Tag Archives: episodic

Three Interviews And A Lion

Interviews galore this morning! First there’s one over at NextGen where I talk about Grimm, episodic gaming, and the future of Spicy Horse:

“My hope is that we can maintain a diverse development plan and ability–creating more episodic content, traditional console titles, and games specific to the Asian market,” said McGee. “Episodic content, or whatever it evolves into, will continue to be interesting to us (and to our audience, I hope) for a long time to come. There’s definitely something worthwhile about the process and the result. Grimm is just another step in the evolution of the idea for how to build, distribute, and consume games in an episodic fashion.”

Next, there’s a video interview over at Players Only:

If you’ve ever sat down to construct a city on your computer, control the human race from its infancy, or set up battling moon bases, you’ve probably wondered where such intricate and fun ideas for games manage to come from. In this week’s episode of Player’s Only, Scott Steinberg finds out. He talks to game developers about the creative conception of a game, what type of ideas they think make the best games, and how they’re pushing boundaries.

And finally a little blurb on the LA Times blog, courtesy of Alex Pham:

Once upon a time, there was a game developer named American McGee. He started his career at id Software, the shop that made “Doom” and “Quake” games. He then joined Electronic Arts, where he made a name for himself, quite literally, with “American McGee’s Alice,” a game with a dark twist on the classic “Alice in Wonderland” story. After a brief stint on his own in Los Angeles, McGee got a case of itchy feet and shimmered off to Asia, where he promptly fell off the game industry map. Until now.

Plus, I’ve got a treat for you this morning: A Chinese Lion!

Chinese Lion

A Chinese Lion

First True Episodic

The guys over at Penny Arcade have been producing some of game industry’s funniest and most revealing web comics since before I can remember. I’ve always been a huge fan, but that didn’t stop me from being completely unaware of their involvement in the creation of a new game concept – an episodic one to boot! I blame it all on my Chinese manufactured “Western Media Blinders” – usually awesome, for instance I have no idea what drugs Brittany and her friends are shoveling into their children these day, but then I miss cool industry news like this!

PA Image

Turns out they’ve worked with Hot Head Games to develop and recently deliver “On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness” which is, as their website informs us:

…an episodic RPG-Adventure game set in a deranged comic-book-meets-pulp-horror universe. Armed with unconventional weaponry, you join forces with the Startling Developments Detective Agency to make war on bizarre enemies and solve the mysteries hidden deep in the sinister heart of New Arcadia.

From the hilarious and twisted minds of Penny Arcade creators Mike ‘Gabe’ Krahulik and Jerry ‘Tycho’ Holkins, legendary game designer Ron Gilbert and veteran producers at Hothead Games comes a 100% authentic and hilarious Penny Arcade experience.

All episodes of On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness are available for download on Xbox LIVE Arcade, Windows, Mac and Linux.

I’ve got to say: Awesome! I’m really looking forward to this one.