In case you missed it, Phil organized a low-key gift exchange between members of the Ludum Dare community. About 20 of us signed up, Phil put all our names in to a “virtual hat”, and forwarded a contact to each of us.

To keep it interesting, everyone was assigned someone in a different country — that way, we could send locally relevant gifts to each other. So yes, somewhere out there, a very Canadian bundle should be arriving soon.

Me, I was awakened today to the sound of the door ringing. As it turns out, the mail man arrived super-early with a package for me — a HUGE laptop sized box, covered in Deutsche Post markings!

What mysteries lie inside DAS BOXEN?

Lets explore the contents of this uber gift.

First off, it’s not a Laptop (Duh ‘eh?). Instead, just a big box full of little things. There are so many things in the box, I’ve decided to break them up.

It's things, but German things! That makes them better!

A selection of goods ranging from a small business magazine for entrepreneurs, a local rag, a movies magazine, and a web and online businesses mag.

But definitely, a totally super-perfect LD appropriate gift, a beginning computer programming book in German!

Learn Pascal and Visual Basic now! Wunderbar!

Next, a selection of local tea and biscuits.

Beethoven seems a surprisingly common theme

And last, a fully illustrated comic book guide to Cologne.

And perfect for me, the virtual tourist, it's actually in English.

Next up, a selection of fliers and pamphlets… in German!

Hey neat, they do McDonalds Monopoly in Germany too! Also, KFC Germany has a chilli cheese fry... No fair!

In addition to some fliers about attending the Ballet, there's this postcard with a dog on it

That sums up our “all ages” portion of the gift — or to use a common xmas colloquialism, the “nice” portion.

* * *

Now for the “naughty“.

German Playboy, FHM, GQ, Maxim, and a Men's Health just to balance things out

Yes a whole variety of magazines were included in the package. Something for everyone.

Hey see, Netbooks! I make games for those! It really is for the articles honey! Honest!

And of course, what better way is there to show your national pride than with the local brew.

Coasters, a mini Bonn mug, a shot of Ficken, a contoured glass, and a large star filled with Beethoven Liquer

Check out this bottle…

That's a cool bottle

The card says it contains “Beethoven Liker”. Classy.

Beethoven is everywhere, even on the glass

The mini mug for the city of Bonn.

Hey I wonder if the Ficken will fit in the mug?

Success!

So a big thank you to my German “Santa Clause”. I had a lot of fun digging through and discovering all the neat things included in the gift.

Tags: ldgift

This entry was posted on Friday, December 24th, 2010 at 10:46 am and is filed under LD #19 - Discovery - 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.