How excited we were to get an invitation of Frontier Developments to visit their studio in Cambridge a few weeks ago, oh boy! I had no idea who was coming, except for my lovely YouTube friends Silvarret and Rudi Rennkamel. Not very long after that, we also heard we finally got to meet my most favorite YouTuber of all times; Mr. Keralis! Silvarret and Keralis are the ones to blame for me wanting to start my own YouTube channel back in 2015. Actually, I started my channel later in 2016, but that's a different story I might share one day ;).
Arrival day
Rudi, Silv and I got a nice Airbnb pretty close to the center of Cambridge. I had no idea what Cambridge would look like, other than hearing stories it is such a nice place to visit. Since I've only visited London a few times, I kinda had an expectation of Cambridge being slightly smaller or something with still some high architecture and lots of terraced houses. Oh boy, was I wrong! Not of Cambridge being smaller, but everything was so pretty! The architecture blew me away with lots of detached houses and buildings, lots of parks and something I love the most; terraces! We were so lucky having two sunny days. It got us totally in the mood. Except when we just arrived, it was pouring rain; welcome to the UK! We all arrived around the same time in Cambridge. After a 15 minute break, it was time for dinner at Wagamama to finally see our lovely friend Bo Marit again and meeting Keralis and Chanté for the very first time. Really amazing and inspiring people! After dinner, Keralis, Silvarret, Rudi and I went right around the corner to a very nice cocktail bar at the terrace on the top floor. A super nice evening with lots of Pina Colada's and Strawberry Woo Woo's (I mean seriously, that's the best name for a DeLady's cocktail, isn't it?). And later that evening, the lovely Joël joined us for a tasty beer.
The big day has arrived!
Of course, I woke up way earlier than my alarm. So I jumped into the shower and decided to get us a nice breakfast from the bakery right among the corner. SPRidley just texted that he arrived at the Cambridge Station, so I met him at the Bakery so he could join us that morning. After a nice breakfast of croissants, chocolate buns (yes I know, I couldn't resist!) and coffee it was finally time to take an Uber to Science Park in Cambridge.
It wasn't hard to tell that we arrived at Frontier's office since so many people we know from the community were standing outside making lots of pictures; Joël, Games4Tom, Anigmandra, GregorBurns, Elizabeth, Nemmie, Floss, and Crowdpleaser. So many lovely people, all super excited for THE day we've been waiting for for weeks. Inside the hallway were some other amazing people waiting for us; Chris Beef believe! My all-time favorite Chief Beef entertainer who we've met at GamesCom2016. I was SO happy to see him again, such a lovely guy!
We also met Jurassic Unicast, Tom Jurassic, Geekism, Kimattacks, Jessica Sonnet during our nervous wait down in the hallway. During our wait, we all had to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), cause hey! there is some TOP SECRET and awesome stuff going on in the office right ;).
The presentations
During our day we've got several presentations. We kicked off with the presentation of Planet Coaster Ghostbusters DLC. I have to admit, I really didn't expect that much of this DLC, but wow! It was such a surprise to see the size of this pack and all new features they were about to add to Planet Coaster. The story mode was seriously so unexpected!
After the Ghostbusters DLC presentation, it was time for a presentation about the new Jurassic World Evolution: Claire’s Sanctuary DLC. I already had high hopes for this one, cause I mean; cosmetics you know? You've got my attention! Obviously, it wasn't all about the cosmetics, but I can't help myself, I just love putting down lots of trees, bushes, and FLOWERS. Ok, you can't put down flowers one by one, but this brush is going to be my favorite toy, next to the terrain color brush. So I am super excited to get my hand on this DLC on the 18th of June. Time for a new Jurassic World Evolution series! Stay tuned! HYPE!
Grande Finale!
And then.. the moment we have all been waiting for! We finally got to see the first gameplay of Planet Zoo! Ok thats all folks, I can't tell you more right now. Goodbye!
Ok ok, I can, of course, tell you my opinion without revealing any details; The game and graphics look stunning, management of your animals will be super amazing and in dept, and you will be blown away by some REALLY awesome features they will be adding into the game! Stay tuned for the 10th of June where they will be revealing amazing stuff during the E3 Live Stream at Twitch.
After all the presentations, we got a tour, from the lovely Bo Marit and Chanté, through their office building. Not the whole building tho, cause you know, TOP SECRET stuff we also weren't allowed to see :(. It was so lovely seeing so many familiar faces again from the developers and community managers like Sam Denney, Nick Rogers, James Stant, Matthew Florianz, Will Flanagan, Paige Harvey, Zac Antonaci, and so many more. I wish we could have stayed there for so much longer to chit chat more with all these beautiful people!
The end of a lovely day
After the office tour, we had a lovely dinner with everyone in Cambridge. During dinner, I got to chit chat with the newest community manager of Planet Coaster, Steggs. What a great addition to the amazing community manager's team of Frontier! After dinner, we went back, of course, to our cocktail bar to enjoy some more Strawberry Woo Woo's! Because YOLO!
One for the Books We end our last day at a terrace near the Cambridge station, where we had our last lunch with the lovely Bo Marit and Joël.
It's sad to be leaving, but we leave with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, being proud to be part of this lovely community and being super thankful of everything Frontier has done for us.
Definitely a trip we will never forget!
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