Word Burn

Burn baby, burn!

Stimulus.com is running a lengthy interview with yours truly where I answer questions about Grimm, how to turn fairy tales into video games, making weekly episodic content, and the future. Here’s a little chunk:

Was there anything you thought was going to be a good idea, and finally decided to remove it?

Lots of things actually. One major feature we planned from the start was the idea of “words as weapons”. In using this concept the Player would run up to an object inside the game, hit a key to convert that object into a word, then carry the word around for use in another location. So you could walk up to a sheep, convert it into the word “sheep”, then carry that to a pit filled with wolves and toss “sheep” into the void. Upon hitting the ground it would convert back into the original object, and you’d have a diversionary sheep. We also envisioned combining words, so you might have a “flaming sheep” by collecting “fire” and “sheep” and combining them together.

I always liked the “words as weapons” concept. We were using it for everything from power ups to weapons and abilities. But ultimately, it didn’t work out. Meh. Maybe some day we’ll return to the concept in another game (Grimm 2 anyone?) and figure out how to make it fun. Until then, enjoy the Stimulus interview.

And don’t forget – Stimulus is a digital download site where you can purchase standalone episodes of Grimm, or entire episode bundles. Head over today and check out what Grimm has in store for you!

Grimm Episode 13 – The Golden Goose

Turkey Chomp

Turkey Chomp Action!

Gobble, gobble! It’s time for the Golden Goose – and not just the one on you featured on your typical American thanksgiving dinner table. Grimm’s got some Goose action to share too! But I’ll let you try first – something tells me a goose cooked by Grimm might not be the thing to get your stomach in a holiday mood.

Here in China we’re far, far away from anything resembling a “traditional thanksgiving dinner”. A few years back we tried to create an approximation of the event with roast pigeon, Chinese greens, and yam-like sweet potatoes. But there’s something about eating thanksgiving dinner in a Chinese house older than the United States that doesn’t ring quite so true.

For those of you NOT in China, try some Grimm-style Goose with Episode 13 – “The Golden Goose”! GameTap released this one early and are running it for FREE through the holiday weekend. Actually, I have no idea how long it’ll be free since no one at GameTap bothered to tell me they were doing anything special with the episode – but hey! It IS Turkey Day after all!

And be sure to stayed tuned – the next couple of Grimm episodes are really cool. Next week we’ve got “Iron John”, which I can assure you is one of the more … insane … episode of Grimm we’ve ever created. And following that – the big Christmas episode, “Christmas Carol” which aside from containing a lot of Scroogey goodness, also pushes the Unreal 3 engine to all sorts of awesome visual effect.

I hope everyone out there has a happy holiday!

Terror Texts The Musical

I remember years ago hearing Marilyn Manson talk about creating a “dark bible”, one that focused on the more horrific elements of the bible: Children being eaten by bears, rape, murder, and “fool” flingers being doomed to an eternity in hell. Now I read that the students at Iowa College have gone and made real Manson’s idea… on stage! Check out Terror Texts The Musical. Btw, you know the end is near when Christian kids start acting out Marilyn Manson’s ideas. Repent!

Grimm Episode 12 – “Cinderella”

Cinderella (Dark)

Dark Cinderella

Grimm’s back! This week he’s adding his dark touch to the uber-classic “Cinderella”. This was actually one of the first episodes we built for Grimm – but because it was so early, it turned out really rough. So we completely scrapped the original design, rebuilt the entire thing, and pushed the release date to NOW.

And in following what has become another weekly tradition, here’s David Craddock over at BigDownload giving us a positive review of the latest episode: “After a bit of moping around due to her abhorrent mistreatment at the hands of her step-mother and step-sisters, Grimm’s antagonistic aura injects Cinderella with a bit of spunk. Rather than simpering when she can’t go to the ball, Cindy gets peeved and punches a villager in his jaw. The unfortunate victim of circumstance flies backward and becomes wedged in the rump of the horse pulling the step-sisters’ ball-bound carriage. This humorous sequence of event culminates with the startled animal unleashing a spray of urine that drenches the sisters.”

Um yeah. Grimm’s sick like that.

Go check it out on GameTap!

The Green Gamer

An interesting post regarding energy usage of consoles over at Ars Technica. The article talks about how much energy our gaming consoles use per year and the relative impact of this energy usage. It also talks about how to be an eco-friendly gamer: “By incorporating these practices, the NDRC claims that the United States’ electricity bill could be cut by more than $1 billion. Not only that, but it would help, “[reduce] emissions of more than 7 million tons of CO 2 each year—an amount equal to the global warming pollution from all the cars on the road in San Jose, our nation’s high-tech capital.” Read the full report here.