For all you guys out at ComicCon or planning on heading over tomorrow, Jonny will be part of a THQ panel happening Saturday afternoon. Not only will he be talking about the game, he’ll be doing so using actual gameplay footage! Here’s the official word:
ComicCon: Saturday July 26th. Room 4 (2:30-3:30)
Dawn of War II & Deadly Creatures - From concept art to video games. Explore the richness of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and the inspiration behind Dawn of War II with Relic Entertainment’s lead designer, Jonny Ebbert. Rainbow Studios’ art director, Brent Ashe and concept artist, Andre Kirk take you through the creepy concepts, art direction, and twisted innovation of Deadly Creatures.
There has been a lot of positive fan reaction to the DOW2 music, which obviously makes us happy that we’re going in a good direction. Now we would like to let you know the name behind the music for DOW2; Doyle W. Donehoo. Doyle was chosen after an exhaustive search through some of the industry’s top composers, plus a meeting at GDC where he managed to sneak our Audio Lead into somewhere they really weren’t supposed to be, then proceeded to say everything we wanted to hear.
When Doyle submitted music for our audition, he didn’t know anything about the title we were working on, except that it was a game set in the 40k universe. However, his sense of what a 40k game should sound like nailed the sound we were after, technically and stylistically. When we laid that audition music behind some previs animation video it seemed like Doyle had composed the whole thing to picture, or he read our minds (psyker?), and that sealed the deal. It didn’t hurt that Doyle was already a 40k tabletop fan, had played through the DOW franchise, and was completing Dark Crusade’s campaign with all races as he signed on to do the DOW sequel.
Previous to focusing full-time on composition, Doyle had spent a couple decades in the digital trenches as a software coder and developer, so he is fully aware of the ins and outs of our production processes and technical needs. While other composers may boast game credits as long as a chainsword, Doyle’s game credits are only beginning, though he’s been in the industry for quite a long time, and something tells me his list of game credits is going to grow… How many composers do you know who can provide technical white papers on the musical technicalities of what they’re up to?
His website is here:
http://www.sierra-trails.com/radarmusic.html
ps. When not composing music for DOW2, Doyle has managed to hike about 99% of the trails snaking their way through the Sierra mountain range, and goes on “practice hikes” weekly carrying a 50lb backpack.
Gamespot’s E3 Live Show will be airing a pre-recorded segment with Jonny Ebbert, Lead Designer for Dawn of War II this afternoon with questions straight from the forums on community.dawnofwar2.com. this was recorded this morning to make up for the technical difficulties from yesterday’s live interview.
It will be a part of the 2:30pm (PST) segment cut in-between the live bits. So be sharp and watch for it here:
http://e3.gamespot.com/live.html
(EDIT: Gamespot wanted us to pass along that the failure with the Fan questions yesterday had to do with the fact that as soon as they opened their site for questions, 60,000 of you hit it and it couldn’t handle the onslaught of questions from you. …Yes Sixty-Thousand hits for Dawn of War II questions.)
Down at E3, Mark and Jonny are currently in a recording session with the guys from the GFW Radio Podcast right now! Currently you can listen to the podcast from July 15th where they talk a little about impressions of Dawn Of War II (about 55 min in).
They’ve let me know that in a couple hours, today’s podcast will be posted with the interview that is going on as I write this. Don’t forget to check it out.
More Dawn of War II coverage coming at you from E3. This time tune in to check out Mark Noseworthy, Dawn of War II’s Producer, on IGN’s Livewire. He will be live tomorrow morning at 11:30 Pacific Standard Time.
In case you didn’t get the link, point your browsers to http://livewire.ign.com/2008/e3/index.html.
If you missed the live feed, look through Thursday’s archives to find the video!
Our very own Lead Designer, Jonny Ebbert will be LIVE on Gamespot’s E3 Live show to talk about Dawn Of War II. It is happening this afternoon, Wednesday July 16th, at 2:25 PST. The Gamespot’s E3 Live show gives you the unique opportunity to post questions about the game in an interactive session. So get logged in and ready.
