Our latest addition to the Spicy Horse team, Lin Ran, is an amazing concept artist with an immense range of ability and styles. The stuff he’s been doing for our latest project is stunning. Here’s a sample:

Happy 2007!!

Life in Shanghai has been great. Busy but great. We’ve moved Spicy Horse to new offices, have brought on some additional team members, and have been doing “lab tests” for the new game concept.

A Feng Shui master told us that our new offices are haunted by zombies. The Feng Shui master even barfed in Xin’s office for effect. We were told that for a nominal fee the zombies could be removed. But Xin and I agreed that it would be better to put the zombies to work. We figure that aside from the stench and constant moaning, zombies should make decent employees.

Christmas and New Year holidays in China are pure commercial fun. I stumbled upon a creche containing the usual baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Also present was a rabid wolf pulling a semi-trailer of firewood and a dead deer yoked to a wooden cart overflowing with liquor jugs. This was in a place that serves donkey meat dumplings. I guess that’s why there was no donkey in the manger scene.

I’ve been wanting to make more frequent updates but Chinese Internet woes have hampered my ability to upload photos. So expect things to be quiet around here until we make our official announcement about the next project…

On a topic that I’ve grown tired of even thinking about, video game violence, I recently read the following…

First this:

Video Game Violence Goes Straight to Kids’ Heads
TUESDAY, Nov. 28 (HealthDay News) – A study of adolescents finds that violent video games stir up the brain’s emotional-response center while reducing activity in regions linked to self-control.
“This is the first time that it has been demonstrated that violent video games can affect brain physiology and the way the brain functions,” said lead researcher Dr. Vincent Mathews, professor of radiology at Indiana University School of Medicine.

Input “stirs up” the brain. So what!

Then this:

Hot on the heels of the release of the Iraq Study Group Report — and a day in which 10 U.S. servicemen were killed and at least 84 Iraqis were blown up or shot — prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will join with Joe Lieberman to hold a press conference today at 3 pm ET to announce the launch of a television PSA campaign about… video game ratings.

Reading that Hilary Clinton is more concerned about fictional video game violence than she is about all the real-world death and violence in Iraq stirs up MY emotional-response center. Will someone PLEASE make a PSA campaign about the violence inducing risks of living in a world filled with moronic politicians!?

I just think this guy is cool:

While dealing with the bureaucracy of starting a business in China I’ve also been trying to find a place to live in Shanghai. A straight-forward enough task – get an agent, view houses, etc. Some of the locations are at a distance from the new office, so I’ve been thinking of buying a gas scooter. On that topic I had this exchange with one of my agents:

Me: Thinking of buying a scooter.

Agent: Oh, scooters are cheap in Shanghai. But the license is very expensive.

Me: Eh?

Agent: But you can get parrot license. Very cheap.

Me: Parrot license?

Agent: Yes, parrot license. Very cheap. Very easy.

Me: “Parrot”? – Sits on the shoulder of a pirate? Says, “Caw! Caw!”?

Agent: Yah, “parrot”. Arrrg.

He gestures with his hand to make a hook.

Me: Ohhhhh… you mean PIRATE license… Yeah, I need a parrot license.