Creator of the famous American McGee’s Alice and Scrapland, American McGee is a familiar name for those who dig gaming innovation and complex means of storytelling. Now, the game designer has made another interesting move: he announced the pitch for his next project, a MMO racing game named BaiJiu Racer, via his blog.

According to the author, BaiJiu Racer is set to be a free to play MMO with microtransactions available for those interested in a few extra things. It will be a more casual game developed by Spicy Horse in collaboration with ICEE, a Chinese publisher. The twist comes from the fact that, according to McGee, the video game will come with a strong narrative backbone and emotional drama.

American McGee said about BaiJiu Racer: “It’s the first Chinese cart racing game developed with an authentic and original Chinese art style, set in real-world locations, and featuring some of the funkiest racing vehicle designs the world has ever seen (inspiration coming from actual Chinese vehicles). We’re focusing on semi-realistic (and fun) physics-based racing dynamic, going light on the power-ups, and throwing in a lot of visual action.”

Looking at the sketch offered to the public, I must admit that the art style is quite enjoyable. We just hope that this will not be one of those MMOs to be released only in Asia.