In case you aren’t already glued to the E3 coverage the link is here.
edit 2:30 pst: GS is running a little behind, word has it at about 20 minutes, but don’t stop watching, just in case
THQ Inc. has launched THQatE3.com, the official site for THQ’s line-up at the 2008. THQatE3.com will bring the E3 experience home to game enthusiasts, with interviews and booth tours for THQ’s latest games, and exclusive assets for highly-anticipated titles, including: Saints Row 2, Red Faction Guerilla, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, Darksiders: Wrath of War, Deadly Creatures, de Blob, WWE Legends of WrestleMania, UFC 2009 Undisputed, and other E3 featured games.
Recently we announced that Dawn of War II will be a Games for Windows - LIVE title. We are especially excited about this because Dawn of War II’s multiplayer features will be offered for free, which is significant news for anyone already familiar with the LIVE service.
Online play will be a huge part of Dawn of War II. In addition to competitive multiplayer we are also supporting co-operative play in the campaign. It’s more important to us than ever before that we have a service that lets players connect with each other easily and reliably.
From our end the decision to go with LIVE came from a desire to increase our connection success rates, have better scalability, and offer better service to our customers. We appreciate the loyalty our community has shown us on our previous titles, and we want to ensure that we’ve done everything we possibly can to keep our customers playing together. Relic is committed to improving all aspects of our games with each release, and we strive to provide a seamless experience that meets all of our customers’ expectations.
We look forward to seeing you all online early next year. Thank you!
Q & A What is being announced at E3?
Dawn of War II will offer free multiplayer and will be using Games for Windows – LIVE.
But Microsoft charges for a gold subscription for GFW-LIVE. How is that not the case with Dawn of War II?
There will be no subscription fee for any multiplayer gaming features using the Games for Windows – LIVE service in Dawn of War II.
Does this include full matchmaking, multiplayer achievements, etc?
Yes. This includes achievements, TrueSkill® multiplayer matchmaking, voice and text chat, a friends list that is consistent across both Windows and XBOX 360, and all other features of the Games for Windows – LIVE service.
Will you have a marketplace or other in-game content?
We will be distributing additional content for Dawn of War II through Games for Windows - LIVE. We’re keeping the details under wraps for now, but stay tuned!
Thanks for coming out to see the site! I hear word has gotten around the internet and more and more people are stopping by to see what’s going on. So I thought it give you guys a little teaser…
Well actually the little teaser is courtesy of GameTrailers.com. They mention that they have some hot new info on this weeks GameTrailersTV which airs Friday night on SpikeTV. I wonder what it might be… sounds interesting. In the mean time, you can check out the show’s own teaser here.
Welcome to the new Community Portal for Dawn of War II!
This portal is dedicated to help you join Relic and our development process as we bring you Dawn Of War II. This is something new, a first of its kind for us. We are really excited to be able to talk to our fans through this site. This will become your source to learn about the game, glean insights, and hear news directly from the development team at Relic.
Our goal is to provide you with not only information about the Dawn Of War II but also all the cool on-goings around the studio bringing it to you. So don’t come here just anticipating new screenshots, previews, and videos. Sure we’ll be sharing all that, but anticipate a behind-the-scenes look at what we do here at Relic and how we make kick ass games. I’m Dan Molina, Associate Producer along with Mike Torillo, Assistant Producer on Dawn of War II. Together with others, we will be your guides through the halls of Relic and on the road to Dawn of War II.
Usually you’ll see new stories appear at the top of the blog but we’ve gone ahead and posted some content for you already. Scroll down and you’ll see some new screenshots exclusive to the community site, the new teaser video, and some bio’s about our leads.
Check back soon, and check back often, the doors to Relic open very very soon!
