Category Archives: General

1UP Coverage of Bad Day LA

Garnett Lee over at 1up.com has posted a nice preview/interview of Bad Day LA.

When he announced earlier this year that his next game was titled Bad Day LA, the gears started turning in our heads wondering just how off the wall the concept of having a “bad day” in LA (of all places) could get.

Read more…

Major Alice Movie News

Well, finally something is *happening* with the Alice film! I”m happy too… I think Sarah will make a fine Alice, especially after her performance in The Grudge.

This was announced in the Hollywood Reporter today…


June 21, 2005

Universal to put Gellar in Wonderland

By Borys Kit and John Gaudiosi
Universal Pictures is making “Alice,” an adaptation of video game “American McGee’s Alice,” with Sarah Michelle Gellar attached to star for director Marcus Nispel.

“Alice” is based on the Electronic Arts game created by American McGee, a lead designer of the “Quake” and “Doom” series of games. EA’s game is based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” novels, which are in the public domain.

In the game, Alice has grown up to become a disturbed young woman. After her parents are killed in a fire, Alice returns to Wonderland, a dark and threatening place of looking glasses, mysterious potions, nonsensical tea parties and talking animals, confronting her fears and the wicked Queen of Hearts.

Read the full article.

IGN – Bad Day LA Article

Dan Adams over at IGN posted a really informative interview that’s worth checking out. A lot more detail about the game, some new screenshots, and other goodness:

June 8, 2005 – It’s not often that a game really comes along to prove some sort of social or political point. Maybe it’s because gamers don’t really like to think or consider things in regular life while playing games or maybe it’s just because developers are lazy and would like to leave that sort of thing to authors and movie makers. The biggest reason is probably just that it’s hard to make a game fun around something that’s at least a passably serious subject.

Read more here.

bdla screen

BDLA: Gamespy article

A very positive article covering Bad Day LA from E3 was just posted over at Gamespy.

You know, I have to say I really appreciate the response that the press has given BDLA so far. For a while I was fearful that the art style, story, and overall concept would be rejected outright. Original content is a tough thing in the video game market these days.

Bad Day LA – Fan Site & Terrorist Weapon

Wow, that was fast! A BDLA fan site… and not bad looking either.
Check it out
Also, stay tuned, we’ll be launching the official BDLA website soon.

In order to help build awareness during E3 we decided to hand out “terrorist weapons”. These were nail clippers that were manufactured in mainland China, had our BDLA logo and “BDLA 9000” logo afixed to them, and then shipped to Hong Kong. (See the image below) From there I lugged 130 pounds of them to the US in my checked baggage. I had to separate the load into two bags, so each bag ended up at 65lbs. 130lbs in one bad was like trying to pull a dead body around inside of a suitcase!

In Hong Kong no one even looked twice at the two unmarked 65lb brown cardboard boxes containing the deadly cargo. Some guy slapped some “HEAVY” tags on the bags and waved me on. Once I got the to US it was a different story. After collecting luggage I passed through customs. That went something like this:
TSA Guy: You live in Hong Kong. Me: Yes
TSA Guy: You’re a game designer: Me: Yes
TSA: Guy: You’re coming to promote your latest game title: Me: Yes
TSA Guy: And what are you bringing into the country? Me: 130lbs of nail clippers.

At that point the TSA guy did a sort of double take and then demanded that I explain myself.
I felt it would be unwise to tell him the truth, that the nail clippers were used as a weapon in the game and that the whole joke was in the game precisely because of the TSA. I tried to avoid the subject, just saying they were for promotion. He was having none of it.
Ultimately he questioned me into a corner and I had no choice but to fully explain what was going on. “They are used as a weapon in our game, the whole thing is a joke on the TSA, etc, etc.”
I thought for sure I was going to end up on a plane to Guantanamo Bay.
Instead, the guy took a beat, looked at me funny and then began to laugh. He asked if he could have a nail clipper.

Buoyed by this experience I made the mistake giving the second customs guy a straight answer about my name.
TSA Guy #2: Huh, that’s a cool name, how’d you get that?
Me: My mom smoked pot.
He neither laughed, nor asked me for some pot. He just glared at me and told me to move on.

Well, at least one guy working at the airport has a sense of humor.

BDLA9000

One Million

An anonymous source at Electronic Arts just informed me that Alice has passed the 1 million units sold mark. Very cool. I wonder what would have happened if there had been a PS2 version…

alice