Someone persuaded American McGee (American McGee’s Alice, Alice: Madness Returns) to do one of those reddit “Ask Me Anything” firing squads. It’s a pretty interesting read, if only as a glimpse into the dark, scary minds of redditors, but American does push out a few quotable quotes in between questions about hookers.
Asked about his somewhat wobbly career over the last ten years, American says that it “Reminds me of the Chinese parable about the guy who breaks his leg (bad thing) only to be spared from having to go to war (good thing), etc, etc. Seems things happen in life that appear in the moment to be bad, but then lead to positive events. Same thing happened with Bad Day LA – if I’d not moved to Hong Kong and made that terrible game, then I probably wouldn’t have ended up in Shanghai and A:MR never would have seen the light of day.
“Of course it would be nice to look back at a spotless record of existence, but we live with what we have and hopefully learn from the mistakes. BDLA taught me a lot about my own preconceived notions and also served up a platter full of humility. Lessons learned there led to many ideas on how not to make games in China – and Spicy Horse today is testament to those lessons.”
As for the total lack of an industry innovation whatsoever since Quake, American has a simple enough solution.
“Honestly, I think it’s an interface issue,” he writes. “We’re limited by the constraints of our input/output systems. When a new interface is introduced we see an explosion in creativity (Wii). What the industry needs is neural linked control systems with direct input to our visual/aural cortex. Give it a few more years. Not only will this improve game design – but I feel it has a chance to save the planet. What better way to conserve than to live a completely virtual life?”
Someone, get on that.
