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Happy Buzz! Day!

Buzz!: The Ultimate Music Quiz is released today!
It’s good news for all you music fans – Buzz!™: The Ultimate Music Quiz is available in stores now.

Christmas is just around the corner, and what better way to spend the holiday season than buzzing the night away with your family and friends.
Go down to your local games retailer and get your copy today!

Read more about the game in our ‘Games’ section here.

Date

22 October 2010
Strange Goings on in Little Riddle

For the next two weeks the Blue Toad Murder Files Episode 4-6 Bundle will be reduced by 50% to £4.99 / €7.49. Detectives amongst you will have figured out that you can now get the whole season for under £15! And everybody who has enjoyed Episodes 1-3 can now complete the series and solve the mysteries in Little Riddle for a mere £4.99.

And if you need a bit of persuading, take a look at the Eurogamer’s 8/10 review.

Be quick the sale ends on 26th October in US and 27th in Europe.

Date

13 October 2010
Getting on in Games

We'll all be at the Eurogamer Expo for the next three days offering advice and guidance for anyone wanting to get into the industry or progress their career in video games. We'll have artists, programmers, designers and QA reps available to look at CVs and portfolios.

If we can drag ourselves away from the Peter Molyneux presentation or playing Little Big Planet 2 (last year we could be found checking out The Beatles Rock Band during our down time) you will find us in the Gamesindustry.biz Career Fair.

Date

30 September 2010
21% of Relentless Staff are Women

An interesting industry hot topic has just popped up again on trade games site - GamesIndustry.biz. GI.biz reported that only 4% of UK games industry staff are women. The British Sociological Association, highlighted the results found by University Of Liverpool PhD student Julie Prescott. At Relentless we’re proud of our diverse workforce which is made up of 21% women.

Regardless of gender we’re always on the lookout for talented staff at Relentless - have a look at our jobs board for our latest vacancies.

Date

15 September 2010
Let Them Eat Cake!

Relentless’ answer to Masterchef took place this summer with staff battling it out to be crowned ‘ The Master Baker’. Each week contestants baked a cake which was judged by their colleagues on taste, texture and appearance.

18 bakers, 29 cakes, 8 weeks and quite a few pounds later we crowned Dave Weekes the winner and Jo Haslam the runner-up. Congratulations to Dave and Jo on their amazing carrot and fantastic lemon cakes. However the tastiest part of the competition is the £226 we raised for GamesAid. Who said cake is bad for you?

Dave and Jo have kindly shared their recipes with us on our Facebook page. Happy baking!

Date

08 September 2010
Ice Cream and Awards!

It’s July in Brighton, which means it’s time once more for the Develop Conference and Awards. Self-described as an event where the ‘European developer community comes together to learn from each other, share experiences, be inspired, make new contacts and catch up with old ones.’ Or as we like to call it: Ice Cream Time! Once again we’ll have an Ice Cream Van outside the Hilton Brighton Metropole on the 14th and 15th, from 10.30 onwards. Anyone with a Conference Pass will be able to receive a delicious frozen treat for FREE. Oh, and did we mention our very own Blue Toad Murder Files™ is up for an award in the ‘Best New Download IP’ category?
Ice Cream and Awards, what a lovely combination...

Date

09 July 2010
Toad-ally Good Value

The entire season of Blue Toad Murder Files™: The Mysteries of Little Riddle can now be purchased as a ‘virtual’ box set for only £17.99 / $26.99 on PlayStation®Stores worldwide. To celebrate we’ve reduced Episode 1 to 99p / $1.49 for a limited time only. And for those customers who trial the game in the sale, they can upgrade to the box set for a special discounted price so there’s no reason not to try Blue Toad Murder Files out.

Episode 1 is on sale until 7th July in Europe, Australia and New Zealand and 20th July in North America.

Head over to the Blue Toad Forums and let us know what you think about this very reasonable offer

Date

30 June 2010
The Ambassadors Reception

As you may know by now, here at Relentless we’re all big fans of GamesAid and the superb work they do! Recently GamesAid put out a call to its members to see who would want to represent the charity as GamesAid Ambassadors –and we are very proud to announce that two of our very own staff were selected!
As well as eating copious amounts of Ferrero Rocher, Terry Lee and Giles Armstrong will be organising and taking part in fundraising events, as well as raising awareness for Games Aid. To find out more about the good work of GamesAid, click here.

Date

08 June 2010
Red Carpet Treatment

We thought it was time to give our staff a bit of the red carpet treatment and what better way than an exclusive Relentless VIP Card! A flash of the plastic entitles staff to great discounts on their clothes, gadgets, nights out and more.
Giraffe, The Komedia and Haircult are just a few of the local businesses we have on board offering our staff big savings on their hard-earned cash. The story doesn’t end there, our list of participating businesses continues to evolve promising more and more savings.

Date

21 May 2010
Mission: Paintball

On Saturday, May 8th at 09:00 hours, the Relentless Paintball Battalion reported for duty at Demolition Paintball in Albourne, West Sussex. After our supply drop, we were briefed on two mission critical objectives; eliminate all hostile forces and don’t eat paintballs.
After hours of intense battle we emerged from the combat zone tired, bruised and ready for a debriefing in the local pub.

Mission Successful.

Date

12 May 2010
Sussex Internship Programme

Are you looking for your first break to get into the videogames industry? If so Relentless is once again proud to be taking part in the Sussex Internship Programme. This scheme is widely recognised as one of the most successful internship schemes in the UK and last year we loved our intern Jake so much that we gave him a permanent job. We’re hoping to find some more superstars this year and have 2 internships up for grabs, 1 within QA and the other in our Marketing and PR Team. So if you think that you’re the kind of person we look for get your application ready because we want to hear from you. Full details of the scheme and how to apply can be found here.

