Matt Harding was designing Xbox games for Pandemic Studios Australia when a family-friendly game he had been working on was cancelled. Piqued, he pitched a game to management about "blowing up everything and killing everyone" as a comment on the games industry's obsession with violent games like
Grand Theft Auto and
Halo.
When publishers saw the proposal, they responded enthusiastically, "Yeah! That is exactly what we want, we want a game about killing everyone!" And so
Destroy All Humans was given the green light, despite the fact that it had been conceived as a joke.
Matt wasn't too thrilled with the idea of making that sort of game, so he emptied his savings account and embarked on a 17-country, six-month trip around the world. At some point during the trip, he got the idea of filming himself dancing in each location. Many of you have seen the results, but just in case you h'ain't, you can watch the videos
here and
here.
Who said violent games do nothing positive for the world? Without
GTA, Matt might have never have embarked on his magical dance journey, and we'd all be the poorer for it.
Dec 26, 06
