Category Archives: Projects

BigHead BASH, Spicy Horse

BigHead BASH News Collection

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Since we announced the Open Beta of BigHead BASH on Kongregate and the upcoming launch of content from “Alice: Madness Returns” in BHB there’s been a literal tornado of news around the ‘net. Here’s a collection of articles from some of the bigger sites:

Joystiq
Geek Invaders
Eurogamer
Ubergizmo
GamesIndustry.biz
Venture Beat
The Verge
VG247
Destructoid

And if you’ve not yet had a chance, head over to Kongregate and see what all the noise is about! You can join in the Open Beta right now: BigHead BASH on Kongregate!

BigHead BASH, Featured, GameTap, General, Spicy Horse

“BigHead BASH” Open Beta on Kongregate

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Everyone at Spicy Horse is very excited to announce BigHead BASH is now in Open Beta on Kongregate!

Who’s up for some free-to-play BASHING action?

Time to get of the farm, stop counting cows and start collecting exclusive toys and weapons! This is the first of three new titles Spicy will release in 2012 – all of them designed to push online gaming to new heights of quality and fun.

Like collecting things? You can get Mr. Destructoid and his Rooster Launcher, or if you’re in a more gentle mood, Nurse Tacky and a Chainsaw. Monkeys, lasers, robots, pirates and more! BigHead BASH is where your toys go to play!

New toys and weapons will be launched every two weeks, with exclusive posters and wallpapers on our website and Facebook page.

Check out www.bigheadbash.com and join the fun!

UPDATE: The kind folks over at Destructoid have covered the Open Beta story here.

Alice Sequel, Shanghai, Spicy Horse

“Best Art Direction” for Alice: Madness Returns

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MSNBC Tech has awarded Alice: Madness Returns a “Best Art Direction” award for 2011. Alice had some serious competition for the honor, going up against some of the year’s biggest and most beautiful games, including:
* Rage
* Batman: Arkham Asylum
* El Shaddai
* Skyrim

Landing this prize speaks volumes about the continued rise in high-quality AAA game development being seen here in China – and specifically in Shanghai. For years, Western developers and publishers utilized China as their outsource art asset factory. And over time the artists, animators and modelers here increased their capability and creativity – with a game like A:MR being wonderful testament to the sort of surreal, imaginative and detailed work the Chinese game industry is now capable of.

Large-scale AAA console games often spend 50% or ore of their budgets on art alone. Alice:MR was no different. Of a 65 person internal team, nearly half were working on “art” (animation, 3D, concept, effects). Another 45 artists spread between 4 different outsource studios contributed the bulk of 3D asset production for the game. This “near sourcing” of 3D asset production meant we could outsource 98% of all 3D artwork for the game to local outsource teams.

Not only did this model produce impressive results, it was reliable, cost-effective and creatively engaging for all involved. Geographic proximity meant that the outsource teams felt like a true part of the larger art department. And one of the shining examples of effeciency and creativity was outsource shop “China West Coast“.

Kudos to Spicy Horse’s internal art team must be shared with outsource groups like China West Coast. Without the seamless and effective integration of the internal and external art pipelines – and the beautiful work being produced by all – the game would never have attained placement among the year’s other AAA titles.

Awesome work by all involved. Thank you, Spicy Horse art team and all the outsource groups like CWC who did the creative heavy lifting!

If you’re interested in using CWC on one of your AAA projects, you can learn more about them HERE.

BigHead BASH

BigHead BASH Gameplay Trailer

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This is the first official gameplay trailer from Spicy Horse’s upcoming online action game, BigHead BASH! The game just went into Closed Beta, which you can sign up for at the BHB Facebook page: www.facebook.com/bigheadbash

If you’re a fan of online multiplayer action games, BHB is worth checking out. It’s pushing the concept of F2P Facebook games into exciting new territory – combining stunning 3D artwork, intense action, real-time multiplayer gameplay, social elements and more… It’s the Facebook game of the future!

BigHead BASH

“BigHead BASH” Launching Soon!

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The past year at Spicy Horse we’ve been pretty quiet about the projects we’re working on. There’s that secretive development of a PopCap IP – which if I even mention beyond those few words will result in pain, then death at the hands of an angry Borg-Zombie lawyer hoard. But we do have our own, original IP in development and no one telling us to “put a cork in it” about those.

First out the gate will be “BigHead BASH“. BHB is an action oriented, social online game with virtual items. Set in a toy store, the game revolves around side-on multi-player shooting matches. Players purchase toys and weapons from the shop, fight them, collect them and swap them. Licensed content will play a role in driving what sort of toys are seen in the shop; we’re signing deals with brands, bands, toys and games. Some very cool virtual toys are already in the pipeline.

Over the weeks to come you’ll start to see a lot more “action” around the title. Starting immediately we’re releasing a series of very cool wallpapers and concept images. A game play trailer will hit the ‘net before too long. And, if all goes well with development, we’ll soon launch a Closed Beta among a small group in our fan community. By early 2012 the game will be live on Facebook and several other social-online platforms around the world.

We have high hopes for the game – it’s among a handful of titles being developed with Unity for play on Facebook. We think Facebook gamers are looking for “more”: more action, more dimension, more variety and more FUN. BHB is our first shot at satisfying that demand. And it’s our first purely online game. It should be an interesting journey – and we sincerely you’ll join us on the ride. We’re looking for players, supporters, critics and even haters to help us shape the features and fun of BHB.

If you want more info (and you do!) please check out these locations:
www.spicyhorse.com (a full site redesign is about to be launched, with a BHB mini-page)
www.facebook.com/bigheadbash (the official landing page for BHB on Facebook)
flickr.com BHB area (my flickr area, with some BHB art)