Date

04 May 2010
The Mysteries are Finally Revealed!

19 weeks after our first two episodes leapt out of the building in UK, our final three episodes launch in the US. Our lucky North American friends only had to wait four weeks between episodes and can now enjoy the full season of Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle™.
Obviously, we’re not going to give too much away but we’d be really interested to hear your theories and observations so far. Have you noticed any recurring themes? What clues about the case stand out that haven’t been resolved? Who looks like they’re hiding something? If you’d like to hop over to the forums to give us your thoughts, we’d love to hear them.

Date

30 April 2010
Women in Games

She may only have returned from the US a few weeks ago but already Jade Tidy, Producer on Blue Toad Murder Files™, has been back in the public eye. She recently took part in a Live Q&A session on The Guardian website’s Careers Section. Jade joined a panel of experts to debate why so few women are typically employed in games and also to give advice to women hoping to break into the industry. The debate took place on April 20th and you can read all of their discussion here. P.S. At the risk of sounding a bit smug at Relentless we’re proud to be a trailblazer and currently 21% of our employees are women as opposed to the industry standard of 11% (source: The Guardian).

Date

28 April 2010
Relentless Art Show 2010

It must be nearly May because The Relentless Art Show is back for the third year running and we can’t wait. 14 of us are showing new work as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival and you can see our new creations between 1st and 23rd May.

Entrance is free so come down and let us know what you think. We’re at the Bellis Gallery (8 – 9 Kings Road, Brighton) between 10.30 and 6.30 every day except Sunday when we’re open from 11.30 to 5.30. And we’re closed on Tuesdays.

Date

21 April 2010
The Mysteries are Finally Revealed

The mysteries of Little Riddle are finally revealed as episodes 4, 5 and 6 of Blue Toad Murder Files have been released in all PAL territories. Episodes 4 to 6 are available on the PlayStation store as a bundle pack for £9.99 or individually for £4.79 each.
If you live the other side of the pond, you don’t have too long to wait as the final three episodes will be released in North America on April 29th.

Let us know your thoughts on the Blue Toad forums when you finally unravel...The Mysteries of Little Riddle! Dun Dun Dahhhhh.

Date

08 April 2010
The wait is over America!

Today is another landmark day in the Relentless calendar as the first three episodes of Blue Toad Murder Files™: The Mysteries of Little Riddle have launched on the North American PlayStation Store! Each episode is available individually for $7.49 but why don’t you bag yourself a bargain and get all three for $14.99.
We hope this latest British export is received warmly by the American public.

Episodes 4, 5 and 6 will follow on 29th April, again priced $14.99 for three or $7.49 for an individual episode. Head over to the Blue Toad Forums and let us know what you think.

Date

25 March 2010
Facebook Patch

There is now a new patch available for Buzz!: Quiz World™ which propels it into the record books for being the first game on any console to support direct Facebook posting. This means that the scores you achieve in both online and offline games can be posted directly to your wall. If you give your mates a particular ‘pwning’ then why not post it just to rub some salt into their wounds.
There’s nothing quite like a bit of self-satisfied gloating!

Date

22 March 2010
Only a week left!

Since we released episode 3 for free we have had a bounty of downloads of the episode, however, its free period is almost over. If you haven’t already done so, you only have one week left to download episode 3 of Blue Toad Murder Files™ for free. From the 25th March, Blue Toad Murder Files – The Mystery of the Concealing Flame will be available for £4.79.
Grab yourself a bargain while you still can in time for episodes 4 to 6 which are released on the 8th April.

Date

18 March 2010
A little toad in a big pond!

We were all jealous last week when Jade (the producer on Blue Toad Murder Files) had the hard task of jetting off to the US to demonstrate the game for our friends in the media across the pond. We hoped the British humour would translate to an American audience and were relieved when their previews started to come in.
IGN found the puzzles deviously difficult, the narrator delightfully British and Greg Miller (Editor, PlayStation Team) is looking forward to playing the rest of the story. Destructoid enjoyed the unique humour, found the characters charmingly designed and the voice acting sublime.

And Jade even got to star in the Gamespot Daily Demo.

You can play the game for yourself very soon as episodes 1, 2 and 3 are released on the PlayStation Store in North America on the 25th March.

We hope y’all like it too America!

Date

09 March 2010
Episode 3 is Out Now

It’s another exciting day in the Relentless calendar with the third episode of Blue Toad Murder Files™ available on the European PlayStation Store today. Episode 3, The Mystery of the Concealing Flame, is truly special as it’s free for one month only! That’s right - zero pounds, complimentary, for nothing, gratis, gratuit, gratuito and БЕСПЛАТНО! If you want to let us know what you thought of the episode once you’ve enjoyed it with your friends and family, visit the Episode 3 Forum here.

Date

25 February 2010
Blue Toad Leaps the Pond

It’s time we unleashed our British humour on the American public. Today we’re finally allowed to announce when Blue Toad Murder Files™: The Mysteries of Little Riddle will be released in North America. In just five weeks time, on 25th March, Episodes 1, 2 and 3 will be available on the PlayStation Store priced at a very reasonable $14.99 for all three episodes.
Episodes 4, 5 and 6 will follow on 29th April, again priced $14.99 for three or $7.49 for an individual episode. Head over to the Blue Toad Forums and let us know what you think.

Date

17 February 2010
It's BAFTA time again!

It must be February once again because Buzz! has been nominated for another BAFTA. This time Buzz!: Quiz World™ is in the running for best ‘family and social’ game alongside some very stiff opposition.
The award ceremony will be streamed live online on the 19th March so we don’t have long to practice our surprised winner and gracious loser faces in front of the mirror.

Date

16 February 2010
Episode 'Free'

We’re all really excited today as we announce the release dates for the next four episodes of Blue Toad Murder Files™. We’ve also decided to give the third episode away free. Only time will tell whether this is a stroke of genius or an act of madness. As far as we’re concerned the more people that play Blue Toad the better - Episode 3 is also our favourite so far, it’s got a great cliff-hanger!
Why don’t you pop over to the forums on the Blue Toad website and tell us what you think? The only thing you need to bear in mind is you need Episode 1 installed to play Episode 3. Episode 3 will be available on 25th February and Episodes 4 to 6 will launch on 8th April.

