Development

Relic Entertainment’s Quinn Duffy and Raphael van Lierop on going from RTS to shooters in the <em>Warhammer 40K</em> Universe

October 11, 2010 — by Vlad Micu

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Development

Relic Entertainment’s Quinn Duffy and Raphael van Lierop on going from RTS to shooters in the Warhammer 40K Universe

October 11, 2010 — by Vlad Micu

Quinn Duffy and Raphael van LieropShowing off the latest iteration of their first third-person shooter, Relic Entertainment’s game director Raphael van Lierop and principal designer Quinn Duffy were measuring reactions to the latest pre-alpha footage of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine they were showing off to press. We took up their valuable 15 minute break between a couple of press presentations to talk with them about the breath of fresh air the studio’s enjoying by making a third-person shooter after almost two decades of RTS development.

Though the two gentlemen were not revealing anything about Space Marine’s story yet, they were able to confirm that the game would involve a new franchise starring a new action hero. Fans can expect an epic story to accompany the new action shooter, but Duffy and Van Lierop were now giving the game press their first taste of the actual gameplay of Space Marine. “We try to explain, in a short amount of time, what the overall experience of Space Marine is,” van Lierop said. The presentation made it crystal clear that, although this might be Relic’s first endeavour into the third-person shooter genre, the studio is set to distinguish itself from competition.

“The seamless blend of melee and shooting is obviously a big part of that,” Van Lierop explained. “This is us delivering the set pieces to the press so you can see that and have an understanding and awareness of the importance of delivering that part of the experience. It’s a really big part of that core fantasy. Putting the hero in these sort of unexpected situations and showing how he can succeed.”

As we’re soon going to find out, this might just be the tip of the iceberg as it comes to the team’s ambitions with Space Marine.

A breath of fresh air

“The IP really screams for this kind of an experience and we’re happy we’re the ones that get to make it.”

It’s a rare sight to take part in a studio’s reinvention into a completely different genre. In the case of Space Marine, it starts with the first ever change of perspective for the franchise. “The key way in which we’re making it fresh is that you’ve never seen it from this point of view,” Van Lierop explains. “That’s the way we’re adding something new to the IP.”







But before something like Space Marine could even happen, Relic had to convince their entire team to do so. “It wasn’t a hard thing at all, because there were so many that wanted to make this,” Van Lierop explained. “Everybody wants to make the game. It’s really like a passion project for Relic, something that lots of people at Relic have wanted to do for a long time. The IP really screams for this kind of an experience and we’re happy we’re the ones that get to make it.”

The perfect fit

“If [THQ] had that relationship with a developer, we would’ve seen this game sooner.”

According to both Duffy and van Lierop, Relic couldn’t have been in a better position to push Space Marine. “We have a great collaboration with Games Workshop,” van Lierop says. “The success of the Dawn of War franchise has really established us as, I think, the premier developer of video games in this IP. We’ve developed the most critically and commercially successful games ever done in 40K. So we get it, we understand the world, we understand how to interact with players in a successful way. Because of that relationship we’ve built over time, I think Games Workshop is comfortable with us taking the lead in developing these types of experiences. More so than any other developer that they’ve worked with.”

Some might still wonder why THQ never considered hiring another developer to make a Warhammer 40K action shooter sooner. According to van Lierop, this has always been a matter of trust with the 40K franchise. “If they’d had that relationship with a developer, we would’ve seen this game sooner,” van Lierop argues. “Because I think it’s such an obvious fit. Particularly this type of combat, this seamless change between melee and shooting is such a big focus for us, it’s the perfect character for that kind of gameplay. It’s a very natural fit for us. It’s not like we have to put a chainsword on a gun to make it make sense. It’s just part of the IP.”

Pushing their boundaries

“It’s the people like us who have families that are changing our tastes in games and don’t want to necessarily invest tons of hours but want to be able to jump into something to have an amazing getaway or adventure.”

