We’re building a new develoment team in Shanghai! Our first title will be an episodic game set in a dark, fairy tale universe. I can’t say much about it now, but I do want to put the word out that we’re searching for team members. If you’re an experienced programmer, artist, level designer, writer, musician, producer, or other game related craftsman, and want to help build the best independent development studio in China, then let me know (post your info to the comments).

-edit: the comments section is moderated. your comments don’t post until i read them and decide if they should post. so don’t worry about your info being seen by the public. alternately, you can email me: amcgee (atsymbol) tmiec (dot) communist (minus the “munist”).

Ken Wong is already working on some early concept artwork for the project, which you can check out here:

The premise for Bad Day LA came out of my frustration with the pervasive “fear culture” that has existed in the US since 9/11 (although, many would say that it reaches back much further than that). The idea is an old one: governments gain control and corporations gain profit when they use fear as a weapon against the citizens. The movie “V for Vendetta” expressed the idea pretty well.

Being that I live in Hong Kong, my friends back home say things like, “Be careful, don’t catch bird flu.” They assume, based on the information that the media feeds them, that everyone in Asia is running around infected with bird flu. Except, that there is no bird flu pandemic here, or anywhere for that matter.
And it seems like worrying that bird flu will suddenly start infecting humans on a large scale is like worrying that the common cold might suddenly mutate into an ebola-like killer:

Bloomberg.com: Asia
“The acquisition of human flu virus genes into H5N1 didn’t make it more transmissible,” said Peter Palese, a Mt. Sinai School of Medicine microbiologist in New York who studies influenza and wasn’t involved in the research, in a telephone interview. “It appears the virus would need significant mutations to transmit easily in people.”

Basically, some (idiot) scientists are purposely trying to mutate bird flu using human flu to make bird flu more easily transmitted between humans. Fortunately, they failed in their mission, and they proved that bird flu isn’t the boogie-germ that the government would like us to believe it is.

This caught my attention, because just a few weeks ago I read this article:

NEW YORK (Fortune) – The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it’s proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that’s now the most-sought after drug in the world.

Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)’s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.

So basically we have government officials scaring the public with a non-threat and profiting hugely off it. But then, I guess that’s business as usual in Bad Day USA.

Gamasutra – Double Fusion, Vykarian Partner For 3D Ads
In-game advertising firm Double Fusion has announced that it has entered into a partnership with 3D art production firm Vykarian to make available 3D advertisements to Double Fusion’s clients. This agreement and associated technology will allow marketers to place actual products or other 3D models (like storefronts or celebrity avatars) as part of in-game advertising campaigns.

I strongly believe that advertiser funded game content has the potential to radically improve the way that video games are funded, developed, and distributed. Bottom line for consumers: more and better games for less money. Combine Double Fusion’s industry changing disruptive technology with Vykarian’s large-scale China outsourcing, and you get huge potential for positive change.

For some time now I’ve been involved with a video game art outsourcing venture called Vykarian, located in Shanghai and founded by my buddy Xin Chung. We’ve been building towards an eventual goal of the “best and biggest” outsourcing venture in China. It’s our plan to establish art “factories” which are capable of cranking out content for all forms of digital media.

As I’ve stated before, my ultimate interest in this venture is directly related to my desire to establish a game and animation film studio under one roof (Twisted Tales anyone?!) It’s also clear to a lot of people that in the near future big publishers and developers cannot build next-gen AAA titles without the assistance of dedicated outsourcing factories. And a best case scenario is to have those factories managed by people experienced with actual game production. That’s Vykarian for you.

During ChinaJoy 2006 in Shanghai this week, Xin and I will be running around promoting the wonders of China art outsourcing. Maybe we’ll see you there?

WGA and Activation Failures Don’t Faze Redmond
While Microsoft insists that problems with the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program are much overblown — claiming last week that “only a fraction of a percent” of the systems that fail the WGA verification are actually legal — Microsoft’s customers keep saying otherwise. What’s worse, the WGA false negatives are leading to increasing number of situations where customers run afoul of XP’s product activation, leaving them to beg Microsoft and/or their PC vendor to help.

A few days ago Windows XP on my primary work computer decided that it wasn’t a legal copy. Strange since the copy running on there was pre-installed at the time that the machine was built by Alienware. There used to be a Windows serial number on the back of the machine, but the sticker has since fallen off. What’s worse, as soon as I started receiving the dreaded, “You may be a victim of software piracy…” notices, I also started noticing increased system instability. All of this culminated in what I can only assume was some form of malware infection, a hardware crash (related to my soundcard), and a pretty complete system failure.

I was angry for a moment, but then I realized: I don’t much like Windows anyway. So I wiped the offending garbage from my machine and installed Ubuntu Linux. All in all a painless process.

The truth is, Ubuntu “out of the box” is a little lacking (can’t play proprietary video formats, run PC apps, is missing much needed apps, etc), but with the use of an installer script called Automatix, I now have a free, highly functional, and stable OS. And it’s pretty to boot.

This isn’t the first time I’ve attempted a switch to Linux, but it is the first time that I’ve made the switch and am going to stay switched.

Hong Kong is a densely packed forest of high-rise business and residential buildings. In many respects it is a modern, high-tech place. But it’s also China, which translates to “a little backwards”. For instance, people often seem unclear on the concept of gravity. There are many tales told of random objects falling from the skies: televisions, construction equipment, windows, ashtrays, and more.

Over the weekend I read in the local paper about a women who was “bombed” by a pair of scissors:

Scissors thrown from highrise lodge in woman’s skull
Sunday, July 23, 2006 13:50 IST
HONG KONG: An elderly Hong Kong woman was rushed to hospital after a pair of scissors thrown from a high rise window lodged into her skull, police said on Sunday

The 78-year old was one of two people hurt by falling scissors on Saturday. In a separate incident a 28-year old man suffered cuts to his forehead when a pair hit him on the head.

And while this woman didn’t actually die, she very well could have. It seems the paramedics felt that she was saved by her frumpy grandma-hat.

If this had happened in the US I’m sure that Senator Clinton would have been calling for a ban on “Edward Scissorhands”  movies to minors. So along with calling for a ban on scissors, I’m also going to demand that everyone start wearing frumpy grandma-hats whenever they go outside. It’s for your own protection.
A few pictures of the newspaper article, taken with my camera phone: