20 years of thank you!

[IainMcNeil]

Our first fans were our friends and foes. Wargame players we would meet at DBM tournaments, miniatures painters, diorama makers, the guys we would see for a pint after crushing their Seleucid armies over the weekend.

It was a small venture, full of familiar faces. It was three of us running a company from our bedrooms and making a game we really wanted to play. That game was Legion. It put us on the map, sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and won us Indie Developer Awards in 2000: twenty years ago.

There is no fast forward to now because this is the time for us to stop and thank every single fan, player, partner, and colleague that we met along the way. We are lucky enough to have survived twenty years of videogames, which is an achievement on its own. Keeping to our original mission to create games that would appeal to wargamers, we very seldom drifted away from that track and never by much. We keep making strategy wargames that are deep and have a soul; we keep trying to find new fans with our roots running deep in our history’s soil.

The whole idea of Slitherine started with a dinosaur’s game for Game Boy, would you believe. It was the prehistory of videogames when things were so different and so much the same. Working from home was a necessity of a different kind, and business was a different kind of tough. Our quarterly meetings of five of us in JD’s war room were the only chances to talk and shake hands and see each other: three pizzas were more than enough to feed the whole company for lunch. They are not even sufficient for the PR department now.

In these twenty years, we faced challenges, we built solid foundations and almost saw them crumble, we made bad choices, and we made great ones. We found real friends and made some rivals. We launched good products and even terrible ones. When things got tough, we grew up and rose to the next level.

Today Slitherine and Matrix Games are facing unprecedented growth, and opportunities are growing on low branches like never before. We put on a few years, but we look forward to the future with confidence and a promise to keep making games for strategy lovers and never forget where and how it all started.

Thank you, everyone, for coming along on this journey with us.

[milliethedog]

Hi Iain, long may it continue, I have been playing your games for most of those 20 years and now with PC2 still playing way too much !

Thanks
Martin

[mllange]

Congratulations on your success, ambition, and endurance over the last 20 years. I've been purchasing your games and supporting both Matrix and Slitherine from the beginning and almost every purchase has been a happy one. I hope to continue doing so for another 20 years or more and wish you the very best of success and continued strength to endure.

[amarok23]

Congrats! Couldn't have happened to nicer, more supportive folks. Feels like I've known you guys forever, like we're old friends... I even remember when you went by your old nickname of 'Matrix Games'
For me it started with Spartan and Gates of Troy. Man, that was an amazing series. I wish it could have continued. Then I loved Tin Soldiers - J.C. and Alex, and on and on. Actually, more Ancients Era titles in general would be great.
Been wonderful to see you grow and get huge licenses like Warhammer and Battlestar Galactica. It's truly impressive!
Your games have really enriched my life, so thanks gents!!

[ahuyton]

As a (very) defeated opponent of Iain and JD at a dbm competition over 20 years ago, I can only congratulate you on the company and the games you have produced, many of which are to my taste and excellent. The forums, tournaments and great support that underpin the games are I think very important to your success and mean that we keep going with you, grey hairs and all.

[Triarii]

Congratulations and many many thanks to you and all at Slitherine for so many hours of fun so very efficiently and effectively supplied.
Many happy returns - in every way.

[noissy]

Many congratulations from myself and the Wargamers Club for Gentlemen, Iain
and to the Slitherine team!
I set up the WGCG a few years back and we now support your games and have
enjoyed a good relationship with yourselves, through Paolo Paglianti, with some
great support for our club from yourselves.
Long may you continue and prosper

Peter Jeavons
Club Owner
The Wargamers Club for Gentlemen
http://www.ww2wargamesclubforgentlemen.com/

[Simonas]

Congratz! Really good news, I hope you are going to keep going even after 20 years from this day

[random27]

congratulations , you ve made my favorite pc game (battle academy 1) , i ve spent hours and hours playing it
You created the game i wanted to play and for that , i can t thank you enough !!!!

[legendsport2k]

Congrats on the milestone! May the next 20 be even better!

[devoncop]

Total respect for all you have achieved !

Most folk peak early on but you are now producing I would argue the best quality games that the Company has ever been involved with.

Thanks to all the staff and all the forum buddies I have made since discovering this little haven of sanity in a very insane world

[steevodeevo]

Cheers!

[GordonJacobson]

Happy Birthday!! Here is you you for the next 20 Years!! Cheers

[Hansstory]

Congratulations on a great accomplishment! And thank you for it!

[JohnRN]

Thank you Slitherine for your EXCELLENT games! All the work and expertise put into your products and the support that follows them? And then upgrades?! Incredible! I wish you worked on cars!

Who would have ever thought in my wildest dream that a child playing in the grass with little toy plastic army men would one day be playing with moving soldiers and armies, thrilling explosions, sights and sounds on a big screen with home theater quality sound?!!! Incredible fun! You've brought my wildest childhood pleasure and dreams to life and you continuously get better and better at it.

Thank you again for being so much of a fun part of my life in the manner of leisure time!

[BillRunacre]

Congratulations, and here's to at least another 20 years!

[Castinar]

Congratulations! I absolutely love your strategy games! Sure hope we see many, many more in the coming years....KUTGW!!!

[Medway]

Congrats, hope you're around for another 20 and then 20 more

[RandomAttack]

Congratulations-- and wishing you many more years of success!

[Barrold713]

Congratulations on 20 years and best wishes for 20 more (as a start)
Cheers
BDH