Shanghai
Chinese Gaming Boom
China is a fun place to be a gamer. If you aren’t buying 360 games on the street for 10RMB, you’re downloading them from P2P and sharing them with your buddies at work. We had to put a stop to that latter practice at the Spicy Horse offices - we found some of our guys [...]
Buying Electric Scooters in Shanghai
One of the things I love most about Shanghai is how bicycle/scooter friendly the city is. There are designated lanes on most roads throughout the city, abundant parking with security attendants on every block, and a riding/driving culture geared towards bike-filled streets. When the weather is suitable, there’s nothing better than exploring the hidden alleys [...]
Great Firewall of China
If it seems things have been quiet around here there’s a reason. Well, a few actually. One, after returning from GDC I found myself swamped in catch-up work on Grimm and pre-production work on some new concepts. Two, the Chinese government decided to block access to Flickr via the “Great Firewall of China”. When I [...]
Games For Windows - Podcast
Games for Windows is hosting an audio interview they did with me during GDC:
Welcome to GFW Radio, the podcast homepage for Games for Windows: The Official Magazine. Here, through the glorious magic of the Internet, you can listen to the GFW editors and occasional guests pontificate and yammer about all sorts of PC game related issues. Plus [...]
CNY 2008 - Fireworks Fun
So far this year no one I know has been blown up by fireworks in Shanghai, but perhaps not for lack of trying. Check out this video taken on my balcony a few days ago:
This was recorded during the height of the “fireworks attack” on Shanghai. At this point in the evening, every [...]
Something New, Something Wicked
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 [...]
Rainy Taxi Ride
My friends gave me a Canon TX1 video camera for my birthday. So nice of them! And maybe for you… because now I can record and post videos. My hope is to capture some of what’s going on inside the studio, in Shanghai, and with my adventures around China. Here’s the first (crappy) test:
You need [...]
Grimm on GameSpot UK
Emma Boyes over at GameSpot UK has put together a nice interview piece where we talk about Grimm, digital distribution, and life in Shanghai. From the article:
In 2006, McGee moved lock, stock, and barrel to Hong Kong and then on to Shanghai, where he set up his development studio Spicy Horse. From there, he and [...]
One Year On…
My head spins to think about everything that’s happened in the last year. On this date 1 year ago I left Lamma Island, Hong Kong and moved to Shanghai. The intent was to help my buddy Xin start his outsourcing company Vykarian, and to launch a new game studio of my own called Spicy Horse.
Both [...]
UE3 Level Designer Incubation
My entrance into the game industry was a bit of pure luck.
In 1993, John Carmack plucked me from an illustrious job as auto mechanic and dropped me into the role of tech support/tester at id Software. I was a high school drop-out with few prospects, a passion for games, and a strong desire to make [...]
Yellow Mountain - Company Trip
Last weekend, as part of a Spicy Horse team building adventure, we took the company to China’s equivalent of the Grand Canyon - Yellow Mountain. Also known as Mt. Huangshan, Yellow Mountain refers to an area of scenic mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and gorges in Anhui province.
Our adventure began at the Spicy offices in Shanghai. We [...]
New Office
Two weekends ago Spicy Horse Games picked up and moved to a new home. We had been sharing office space with game art outsourcing company Vykarian. But both companies have been growing too quickly, so we moved.
We got lucky and were told of a cool space which had been occupied by a film/tv production company. [...]
Xitang Weekend
One personal embarrassment about the time I’ve spent in China is how little of China I’ve actually seen. Life in Shanghai is hectic and interesting enough - but what’s the point of being in a foreign country if you’re not going to see something of it? Granted, without a decent grasp on the language, [...]
