Monthly Archives: January 2008

General, Shanghai

Something New, Something Wicked

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Over the past 12+ months my partners and I have been working diligently to build Spicy Horse into a premier game studio – our goal is to make it one of the best in China, and in the world. So far we’ve had tremendous success in finding people from all around the world to bring creativity and passion to the “Grimm” project.

This month marks the half-way point in episode production for Grimm – we’re 12 episodes in, with another 12 to go. The production process has gone so smoothly that I feel the need to knock on wood when talking about it – Especially considering we’ve moved 3 times, grown from 2 people to over 50, and had to deal with the “novelty” of running a business in China.

So it is with a mixture of pride and awe that I get to “announce” our 2nd project. At the moment this is purely for recruiting purposes – an official announcement will come when the time is right. What I can say about the project is this: “UE3 based, big publisher, multi-platform, twisted tale project” – pre-production is starting soon – and we’re seeking applicants for the following roles:

  • Producer
  • Project Assistant
  • Game Designer
  • Senior Programmer
  • Junior Programmer
  • Senior Artist
  • Tech Artist
  • Level Artist
  • Concept Artist
  • Level Designer

This is going to be a world-class product, and we’re hoping to attract world-class talent to the team. If you’ve liked what you’ve seen/heard about “Grimm”, or were a fan of “Alice” – then you’ll not want to miss a chance to work on this project.

Qualified and interested in joining our Shanghai-based team? Send a note to careers [at] spicyhorse [dot] com or post a note in the comments here (comments are moderated and won’t be seen by the public).

Alice

Alice Movie Update?

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Over on SciFi Wire there’s a blurb about the Alice movie:

Gellar Passionate About Alice
Sarah Michelle Gellar told SCI FI Wire that she’s still passionate about developing Alice, a movie based on the computer game American McGee’s Alice, to which she owns the film rights. The game is based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

A lot of people are writing me, wanting to know what’s going on with the project. Truth is, I don’t know much more than the rest of you. And there are even a few details in this article that are news to me. The article makes it sound like Gellar now “owns” the Alice film rights – something I didn’t know. And there’s no mention the previous producer or writers. Has something big changed? Then again, the article describes “Alice” as a “1st-person-shooter” – so it might turn out that these are just misunderstandings.

In any case, I wish I could tell more – or do something more to help this thing move along. But Shanghai is a long way from Hollywood these days. And I’ve got “Grimm” to get finished with. Maybe we’ll get that made into a movie before Alice sees the light of day?

PS, It’s snowing in Shanghai today, so here’s a yeti to celebrate the occasion:

Yeti

Spicy Horse

Spicy Shirt

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Chinese New Year is fast approaching. At the end of this month Spicy Horse will have it’s annual Chinese New Year company dinner. In China this is a time for eating, drinking, celebrating, and the giving of “Red Envelopes”. These envelopes are called “Hong Bao” symbolize blessings and good fortune. Red is itself a color of luck and fortune. With that in mind, we’ve created some cool Spicy Horse t-shirts:

Spicy Shirt

Seems I might be wearing these a lot next year. The coming year is “The Year of the Rat” – which is my year (also my mother’s year!). During your year you’re supposed to wear an article of red clothing every day to bring luck. Maybe I can get some Spicy Horse underwear made too… Speaking of rats… some “rat” concept artwork from Grimm:

Rat Hole

People are often curious about where the name “Spicy Horse” came from. As it turns out, the name makes more sense in Chinese than it does in English. The Chinese name is “Ma La Ma” – the first part of which “ma la” is a type of Chinese spice. The Chinese started cooking with ma la because it allowed them to eat spicier foods. Why? Because it acts like a topical anesthetic – numbing your mouth so you don’t feel the pain! When people ask me why I moved to China, I always tell them, “For the spicy food”. “Pass the hot sauce” was one of the first things I learned how to say in Chinese.

The second “ma” means “horse” – which is also part of my Chinese name “Ma Ji” (Lucky Horse). So we have “Ma La Ma”. When people see our sign/logo in China they always assume we’re a hot pot restaurant that actually serves horse meat. Speaking of… that sounds good for lunch.

And now you know!

Grimm

Hell Hound

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Today’s image is a Hell Hound. A flaming good example of something cute and cuddly becoming evil and scary when influenced by Grimm’s dark power. I particularly like NPCs that vomit various elements – flame, puke, blood, etc.

Hellhound

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we create a lot of concept artwork. There are a total of six concept artists currently working on Grimm. They are, in order of appearance, Nako, Yuan Shao Feng, Ben Kerslake, Tyler Lockett, Wang Shen Hua, and Ray. Together they crank out dozens of new images every week. To date they’ve created over 1000 unique concept images to drive asset production for the game. That’s enough images that I could release 2 per day for the next 500 days… even if they stopped creating art!

As it happens, we’ve just reached concept stage on our 12th episode. That means we still have another 12 episodes to produce artwork for. So there’s at least another 1000 pieces of artwork to come. By the time these concept art machines are done we’ll probably have well over 2000 unique bits of artwork inspired by the world’s most famous fairy tales.

Hmmm… makes me wonder, what sort of interesting things could we do with all that artwork? Certainly, it can help to drive early awareness of the game. But then, what? I’ve always been a fan of big, glossy “Production Art From…” books. And then there’s t-shirts, coffee mugs, and tattoos. What other good use can you think of for all this wonderful art?

Grimm

Chopping Block

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Today you get the chopping block:

ChopBlockHead

During level review this afternoon I was delighted to see some gruesome in-game chopping going on. When Grimm converts normal Lumberjacks into insane ax murders, they run around hacking at each other and any nearby forest creatures. Bloody fun!

Grimm

Under Siege

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Siege Towers are fun. Especially when they go from cute and happy to morbid and corpse filled.

Siege Tower

Here in Shanghai the team has been working hard to complete episodes for an upcoming milestone. We’re finally starting to play around with “little” stuff like finished menus, loading screens, and other UI elements. Previously we ignored these bits and were focused entirely on core game play.

Now we’re heading into a phase where we’ll have our first Beta episodes. It’s a strange feeling, especially when considering that only a year has passed since we started work. Add to that the growth of the team, overcoming the “China factors”, and how smoothly everything is going… feels like it’s going to be a lucky year.