Remedy Office Pics

[MarkusRMD]

Happy New Year! I thought I'd make a New Years' promise to continue posting to this forum a bit more actively when I have a moment of free time (as I started doing late last year).

You've requested pics from our office multiple times, so I thought that's a good place to start. I'll post a few pics a day for the duration of this week.


This is our office building. It looks bigger than it is and pretty posh, as it was built during the boom times in 1989, but is 10 kilometers from downtown Helsinki in the middle of a fairly quiet residential area. But the glass windows are a constant pain, cracking in the changing temperatures. Plus there are no doors you could get an object wider than 90cm (3 feet) in to the building. Not an architectural masterpiece in usability...

Still, it's about the right size for us, has (almost) enough parking and the rent is not horrible. And it's all in our use.


This was taken from the front entrance. You can see our soda machines up front (we have both brands ), and some awards on the right.

[MarkusRMD]

This is from the 2nd floor, showing the entrance hall and our gaming area that has gotten less use now that we took our "team meeting room" to project use; behind the flipboard's a large team area with about a dozen folks where a large part of the game content is being made.

[ADM]

I've always wondered every since I first saw the shots of the new office space who cleans those windows? That'd be a pain in the a** I'm sure!.

Nice pics.. I think it'd be awesome to get a video tour of the office space with some quick interviews of everyone and what they do. Of course this could be one thing to add to the list to do in the future

[Demite]

Thanks alot man - well appreciated.

Man the building looks classy.

[MarkusRMD]

ADM making that with any kind of quality would take quite a while. Are you sure you want us spending that time away from actually making the game? :-)

[ADM]

Originally Posted by MarkusRMD

ADM making that with any kind of quality would take quite a while. Are you sure you want us spending that time away from actually making the game? :-)

The fan inside me actually wants to say yes but I know everyone here will kill me for that haha.

[Demite]

Originally Posted by MarkusRMD

ADM making that with any kind of quality would take quite a while. Are you sure you want us spending that time away from actually making the game? :-)

Hah.

As cool as it would be, make the game!

Keep posting pictures of the office and so on if you can, but whatevers convenient on Remedy's part.

[Danzaiver]

Nice pics Markus, I would like to see the develop team desktops PC

[ancient]

Originally Posted by MarkusRMD

and the rent is not horrible

Interesting... I thought you own the building. Or does rent mean utilities?

I wouldn't feel comfortable running a gaming company in a rented building where the owner can easily kick you out one sunny summer day. It would take time to reestablish the studio somewhere else. Unless there's a fixed long-term rent agreement in place.

Home sweet home. Matters a lot

[ancient]

OK. Let's search for the clues in those photos regarding Alan Wake and the release date Last time, when Markus showed his desktop, there was a hint hidden in one of the document titles about October 2008 PR plan, which turned out to be true

Let's see the interior... the champagne bottle on the bottom right next to the awards might symbolize the game is actually completed!

...the blurry picture next to the Pepsi sign looks very very suspiciously. As if it's the screenshot from Alan Wake, which was hidden on purpose

...opened doors and the black suitcase might symbolize readiness/need to travel and promote Alan Wake in endless conferences and game shows.

The only problem with my theory... it's clearly September/October outside - the leaves are golden, no snow around, the receptionist lady is wearing a light white coat :/

Anyway

[Raveness]

....and the window shutters being retracted, the privilege of daylight, must mean they have moved from Alpha to Beta status!

WTF is that taped to the Pepsi machine

[Danzaiver]

Originally Posted by Raveness

WTF is that taped to the Pepsi machine

Out of Order?

More pictures Markus please

[ADM]

That champagne bottle is from Max Payne's release.. it has a big 'WHEN IT'S DONE' on it if I'm not mistaken.

EDIT: Yep.. found the bottle.. click the team picture here:
http://www.3drealms.com/max/team.html

[MarkusRMD]

WTF is that taped to the Pepsi machine

The Pepsi Machine paper says "empty bottles from this machine to ->" because the bottles are recycled and we have two different companies (Coke&Pepsi) who want as many bottles back as they bring over... It newer works anyhow.

