Category Archives: General

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 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).

Merry Coconut-mas

Seems I forgot to post a new image yesterday. Things around the office have been hectic. Pushing towards a milestone and preparing for a little Christmas break. In China there’s not usually time off for Xmas – but since we’re an American owned company we feel compelled to honor the St. Nick holiday. In honor of the holiday, a festive tree:

CoconutTree

Not too traditional,  but fun anyway. Hope everyone out there has a good one. Happy Holidays!

Headless Bunny

One key rule we’ve learned while building assets for Grimm is to push for more interesting transformations. People playing the game tell us “greater contrast between light and dark = more interesting.” Early on, “light/dark” was communicated with distinctly different textures, but somewhat similar geometry. These days we’re trying to build assets that reflect equal changes in geometry… and in behavior. This rabbit is a good example:

Headless Rabbit

When this guy is converted, not only does his texture change, but his geometry as well. AND with a character like this you’ll see his behavior change – from a hopping movement to a jet-powered rocketing movement.

Take that silly rabbit!

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:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR5IOqt1lkE 400 400]

Me taking a taxi ride to work this morning. Extremely interesting huh? Usually I ride my bike to work, but not on cold and rainy days. And today was especially cold! Winter has definitely come to Shanghai.

I’ll mount this thing to my bike one morning. Then you’ll have something interesting to watch!

Sad Cat

Concept art is awesome. Over the past few months the Spicy Horse concept artists have generated nearly a thousand unique bits of artwork to drive asset production for Grimm. As a general rule, nothing in Grimm gets built without first being represented in concept. Up until today we were unable to show much of this amazing work to the world, but now all that’s changed.

Grimm Cat


Here you see a sad cat. Like all assets in Grimm the cat has both a light and a dark version. That means that each object in our world actually has to be built twice.

I’ll try to post an image a day from now on. Enjoy!

Fast Fiber!

Since moving to our new offices back in September Spicy Horse has been limping along on a REALLY SLOW Internet connection. It’s felt sorta like a tin can connected to a guy in Mongolia who’s using smoke signals to relay packets to a shoddy Russian satellite. That’s on the days that it worked.

But those days are nearly at an end. Behold, the fiber line:

Fiber - Sweet, sweet fiber.

Ok, maybe not that exciting to the rest of you. But in our eyes this jackhammer trench across our parking lot shines like the Holy Grail.