Once again, I return home to China. GDC went great. The GameTap PR machine (driven by the very protective Wendy) lined up the interviews, and I did my best to knock them down. It seems everyone liked what they saw of Grimm – and press since the event has been nothing but positive. On top of it all – I didn’t get shot!
In celebration of the return to China, a Fire Gnome:
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 they might even break down on-air, adding an element of tension to the whole affair.Â
The Jeff, Shawn and the guys were kind enough to have me on so we could talk about things like Bad Day LA (what went wrong?!), doing business in China, Grimm, and my weird name. All in all, a really good “brodio”. You can find the podcast here. Â
I’m heading back to Shanghai from San Francisco. Sitting at Narita, waiting for my connecting flight – I saw that Grimm was mentioned in USA Today:
 If you think Shrek wreaked havoc on the Disneyized version of classic fairy tales, wait till you see American McGee’s Grimm. The former id Software designer and programmer (Doom,Quake) re-envisioned the Alice in Wonderland story in his 2000 computer game American McGee’s Alice. Now, at his Spicy Horse studio in Shanghai, he’s finishing a series of 24 episodic games, each an individual story from Little Red Riding Hood to Cinderella.Â
I’m mystified by my sudden elevation to “programmer” at id – I did write minor code, but my title was never anything more than level designer. Anyway, I’m happy to see Grimm getting a positive reaction in the press. During GDC the game received a tremendous amount of positive praise. I’ll collect together more articles and mentions once I’m back in the office…Â
Gamespot and Kotaku are running news of the release of the Grimm trailer. Gametap has also updated the Grimm site with new content – the trailer and some screenshots. Check it out the Gametap Grimm homepage here. To celebrate the occasion, a duck with a broken neck.     
Btw, Kotaku crowd: American McGee loves you too.Â
In San Francisco this week for the Game Developer’s Conference. The trip from China was uneventful. It’s been a year since my last visit to the US. I’m struck once again by how *bright* the world is. It’s as if someone has removed a filter from the sun. I remember that sunglasses aren’t just a fashion statement – they’re a necessity. Another thing I noticed as I walked around the streets of SF today – how *diverse* everything is. People, cars, bikes, buildings, and even dogs. Everything screams, “I’m different”. As if being different isn’t different at all – it’s normal. Can one distinguish himself by being mundane? Anyway, being back in the city by the sea, I’m reminded of pirates. So you get pirates:Â
 
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As we’ve been writing episodes of Grimm it’s becoming clear that Grimm likes pirates. Then again, who doesn’t? They go “arrrg”, sail around on cool boats, blow things up, and get to have hooks for hands. What’s not to like? So expect more pirate stuff in the future matey. Â
I’m going to watch American capitalistic pig-dog Tivo. I was really starting to miss that “boo deep” “boo boop” sound. Â
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:Â Â
 This was recorded during the height of the “fireworks attack” on Shanghai. At this point in the evening, every square inch of city sky was filled with some form of fire, smoke, explosion, or pyrotechnic. It literally looked like Baghdad during the invasion. I’ll post more stuff once I’ve had a chance to grab it from my camera.Â