Date

27 January 2010
Buzz! supplies running low

We’re hearing unconfirmed reports around the web that Buzz! Quiz World and Buzz! Quiz TV are in very short supply. To help solve this problem and raise a bit of money for charity we’re selling one of our much loved copies of each game on Ebay.
In the traditional way our auction will start at 99p and end at 2.00pm on Wednesday. We’ll be sending the games Royal Mail special delivery in the hope that they’ll arrive on Christmas Eve. All proceeds will go to video games industry charity Games Aid.

Date

22 December 2009
Blue Toad Murder Files, Out Now!

Oh come, all ye faithful Blue Toad fans. The game previously known as Secret Project #1 isn’t so secret anymore and is available on the PlayStation Store from today! We also have not one, not two, but three trailers to show off Blue Toad Murder Files™ on our website. We’ve spent the last few months telling anyone who’ll listen about our first self-published title for PSN and it’s crazy to think that it is finally released. Head over to the forums afterwards and let us know your thoughts.

Date

17 December 2009
Office Space

Who'd have thought that discussing office space in Brighton could be so newsworthy? BBC South Today came to visit our central Brighton offices to talk to Andy about finding suitable accommodation for technology based companies and the challenges we face. If you look closely you'll notice a few of us enjoying the limelight. A Relentless Software beanie will be sent to anyone who can name everyone featured. You can view the piece here.

N.B. Competition not open to Relentless Staff.

Date

09 December 2009
The Gadget Show

Last week on Channel Five’s Gadget Show Winter Special they were trying to find the season’s best party game. I’ll give you one guess what came top of the list, king of the hill, a number one! That’s right, you’ve guessed it, Buzz!: Quiz World™.

“Our favourite party console game is Buzz!: Quiz World” says presenter Suzi Perry; who are we to disagree. If you want to see the review for yourself, click here.

The Wii? That's so Christmas 2008.

Date

08 December 2009
Read all about it!

It’s almost like putting your child into a beauty contest but with Blue Toad Murder Files™ getting a clean sweep of previews, David and Andy can finally get a good night’s sleep. When talking about the game, some have said “Gathering clues and puzzle-solving is made all the more enjoyable by the unique art style of the game. It's like a cross between a Pixar movie and a Playmobile set.” While others simply said “it’s the most entertaining and enjoyable game I’ve played in quite some time.” Praise indeed!

Not to count our chickens and all that but we’re off to the local public house for a good old-fashioned knees-up!

Date

16 November 2009
Wired Sussex Careers Event

If you’re based in Brighton and are looking to break into the digital media industries our friends at Wired Sussex are putting on a careers event today (Thursday 12th November) in the Corn Exchange between 12-4pm. Helen our HR Manager and Sarah our Recruitment Coordinator will be there, along with some other like-minded Brighton based companies. We’ll be giving 1-2-1 advice on getting your CV and Portfolio right, how to apply for jobs and what companies like ourselves look for. You can find more information here, if you are going please come and say hi, it would be great to see you there!

Date

12 November 2009
BAFTA Youth Mentoring Programme

On a normal day Ruben can be found lost in the complexities of constructing a new Blue Toad Murder Files™. However, taking time out from his favourite blue amphibian, Ruben Farrus, one of Relentless’ game designers travelled to London to volunteer his time for the BAFTA Youth Mentoring Programme. The scheme gives 13-25 year olds the opportunity to learn media skills from industry professionals in various media outlets. This year BAFTA decided to start a videogame related course and asked some developers to collaborate in it.

You can read the full feature here.

Date

11 November 2009
IGN Reviews Buzz!: Quiz World

Greg Miller at IGN is the first in the US to review Buzz!: Quiz World and has given us a nine. As superlatives go, there's nothing wrong with "Outstanding". Greg closes with "IGN doesn’t do a Quiz Game of the Year Award, but if we did, I assure you Buzz!: Quiz World would snag it for 2009." If we were less modest we'd include a few more quotes here, but instead we'll just link to the review.

We really listened to everyone's feedback since we released Buzz!: Quiz TV so it's great that the multitude of new features, enhanced game modes and a million and one tweaks are appreciated.

Date

07 November 2009
Eurogamer Expo Careers Fair

It’s four days since Eurogamer Expo and we’ve just about unpacked our bags and recovered! Thanks to everyone who came and met us. We spoke to lots of really interesting people and David and James gave a careers talk as part of the BAFTA Games Careers Surgery.
We really enjoyed meeting so many people who want to break into videogames and we hope that everyone we met is wearing their beanies and t-shirts with pride! Those of you there may have noticed that ‘Relentless TV’ were filming. Keep an eye on this website, Blue Toad Murder Files™, Facebook and YouTube - you might spot yourself having a chat with us.

So now you’ve met us we hope you’d like to come and join Relentless. Our crack recruitment team of Sarah and Helen are now excitedly awaiting your applications so come on don’t be shy, get those CVs in! Check out our current vacancies here.

Date

04 November 2009
Happy Birthday to Us!

We celebrated our 6th birthday yesterday. If we were a child we would have just left Reception class in short trousers with our Buzz!™ lunch box in hand, heading for another gruelling class of colouring in!

Who would have thought all those years ago when Relentless was just a twinkle in the eye of its founders that it would go on to become the company it is today. Thanks to all the guys and girls at Relentless who made it happen.

Date

03 November 2009
Quiz World is Released!

Fantastic news for all you Buzz!™ fanatics. The latest and greatest incarnation of your favourite overly punctuated quiz game, Buzz!: Quiz World™ is available in stores now!

Why not get your finest pair of walking boots on and procure a copy today from all good games retailers. It would make a great gift for all of the family! Christmas is just 53 short days away.

