I came this meeting expecting to talk about a “transmedia” video game (what the heck is that??); I left it with hopes of testing an amazing FREE RPG and a sense of awe at the quality of their work.
Concept Art House is a Triple A design studio based in Shanghai. They’ve got offices in San Fran, too, but the bulk of their work is done is China. That’s right: Quality work done in China. They’ve worked with all the big names in video games (Blizzard, Activision, Sony Entertainment, LucasArts) and social media (Zynga, Crowdstar) designing all sorts of nifty things from concept art to promotional mugs.
Their latest efforts are no less spectacular.
Based on China’s best-selling series of the last 20 years, Daomu is a property that will span comics and video games. Daomu is based on true stories from Chinese culture – like the architect of the Forbidden Kingdom who mysteriously disappeared. A dark horror story in the vein of the Dark Tower series, the Daomu series follows an eclectic cast of characters on their own individual journeys through the same world.
Adapting that world for Western audiences was challenging in comic form. According to writer Colin Johnson, “It was about finding the universal themes that everyone can connect to. There are only so many stories out there. My job was to find the one that Western audiences would be most comfortable with.” That’s just what the Western run of Daomu is all about. If it takes off – and there’s high hopes that it will – they’ll create an open world social media game for it. It sounds neat.
Their other project – the amazing-looking free social media RPG that I hinted at earlier – bows in 10 days. It’s called Legend of a Thousand Suns and is a sci-fi RPG in the vein of Star Wars. It is meticulously designed, with Eastern elements thrown in for good measure. The amount of free modifications are staggering – weapons, ammo, skill set. More modifications are available for purchase, but they’re entirely optional. Concept Art House wanted to make sure that anyone could experience the full game for free.
It’s a generous offering.
I hope to test the game soon, so I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, check out Concept Art House. You won’t be disappointed.
News and Culture Editor Laurie Vazquez really misses when all games were flat. Sure, she’s worked in television and veered off into film and television writing, but when she’s not whacking out scripts for contests (or, more likely, when she should be whacking them out) she fires up her beloved flat games. Take away her Nintendo, and she is a sad, sad girl. Just don’t take away her Futurama or her viola: that makes her mad.
