And that’s all I have to say about that.
Category Archives: Projects
Chinese Gaming Boom
China is a fun place to be a gamer. If you aren’t buying 360 games on the street for 10RMB, you’re downloading them from P2P and sharing them with your buddies at work. We had to put a stop to that latter practice at the Spicy Horse offices – we found some of our guys were transferring 100s of Gb per day. Yikes. Regardless of how Chinese gamers get their hands on games, one thing is clear: Gaming is HUGE here.
As if the point needed further making, the following article posted on gamedaily.com today:
Niko Partners today revealed the results from a report on the Chinese video gaming industry. The 2008 Annual Review & Forecast Report on China’s Video Game Industry says that China’s 46 million gamers spent $1.7 billion on online games in 2007, an increase of 71 percent compared to 2006. Looking to the future, online revenue is expected to be $2.5 billion in 2008 and $6 billion in 2012, increasing by roughly a third every year.
“China’s spending on games is up thanks to their booming economy,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners. “14 million hardcore Chinese gamers play online games more than 22 hours per week. They play online, LAN, and single-player offline PC games in China’s 185,000 Internet cafes and increasingly on their PCs at home, thanks to falling prices and higher disposable income.”
That’s a lot of hours spent playing games. The (un-)funny thing is how these stats only track (basically MMO) online play. Console and PC gaming are huge, but so far no one’s paying for it. The culture doesn’t support it – neither does the market. Even if you wanted to buy a legit game – you’d have a tough time finding one.
The situation is far from hopeless. World of Warcraft and online-only Chinese games are amazing examples of the market potential. Just don’t put something in a box and expect it to avoid being pirated. This is a country where you can buy fake everything. Soy sauce made from hair, bamboo shoots made from chopsticks, and fake boiled eggs made from… I don’t want to know what.
To honor Chinese gamers and their warrior-pirate ways, here’s some Chinese warriors from an upcoming episode of Grimm:
Ni hao! If I told you what episode of Grimm then I’d get a sock stuffed in my mouth. Just enjoy the image and don’t ask questions! Wo bu yao wen ti!
Teddy Bugs = Hugs
Still cranking away on Grimm production here. The Chinese Government forced everyone to take a 3-day holiday at the end of last week. Actually, just a 1 day holiday on Thursday, then a “fake” day off on Friday – and here the whole country is back at work on Sunday to make up for that. But we did get three straight days of vacation AND beautiful weather to boot. Even better, my flickr posting tool is working again – so here’s a new image for you:
Seriously, what child wouldn’t love a cuddly Teddy Bear that transforms into a prickly Spider Monster?!
I posted a few more new images on flickr.
Exciting Times
All kinds of new things are happening at the virtual Spicy Horse. Some of you already noticed that the new site has options to eventually purchase Grimm – and you wouldn’t know that if you hadn’t clicked through every. single. page. And that is awesome.
As a neat little reward, I’d like to show you a fabulous little gem that our very own Jason Tai has produced for us. This music sample from the game is pretty well indicative of what you can expect in the future. I’ve heard more of it – it’s hard to say “it gets even better” when so much of it is so awesome.
Also, if you’re on the forum, you already know this, but if you don’t, we’re having a Wallpaper Contest. The winner gets some really awesome Grimm paraphernalia and is featured on the wallpaper pages for both the Spicy Horse and Grimm sites. Two runners up will be rotated in one of the remaining spots on that page. Knowing how creative our fans are, we’re probably going to run contests like this regularly, so even if you miss the May 31st deadline, patient will be a virtue.
By the way, I’m Lilith70, and I’ll be covering the blog periodically when American is massively swamped with things like making games. Pleased ta meetcha.
New Spicy Horse Website
Spicy Horse has a new website! You can check it out here: www.spicyhorse.com
The site was built by a company in Shanghai called Mediaman. It took us almost a year to search through local web development houses before finding their team. During that time several companies built proposals and test sites – the results were always poor. But after the first meeting and delivery of proposal materials from Mediaman we knew we’d found the right people to build our site. Everything they delivered was professional, clear, and beautifully constructed. The end result is something we’re really happy with. If you’re looking for talented, professional web developers, definitely consider these guys: Mediaman
Site content is being updated and maintained by our tireless community manager, Lilith. Over the coming months she’ll be prepping the Spicy Horse site and the new Grimm site for the launch of the first Grimm episodes. If you have any comments or suggestions for her you can send them to her via the comments section on this blog, or through the Spicy Horse site Contact Page.
Evil Mushroom
Been insanely busy around here. Trying to get some episodes of Grimm to “final” in the coming weeks. No real time to update the blog, or make additions to the concept art feed. But here’s an evil mushroom to keep you occupied:
Check out my flickr account for more stuff. I often put new images there even when I don’t have time to make a blog update.