Read more about the game in our ‘Games’ section here.

Date

02 November 2009
Start Your Engines

When it comes to socialising out of work, Relentless historically head to the pub or the poker table. In an effort to lighten the load on liver and wallet respectively, we’re increasing our organised social events. This month was Go-Karting.

Congratulations to Stuart Woollard, who took the crown. Unfortunately we didn’t get a good picture of Stuart, but here’s MyBuzz programmer Jamie McDonald-Gibson looking fit for purpose.

Date

08 October 2009
Gone Gold!

Today we went gold on our last remaining Buzz!: Quiz World discs which means, short of a disaster at Sony’s Austrian manufacturing plant, we’ll be out in time for Christmas. Pre-order here.

In anticipation, here's a new trailer released at Tokyo Game Show last week.

Date

28 September 2009
Pure, Uncut Game Design

Here's our Design Director, Paul Woodbridge, hard at work designing Secret Project #2. It's a long way off yet. So far off in fact that the design is being prototyped with Lego pieces, a re-purposed board game and Dungeons and Dragons figurines. None of which, rest assured, will make it into the final game.

Date

18 September 2009
Gamescom 2009

Last month saw 245,000 visitors attend the gamescom 2009 trade fair in Cologne, Germany, and our new game, Buzz!: Quiz World had a big presence as part of Sony's stand. This meant loads of games press, publishers and other developers from around the world got a chance to sit down and see the game for themselves.

Sony also produced a new video for the event, explaining the key features, as well as showing off the PSP version (once again developed by Curve).

All this activity means the game must be done, right? Well, almost. Here at Relentless we're just closing off the last couple of bugs and putting finishing touches to the largest ever set of different language versions.

And planning where to go for a celebratory lunch...

Date

11 September 2009
Blue Toad Announced!

Finally we get to say a little bit about one of our new projects. Blue Toad Murder Files is a Murder Mystery game for PlayStation®Network that we'll release late in the year.

A while ago we had a company offsite, split up into teams and asked ourselves what kind of entertainment people enjoyed. Whodunnits came up a lot: Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Cluedo. So we started thinking about what a videogame treatment might be and how we could stitch together familiar elements such as motives, alibis and evidence to create an entertaining game for one to four players.

Now here we are, with an Alpha milestone on the horizon and the story arc of Season 1 in the bag. We'll be releasing some more information over the coming months so sign up at the Blue Toad Murder Files websitefor further developments. As a potential witness, we might be needing a statement from you.

Date

15 June 2009
Buzz! Quiz World

Well it wouldn't be Christmas without Buzz, would it? We're very proud to announce our latest Buzz! game for PlayStation3.

New rounds, new game modes, new contestants, new mini-quizzes, fully customisable, an expanded eight-player game and multiple local players in Sofa vs Sofa. We've also added a profile system which lets Buzz track how you're playing and abuse you by name. It's as unnerving as it sounds.

Yes, your existing quiz packs will work and yes, your MyBuzz! quizzes will work. It's all good.

At some point we'll give Quiz World a page on our site, but in the mean time here's a video and some screenshots. Video on YouTube here.

Date

03 June 2009
Buzz Goes Home

As you might have read, Buzz! HQ in Home is about to go live very soon. And pending any 11th hour snafus, we really mean 'real soon now'. It's something we've been working on for a long time and we had to cut off someone's hands for leaking something last year, so it's nice to have it done and dusted.

or anyone familiar with Mike Reid's Runaround TV show, you already know how to play. Run to the area represented by the answer that you think is correct. Can you bluff people by switching your answer at the last minute? It uses user generated quizzes from the MyBuzz site, combined with a voting mechanism within the game, so this is your chance to get your quizzes being played within Home.

Video and screenshots in the link above.

Date

02 June 2009
Pick of The Fringe

Our friends at Arty magazine have voted our art show as the Number 1 Pick of the Fringe Festival. So proof at last, as if it were needed, that we really do make great art.

There isn't long to go now and we are all getting really rather excited about the opening of the show this Saturday, 2nd May.

Date

01 May 2009
Two Thousand Days

Two thousand days ago, after a calls to arms in The Eagle pub, we set up Relentless Software. At the time all we had was £2,000 to bribe a landlord and a promise from Sony that if we delivered our milestones on time then there'd be money in the bank to pay the rent.
Twelve games later, things have worked out well for everyone: the landlord got the money he was owed, Sony got a multi-million selling franchise and we got a healthy videogame company that seems well poised for the next two thousand days. And we did it without killing ourselves in the process. That seems worthy of a news update.

Date

24 April 2009
Relentless returns to the Fringe!

After the success of last year's show, we simply had to do it again. The good news is there are 17 of us showing that making great videogames is not the only art we have mastered.

The Relentless Art Show 2009 is free, located in the centre of town in the Imperial Arcade (next to Starbucks) and will run from the 2nd to the 25th of May so come along.

Date

09 April 2009
Buzz!™: Brain Of...

Easter sees the release of our Buzz!™: Brain of the UK, or Buzz!™: Le Plus Malin Des Français, or Buzz!™: Deutschlands Superquiz or any one of the other 18 countries depending on where you're reading this. We always try and tailor our games to suit each country but in this one we've really pulled out the stops to find out who has most local knowledge. We've also added leaderboards for each country so that you can prove that you're the biggest brain of your domain.

Available on PlayStation3 and PlayStation2. Our localisation team have never worked so hard!

Date

16 March 2009
Still Hiring

Despite the current economic crisis, we're pleased to say that we're still hiring. We have some open positions for our future Buzz!™ titles and we're also hiring for our self-published Secret Project, more news of which in the coming months. Check the jobs section for more information.

Date

02 March 2009
Working Hours

We were interested to read about a comprehensive Finnish study that looked at the results of working long hours. Although the study doesn't have answers as to why, it concluded that those people working more than 55 hours a week had poorer mental skills than those who worked a standard working week.

