American McGee's Grimm

Infobox VG| title = American McGee's Grimm


developer = Spicy Horse
publisher = Turner Broadcasting System
designer = American McGee
engine = Unreal Engine 3
released = First episode, July 31, 2008 on a weekly basis
genre = Action-adventure
ratings = ESRB: Not Rated (NR)
modes = Single player
platforms = Windows
media = download
requirements = 2.4 GHz Processor, 512 MB RAM, 128 MB video card, 500 MB HDD
input =

"American McGee's Grimm" is a 24-part episodic game series based upon "Grimm's Fairy Tales", developed by Spicy Horse and distributed online initially by GameTap starting July 31, 2008. "Grimm" was originally thought to resemble the warped fairy tale style of "American McGee's Alice", but the art style appears to be much more child-friendly and simplistic. Grimm is written and executive-produced by the same person as "American McGee's Alice", R. J. Berg. The original announcement was made in the June 2007 issue of "PC Gamer". [Cite web | url=http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2007/061207_americanmcgee_grimm_1.x | title=American McGee Presents American McGee's Grimm Interview | publisher=shacknews.com | last=Faylor | first=Chris | date=2007-06-12 | accessdate=2007-06-17]

Spicy Horse Games is using Unreal Engine 3 technology for "American McGee's Grimm". [ [http://www.americanmcgee.com/wordpress/ American McGee's Blog] ]

There are 24 weekly episodes, divided into three seasons of eight episodes each. Each episode offers approximately a half an hour of gameplay, although different playing styles (either for "complete conversion" or "speed-runs") make for different times. The game has been referred to as "highly accessible" and American McGee has commented that the game experience shares a similarity with Katamari Damacy.

Gameplay

In "American McGee's Grimm", the player controls Grimm, a dwarf who creates a trail of darkness wherever he goes. Grimm's become sick of how saccharine sweet fairy tales have become, and has made it his goal to revert lighthearted fairy tales to their darker original versions by running and jumping through fantasy worlds, making things darker as he passes by them, using a downward move (called a "butt-stomp") to increase the distance his dark powers reach. By converting enough objects, Grimm can increase the level of his Dark-O-Meter (a bar that shows the effect of Grimm's powers), increasing the power and radius of his dark aura as well as his running and jumping abilities. Certain characters complicate this process by attempting to clean the areas Grimm has converted, but these enemies can be stopped once Grimm's Dark-O-Meter reaches a high enough level.

Distribution

Following the traditional television distribution model, every episode of Grimm is available free for 24 hours on the day of release. After that, episodes are available for purchase on multiple distribution channels and also to GameTap Gold (paid) subscribers. There are currently 3 volumes of Grimm slated for release with Volume 1 launched on July 31st, Volume 2 coming fall 2008, and Volume 3 coming in early 2009. In a recent interview with "GameSpot", McGee said that he would like to put this game on Xbox Live and may release it in retail form.

Current Episodes

# A Boy Learns What Fear Is (Released July 31) [Cite web | url=http://www.gametap.com/grimm/episode_01.html |accessdate=2008-08-23 |title=GameTap presents American McGee's Grimm]
# Little Red Riding Hood (Released August 7) [Cite web | url=http://www.gametap.com/grimm/episode_02.html | accessdate=2008-08-23 | title=GameTap presents American McGee's Grimm]
# The Fisherman and His Wife (Released August 14) [Cite web | url=http://www.gametap.com/grimm/episode_03.html | accessdate=2008-08-23 | title=GameTap presents American McGee's Grimm]
# Puss in Boots (Released August 21) [Cite web | url=http://www.gametap.com/grimm/episode_04.html | accessdate=2008-08-23 | title=GameTap presents American McGee's Grimm]
# The Girl Without Hands (Released August 28) [Cite web | url=http://www.gametap.com/grimm/episode_05.html | accessdate=2008-08-23 | title=GameTap presents American McGee's Grimm]
# Godfather Death (Released September 4) [Cite web | url=http://www.gametap.com/grimm/episode_06.html | accessdate=2008-08-23 | title=GameTap presents American McGee's Grimm]
# The Devil and His Three Golden Hairs (Released September 11) [Cite web | url=http://www.gametap.com/grimm/episode_07.html | accessdate=2008-08-23 | title=GameTap presents American McGee's Grimm]
# Beauty and the Beast (Released September 18) [Cite web | url=http://www.gametap.com/grimm/episode_08.html | accessdate=2008-08-23 | title=GameTap presents American McGee's Grimm]

Rumored Episodes

# Cinderella (Seen in promotional wallpaper)
# The Pied Piper (Seen in promotional wallpaper)
# Jack and the Beanstalk (Seen in concept artwork)
# Midas (According to file tree in game folder)
# Pinocchio (According to file tree in game folder)

References

* [http://www.gametap.com/grimm/ Grimm official homepage]
* [http://www.americanmcgee.com/ American McGee official homepage]
* [http://www.shacknews.com/extras/2007/061207_americanmcgee_grimm_1.x Interview With American McGee]
* [http://tale-of-tales.com/blog/?page_id=104 Another interview with McGee by Belgian site Tale of Tales]
* [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1917 Information about episodes and dates]