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Welcome to the first edition of Relic Entertainment's regular community update. Over the coming weeks and months we'll be bringing you an insider's view into the studio, games, and the people that make it all happen. Allie Henze, aka "Buggo", community manager at Relic will be providing audio, video, contests, and features pulled from all over the Relic studios in Vancouver.

Relic Community Open House March 2007 Recap

The Community Appreciation Day at Relic on Friday, March 9th 2007 attracted over 65 fans from all over the world. Fans from Korea, Austria, Germany, Mexico, England, Australia, Yellowknife, and fans from all over the USA and Canada explored a full day of events at the Relic offices.

During registration, fans got to customize their experience for the day, choosing between different sessions, tour times, and level of involvement in the tournament. The 'Design at Relic' session was headed by Jonny Ebbert, who spoke about the design philosophy at Relic and some learning points from past projects, such as how the Necrons were designed for Dark Crusade. Then Chris Degnan took over the podium and spoke about making a campaign for Company of Heroes.

As each tour began I had to yell out "Tour coming through!" before we went into any team areas so people could clear anything sensitive off their screens. We began on the 15th floor, walking through the HR area, the "Next Secret Project" area, talking to Andy Lang a bit about art and showing off some of his concept art, then into the lunch room where the fans inevitably played some table football or arcade, before we stopped by the sound booth to say hi to Glenn. We got a brief rundown of the new Tools Team at Relic from Sheila Nash, and then continued into the Dawn of War area... looking at the cool Games Workshop tabletop room, and then through the area past the boardrooms back into the lobby.

We walked up to the 16th floor and entered the Company of Heroes area. Our first stop was a short presentation from Jason Brackman and Remy Saville on the differences between DX10 and the old DX9 drivers. The screenshots made the difference obvious, and fans got a chance to ask some questions. I eventually had to drag them away, and continue through the COH area, stopping at the sound and programming areas, and then through to my desk and the Online area. We chatted with Irwan about his UI art and his models, and then finished past the exec area in the main boardroom for the next session.

Everyone at the event squeezed into the main boardroom for the "Art at Relic" session. Andy Lang did a great introduction and closing to the presentation, showing some exclusive artwork that had never been seen by the community before. Noah Stacey described a day in the life of an artist at Relic, showing some hilarious photomanips, such as a Space Marine playing pool. Roland talked about how art is made at Relic from concept to completion, showing screenshots and concept art about how a level evolves. Ian Cumming talked about the relationship between Games Workshop and Relic, showing Dark Crusade concepts and models with a story. Finally, Zoe did an awesome demonstration of painting with shaders that showed the crowd real-time the ways we can manipulate our models to look their best and give the right mood.

After the session, several fans headed downstairs to start playing in the Company of Heroes tournament. They were told the rules and maps, and were helped to pair up by Taylor. They were also reminded they were playing for an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS video card and a signed Company of Heroes poster. Tournament games took approximately 30 minutes to play, and was narrowed from 16 to eight to four to two final players for a total of four rounds.

At the same time, John and Glenn were doing "Sound Sessions" in the main boardroom. They asked a fan to load up the game and starting playing in some missions. They told some stories about how sounds were developed at Relic, and how and why they play during games.

After lunch we headed into the main boardroom for the "History of Relic" presentation by Rob and Frank. They showed a slideshow of photos from the old days, of the old office and told stories about their co-workers. Even for me, it was inspiring to hear how Relic was started and what our roots are... I can only imagine how the fans felt about it from their heartfelt applause and comments.

The History of Relic session transitioned into a general Welcome and Introduction session by me. I thanked everyone for coming and introduced some of the notable attendees, from the out-of-towners to the forum staff moderators and admins, and Tales of Heroes podcast personalities Bridger and Vitensby. We also watched the fan videos and other media sent in for the Biggest Fan Contest. Adrien Debos' video (the guy who won) got a great reception. Afterwards, I showed some cropped and cryptic concept art and music from upcoming games to the audience, which left them puzzled and probably frustrated (sorry guys!)

Most of the fans stayed for the Balance Roundtable session in the main boardroom while a few left for the other bracket of the first round of the tournament. Charis Hoo opened with an introduction about the balance process and philosophy, and then moved onto Q&A. The Balance Team and designer Blaine Smith took a barrage of questions about both Company of Heroes and the Dawn of War games.

The tournament moved into Round 2 at the same time as the Homeworld Post-Mortem. Rob Cunningham, Dave Cheong, Quinn Duffy, and Andy Lang discussed how HW's single player simplification from a complex script and the writing made the game. They also talked about the deal with Sierra and how the Kushan and Taiidan designs were created.

The next time slot was a busy one, with the final tour group, round 3 of the tournament, and the mapping and modding session. The groups split into two, one for Company of Heroes mapping/modding and the other for Dawn of War. There were Q&As, demonstrations, and tutorials.

The final round of the tournament was a face off between Andrew and Naaron. In the end, Andrew ended up winning first place for the video card and the framed poster that only the developers had. It was hot and stuffy in the tournament room but somehow we managed to squish in a bunch of spectators. Most would agree it was an exciting match!

We ended the day in the main boardroom with a closing presentation. We presented Andrew with his prizes for the tournament including a medal of honour, and Naaron with a framed PC Gamer cover and a Colonel pin. We then awarded pins and patches for the tournament participants in order of rank. We had three main contests, one for Company of Heroes, Homeworld, and Dawn of War. After asking a number of questions about the COH campaign and commander trees, we gave away another signed developer-exclusive framed COH poster to Devan. After some tough questions, we gave IgnusDei a number of Tau models from Games Workshop. Lastly, we gave away a beautiful mounted paper model of the Taiidan scout to Riess, who was somehow able to answer the cryptic Homeworld questions in a face off against Uberjumper. But Uber wouldn't walk away with nothing! As a thank you from all Relic staff and the General Manager himself, we gave Tyler a 2 foot mounted paper model of the Kushan mothership.

After highlighting some of his achievements in the community, Tyler stood up and gave a passionate speech to the audience who gave him a huge round of applause. Finally, we ended with a raffle for all the fans present. Everyone walked away with something, and some people with two! We gave away signed copies of Dark Crusade and Company of Heroes, signed posters of both games, a copy of The Outfit, Relic t-shirts, Relic waterbottles, a Winter Assault t-shirt, a THQ polo shirt, a stainless steel Relic mug, Impossible Creatures strategy books and backpack, PC gamer posters, Company of Heroes mousepads, Relic lanyards, PC gamer magazines, and a silver Relic belt buckle! And every fan left with three beautiful Company of Heroes, Homeworld, and Dark Crusade postcards, Relic stickers, a Relic pin, and a very nice Relic patch.