The idea for Bad Day LA was born when American McGee drove on Sunset Blvd past a billboard from the Department of Homeland Security. He was immediately struck by the ludicrousness of the billboard's slogan, which said "Bio-chemical terror attack! Are you prepared?". Everyday Americans most likely aren't prepared for a terrorist attack, and who knows how they could be. There is little reason to be prepared anyway, as the likelihood of becoming a victim of a bio-chemical attack surely is lower than that of being randomly hit by a car. As various book authors have been scrambling to point out as of late, Americans live in a culture of fear.
"I felt an overwhelming urge to do something about this issue," American said in an interview with IGN in June. "If I were a film director or a political blog writer, I would have been inspired to go off and make a movie or write an article... But seeing as how I make video games for a living, I felt that I had to find a way to inject this ageless message into a game: We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