Quinn Duffy has been with Relic for over 13 years. Having developed his career working on RTS games, he and many other Relic veterans were the first to embrace the idea of a project like Space Marine. “I spent 11 of those years essentially doing RTS games and it felt like a nice change, a new challenge and something unique,” Duffy says. “As a player, none of my tastes have changed, but my accessibility and the time I have to play games have changed. So I’m on the console more, I’m playing shooters and action games on the console a lot more. Not that I don’t love doing RTS games, but this is the kind of game I’m playing now. We have some kids and it’s like we don’t have an hour to play an RTS game, but I can pop in for 15-20 minutes and play a level of Gears.” The change Duffy mentioned has struck more of his colleagues, maybe even a wider range of developers that span our entire industry. Nevertheless, the almost two decades of developing RTS games has turned the development of Space Marine into a welcomed challenge. “It’s the people like us who have families that are changing our tastes in games and don’t want to necessarily invest tons of hours but want to be able to jump into something to have an amazing getaway or adventure,” Duffy says.

“What Quinn is saying speaks a lot to the culture of Relic in general, the desire to constantly be pushing ourselves to do something new,” van Lierop adds. “With every single game we’ve done, you can see that we’ve never been satisfied to just follow the conventions of the genre, and we’ve never been satisfied to just iterate in small steps on the work that we’ve already done, so every game we’ve done has been a big step forward. Moving to a completely new genre is like the biggest step that you can take. That’s one of the reasons why we’re doing it, because it’s really part of our culture to be pioneering and push forward and explore new things. Always in the mind to create amazing entertainment.”

Learning new stuff

“I’m now able to learn new things and also able to deliver an experience that is more in line with my own tastes.”

As you are reading this, the people over at Relic Entertainment are enjoying their work on Space Marine as much as they can. They are learning new skills, facing the daunting challenge of creating their first third-person shooter and imagining the opportunities this endeavor is granting them. “We’re able to give players a whole new kind of experience that is not really possible through an RTS,” van Lierop says. “I’m very focused on story and very focused on fiction. That’s just something that is separate from the core gameplay experience in an RTS. Whereas in this type of game, we can embed so much of our narrative in the gameplay itself. That’s where it belongs in games.”




Referring to other action shooters, van Lierop admits he regrets the fact that a wide range of them are forced to offer gameplay and story in a separate fashion. “We can bring those two together and make them part of the same thing,” he argues. “I’m now able to learn new things and also able to deliver an experience that is more in line with my own tastes. We should always be pioneering the medium.”

“I would certaintly second that,” Duffy adds. “This new genre is letting us learn new things, but we also brought in new people. We brought in experts and hired up a team, so we’re working in combination with new people with new concepts, ideas, processes and methods. You sort of mix old Relic and the quality we’ve always been going for with new blood and new ideas. It’s really a great team. That’s one of the most enjoyable things. I was kind of getting sick of the old people.”

Empowering feedback

“As many people and ideas as you may have in a team, sometimes you need that external look as well.”

Despite some whining about the lack of information on the title, Duffy and van Lierop were happy with the positive feedback from both gamers and press about the Space Marine project. “Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, which has been a great validation for us and all the work the team at Relic is doing in this game.” van Lierop says. “For me personally, one of the things that has been awesome is how every time we show the combat and talk about the seamless blend of melee and shooting, every time we talk about choosing not to have a snap to cover system and not of following this sort of convention because everyone else is doing it. Everybody really reacts well to that. Everybody responds to that with relief. Everybody says ‘you know what, it’s great to have a fresh experience. We’re kind of getting tired of that kind of game.”




“It has certainly validated all the choices that we’ve made. That’s always very rewarding,” Duffy adds. “The evolution of the game is certainly influenced by some of our presentations. It sort of takes a bit of a life of its own as well. As many people and ideas as you may have in a team, sometimes you need that external look as well.”

Warhammer 40.000: Space Marine is currently in development by Relic Entertainment and has been scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2012.

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Vlad Micu

Vlad Micu is managing editor of Gamesauce.org. He previously has been a freelance game industry professional for over five years and traveled around the world while running his company VGVisionary. Starting VGVisionary during college, Vlad was able to work independently as a pr & marketing consultant, event manager, industry journalist, speaker and game developer. He just returned from Bangkok, Thailand, where he pursued his dream of making video games as the game producer at arkavis, an up and coming casual game studio.

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