posting our rules in Italian. Bellissimo!

How to Infiltrate a Toy Fair

View Gallery
(20 Images)

It doesn't sound so hard to sneak into a toy fair. It's not like breaching the G8 summit or attending a meeting of the Bilderberg group. Essen Spiel is, as we've repeatedly been told, a family event – something that is open to everyone from toddlers to grannies. Everyone that is, except us.

Our initial plan was just to go as visitors. Meet people, talk shop, take a look around, all that stuff. But as soon as we arrived and saw what else was on offer, a whole new plan started to take shape. After all, we may be banned from exhibiting War on Terror, but no one said anything about anyone else.

For the first three days, we moved like networking ninjas in shadows, stealthily picking our way from one covert meeting to the next, gathering intelligence with all the zeal and determination of an Iraqi prison officer working on commission. We had very promising chats about our next game and about the possibility of both French and German versions of War on Terror but best of all we persuaded ten shops around the fair to trial WoT on the last day of Spiel.

Until then, our genial host and new best friend, Holger from the Fantasy En'counter games shop in Essen was acting as trailblazer, being the only trader selling War on Terror from day one. The lack of heat from The Man was encouraging and in fact War on Terror was Holger's single biggest seller. Would we, we wondered, be able to replicate Holger's success all over the fair?

Sunday rolled around all-too-quickly. We had our intelligence list, a little trolley and a van full of games parked outside. All we had to do was race round the halls delivering games before we got caught and thrown out.

Amazingly no one noticed anything suspicious. We even pushed our trolley full of War on Terror right under Dominique Metzler's (Spiel boss) nose as she gave a radio interview. Seems as if everyone was too occupied to notice our shennanigans.

By the time we'd completed a single round, it was time to check on the first shop again. Everyone was happily reporting lots of interest. One Dutch shop who had immediately set about making a War on Terror pyramid had already sold 9 games and needed re-enforcements for a larger foundation.

It wasn't until half way through the day, as we were pushing around open boxes of WoT, turning heads whenever we trundled past, that we realised we had a kind of mobile stand. A bit of sellotape, a few postcards and literally dozens of seconds later and we pimped out our very own 'TerrorCart' - striking ridiculousness and sickness into the heart of what is traditionally the 'family day' at Essen. And then imagine our mischievous delight when we found that one exhibitor had packed up early and left an empty booth just ripe for squatting. We did it. We got our stand at Essen.

While we hardly broke the bank (they're doing that well enough themselves right now), we did feel a little surge of triumph as we ended the day, collecting cash and chatting to happy shop owners who all promised to carry on stocking WoT. Against the odds, we infiltrated the largest game fair in the world, escaped unscathed, no man down.

We'd like to extend our sincere and heartfelt thanks once again to Holger for allowing three strange Brits to sleep on his floor and for all the kindness, support and help he gave us. It's the unequivocal geneoristy of these random friends we meet and make around the world that keep us going and make it all worthwhile.

Onto Lucca!

Essen: Anatomy of a Ban

View Gallery
(16 Images)

We admit it was pretty funny at first to be banned from a toy fair. But there comes a point where amusement turns to frustration and walking round Essen Spiel for the first time was that point.

To best understand that moment, we should review the reasons for our ban and see whether they measure up against what we now know about Spiel. Please allow and forgive us this indulgence; it's either this or we're going to throw the TV out the window, so for the sake of Anglo-German relations and the hotel we're staying in, we'd best vent our spleen on the blog.

Here are some of the reasons we've been given for our ban accompanied by photos that we took at this year's Spiel:
- "There are no war games at Essen"
- "It's a family show"
- "WoT is too political"
- "It's sick and ridiculous"
- "Nuclear weapons are nothing to joke about"
- "Terrorism is no subject for a game"

Some of you reading this will no doubt consider this petty, but we're not just crying foul. Essen is the largest games fair in the world. Some game designers literally make their living year-to-year by selling their game at Essen. There's no doubt about it, if we attended, it would constitute a major slice of our sales. Similarly, by not attending, TerrorBull Games suffers and loses out on a massive event that is open to all our competitors. And that just isn't ... what's the word ... fair.

A night of Terror at the V&A

War on Terror will be making a spooky appearance at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on the 31st Oct from 6.30-10.00pm.

The event is called 'French Connection Friday Late: Cold War Modern'. The nearest tube is South Kensington and admission is FREE.

You can play War on Terror as well as a host of other crazy things. The demonstration of our game will be in the capable hands of trusty WoT guinea pigs, Ben and Sandeep. Their experience of the game goes back to early testing days, so challenge them if you dare.

Our good friends from 'Class War games' will be attending. And the blurb mentions these attractive attractions: 'Cybersalon and Cybersonica will host progressive electronica music,audiovisual performances, screen-based gaming and sonic art through innovative performances using new multimedia technology.

Here's the official link to the event, if you wish to know more, but quite frankly what more do you need to know? And don't cry and get panicky if you can't see us listed because we're not, it's all been a bit last minute. If you do make it, have a good one and buy Ben and Sandeep a drink on our behalf.

Look Out, Europe, Here We Come!

Well we survived Las Vegas, LA, Reading ... um ... and that's about it. Now we're taking to the road again in a European convention double-bill.

First stop is Essen Spiel - perhaps the largest game fair in the world, with a reputed 300,000 visitors over four days, the very mention of its name is enough to give a thousand geekgasms. Sadly, we're still banned from the place but they never said we couldn't visit. How we go about networking and striking deals incognito is perhaps a little trickier:
- "So, who do you represent"
- "Erm, I'm not allowed to tell you"
- "What are you trying to sell me?"
- "I'll mime it for you".

If you're also going to Essen, drop us a line. We're having ein grossen Party mit vielen fun-und-games on Saturday evening at the Fantasy En'Counter game shop in town. Join us for some war on terror-ing. Play the game. Get your own signed, personalised copy of War on Terror. Win prizes. And there's also a rumour going round that we'll be unveiling a prototype of our new game. We started those rumours; they're true, just in case you were still confused.

There's a rumour going round that we'll be unveiling a prototype of our new game. We started those rumours. Next stop - Lucca in Italy for Lucca Comics & Games '08. This runs from 30 October to 2 November and we're actually allowed into this one. It's by far the largest convention we've ever exhibited at: about 85,000 people are expected over the four days. We don't really know how it'll all go down with the Italians, but their renown sartorial sense will surely appreciate our day-glo orange jumpsuits, if nothing else.

Stay tuned. We'll be posting updates from the road as and when we can. Oh and just in case it wasn't clear, the picture is of Andy T loading up 'Alfie the Ambulance'. Yes, we're going round Europe in an Ambulance. Somehow it's kind of fitting.