Category Archives: Projects

Bigger Budgets != More Quality

Read on gi.biz today of an interview with Romuald Capron, COO at Arkane Studios of his views on budgets and team size as they relate to the creation of quality games. He says of smaller teams and outsourcing,

“I think that’s a good way to maintain reasonable budgets, and I think a lot of companies are coming round to this way of working right now,” he continued. “They’re realising that having 200 people in a studio – okay, it can work for ten months of scheduled development, but is it the way to make a triple-A game?

“Maybe they could re-organise and say, okay, let’s keep to a three-year schedule again, but with less people – and more polishing at the end? At some point I’m not sure the markets can follow as fast as the development costs.”

From where I’m sitting it’s great to hear solid developers touting a method of production that we’ve been utilizing at Spicy Horse for the past 4 years. All of our 3D asset production is outsourced (nearly 99% of it) to nearby outsource shops like China West Coast and Nuke. These guys become a virtual extension of our team (greatly benefiting from the fact that we’re all in the same city) – allowing us to produce and wrangle content like a 150+ person team while maintaining an internal core size of less than 65.

There’s a lot to be said for simplicity in production teams – higher communication, accountability and quality output being the three most obvious benefits.

As 2nd-hand sales and piracy continue to threaten the viability of larger-budget games, this sort of thinking will become more and more critical to publishers and developers alike – the simple fact is that cheaper games (which maintain AAA quality) are better able to survive the drag placed on them by things like 2nd-hand sales and piracy.

Read the full article HERE.

Alice: Madness Returns @ wired.com

Madness Returns - Wired Front Page

Wired.com writer Chris Kohler did an interview with myself and RJ Berg where we talked about Alice: Madness Returns. From the article:

Wired.com: Since this will probably be many people’s first experience, I’m guessing you’re crafting the game in such a way that you don’t need to have played the original to enjoy it.

McGee: Yeah, but there’s a definite need for us to honor and answer to the existing audience, people who’ve been loyal fans to the property over the years. We’ve done our best to blend together into the story elements from the first game. This is a natural sequel, a narrative sequel to the first game. So we get back in there and people who know the first game are going to have a lot of reward in terms of seeing locations that they may have seen before, characters that they knew from the first game. But it’s certainly not a requirement, bringing this game to console for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 players, for them to have played the PC one.

Read the FULL INTERVIEW.

Alice as a cover girl

GamePro is going all-out and featuring our very own Alice on the cover of their September 2010 issue.  According to the article on their website, Will Herring will be discussing the early previews of the game during his 14-page feature.  Will visited with us in China recently to get the scoop straight from the Horse’s mouth.

In addition to the overview of Alice: Madness Returns, Will also delved into the complex world of tracking the evolution and permutations of the intellectual property of Lewis Carroll’s slightly-addled heroine from the original stories penned in 1865 on through the movie treatment at the hands of Tim Burton.

For us, it’s excellent to be able to talk about the game finally, and even better to listen to everyone else talking about it, too.  If you missed the original announcement this past Tuesday, EA released the first teaser – and we’re all in agreement that it does tease!  If there was any question about it’s impending rating, we’re hoping that clears it up.

Get ready to snatch up your copy at the end of July.

10th Anniversary Vorpal Blade

Vorpal Blade (Epic Weapons 10th Anniversary Edition)

Kotaku’s Mike Fahey has announced the release of a Vorpal Blade to celebrate the 10th anniversary of “American McGee’s Alice”. From the post:

In American McGee’s Alice, an older, abuse-ravaged, mentally unstable Alice cuts a bloody path through an equally twisted Wonderland using her trust Vorpal Sword. Now Epic Weapons brings the Vorpal Sword to life.

Epic Weapons is creating the replica Vorpal Sword to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the release of American McGee’s Alice. When the game was originally released, Alice was portrayed on the cover holding a bloody version of the Vorpal Sword, though the image proved too disturbing and was soon replaced with a wand and later some playing cards.

Read the full article and join the comments on Kotaku HERE
Or join the balanced and rational conversation on Destructiod HERE

After reading, you can get your hands on a Vorpal Blade several ways.
Purchase at Epic Weapons
Auction at Epic Weapons

You can also see the Blade at the Epic Booth during this year’s Comic Con. More info can be found in the press release.

DexIQ for iPad Released

DexIQ Poster #2

DexIQ Split-Screen Multiplayer Action

Spicy Pony is proud to announce the release of DexIQ for iPad. The original DexIQ on iPhone was the Pony’s first game release – and in the months since its release found lots of fans around the world. Its unique split-screen dexterity and IQ tests established a cool new model for touch-driven games. But no point stopping there…

DexIQ on iPad takes split-screen action to a whole new multiplayer level. Four simultaneous games on one screen, for two-player head-to-head action. If you thought playing two games against yourself was fun – wait till you’re in a four-way gaming battle with your friend! Take a head-to-head DexIQ challenge or choose your own combos from dozens of cool games.

Brain not able to imagine four simultaneous games? Check out the trailer:

Don’t just sit there freaking out! Get DexIQ for iPad and iPhone NOW!

iPad version with 2 Player split-screen madness
iPhone version with 1 Player split-screen fun

Crooked House Interview

DexIQ iPad Test Screen

DexIQ iPad Screen

GamerLive.tv is running an interview with yours truly where I talk about our new iPhone division Spicy Pony, their second game app “Crooked House” and the iPhone/iPad platform in general. From the interview:

Where did the idea for Crooked House come from?

We’ve been playing with a number of well-known fairy tales, trying to see which is most appropriate for the platform. Currently, the team has a demo of Red Riding Hood and ideas for Jack in the Beanstalk — among other things. The story and setting of the “Crooked House” rhyme seemed to lend itself neatly to a tilt-based puzzle game. So far the positive reviews and sales data seem to support that idea.

As mentioned in the interview the Spicy Pony team is working on an iPad version of DexIQ (see image above), which will feature 2 player head-to-head action on one screen. There’s an iPad version of Crooked House in the works as well – with high-res graphics and a bunch of cool new features. I’ll keep you posted on release timing.

Check out the rest of the article HERE.
Check out Crooked House on the App Store HERE.