Gamescom 2016: report from Battlestate Games team

2.2k · September 12, 2016

Dear friends! As our community members righteously noticed a few days ago, the Gamescom 2016 expo has passed, but how exactly - remained a mystery. No wonder, as we haven’t, so far, provided any report about our trip. Today we shall amend this mistake and would like to bring to your attention the photo-report about the Battlestate Games team voyage to Germany to showcase our project - Escape From Tarkov!

What kind of impressions did this trip leave?

Nikita Buyanov, COO
"Only the best ones! We have met with a lot of interesting people - reporters and developers - who have duly appreciated Escape From Tarkov. It was also very useful for us to change the setting; working hard, days and nights, can be quite exhausting. New people and new experiences are very helpful in terms of mental conditioning . "

Dmitry Garkavenko, lead developer
"Overall impressions are simply incredible! Seeing people react to what you’ve been creating for months and years is unforgettable. The best part was, perhaps, that other game developers, seeing me wearing the Escape From Tarkov T-shirt, approached to express their admiration, or just drop by to say a couple of words. It is kind of flattering to know that there are many people in the game development industry who follow our project’s progress".

Pavel Dyatlov, programmer
"Awesome atmosphere! I was a bit overwhelmed by the scale of the expo that seems especially striking after you sit for the whole day in your own booth, and then go out and see a huge space swarming with people who gathered to check out the latest gaming industry news firsthand; and you yourself move around in this commotion, always busy presenting your own game and hardly noticing anything else until there is a chance to take a breath and look around.

How did the game demonstration on the stand go? How did the media receive it?

Nikita Buyanov
"We didn’t show our game to the general public, the presentations were media-only and by appointment only. Over the three expo days our stand was visited by more than 100 reporters from media outlets from all over the world - English-speaking, German, Russian, and more. EFT was a great success with them, some have even attempted to stay longer than pre-scheduled time. I recall Gamespot reporter missing his next appointment to try and kill all the Scavs on location and surpass other players in a little tournament we arranged. Our AI adversaries fought furiously, and beating them was no easy task, but in the end the reporter managed to set a new record! "

Dmitry Garkavenko
"The show went smoothly, no incidents recorded, except me scaring one of the reporters with excessively loud gunshot sound during setup. One more minor thing happened during the Twitch broadcast: the press kit described EFT as "hardcore MMO FPS/RPG", but out of sheer confusion I said "free-to-play" instead, marvelled at my own blunder and corrected it. "

Pavel Dyatlov
"When we were showing EFT to reporters and bloggers, I talked incessantly on and on for 5-6 hours straight every day! People kept coming, and I just kept telling them again and again about our awesome Hardcore MMO FPS! The game was a great success with visitors, or that’s what they told us at least. One of the reporter had to wait for us quite a while when we were busy with the broadcast, and was noticeably annoyed by it, but after sitting down to play he was so immersed that restarted level again and again for about a dozen times, running late for the next meeting. That was when I realized that Escape From Tarkov is interesting to the most visitors of the expo".

What was the most memorable about the expo?

Nikita Buyanov
"It was pretty funny to see how visitors, many of them quite being fond of the hardcore games, react to things that happened to them in EFT. They want to win, but the AI enemies are so strong that bag them from any point. As for the exhibition itself, I was so busy that I’ve barely seen any of it. As usual, there were technical difficulties: it turned out that we have no internet at the booth, no monitor cables, and we searched for the late into the night , and then adjusted the equipment. Basically, we worked most of the time, no time to take a breath and look around."

Dmitry Garkavenko
"I was glad that I managed, despite the tight schedule, find some time to check out a couple of VR projects: Batman from Rocksteady and Robinson from Crytek".

How did Germany greet you? What was the most striking about it?

Dmitry Garkavenko
"Cologne feels great! Especially if you spend 10-12 hours a day working at Gamescom. I’d gladly live and work there for a while".

Pavel Dyatlov
"I am happy to have had a good practice in English. Also, after a trip me and my colleagues had to struggle with a habit of sharing our experiences aloud in Russian, which was fine there because almost nobody understood it! It was nice to discover, upon hearing Russian in the streets and coming by to say Hi, that these people were our fellow developers and compatriots who have also attended Gamescom - and moreover, that they are ardent fans of Escape From Tarkov. We wished them the best of luck, receiving the similar wishes in return".

Nikita Buyanov
"Though it was not my first time in Germany, I was amazed by the taxi drivers whirring by like mad in their Mercedes, with such recklessness, that we had to shout them in Russian: "Brother! Where do you hurry so much? Take it easy! " And they replied in bad Russian: "Ja, khoroschyoo!"

The main conclusion that we made after our Gamescom trip is that we need to continue working on the Escape From Tarkov even harder. Thousands of people believe in us, wait for the game release and believe that we will succeed. We realized that we passed the point of no return, a critical phase when the evil tongues claimed that it is impossible to realize all that we aim for in EFT. We need to continue working hard to meet the expectations of people all over the world!"

2k · September 12, 2016

Awesome thanks for the update!

4.9k · September 12, 2016

Good read!

1.9k · September 12, 2016

Ahaa, looks like you guys had a blast!

1.3k · September 12, 2016

nicee to see you get some fun BSG with your job <3 hope see the online part soon

September 12, 2016

Thanks for the update guys, it looked a great event and EFT looked to receive some good interest and feedback. I can't wait for future news and updates, most of all something on the beta!

2.9k · September 12, 2016

Great job guys , screw all those nay sayers , we know what the real deal is

September 12, 2016

I'm glad you had fun over here in Germany I really like how we are able too see how proud you guys are of your work and how much you appreaciate the attention the game is getting.