Happy Moon/Mid-Autumn Festival!

To everyone in Taiwan, China, or of Chinese ancestry, Happy Moon/Mid-Autumn Festival!

If you are unfamiliar with this holiday, a little primer is HERE.

Enjoy :-)

Some More Aragorn's Quest Video Goodness

Here are some behind-the-scenes videos on the voice over work for Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest.  John-Rhys Davies and Sean Astin lend there voices to the game as viewed in this interview.  Enjoy :-)

Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest (NDS/PS2/PS/Wii) - Launch Trailer

Here is yet another game we helped to develop.  It'll be out Sept 19th!  Enjoy :-)

Burn Zombie Burn (PC/Steam) - Launch Trailer

Here's another game our studio helped to develop.  Enjoy :-)

Top Gun (PSN) - Launch Trailer

Here's the launch trailer for a game our studio helped to develop.  Enjoy :-)

Formula for Naming Games in Taiwan

I've noticed a great number of things about games and gamers here in Asia, but one thing is clear - if you want a successful game in Taiwan, naming it is easy.

Step 1 - take any combination of characters that discribe emporers, princes, princesses, dynastic period, etc, and add the word "ONLINE".

Step 2 - there is no step 2.

(Note: hot girls certainly add to the effect, but they are more the exception rather than the rule in commercials - unless you are promoting a dancing/friendship game where being cute helps.  Typically the commericals will consisist of pretty nice rendered cut scenes with a few seconds of pretty low-res in-game MMO footage).

Designing Characters - the Square Enix Way...

Although posted a few years back, I was recalling some of the nuances of developing art in Asia.  While Japanese companies like Square Enix have this method down pat, other regional countries tend to emulated the styles (if not preferences) in their art as well.

The original article is posted HERE (warning: wear a flame retardant suit if you wish to post there.  Obviously the humor was lost on many of those who replied).

Beyond the chuckle (truth) factor for those of use tasked with design art in Asia, the reality is that one must understand the target audience to make games that are readily accepted beyond the country from which you are making it.  This applies not only to art, but game design as well.

Overused and Trendy Words

Those of you who know me realize that I am prone to the occasional rant. I've avoided doing so here as I thought I would keep this blog relatively uncluttered. But every once in a while I get a little perturbed when I see things that seem to occur out of fashion or trendiness. I am speaking here of the overuse in the selection of certain words, to the point in which they become annoying.

Possibly you have noticed this too. A media outlet will start to use a word over and over. Culturally the word seems to pick up steam in terms of its use, to the point of being used to exhaustion. The writer seems to inject the word inappropriately, or even writes their headlines with the sole purpose of using the word. If you are a voracious reader like I am, you tend to notice patterns in language. And and if you do it long enough, you can see some words fall in and out of favor.

I am not talking about certain fashionable words, such as "eco-friendly", or "green". Those topics tend to populate the news these days, and as such we need language to describe them. And I am not talking about cliches such as "think outside the box". They can be annoying to, but I guess as a former management consultant I have used my share. I am talking here about the use of written words for the sake of the word only.

So this is my list. It is by no means exhaustive, but I may come back from time to time and update with more words I see being overused in the media:

• "Row" - I am talking about the definition of "noisy dispute or quarrel; commotion" (see defintion #3). News editors love to use this in a headline, such as "Mike Jagger in a Row with Keith Richards". I am guessing that editors love this word because of its economical size, but it's just odd they want to use a word that falls outside the common spoken vernacular. CNN online would regularly use this one, and sometimes I could spot it in different headlines over the same week.
• "Cover" - this is a word where I started to notice this trend. Although apparently the word was originally coined in the 60s, it didn't fall into prominence until the 90s. It continues to be overused to this day. This band does a cover of that band's songs. Bleh.
• "Re-imagine" or "Reboot" - most commonly associated with movie properties that have lost their way, these words have become synonymous with big budget Hollywood studios giving way too much control to producres and directors who have no appreciation with their source material. Sometimes having the ability to change something doesn't necessarily mean you should (Barbara Broccoli and JJ Abrams I hope you are listening!).

Perils of Localization

Thought I would pass on a humorous (but stranglely true) comic that was posted over at Nerfnow.com.

1GB Fiber for $26?? Sheesh...

In Hong Kong right now.... Surfing the net. An article catches my eye...

Over at Tom's Hardware they have a new article "Who has the Fastest, Cheapest Internet in the World"

Included in that article are reference that further caught my eye because I am here in Hong Kong - City Telecom is apparently offering 1GB broadband for $26/month.

Although I am enjoying my 10MB (99.98% uptime!!) broadband in Taiwan, I certainly would enjoy taking a look at 1GB, even just for a while ;-)