A Look Back at 2013

It’s hard to imagine that we’re now just weeks away from the end of 2013 and ready to accelerate into 2014, but while we’re hard at work on several super-exciting future projects (more on those next year) and our Winter GameJam (you can check our GameJam stuff here) , it seems a good time to pause and reflect on what’s been an exciting year for us at Codies HQ.

The Games!

Well, it was in May that the five year wait for a new GRID game came to an end and we unleashed GRID 2 into the wild. We’ve really enjoyed playing with you guys online, watching your gameplay videos and loving some of the liveries you’ve created.

Of course, F1 2013 made its appearance in October and along with it came the highly anticipated Classic content. It’s been one of the most requested features to date and has been huge amount of work to achieve, a lot of unseen and behind the scenes, so we’re incredibly pleased with how well it’s been received.

2013 was also the year we dived into mobile / tablet games, starting with the release of Colin McRae Rally. This was soon followed by our brand new IP Boom! Tanks and then F1 Challenge. We’ve got a host of other mobile games in development and we’re looking forward to bringing you more news on them in the coming months. While we’re talking mobile, yes, we are working on Android versions of our games and we’ll have news on that soon.

Community First

One of the major things that has been happening behind the scenes at Codies HQ focuses on you, our Community. It’s always been an important area for us but in 2014 and beyond it’ll take on an even greater role in the way we develop games. The release of GRID 2 and all of your feedback has played a huge part in this drive and you could say it has almost been the catalyst behind our new approach.

We’ve already put in place a number of systems including the Content Creator Scheme, which allows you all to create your own video content based off our games (and yes, you can monetise it.) If you are making videos based on our games then you can find our video policy here.

We’ve also begun the Test Drivers initiative, where we’ve enjoyed giving members of our Community access to games that are still in the very early stages of development.

The great thing about the Test Driver initiative is that the feedback we’re receiving is coming at such an early stage that changes can be, and have been, made based on it. As we motor on, we’ll be looking at doing more of these Test Driver days, so do check out the original post if you’re interested in taking part.

The feedback we get from our Community is the most important type; you are after all the ones playing our games, who love our games the most. Unfortunately because of the way AAA games are generally made, feedback often come in late for a project and as a result it’s often not possible to make requested changes, no matter how much we want to.

However, particularly with the feedback we received post- launch with GRID 2, we were able to act, for instance, with the Community Patch, which made significant changes to the game, especially in multiplayer. We also released the free Demo Derby DLC, which again was 100% created based on your feedback.

We don’t want to be a developer that just ‘listens’, we want to be a developer that engages, acts and reacts

We don’t want to be a developer that just ‘listens’, we want to be a developer that engages, acts and reacts, a developer that creates games that you, our Community love to play. These initiatives and more are going to be a big thing for us, now and in the future.

Stats! Numbers! Moments! Swans!

In 2013, other things happened:

• Ben and Lee were attacked by a Swan during a GRID 2 Live Stream
• Gary the Mocap Mannequin took the Internet by storm…sort of
• There has been a total number of 3,380,785 races in F1 2013 this year
• A sheep caused Lee and some of the DiRT team to almost drive off a cliff in Wales
• The current record in the office time trial was set at 5:50:290, game TBC
• GRID 2 players have clocked up a staggering 63,250,934 races complete!
• Our in house cafe served an estimated 7,000+ cups of tea and coffee in the last year
• The GRID 2: Mono Edition set the Guinness World Record for the “Most Expensive Video Game Commercially Available – Special Edition”
• RaceNet has grown by over 600,000 new members this year!
• We had fire alarms go off during multiple GRID 2 video releases, both times we only just managed to get the videos out on time

2014 – Bring it on!

2014 promises more games and we hope far more interaction with you guys. Thanks for pushing us this last year, we’re passionate about our games here at Codies, and the passion that comes from you about our games, other people’s games and motorsport in general really drives us on and inspires us. We’re delighted to have shared 2013 with you, but now we’re focussed on the next chapter in our story; the key is in the ignition and we’re ready to race into 2014.

From all of us here at Codemasters have a great holiday season and a splendid New Year!

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