Developer's Log

The Day of Destiny approaches

24th o July 2010

Little over a month remains before the latest edition of the Abunai! convention begins, and that means plenty of hard work for our crew to make sure everything is ready in time, especially with vacation time looming at the horizon, separating the present age and the last weekend of August, the Weekend of Abunai.

This is my first year as secretary of the Abunai! organisation. Previously I've been one of the people responsible for the Program Commission (events, gamesroom, video program), but starting this year I've officially joined the board of the Abunai! foundation.

And what a year it has been! A lot of things have changed in the last few months, with people leaving the Abunai! staff and new people joining, and a lot of new ideas behind the scenes to make this year's convention all that more entertaining and refreshing for you, the visitor. Because this year's theme, "The power is yours!" isn't just about transformations and superheroes (and villains!). We also chose this title to emphasize your role in Abunai!, that of the visitors who give us feedback for us to work with, but who also come up with new ideas, suggestions to help make Abunai! even better. For example we've tried to make us of the suggestions offered to us in last year's "Abunai! Future Challenge", and one of the events we're hoping to launch at our convention, an Abunai/anime-themed LARP (live action roleplay) event, is mostly based on ideas by one of our visitors.

A few weeks ago a few members of the Abunai! crew gathered at the place where it all began, Enschede. Not for nostalgic reasons but to plan and work on this year's opening ceremony. It's going to be special, it's going to be awesome, and hopefully it will mark a grand start to an equally awesome convention weekend..!

Curious about what we have in store? Keep watching our website and forum for more information! And of course you can also find us on Hyves, Facebook and Twitter. We're starting to find the so called 'social media' more and more this year, and I personally must say I enjoy the possibilities they offer, as well as more and new ways to better get in touch with our visitors.

So, like I said, less than two months remain; I hope you'll all have a nice summer with plenty of fun events. And what better way to end that nice and fun summer than with a visit to the Abunai! convention. ;-)

New tunes at Abunai 2009!

28th o July 2009

Since I resigned as chairman this April I've had free time on my hands! What would I do? Offcourse I did the usual things, getting married, going on my honeymoon, working my regular job and just plain enjoying my free time! Offcourse all that took up more than enough of my time, so free was still really really busy! But now that's all behind me. Married life isn't so different (You bet it's different), and having more time for work and relaxing feels good.

Re-thinking my position in Abunai is like listening to a new tune, at first you don't know if you're going to like it or not, then you gradually get used to it and find new things in the music which you didn't hear before, and lastly before you know it, you start to whistle along! For me it all feels like this at Abunai.

I decided that I would think of one or two new ideas for Abunai and help people of the staff who need a little bit of time or experience. So now I'm working on the Busses with our accomodation staff and doing some financial work for the foundation.

As for new ideas, I'd like YOUR help with these new ideas. I'm working on an Abunai's Future Challenge! event that gives you the challenge to think of something new in the form of a real business Game. How would you like your idea to be part of a convention next year? Just take part in the Abunai's Future Challenge!

Yours truly,

Jeroen Broekhuijsen

Abunai! 2009: In the summertime...

23rd o June 2009

It's almost time for summer, time for good weather (or so we hope), fun events and of course vacation plans. The same can of course be said for the Abunai! crew, however at the same time there is no rest for the proverbial wicked: This year's convention is only three more months away, and everybody is working as hard they can in their freetime to once again make it a convention to remember!

Even though the entire staff of Abunai! is working together on this, at the same time each team is mainly focusing on their own section (website, video, personel, etc), and the same can be said for the Programme Commission. As the name suggests, this commission is the team responsible for the activities visitors can participate in at Abunai!, such as the various events and contests, but also the video programme and the gamesroom. Setting all of this up requires a great deal of time and planning: for both gamesroom and video suitable titles need to be found, and then it's mainly a matter of pulling the right strings to get the titles and materials needed.

However for planning an event the list of actions grows even longer. Everything starts out with an idea of course... however you can't kiss an idea, cannot touch it, nor can you entertain a crowd of convention visitors with it. So in order to turn an idea into an actual convention event it goes through a variety of steps. First, we decide if an idea is feasible: does it fit our convention atmosphere? Is it somewhat original? Can we find a trustworthy party to help us turn this idea into reality? Can we afford it? And that's just the first step of a long staircase of additional tasks: creating a planning and timeslot, acquiring gophers, arranging for materials and prices if needed, announcing it on the website, etc...

And all of these things -events, video, games- will eventually flow together into a three-day programme that will hopefully keep all of you very entertained. Right now we're all working hard on getting these things done in time, and the final product will be for all of you to experience and evaluate. We hope you'll enjoy it, see you at Abunai!

Mark
Assistant Manager Events

Abunai! 2009: A new beginning...

17th o May 2009

With only 4 months left until Abunai! 2009, preparations have long since started. Periods of rest are rare, with the staff always on the move preparing for the next convention, making sure each year improves on the previous one. Last years Abunai! (2008) took a very big step and moved its roots from Enschede to Zwolle. A move everyone had to get used to, even the staff. This year we will be back in Zwolle once more. No change of location, but a new feeling. We took care of listening carefully to all helpful feedback from visitors last year, and we hope that once more everyone will enjoy an extra fun Abunai!

Extra enjoyable atmosphere is of course added by our muscial theme this year. So don't just expect the usual musical influences, like DDR and karaoke, but a whole bunch of musical themed events. Who knows, you might even see me singing when I wiggle across the convention. If you want to get an impression of that, try watching the the old openings movies of the Abunai! conventions from our archive ^^;;

New for me this year is my role as Chairman. And eventhough this will hardly be noticable on the convention itself, it is a big change within the foundation. Jeroen, the old chairman, has always put a lot of efford in making Abunai! happen each year, and I doubt that Abunai! as we know it would even exist without him.

But ofcourse Abunai! continues, Abunai! is there for the visitors after all. What this change will mean for the upcoming convention? Well, there will be a new face on stage to bore you all with anouncements during the opening ^^V

In anycase, I'd like to welcome you all to Abunai! 2009: Once more with feeling. Lets make it a musical weekend together and have a blast! Hope to see you all there ^^

Matane,

Lennart Boot
Chairmain of the Abunai! foundation

ZOMG!! We're moving!!

19th o March 2008

Moving our convention to a new site was a decision that took us more than a year to make. When the decision was final, we knew there was a lot of work to do. So we got stuck in and started arranging all sorts of things. Soooooo, time for another devlog to tell you all about it!

As I type this, my colleagues of events are working hard to get those events up and running that you know and love. They'll try their hardest so you will have the same ol' Abunai type of fun that you had last year and the years before that. The guys of accommodation are also working hard to get all the sleeping spots arranged. It's a large undertaking to arrange sleeping spots for such a large group of people.

My department is getting a little bit busier this year. We're recruiting new people and we're also attending the Elf Fantasy Fair for promotional activities. So the deadlines are a lot earlier this year. Aaaaaaaargh! There's so much that needs to be done! Luckily, we have some help from our friend at anyway, a few circles (Cheesecake and Open Minded) are present as well helping us out with workshops.

Our new location offers a lot more space for us to do things, and you'll have to travel less distances to get from event to event. We also have a very specious event room for our cosplay event this year, with a really big stage! The atmosphere will benefit from our location. I do believe it will be much cosier then ever before, because everything is very close together.

Well, ticket sales will be op in a couple of weeks, promotion will start at the Elf Fantasy Fair and we have a lot of work to do.

We'll be seeing you on Abunai!

Jurry
(A.k.a. Twisted_edge)
PR/External manager
Abunai! Foundation