GRID: Weekly Update 21/02/14

Anyone who has visited Codemasters HQ will likely recount tales from their time spent in the D-Box room. It’s the place where visitors get to have some fun and perhaps more importantly it’s where our weekly fastest lap competitions take place.

The only downside to the room and perhaps a by-product of us not wanting to see how many D-Boxes it takes to put a sink hole in our floor is that it only has space for one machine at a time.  So while it may be great for having a bit of fun or setting a fast lap time we decided we needed something more – we wanted a room where we could entertain visitors, press and of course, members of our community in a more accommodating setting.

Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take over the onsite pub which would have been perfect, but alas, it was probably for the best.

We’ve got a number of rooms that we use for play testing but we wanted something different, we wanted a room that gave the same sort of feeling as your friend’s bedroom used to, somewhere to chill out and just race. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take over the onsite pub which would have been perfect, but alas, it was probably for the best.

So this week we set about creating our racing room, which I had already affectionately given the codename of “Ravenwest”. Wrangling the help of my desk neighbours Ade, (our resident PR guru) and Edd, (who looks after all things Brand) we set about the task.

Conveniently and as if by magic there was an empty room of significant size opposite our office. It’d been used in the past when we did the GRID 2 live streams and despite moonlighting as a fitness studio every now and then it had been sat predominately empty. We put in some calls to various departments and before we knew it desks were arriving, racing seats were in position and computer equipment was starting to mount up in the corner…network cables everywhere!

With the furniture in place and some creative wiring taking care of some frustratingly awkward network port placement we were ready to start plugging in the equipment. PCs were to be our primary platform and once everything was all connected, (and the inevitable network issues resolved), the only thing left to do was to get the wheels setup. Thankfully, the extremely generous folk at Logitech sent us some brand new G27s and by the time lunch rolled around the room was filling with the smell of fresh leather.

Throw in a TV, some consoles and a couple of comfy chairs and the room is all but complete, a whiteboard sits proudly upon the wall waiting for the first lap times to be noted down and the room now has an almost angelic hum about it thanks to the PC fans spinning in sync.

Moving forward we’ll be looking at inviting members of the community over to play games that are currently in development so keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks if this is of interest to you as we’d love to get you in for a game or two, that’s providing you can throw Ade off a machine who appears to be camping in there at the moment.

The only remaining task is to get some artwork up on the walls with the current favourites for use being legendary racing corners; Eau Rouge at Spa, Turn 8 at Istanbul, Druids at Brands Hatch and so forth. If you’ve got any suggestions let us know! We’ve still not given the room a real name so for now, Ravenwest stands.

Elsewhere throughout the week there’s been lots of discussion about <redacted> and <red flag>, then of course there’s been <nothing to see here>  and a few others bits and pieces we can’t talk about just yet, but we will, when the time is right. Oh, and did we mention Matt Neal came to visit us? You’ll hear more about that in due time!

Another week is over so enjoy the weekend’s motorsport if you plan on watching any and we’ll be back next week for more of the same.

Light’s out, we’ll see you next week.

• Share

Tweet