American McGee Discusses New Game Concept

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
American McGee Discusses New Game Concept


American McGee has taken the wraps off his latest project, a Chinese-themed "MMO-lite racing game concept" called BaiJiu Racer.

McGee, who currently resides in Shanghai, China, decided to pitch his latest videogame concept online rather than through traditional channels, saying, "I'm getting old, China is FAR from the rest of the world, and the Internet can do a lot of amazing things." The game has been in "focused pre-production" at his Spicy Horse [http://www.spicyhorse.com/home.html] development studio for the past three months, and McGee said he believes it will be a strong competitor in the "worldwide, lite-MMO, online racing category."

"A lot of teams dream of a KartRider [http://www.mariokart.com/] killer - and we think our concept goes a long ways towards being a viable contender," McGee wrote on his blog. "For one, it's the first Chinese cart racing game developed with an authentic and original Chinese art style, set in real-world locations, and featuring some of the funkiest racing vehicle designs the world has ever seen (inspiration coming from actual Chinese vehicles). We're focusing on semi-realistic (and fun) physics-based racing dynamic, going light on the power-ups, and throwing in a lot of visual action."

Among the key features of the game are a distinctive art style built around "a timeless portrayal of everyday Chinese people and locations," skill-based core gameplay rather than a heavy reliance on power-ups, strong narrative backbone and emotional drama and "track locations that reveal a China few foreigners have seen." Chinese publisher ICEE has already secured the rights to the game in China, but McGee is still looking for a publisher to handle the game in the rest of the world.

To learn more about BaiJiu Racer, check out the announcement on YouTube channel [http://www.americanmcgee.com/wordpress/2008/10/20/baijiu-racer-concept-announcement/], where he's posted a trailer showing the game's visual style and early gameplay elements.


Permalink
 

Walsh

New member
Oct 17, 2008
2
0
0
Can we please stop paying attention to him and dump him into abyss of obscurity like we did with Romero? He hasn't made a good game... well ever.
 

calelogan

New member
Jun 15, 2008
221
0
0
I wouldn't throw him into the depths of oblivion, but I must confess it is pretty sad to see such great concepts delivered through flawed executions.

Most of his ideas are great and how he presents them, before developing the game, just as well. Yet, once the game is ready, I tend to maintain my distance. Grimm, for example, sucked and can't shake the thought that the gameplay was very limited, repetitive, and un-entertaining.
 

Samah

New member
Jul 7, 2008
141
0
0
"Alice" was awesome. Don't be so quick to throw him in with Romero, it's a pretty big call to compare someone with the likes of Daikatana.
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
20,364
0
0
I admit, I'm wary of any product with "BaiJiu" in the title. That stuff is *nasty*.
 

Blind0bserver

Blatant Narcissist
Mar 31, 2008
1,454
0
0
Walsh post=7.74742.844681 said:
Can we please stop paying attention to him and dump him into abyss of obscurity like we did with Romero? He hasn't made a good game... well ever.
Have you ever played American McGee's Alice? That's what I thought...

calelogan post=7.74742.844829 said:
Most of his ideas are great and how he presents them, before developing the game, just as well. Yet, once the game is ready, I tend to maintain my distance. Grimm, for example, sucked and can't shake the thought that the gameplay was very limited, repetitive, and un-entertaining.
The problem with Grimm is that American basically said he was designing a game for people who didn't play games. Sure, that makes it easy for any old schmo to pick up and mess around with, but it leaves something to be desired.
 

Melaisis

New member
Dec 9, 2007
1,014
0
0
So, what? The concept is that its the bastard child of Trackmania and Mario Kart? Because that sits perfectly with me, boyo.
 

TsunamiWombat

New member
Sep 6, 2008
5,870
0
0
Why the hell is his name stapled on the front of everything like he's Tom Clancy? Come to think of it- why the hell is Tom Clancy's name stapled infront of everything like he's American McGee?

Meh, so Mario Cart Rickshaw races. Sounds fun, I guess.
 

ThaBenMan

Mandalorian Buddha
Mar 6, 2008
3,682
0
0
Alice was alright, but that Grimm game looks like shit, and frankly, so does this.
 

The Wooster

King Snap
Jul 15, 2008
15,305
0
0
It's funny really. He's based an entire career around one mediocre game. Despite the fact everything since Alice has been, and let's be kind here, either completely shit or a rehash of what he did in Alice, we still haven't managed to get rid of him. Why?
 

Amnestic

High Priest of Haruhi
Aug 22, 2008
8,946
0
0
Why the hell is his name stapled on the front of everything like he's Tom Clancy? Come to think of it- why the hell is Tom Clancy's name stapled infront of everything like he's American McGee?
And Sid Meier?
 

Copter400

New member
Sep 14, 2007
1,813
0
0
Amnestic post=7.74742.846739 said:
Why the hell is his name stapled on the front of everything like he's Tom Clancy? Come to think of it- why the hell is Tom Clancy's name stapled infront of everything like he's American McGee?
And Sid Meier?
And Clive Barker? We could go on like this for some time.
 

Amnestic

High Priest of Haruhi
Aug 22, 2008
8,946
0
0
Copter400 post=7.74742.846845 said:
Amnestic post=7.74742.846739 said:
Why the hell is his name stapled on the front of everything like he's Tom Clancy? Come to think of it- why the hell is Tom Clancy's name stapled infront of everything like he's American McGee?
And Sid Meier?
And Clive Barker? We could go on like this for some time.
We could. Perhaps we should.
Then again perhaps not. Our post quality may start to rot.
Perhaps McGee could do with quitting while 'ahead'. This new game sounds like it may end up quickly dead.
 

oneofm4ny

New member
May 27, 2007
24
0
0
Oh god another American McGee game.
Alice was his only good game and his first. I remember reading something on his blog about the pros working with a chinese team instead of an american some years ago. He said he didn't have to discuss and argue with his new team about every game detail and every design choice he made. Maybe that's why all his good ideas turn in crappy games eventually.

I wonder why he chose to make an mmo. Aren't there already enough failed mmo projects?
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
All I can think is "gee, another Kart Racer".

Personally I think American McGee should probably get ahold of Todd Mcfarlane and develop a game with him based on his old "Twisted Land Of Oz" action figures. Give it an AO rating and release it globally. :p

But hey, I suppose we all hve thoughts like that on what developers SHOULD be doing. >:)

>>>----Therumancer--->