❖ Version History ❖
29th of October, 2021
While Matt and I are in between being excited about our first production prototype & eagerly awaiting our second package, something else unexpected and traumatic has unfolded. We received an email from the Regent Manufacturing facility detailing a serious issue with our product that no one expected in the entirety of our project thus far… The email details:
Regent (the manufacturer) cannot and will not produce “The Great Chase”. It has been denied by Chinese bureaucracy for production. Their reasoning behind this is as follows: Though the map details timeline borders that are reflected as accurate by UN standard measurements, two cards in this game currently feature images of China that reflect borders which do not successfully represent how China views the world. As seen in the featured images above and below in this post, the time zone lines must be altered in such a way to show the norther border of China and Mongolia. Additionally, the time zone lines within the southern coast must be extended to reflect more area of the sea toward the edges of specific islands. Finally, the “Diplomatic Emergency” Logo and the Flight Lines on this card must be changed in such a way to be more centered over the mainland of China. The fact that the logo for the Forbidden City has been placed over the mainland of Japan is unacceptable, and must be changed.
This message is a real punishing one for me as I read on. Not only is it particularly uncomfortable to be told that my artwork must be edited because of international border disputes, but fixing this problem is not something I had been particularly ready to handle by this point in time. Creating each map card was an intricate process, and I have not edited them in nearly an entire year.
The changes that they are demanding must be made on the GMT+8 card and be equally altered / reflected on the edges of the GMT+10 card. This includes coloring on all layers (background to foreground), outlines of time zones and borders, as well as textures and various elements in between. Needless to say, it is a project that will take me a few days.
An additionally stressful and crazy part of this message we received is that it included portrayals of what they expected to have as changes. Not only did they demand the fixes, but they tried to recreate what the cards should look like in the new renditions, all the while suggesting that we simply use these new works as the replacements. Though the art they built was well done in my style, it is easily clear to me that the renditions they made were no where near the same quality I had so carefully built into the details of the originals. It was also frustrating & insulting to deal with someone telling me to change my art & trying to do it for me to make it easier… but at least we had the window of opportunity to alter the designs ourselves.
Needless to say though…. this is a stressful interaction. It is hard to believe that this problem has become so real out of a project so innocent.