I thought you own the building. Or does rent mean utilities?
I wouldn't feel comfortable running a gaming company in a rented building where the owner can easily kick you out one sunny summer day. It would take time to reestablish the studio somewhere else. Unless there's a fixed long-term rent agreement in place.

Oh yes, we rent. We're in the business of making games, not owning real estate. Kicking out a stable company that pays their rent rarely happens... And while I wouldn't want to move the company for example just before shipping a game, it wouldn't be a huge problem.

...the blurry picture next to the Pepsi sign looks very very suspiciously. As if it's the screenshot from Alan Wake, which was hidden on purpose

It's not a screenshot, it's a cool painting/composition, and the subject matter is Alan Wake. I wanted to blur it to ensure there's no debate whether it's a shot or not and people posting post-stamp size enlargements to news sites...

it's clearly September/October outside - the leaves are golden, no snow around, the receptionist lady is wearing a light white coat :/

The pictures were taken yesterday, except for the full building shot. The leaves are actually evergreens. The coat is a quilted winter jacket, it was -16C (3.2F) this morning...

[MarkusRMD]

Here's our larger conference room, with Max Payne and Alan Wake magazine covers on the wall. We've been taking Max Payne covers out when we get a new Alan Wake cover. There's a 142" screen behind the camera, and 5.1 audio. And yes, the projector is an old and tired one.


Here's our kitchen area (& 8' pool table), taken at lunch time. Few guys from the team eating their lunch; there's even a microwave oven that has custom programs for making foods such as "Onion Rings in Beer Batter, deep frozen" (I don't even know where to get those) and of course a special program for frozen pizzas, thin and thick crust (quite nerdy, eh?). Of course half of the office smells like pizza when somebody uses it... doh!


As a bonus here's a picture of a larger space we occasionally rent for mocap purposes. We have a small space in our basement that doubles as photo studio but it's a bit too small for capturing e.g. fast run cycles (people tend to slow down their run when a wall is 3m in front of them and closing fast ). We also outsource some mocap work.

---

I still have a few pics for tomorrow.

[Dennis]

Great Job Markus

[crazyeyezkillah]

Can I come work for you guys? I'll make tea for you!

Anyway, looks like someones playing Mr Wake on the third photo, on the screen.

[ADM]

Nice Markus, keep them coming! I'd love to see some shots of the development area and also anything else you'd think is interesting.

[Exoskeletor]

I don't see anywhere the photo of the hot co-worker girl that is staring at my photo, update please

[Morry]

Great photos, Markus!

Would love to see some pics of the office layout, trophy cases, sounds studios (do you have any?).

[Demite]

Very grateful for pics Markus - understand Remedy are busy.

Hate to sound greedy but i wanna see pics of the whole team in action - however i can understand that as the game would be able to be seen on the monitors - it would contradict your whole 'media blackout' strategy.

[Megamat]

Nice office, thanks for the photos Markus

[AlexarowFS]

that picture that is blurred out looks much like our friend Alan looking upward... maybe I'm seeing things...

I also think that Remedy loves to play Rock Band in their spare time .. keep on rocking guys

[Zhinarkos]

nice photos. You can see from the window of the photo wich is shows the entrance hall/gaming area that there's there's some kind of living quarters near by. Do the workers live their or is it just a normal neighbourhood? Because if there's just some people living there.. I mean, I'd have a terrible temptation to sneak in to Remedy's premises and find out as much as I can

[ADM]

Zhinarkos:

but is 10 kilometers from downtown Helsinki in the middle of a fairly quiet residential area.

[MarkusRMD]

Here's an old picture from our ambient occlusion farm, utilizing Xbox360 demo kits. They were easily manageable, and performed quite well in the task given, as the calculation scales well across all CPU cores and we could use the GPU in a GPGPU-kind of way for some parts of the calculation.


Here's a pic of my room & desk. Some questions on the picture's content may be answered later.

But that's it for Remedy office pictures this time around! Thanks for your interest!

[shwhjw]

How far you got on Far Cry 2?

[Danzaiver]

Originally Posted by MarkusRMD

Attachment 1033
Here's an old picture from our ambient occlusion farm, utilizing Xbox360 demo kits. They were easily manageable, and performed quite well in the task given, as the calculation scales well across all CPU cores and we could use the GPU in a GPGPU-kind of way for some parts of the calculation.