We've always questioned the merits of long hours whether driving trucks, working in a bank or making videogames. We've stuck to 9-5 and we've seen great results. It's interesting to see that the relative merits of working hours are still being fiercely debated in places such as the IGDA Leadership Forum.

Date

26 February 2009
GamesAid

GamesAid, a new charity initiative for the videogames industry, has raised lots of money. We're proud to say that our poker tournament and Buzz!™ partly raised over £6,000 for GamesAid last year. Hopefully, more of the same this year. GamesAid is a great cause that we can all join in.

Date

25 February 2009
Wired Sussex Digital Media Jobs and Skills Fair

Next Thursday (26th February) we'll be exhibiting at the Wired Sussex Digital Media Jobs and Skills Fair in the Corn Exchange, Brighton from 12 noon to 8pm. Come and find out more about our current vacancies and hear why we're the best independent games developer around.
For more information and to register for a free ticket please visit BrightonJobFair.co.uk

Date

19 February 2009
BAFTA Nominations

Stand aside Kate Winslet. Your moment in the sun is over. The nominations for this years videogame BAFTAs are in and Buzz!™: Quiz TV is nominated twice. Once for Best Casual Game and once for Best Multiplayer Game. Both are pretty competitive categories. Who will win out on March 10th?

You decide.

Date

10 February 2009
IGN Awards 2008

Here at Relentless we were delighted to start 2009 with the news that we'd won more awards; IGN Entertainment have awarded us Best Family PS3 Game of 2008 and the Best Multiplayer PSP Game of 2008.

Thanks guys, we hope you love our 2009 releases as much...

Date

06 January 2009
Jez Harris and his dream career

Recently Jez Harris one of our talented designers was interviewed by the BBC online news magazine as part of their series on dream careers.

For more details on Jez's career, why he loves doing what he does and how he came to Relentless, click here. If you are looking to break into the games industry there are also some top tips and hints on ways in...

Date

16 December 2008
Buzz!™ - The People's Choice

Last week it was the annual DiMAS (Digital Media Awards South) hosted by our friends at Wired Sussex. We had a great night, especially as Relentless won the People's Choice Award for Buzz!™.

According to the blurb the award is "to recognise the coolest, most inspirational individual agency/ business/ content/ thing in digital" so thanks to everyone who voted - we really appreciate it.

Date

02 December 2008
Relentless Rocks

"The Engine Rooms has never seen so much talent before" - Neil, general manager of the live venue in Brighton.

Relentless Rocks was a night of live music, laughter, drinking and applauding our brave performing colleagues. Showing the rest of us their musical talents were The Zucchini's (Mark and Jakub), Stuart Dodman, Chris Pacey, DeadFader (Barry) and SpeedyThing (Paul) at what has already become a legendary event.

Date

21 November 2008
Eurogamer Expo - see you there?

Want to know more about what it would be like working for Relentless? We'll be at the career fair at the Eurogamer Expo this week, so come and say hello, play some of our games and find out more about why we're the best games developer around.

Date

27 October 2008
Number 1

Buzz!™ has topped the charts! This week's UK PSP Budget Chart to be precise. We've yet to ascertain quite what sent Buzz!™: Master Quiz flying up from #15 to #1 over the last seven days, but whatever it was we're not complaining - he's where he belongs and long may it last.

See him sitting pretty here.

Date

23 October 2008
Broadsheets Praise Buzz!™

At Relentless, we don't only read the tabloids. Sometimes we read the broadsheets too. Hot on the heels of a great write up in the Guardian Guide, The Independent has put Buzz!™: Quiz TV in it's Top 50 Best Video Games.

The Independent's list includes Space Invaders and Mario Kart so we're pleased to be in such illustrious company.

Date

28 September 2008
Buzz!™: Quiz TV - US Release

Two and a half months after us Europeans, the US get their hands on Buzz!™: Quiz TV today.

The US version of MyBuzz went live a few weeks ago and it's already filling up nicely with American and Canadian content. Although both sets are in English, we've separated the US from the UK/ Australian so that we don't get confused by questions about quarterbacks and presidents.

In a fine piece of timing IGN US posted their review, giving us an 8.9 and an Editors' Choice award. They particularly liked some of the features we've released in patches post-release. Who knows, perhaps some of the other things they're wishing for might become available in future patches too...

Date

23 September 2008
Start / Select Gamespot Video Podcast

Last week, Guy Cocker from Gamespot interviewed Caspar Field and David Amor at our studio in Brighton. He also visited our neighbours at Black Rock who have just finished their game Pure.

Caspar used the opportunity to announce Buzz!™: Quiz TV - Special Edition, an updated version of Quiz TV that includes the updates we've released plus some of the question packs. He also took the opportunity to make some really silly faces on the 'Get Your Buzz!™ Face On' camera. Meanwhile, David talks a little about the history of Relentless, the history of Buzz!™ plus a couple of tips on how to get a job in the games industry.

Date

22 September 2008
Relentless Share Scheme

When we set up Relentless we tried to do things differently. A lot of the things we set up have become a large part of our success. The Working At Relentless page talks some more about how we run things around here.

One of the things we discussed was the fact that we wanted to give the employees a share of the company. After several years, a lot of accountancy fees and a crash course in laws surrounding share schemes we finally handed out a part of Relentless to the staff. Relentless shares aren't on the open market so they can't be bought and sold, but what we hope it means is that all employees' goals are aligned: to make the best possible games to make Relentless a very successful company.

Date

17 September 2008
The Only Way to Travel

Digging around a digital camera we came across this shot of the Buzz!™ taxi which ferried people around Leipzig last month.
As ever, Buzz!™ had a big presence at Leipzig Game Convention. We had a floor-space which was only rivalled by Little Big Planet. Live eight-player games were always in progress while others played on bean bags or in a camper van(!).

