by Lauran Carter, Two Point Hospital Community Manager (@TheAlbionGirl)
PC Gamer Weekender - New Gameplay Revealed!
This weekend we were lucky enough to be invited to talk at PC Gamer Weekender about all The Birth of Two Point Studios and our progress and vision for Two Point Hospital. This would be the very first time we'd be showing a big chunk of gameplay - with illnesses and cures aplenty - so needless to say we were all really excited - and maybe a tiny bit apprehensive - about the event!
Prior to the event we met (*cough* in the pub *cough*) to decide what we wanted to include in our talk and gameplay footage. We were laughing for a lot of that meeting, which is always a good sign when it comes to presenting a game like Two Point Hospital :P The wonderful thing about Two Point is the history and experience it has been born from - I could sit around with Gary and Mark and listen to their story telling jackanory for hours… but there's always work to do! The weeks sped by and before we knew it we were a couple of days out from the show and gathering our thoughts, presentation and gameplay ready for the show.
The morning of the PC Gamer Weekender arrived. We met at the venue. I nearly got ushered through to the next door wedding event as a speaker - which could have been interesting - and before we knew it we were all gathered around the Developers Stage briefing the AV guy on our presentation. We all knew what would go where, who would come on stage at which point and how the whole thing would play out. We were ready. Grand.
As our call time arrived and I was feeling pretty confident about the whole thing. Just as I was about to start panicking that no one would come and be our audience I realised I had something bigger to worry about - Gary, Mark and Ben Hymers were nowhere to be seen! Thankfully they returned after five panic stricken minutes with fresh coffees in their hands. NOW we were ready!
The Birth of Two Point Studios talk went down a storm! The audience area was packed - we even had people standing to watch - and everybody laughed at Gary's jokes which was super polite of them ;) The story of setting the studio up is one I've heard many times, but I still enjoy hearing the team talk about it. The passion for this game and genre given off by our founders is impossible not to see, and I think our talk really got that across. However, the really exciting part of our talk was the 7 minutes of exclusive gameplay that we showed off!
The gameplay was really the first time viewers had a chance to feel the atmosphere of Two Point County and exist within it for a little while, if you know what I mean. We showed off a little of the county itself, gave context to where your hospital may be on the map of Two Point County and then shows the inside of a beautiful and successful hospital, all captured by Gary Carr himself! Of course there was still plenty more in store - new illnesses, new NPC reactions, new cures… but I'll leave that for now as we expect to have the very same gameplay footage out in the world for you all to see very soon!
We managed to have enough time to do a short Q&A at the end of our talk which was awesome! If you're ever coming to see us at an event, do prepare some questions just in case! We really do love hearing from you and enjoy listening your views on what we're doing! All in all, everything was really well received - we came off stage to applause and had some time to talk to the audience members individually. We are often blown away by the excitement held for Two Point Hospital by the gaming community, and this was no exception.
To top it all off we even got to meet Blarla, who is one of our most supportive and knowledgeable fans. Obviously, as a Community Manager I liiiive for those moments that the community and devs get to actually meet and have a chat, so that saw me grinning from ear to ear!
Team Two Point still had a few engagements to stick to - you may have seen them on SEGA's Make War Not Love stream and on PC Gamers own stream later that afternoon.
The reception we got from everyone - at the show and across social media - was nothing short of wonderful and we are so very pleased to be working on something that you all want to get your hands on, so thank you from the bottom of our ventricles for being there to support us! <3
Lauran