Attachment 1032
Here's a pic of my room & desk. Some questions on the picture's content may be answered later.

But that's it for Remedy office pictures this time around! Thanks for your interest!

Thanks Markus, I really wanted to see those pictures

It seems you play the PC games with the 360's controller, cool!

Also you have a black 360, maybe an elite? or some kind of developer kit O_o because it has a black box where the HDD is supposed to be.

One US Dollar below your window, maybe to remind you that window is money LOL

You got an Iphone, great and some trophies, and a red car XD

Farcry 2 FTW!

[ADM]

Nice you see a bit of the hud on Alan Wake

Again thanks for the pics Markus, if you think of something else later on that might be interesting to show then please do.

EDIT: Just saw it's a Max Payne style of hud.. unless it's a placeholder.. look you can even see the weapons in the bottom middle.. looks like it's a machine gun selection.. like heavy weapons, RPG as well maybe?

[Piiska]

Great find ADM, indeed there are similitaries to Max Payne's HUD (damn,why that pic has to be so blurry) During my stay on these forums I've noticed that Markus tends to leave all kinds of "hidden surpries" to his pictures but that's just great, keep it up Markus! And thanks for the pics from ur office and building, they're something I've always wanted to see.

[ancient]

I see a dollar banknote attached to the windowsill... A symbol for luck, I guess

A toy doggie on top of the chest of drawers...

Can't see the title of the yellow book... ("Focus"?)

Anyway, interesting A very functional office, I'd say, democratic, decorated using neutral colors, no lavishness - a smart choice, I think

[ancient]

Originally Posted by ADM

looks like it's a machine gun selection.. like heavy weapons, RPG as well maybe?

Are you sure? I think it's a railroad. I can't imagine Alan, the writer, on a killing spree with a machine gun and a bunch of grenades

A revolver and a flashlight is perfectly enough (as we saw in the trailers).

[shwhjw]

Originally Posted by ancient

Are you sure? I think it's a railroad. I can't imagine Alan, the writer, on a killing spree with a machine gun and a bunch of grenades

A revolver and a flashlight is perfectly enough (as we saw in the trailers).

yea isnt that in the very bottom-right a white silhouette of a revolver? maybe not, the barrel looks too chunky compared 2 the grip. flare gun maybe?

and what's that white shape underneath?

[Guiltyspark]

wow , the HDR in that shot is pretty amazing , you dont often see HDR that good on consoles

[ADM]

Originally Posted by ancient

Are you sure? I think it's a railroad. I can't imagine Alan, the writer, on a killing spree with a machine gun and a bunch of grenades

A revolver and a flashlight is perfectly enough (as we saw in the trailers).

I agree and I think you're right at first glance it looks very similar to the pop-up style weapon selection of MP's HUD.

I also agree I wouldn't like to see those type of weapons ingame.

[Morry]

This just in: Alan Wake can run on a laptop!

[AlexarowFS]

I'm wondering why Mr Wake is placed on the far left of the screen... weird the scene is not a cut scene because the hud is visible. wow maybe a new 3rd person view implemented by remedy. ...
nice find ADM

The "room" looks amazing markus: very childlike and full of little symbols that tell us about the people that work at remedy... nonetheless cool people.

[ADM]

Originally Posted by Morry

This just in: Alan Wake can run on a laptop!

That's not a laptop.. the keyboard in front of it looks like a normal keyboard plus the case in on the floor on the left right next to it.

AlexarowFS: Yeah I noticed the positioning of Alan as well.. very Gears of War style.

EDIT: Also spot the Remedy christmas card just next to the monitor with Alan on it.

Also Markus why is there a bill of money taped on the sill?

[Demite]

So thats the office pictures request covered.

Whats next in terms of requests?

[AlexarowFS]

Thanx for all Markus and of course who ever else took the photos.

It would be really nice if we got a picture of the Remedy guys in their "natural" habitat of their office ...a small request if the team has any spare time.
I'm sure they are working hard for the best game llllllike ever.
...but of course if we get any pictures we would be grateful...
small clarification: WE = Fans