For us, the Game Convention is a a reminder of what a big franchise Buzz!™ has become and, judging by their happy German faces, how much people enjoy playing it.

Date

16 September 2008
Buzz!™: Quiz TV Update

As regular players of Buzz!™: Quiz TV will know, we recently released update v1.1. This update isn't to fix bugs or introduce things which we didn't find time to put on the disc, they're new features that the team have been working on since we finished the game. And it's free! If you have your PS3 online, it will notify you of the update next time you start the game. The update includes EyeToy features, new outfits, new buzzer noises, a quickstart mode and four new contestants including Napoleon - an office favourite.

Date

10 September 2008
Caspar's Podcast

Caspar Field, who oversees all the Buzz!™ games at Relentless, was recently on the Gamespot podcast. Tune in to hear about how he got to Relentless via Edge Magazine and China, what he thinks of videogame university courses and what the future of Buzz!™ might hold. The page is currently here but it doesn't look like a permalink. In the event that it moves, the podcast date is 28/08/08. A direct iTunes link is here.

Date

10 September 2008
MCV Soccer Fives

After crashing out of last year's annual industry five-a-side tournament in the first round, Relentless FC were delighted to reach the quarter-finals of the 'Plate' competition - the contest for the 'less skilled' half of the 70+ teams entered. Victories against Universally Speaking (7-1) and Team 17 (4-1) took us into battle with Volatile Games, who knocked us out of the competition winning 3-2 - well played, Volatile. Standout performances came from Mike and Paul, both scoring 8 goals, as well as Andy in goal. Next year... the final.

Date

07 August 2008
Another Launch Day

It's only been a couple of weeks since Buzz!™ last hit the shelves - but he did again on July 25th, with the release of his first portable outing, Buzz!™: Master Quiz, co-developed with our friends at Curve Studios, for PSP. We're extremely proud of how the game has translated to a new platform, without the need for its famous big red buzzers. And don't forget you can play it with up to six people in its unique 'Pass Around' mode - perfect for whiling away those long journeys this summer.

Date

29 July 2008
Guardian Pub Quiz

It's the week of the Develop Conference here in Brighton, bringing with it plenty of 'networking' in any number of guises. First up was The Guardian's 'Have I Got Games News For You' pub quiz, in which Relentless finished a very commendable second. Games-related answers included Zero Wing, Pauline, Nissan GTR and Computer Space; our geek credentials know no bounds. Rhod's attempt at creating an Olympic mascot however...well, never mind. Plenty more activities including poker, parties and yet another pub quiz, to come this week, not to mention all the lectures...

Date

29 July 2008
Project Bottom Drawer

While Relentless is best known for Buzz!™, you may appreciate that it's not all we think about. Hence what we call 'Project Bottom Drawer'. (Things are always better if they have codenames.) Project Bottom Drawer is an opportunity for everyone in Relentless to get together and talk about games we could make in the future. So with the help of our friends at CENTRIM, University of Sussex, we spent a couple of days with giant post-it notes and markers, coming up with ideas. A wide range of games, from sensible to stupid, were discussed, dissected and demonstrated and the best ones will be taken into the early design stages.

Date

22 July 2008
Trophies

We're excited to be among the first Blu-Ray games to support Sony's new Trophies feature, which is present in the new 2.40 System Software. We created the master disc for Buzz!™: Quiz TV over two months ago and at that time the Trophy functionality wasn't finalised so we couldn't get it on the shipped disc. Since then we've added trophy support and created an update which should be showing up online sometime in the middle of July. The game will auto-update itself when the new update becomes available.

Date

02 July 2008
Launch Day

It's an exciting day at Relentless as the first copies of Buzz!™: Quiz TV are finding their way to gamers. The French version can be bought today, the Australian tomorrow and most other European territories on Friday. MyBuzzQuiz.com has been intermittently up and down for maintenance in the last couple of days as Sony find some last minute issues, but rest assured any quizzes created to date will be safe and the site will be up again soon, if it isn't already. To speak with other Buzz!™ players, stop by the official Sony forums. Here's the UK forum. Other languages can be found by following the appropriate links here.

Date

02 July 2008
Relentless Rifles

Relentless fielded their usual clay pigeon shooting team, 'Relentless Rifles' at the G3 event again this year. No longer new to the clay pigeon world, we acquitted ourselves well, finishing mid-table in the team competition. Jez Harris confounded sceptics to pick up the plastic duck prize for best Relentless score on the day. More importantly, we won five bottles of wine and enjoyed a nice walk, some trees and the smell of gunpowder while raising money for the Entertainment Software Charity.

Date

12 June 2008
Develop Nominations

It was with great pride that we received two Develop awards last year. The Develop Conference returns to Brighton this year and we're pleased to have been nominated for Business Development and Independent Developer. We're up against some tough competition from the likes of EA, Realtime Worlds, Traveller's Tales and other heavy-hitters so we'll be dry-cleaning our tuxedos and keeping our fingers crossed between now and then.

Date

08 June 2008
Locomatrix

Last Friday, Tux, Rhod, Paul, Jez and Tom spent an enjoyable morning collecting invisible, giant oranges on and around Hove lawns. Strange but true. Thanks to the work of Richard Vahrman and his team at Locomatrix, anyone with a mobile phone can get involved with what we think is a great new development in gaming. Thanks for the invite, Richard! See more at Locomatrix.com

Date

29 May 2008
Release Dates

With our blu-ray master discs spinning somewhere in the glass mastering facility in Austria, Sony have announced some release date information. The UK version of Buzz!™: Quiz TV will be released on July 4th and sites such as Play.com are already offering pre-orders for the bundle pack with the wireless buzzers for the price of £34.99. That's the same price as the Buzz!™ PlayStation2 bundles, but this time the buzzers are wireless and the game is on blu-ray. In the light of recent UK overpricing it's great that Sony are keeping the pricing low. Eurogamer recently reported that the US version is due in the Autumn.

