Spicy Horse
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer and video game industry |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Founder | American McGee Anthony Jacobson Adam Lang |
| Headquarters | Shanghai, China |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | American McGee Ken Wong R. J. Berg |
| Products | Video games |
Number of employees | 70[1] |
| Website | www.spicyhorse.com |
Spicy Horse (simplified Chinese: 麻辣马; traditional Chinese: 麻辣馬; pinyin: Má là mǎ) is a Shanghai-based independent video game developer started by American McGee, Anthony Jacobson, and Adam Lang in 2007.
History
The studio was established in 2007. It was called a studio "leading the way" in episodic games.[2][3] It is currently the largest independent Western developer in China. [4]
Spicy Horse employs more than 70[1] people at their studio in Zhabei District, Shanghai. The company's development process utilizes a "core team" methodology and 100% outsourced art asset production to conserve energy directed at the core competencies of game development. [5]
Products
Their first title, American McGee's Grimm, was released on GameTap in July 2008 in an episodic form and ran through March 2009. It was built using Epic's Unreal Engine 3.[6]
Spicy Horse developed the sequel to American McGee's Alice for Electronic Arts, titled Alice: Madness Returns.[7] It is the first console game entirely designed and developed in China for export.[8] Additionally, they have produced a child-company, Spicy Pony,[9] for created digital mobile media games for the iPhone. Their first title, DexIQ was released in early December 2009. Their second was a Little Red Riding Hood adaption for the iPad called Akaneiro. Their next project was to be an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, OZombie, financed by a Kickstarter campaign. The campaign was cancelled on July 14th, 2013 in order to focus on a series of Alice short films[10] and due to lack of support for the OZombie project.[11]
| Title | Year | Platforms | Developer | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American McGee's Grimm | 2008 | PC | Spicy Horse | GameTap | Episodic McGee takes on various Grimm tales. |
| DexIQ | 2009 | iPad, iPhone, iPod | Spicy Pony | Puzzle game | |
| American McGee Presents Akaneiro | 2010 | iPad | Spicy Pony | Little Red Riding Hood in Japan | |
| American McGee's Crooked House | 2010 | iPad, iPhone, iPod | Spicy Pony | Puzzle game | |
| Alice: Madness Returns | 2011 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC | Spicy Horse | Electronic Arts | Sequel to American McGee's Alice |
| BigHead Bash | 2012 | TBA | Spicy Horse | TBA | Side scrolling/battle multiplayer. (Unreleased) |
| Crazy Fairies | 2012 | Mobile, Facebook | Spicy Horse | TBA | Currently in the Closed Beta Stage. (Unreleased) |
| Akaneiro: Demon Hunters | 2013 | Browsers, Tegra-powered tablets | Spicy Horse | Spicy Horse | A Japanese/McGee take on Little Red Riding Hood. |
References
- ^ a b "Alice 2: Return to Madness". unrealengine.com. Retrieved 2013-03-17.
- ^ Scott Steinberg. "Experience the power of PC gaming". microsoft.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
- ^ "Spicy Horse IDed as leader in episodic games". spicyhorse.com. 2009-03-06. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2009-04-04.
- ^ "Spicy Horse". gamewise.co. Retrieved 2013-03-17.
- ^ "All about Spicy Horse". Retrieved 2013-02-17.
- ^ "Spicy Horse using Unreal 3 Engine".
- ^ "EA and Spicy Horse Return to Wonderland for All-New Alice Title". ea.com. 2009-02-19. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ American video game developer Spicy Horse taps into Chinese market
- ^ "Spicy Horse spins Spicy Pony".
- ^ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spicyhorse/alice-otherlands/
- ^ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spicyhorse/ozombie