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 from 10 am to 6 pm.
Huge number of fans crammed into the main boardroom
During registration, fans got to customize their experience for the day, choosing between different sessions, tour times, and level of involvement in the tournament. They also snacked on a variety of breakfast croissants, muffins, fruit, and of course coffee … perhaps so much caffeine was a bad idea!
We were a bit late starting for the “Design at Relic” session and Tour 1. Design at Relic 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.
Design at Relic session
Then we began “Tour 1”, one of three tours that would occur over the day. All the tours were the same. 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 foosball or arcade. 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. We then 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.
Jason Brackman and Remy presenting DX10 during the tour
Some employees during the tour 
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.
Noah presenting a picture of the Space Marine playing pool during the art session
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 8 to 4 to 2 final players for a total of 4 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.
We then took a break for lunch: pizza, sandwiches, drinks, and some fruit and cracker trays. Pizza went the fastest… pretty much everything was cleaned out. After about 30 minutes 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.
RelicNews staff during lunchtime
More fans at lunch (lol thanks Jade)
The History of Relic session transitioned into a general Welcome and Introduction session by myself. 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, 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. It was perhaps to short a session since there were still so many hands in the air waiting to be called on when I had to ask the crew to bring the session to an end.
A funny picture up during the balance roundtable
As a third of the group went for the second tour, the Careers at Relic Q&A session with Winnie Sin was underway on the 16th floor. Winnie talked briefly about culture at Relic and answered questions for the rest of the time slot.
The tournament moved into Round 2 at the same time as the Homeworld Post-Mortem. I know a few fans were a bit disappointed they had to miss the session. And it was a great one! 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.
Near the end of the day, we stopped for snacks at the dessert tray set up on the 16th floor while watching the final round of the tournament. It 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 fluff 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 2! 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.
All the prizes!
Prizes, and fans writing down their answers during the contest
Uberjumper during his speech, and Riess with his HW Taiidan Scout
Devan with his framed COH poster
I shall post on the after-Open House festivities soon 
March 15th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Nice pictures, looks like everyone had a great time! Excellent camera work too.
You won’t be showing off those presentations to the masses will you? would they be apt to be downloaded or are they really just aids to talking? (shame you didn’t capture one, they sounded interesting!)
March 15th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
very cool.
March 15th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Oh and by the way, this was an excerpt from the port-mortem I wrote up for the company documentation … which is why it sounds so stiff
LOL, don’t worry, the next one will be a little more jovial to say the least………………..
March 15th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
\o/
I had an amazing time. Very many thanks for making this possible.
March 15th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Looks like it was awesome fun!
March 15th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Too many words to support the distinct lack of Buggoness…
:P
March 15th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Loving the picture during the balance session
Great writeup Allie.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Absolutely incredible! Makes me wish I’d been able to go even more! Ah well, there’s always next year… And you _will_ do this again, won’t you?
March 15th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
The picture from the balance session was great.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
perfectly timed too…
March 15th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Yay, piccies!
Nice write-up. Buggo. 
*wishes he’d been there*
March 15th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
I’ll definitely be making plans to go to the next open house event.
And I’ll bring my toque that Allie wants so much. :p
March 15th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Going to do my best to make it next time, even if I have to walk up to the frigid north.
March 15th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
all those prizes
.. well it does look and sound like you had a memorable time you won’t soon forget.
March 15th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
It seems that Relic really went all out to make this a great day for everyone. I will have a hard time staying away if it happens again.
Also warms the heart to see the RN staff all in one place hanging out… it just seems “right”.
March 16th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Wow, looks sooo nice, I hope we get to see some more pics!
March 17th, 2007 at 6:41 am
[…] Now at this point it’s good to know that the place where the Relic offices are, Vancouver, and the place where I usually reside, Vienna, are a few thousand kilometers apart. After some not-so-careful planning I ended up meeting with two more of forums staff in Frankfurt, before taking a ten-hour flight over Iceland, Greenland and a lot of northern Canada, landing in Vancouver, B.C. at noon-ish time, at what would be 22:00 for central Europe. Very tired I faced Canadian customs and immigration bureaucracy, who finally decided that I was probably not going to steal any jobs when I was here on vacation for six days and to let me into the country after the tiny delay of over two hours of standing in line. From there on, things started to get better. That evening I got to meet all the other forums staff who were attending, all in all about 10 people who mostly met each other for the first time in their lives after having been friends for as much as 8-9 years, in some cases. The next morning, Friday, it was time for the Big Event: the Open House. I won’t bother with dealing with NDA and just refer you to the “official” report. I very much enjoyed the thick atmosphere of nostalgia surrounding the presentations of how Relic started out and how their first game, Homeworld came to be. Listening to last remaining founding member Rob Cunningham recapping the “good old days” was a treat. […]
March 17th, 2007 at 9:31 am
wow… Very nice
March 19th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Is Vitensby and Bridger in any of thoses ? I herd they were?
March 20th, 2007 at 5:34 am
Bridger’s in the last picture on the right side (black T-shirt and long hair). Nice guy!
March 24th, 2007 at 8:47 am
[…] Relic Community Open House March 2007 Recap Last week at Relic we had an open house for Relic fans. Fans flew from as far away as Europe to check out our offices. Now you can come along on the tours and pretent that you were there. […]