Date

23 May 2008
Wireless Buzzers

At the recent PlayStation day Sony released some nice pictures of the wireless buzzers. They use RF technology rather than Infrared, which means you don't have any line of sight headaches and they're backward compatible which means you'll be able to use them on your PS2 with any of the previous Buzz!™ games. The PS3 game will also accept the old PS2 wired buzzers meaning you'll be able to play eight player mode in Buzz!™: Quiz TV without needing to buy a second wireless set. Batteries included, which give the buzzers a nice weighty feel.

Date

22 May 2008
MyBuzz

Over the last couple of weeks Sony has been conducting a closed beta trial to test some of the online features of Buzz!™ including MyBuzz, which allows you to create and share your own quizzes. We always thought this would be a cool feature, but even in the Beta trial the quality, creativity and breadth of user-generated-quizzes has been better than we'd hoped. Current office favourites are The Joke Quiz by ortidog, Chas 'n' Dave Rave by PapaG and The Texas Hold'Em Quiz by Linzoid.

Date

19 May 2008
Relentless Art Show

Don't know if you've heard, but the Brighton Fringe Festival starts on the 3rd May and this year we've decided to have a break from looking at computer monitors to show you our lovely art. There are 11 of us showing work that includes painting, animation, sound, sculpture/ 3D and photography. The Relentless Art Show starts 3rd May and runs till the 11th, is free to get in, and easy to find right in the heart of Brighton at Imperial Arcade (with Starbucks at one end). There's no excuse to miss out!

Date

02 May 2008
The Slow Boat from China

People keep asking when Buzz!™: Quiz TV will be released. Street date announcements are the domain of the publisher so we won't go into detail, but the final revisions have been made to the wireless buzzers, they've been in manufacturing for a little while and they've started their slow boat ride from China. In the mean time we've been making some tweaks to the network back end and polishing up the MyBuzz site where you'll be able to author your own quizzes. Hopefully some of you got a chance to play the game at Play Live. If not, you can see a bit more of Buzz!™ PS3 in action on Gamespot's latest Start Select show.

Date

11 April 2008
Edge 188

Buzz!™ has a nice six page article in the latest Edge magazine. Inside is an exclusive preview of Buzz!™: Master Quiz on PSP. There was always some scepticism that a handheld version of Buzz!™ would work, so it's nice that it was well received. Kudos to our producer, Jez, and our development partners over at Curve Studios. Buzz!™: Quiz TV is put through its paces with Caspar and Dan talking about the online modes and user-generated-content features. Best of all, and warranting the cover price on its own, is our guide to buzzer grips which will give you a critical edge in your games of Buzz!™. It was also an opportunity for Andy to showcase his talents as a hand model.

Date

10 April 2008
GDC 2008

If you're looking for David's GDC presentation Your Shameful Secret Addiction to Crunch, then the slides themselves are nothing more than pictures with a few memory prompts. You might want to read his post at GameWatch.org, some notes from an IGDA presentation or an interview that Andy and David did with GamesIndustry.biz a while back.
If you want the video from Triumph of the Nerds, you can find it here.

If that still leaves questions un-answered then feel free to get in touch.

Date

03 March 2008
ROCK!

Wednesdays don't get much better than this. An oversized mystery box arrived at Relentless Towers all the way from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Inside? Rock Band! Look at Pete, Ben and Caspar... Living the dream. Harmonix, you'll be on our Christmas card list forever!

Date

06 February 2008
Brighton Digital Media Job Fair

Next Wednesday (13th Feb) we'll be exhibiting at the Brighton Digital Media Job Fair, along with other local media types including NCSoft and Second Life creators Linden Lab. Proceedings start at midday and run into the evening. If Sony let us we'll be showing off our latest wares, so it will be a good chance to talk to us and find out what we're up to. The event is held right next to the station, so if you're out of town it's easy to get to.

Date

05 February 2008
Selling Newspapers

How can our least controversial game cause the most controversy? It seems that certain papers treated Buzz!™: The Schools Quiz with a degree of sensationalism and even brought in heavyweight anti-videogamer Jack Thompson to lend support. The plot thickened as Jack denied the quotes a few days later. Regardless, other papers are giving the game some positive reviews. What do we know about selling newspapers anyway?

Date

28 January 2008
Inside Game Design

Iain Simons, director of the Gamecity event in Nottingham, has released an excellent new book called Inside Game Design. It features an interview with David and Andy plus some behind the scenes shots and previously-unseen concept art, and dates back to early last year when David confidently predicted that we wouldn't grow past fifty employees. Hrm... Also featured are our good friends at Freestyle, Introversion and Media Molecule along with many more great developers large and small. Worth a look!

Date

11 January 2008
Buzz!™: The Schools Quiz - Out Now!

What with all the excitement of Christmas and Buzz!™ PS3's sprint to final we almost forgot about the release of Buzz!™: The Schools Quiz. It's the fruit of our affair with the Department for Education and Skills and we're really pleased Sony felt it should see life outside of the classroom. Buzz!™: The Schools Quiz is similar to the Buzz!™ games you know and love, but with one important difference: since the questions are designed for 7-11 year olds, these are questions you really should know. Ask yourself: Which of the following words is not a homophone? A) Reign, B) Rain, C) Rane, D) Rein. Don't let the kids show you up.

Date

10 January 2008
Amor on Next-Gen

Our Creative Director, David Amor, is interviewed on Next-Gen website today and talks about the art of making social games and why games don't get the same viewing figures as Lost. Season 4 starts in February incidentally.

Date

23 November 2007
Buzz!™ Goes Trans-Atlantic

Finally Buzz!™: The Mega Quiz has been released in the US. After a lukewarm reaction at E3 2005 we were worried that it might not meet with the same positive reaction as it has in PAL territories, but thankfully the reviews have been good with IGN, GameSpot and the customer reviews at Amazon all waxing lyrical. SCEA made a website and the TV spot stars Donny Osmond. Does life get any better?

