As ever the victims teams had to battle against time constraints, corporate concerns and the everyday misery of having to run a team with no discernable leader. “Monoculture”, that perennial storylining problem, when copying other people means stuff just looks like everybody else’s, came to the fore, as did the perils of pitching. One team went in with a full-on movie-trailer for their concept, but forgot to use some of their best and funniest lines. The other team went for a more traditional approach, but fatally neglected to preface the whole thing with either their high concept: “CUTE + MECHA”, or their major inspiration (“Romeo & Juliet”) which might have saved them from a lot of abuse at the hands of their rivals.
I also had the chance to drop in at the Bank of the Czechoslovak Legion in Prague, an intricate Rondo Cubist building like some sort of transplant from a world of steampunk deco, built with the spoils from the collapse of Tsarist Russia and the fall of the Far Eastern Republic, by the survivors of the army that fought its way across Siberia on an armoured train (^^ look! an armoured fricking train! ^^), in order to get back to Europe the long way round. But it’s not a tourist site per se, it’s an operational office building, so we celebrated by getting Mikiko Ponczeck to take some money out of the ATM.
Meanwhile, at the con proper, I was asked to sign copies of Schoolgirl Milky Crisis, Anime: A History and the long out-of-print Erotic Anime Movie Guide. And I was asked: “What is your favourite kind of meat?” Which has never happened before.
The Official Schoolgirl Milky Crisis Blog 
So, what *is* your favourite kind of meat?
It’s not something I had really given much thought to. Clearly Czechs regard it as a big issue.
I think the Hamster Wars idea has potential. Have you thought to pitching it to a Japanese studio? ^_^
That would be a whole different workshop of misery and unpleasantness. And the reply would be the same in the end: “Sure, we’ll make it. Who’s going to pay for it?”
But you know, it could make us millionaires! Just think of the burning wheels.
I’m afraid, as ever, there wasn’t enough time to consider every angle. One of them is who pays for this, as many foreign companies assume the Japanese are sitting around, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for someone to bring them cool ideas. They are up to their eyeballs in ideas; what they want is money. So several times I have been in the position where I have had to explain to a would-be producer that his idea *& a million dollars* will get Madhouse to return his calls. E.g. https://schoolgirlmilkycrisis.com/2009/07/24/big-ideas/
But now I am thinking of the fiery hamster wheels again, and the army of fork-wielding rodents…
Why not to produce it cheaply by yourself and then become millionaire?
Should be this ease:
Digital camera – $100
Hamster puppet made of socks – $10 each
Hamster wheel – $10 each
Gasoline (for burning wheels) – $3.6 per gallon
Ads and Promotion – 1.5 zillion USD
= PROFIT!
~_^
It was really a great experience. Thanks for the workshop.
Thomas from Hamster Games team