- Dan and Mike
If you are coming here for inside information about Dawn Of War II, you might be wondering “who are the people making this game?”. Let us introduce to you the core team at working to bring you the game. By no means is this a complete list, it takes many dedicated people to bring you a top notch title. These are the Leads, the people overseeing all aspect of their department. They are:
Mark Noseworthy - Producer
Mark Noseworthy grew up on the flatlands of Winnipeg, Manitoba where he majored in Finance and minored in obscure 8-bit NES games before moving to Vancouver to put his twenty plus year thumb-mashing education to good use. Mark joined Relic in 2004 after after working as a Game Analyst at Nokia and started his game development career as an Assistant Producer on The Outfit. The self-declared foosball champion at Relic, Mark took on progressively more responsibility on subsequent games including an unnannounced project as well as some additional production help finishing Company of Heroes before kicking off Dawn of War 2. Currently Playing: Dawn of War 2 (PC) , Jeanne d’Arc (PSP), Ms. Pac-man (Arcade).
Jonny Ebbert - Lead Game Designer
If Jonny Ebbert were to put on an Indiana Jones hat and don a bullwhip, he’d be in pursuit of the Lost Ark. After all, according to him, Raiders Of The Lost Ark is the only true and pure Indy movie and he refuses to acknowledge the existence of all others. Luckily, he’s not a relic hunter, but he IS a Relic Designer. For the last 3 and a half years at Relic, he’s been a Senior Designer for Winter Assault and a Lead Designer for Dark Crusade, Soul Storm, and now, Dawn Of War 2. Before cracking the bullwhip here, he served as a strike team member on Empire Earth, a designer on Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, and a senior designer on Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War for Stainless Steel Studios in Boston, MA.
Roland Longpre - Art Director
Making it out west from his recent home Calgary, Alberta, Regina native Roland Longpre contributed to Tetrisphere as Art Director and as Environment Artist on The Next Tetris before further work in “Cow Town” as a 3D Artist and Art Director at a multimedia advertising studio. He joined the Relic team in 2002 on a project so shrouded in mystery we weren’t sure if Roland himself even existed. Thankfully, when Relic needed some fancy rocks and fancier ships, UI, and Animatics for Homeworld 2, Roland hadn’t made himself disappear. On Dawn of War, he worked on most of the maps and environment objects with Andy Lang, and on Company Of Heroes Roland functioned as the Environment Supervisor. Today, its no mystery Roland is making Dawn of War 2 look its absolute best as Art Director.
George Hornmoen - Lead Programmer
George has a background in Tel-co Unix security which none of us understand. He came to Relic as an Animation Programmer on an unannounced Xbox project. George began work on Dawn of War early on the prototype team to once again become a Animation Programmer during development. For the Winter Assault expansion, he did Gameplay and AI programming and was a Senior Programmer on The Outfit working on core engine tech. After starting as Lead on Dark Crusade George left Relic for a, thankfully, short while to return on an unannounced console project. Maybe it was his ability to dominate his co-workers on the table-top with his Sisters-of-Battle, maybe it was just his damn fine programming, for when Dawn of War 2 needed guru in a Lead Programmer, George was our man.
Nathan Hocken - Lead Animator
Nathan joined Relic in 2004 and since then he’s shown distressing levels of unusual behaviour. Random outbursts of laughter, an unhealthy obsession with foos, sniffing coworkers, running laps late at night in the hallways, taping people to their chairs, his perverse nature seems to know no limits. He came from Amaze Entertainment and Nintendo Software Technologies previously, working on titles like Ridge Racer 64 and Harry Potter, so we’re unsure if they did something to him or if he’s acquiring these habits from Relic. We tried our best to subdue him with Company of Heroes with little success, and now he leads the Animation Team for Dawn of War 2. We’re glad to have him in this role because, while he is a menace, Nathan has a passion for pushing the quality and complexity of animation in games. We’re just concerned he may be insane.
Jason Ross - Lead Audio
Jason C. Ross was airdropped into Relic in 2006 to wrangle audio for Dark Crusade. Prior to this he worked a bit at Ubisoft, and much more at Electronic Arts, on some Need For Speeds, some James Bonds, an arena full of sports franchises, and Julie Delpy’s Extreme Zen Koans 2002: Shunkai’s Vengeance, which sadly never shipped due to the rice paper based source code being lost in a fire. In moments of repose he draws abstract landscapes of Dimension F, writes words whispered to him by Thelemic Demons, maintains a net radio program in it’s 7th year, and reacts to external stimuli.