Date

08 November 2007
BAFTA Children's Awards

Despite not receiving a nomination in the Videogames Awards for the first time, we are very proud to have received a nomination in the Children's Awards for Buzz!™: The Schools Quiz in the "Learning - Primary" category. We've kept this one under our hat just in case we didn't get it. Buzz!™: The Schools Quiz is our variation on Buzz!™ specifically designed for teachers and children in key stage 2. We hope it'll be a hit with teachers, children and parents alike. Normality has been restored. Phew.

Date

23 October 2007
No BAFTA Shock!

For the first year since Relentless' inception we have failed to receive a BAFTA nomination. It looks like it might be a year for Wii Sports, Crackdown, Gears of War, Okami and God of War 2. The silverware gets handed out on October 23rd and we begrudgingly wish them well. Presumably normality will have been restored by next year when we will have released Buzz!™: Quiz TV, and it will be a travesty if we don't sweep the board for Secret Project #1 in 2009.

Date

22 October 2007
London Game Career Fair

Relentless are appearing at the career fair in London tomorrow. Andrew Eades will be discussing Games Development and Quality of Life at 12pm and Jez Harris will be speaking on A Career in Game Design at 4pm. The career fair is taking place at The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL. More travel instructions can be found here.

Date

22 October 2007
Podcasts

David joined Colin Campbell, Gary Whitta and Jeremy Williams for their GameTheory podcast this week and talked about Buzz!™ heading to the US and Relentless working practices. The hosts are all industry veterans and the show is a continuation of their old Next Generation podcast, so it's well worth an addition to your iTunes setup. On the subject of podcasts, also take a listen to Insomniac Games Full Moon Show. Whether you're in the industry or not, it's interesting to hear a developer talk about how AAA games such as Resistance: Fall of Man and Ratchet & Clank are made.

Date

28 September 2007
World Famous Ice Cream

When meeting our peers in the industry it's nice that Relentless has a reputation. Is it the multi-million selling Buzz!™ franchise that people speak of? Is it our forward thinking working practices? No. Ever since July we've been known as the company that handed out free ice creams at the Develop conference.

In a world where fashions come and go and tastes change by the season, it's reassuring to consider that one thing has remained constant since cavemen walked the earth: everyone loves ice cream!

Date

24 September 2007
Alton Towers

Never one to be intimidated by looming Alpha dates, Relentless headed to Alton Towers for some high velocity 'coaster action. Perudo was played late into the night and the coach journey home afforded us a four hour, eight player Mario Kart mega-session that might have left us overdosed forever.

To the right you can see a beautiful moment of Chris showing his appreciation to Ben for fixing that last bug in Buzz!™: The Hollywood Quiz.

Date

13 September 2007
Buzz!™ for PlayStation3

It might not be the most surprising news in the world but there's plenty of cause for excitement.

Yesterday at Leipzig Game Convention Buzz!™ Quiz TV was announced for PlayStation3. We've been taming Sony's latest hardware for over a year and we're now on the home straight, so head to the product page and find out what's been keeping us busy.

Date

23 August 2007
Relentless at Leipzig

Tomorrow we head South East to Leipzig for Game Convention, where we're talking to press about forthcoming titles. Leipzig is a great event because it's attended by people that love games, unlike (the old) E3 where the suits would barely glance at the game you put your heart and soul into over the last year. You'll find us either buried behind closed doors in the Sony press area or somewhere on Sony's curious booth area. 200,000 German gamers? Bring it on!

Date

21 August 2007
Buzz!™ Hollywood

Since the release of The Music Quiz, there's been one topic that everyone has been waiting to get hold of: the movies. Finally, Buzz!™ has done a Beckham and hit L.A., and he's laying on Buzz!™: The Hollywood Quiz. With movie clips and stills and questions from Brad Pitt's six pack to the state of The Dude's rug, everything's covered. Will you be a Doc Emmett Brown or an utter Forrest Gump..?

Date

27 July 2007
Situations Vacant

We're hiring again. We are looking for a Japanese and American producer to join the existing producer team. We're also hiring Artists and Programmers to help with a new project which we can't say too much about until we wait for a couple of announcements from Sony.

Date

11 June 2007
Develop Nominations

It was with great pride that we received two Develop awards last year. The Develop Conference returns to Brighton this year and we're pleased to have been nominated for Business Development and Independent Developer. We're up against some tough competition from the likes of EA, Realtime Worlds, Traveller's Tales and other heavy-hitters so we'll be dry-cleaning our tuxedos and keeping our fingers crossed between now and then.

Date

08 June 2007
Australian Charts

At Relentless we love the Antipodeans - they've always been big Buzz!™ players. In the Australian all format charts (as tracked by GFK) we occupy both the #2 spot for Buzz!™: The Mega Quiz Solus and the #3 slot for Buzz!™: The Mega Quiz with Buzzers. With both combined surely we'd occupy the #1 spot.

Date

04 June 2007
Buzz!™ takes America

It's taken two years, but finally Buzz!™ will be on American shelves for Thanksgiving. We've been creating a special version of Buzz!™: The MegaQuiz which includes questions tailored carefully for the American market. Hamburgers, Monster Trucks, Apple Pie, American Idol and all things Americana, no doubt.

Date

18 May 2007
We Have Moved

After months of picking carpet tiles and re-configuring air conditioning systems, we've moved into our new office. With confidence that we can say that we have the most central office in Brighton since we're about 20 foot from the clock tower.

Date

01 March 2007
Buzz!™: The Mega Quiz Released

We're proud to announce the arrival of Buzz!™: The Mega Quiz. We've spent a while working on this one and we're really proud of it. We've beefed up our eight player game, added mystery rounds and introduced some new rounds and contestants. A favourite in our office is The Final Countdown - it ain't over until the very last question of the game.

Date

01 March 2007