american-mcgees-alice posts

There hasn't been much news lately on the status of Alice: Madness Returns, the upcoming sequel to the 2000 action game American McGee's Alice. However this week comic book publisher Dark Horse Comics announced plans to release a hardcover book that shows off the art designs for the sequel.

The book, The Art of Alice: Madness Returns, will be a 184 page tome that will be filled with the behind-the-scenes production art that will serve as the basis for the look of the still unreleased game. The $34.99 book is now available for pre-order and is scheduled to ship from Dark Horse on May 11, 2011. There is still no specific release date for the game which is being developed by McGee's studio Spicy Horse.

While other game developers are cutting its work force or even shutting down entirely, China-based Spicy Horse is announcing its plans to expand. In a new chat at the Bloomberg web site its revealed that the developer behind the upcoming Electronic Arts sequel Alice: Madness Returns currently has about 80 workers at its Shanghai-based offices but will add team members over the next 18 months that will increase the work force to between 160 and 200 members.

Formed by former id Software designed American McGee, Spicy Horse is currently nearing completion of Alice: Madness Returns, according to the article. It's also making an MMO for the Chinese market that's currently unannounced.

[Via VG247.com]

Over a year ago Electronic Arts announced plans to work with designer American McGee again on a new installment of his reinterpretation of Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland. Today EA announced that the game has an official title, Alice Madness Begins.

The game is still set for release sometime in 2011 the third person action game from McGee's development studio Spicy Horse takes place 10 years after the events of the original American McGee's Alice. Alice has been put in an insane asylum following the death of her family in a fire. But what really did kill her family? That's what Alice has to find out as she journeys yet again in a warped version of Wonderland.

Ten years ago this October, American McGee's Alice was released for the PC. The third person action game, based on a very different version of Lewis Carroll's children's book, was conceived by designer American McGee and developed by the now defunct Rogue Entertainment. Now replica maker Epic Weapons has received the rights to create a real life vorpal blade used by Alice in the game.

These blades are "cast with the highest quality Japanese stainless steel with custom etched molds created to reflect the exact details of Alice's primary weapon," according to the Epic Weapons web site. Only 1,000 will be made and Epic is now selling them for $89.95 (the stand which you can also see in the picture above is a separate $19.95 purchase). If you want one of the first 25 blades you can bid on them in an online auction that begins on July 22.

In the meantime we are still awaiting any word on the progress of the previously announced sequel to American McGee's Alice which is under development at McGee's studio Spicy Horse. There's been little info about the game's status since publisher Electronic Arts announced the project in February 2009.

[Via Kotaku]

While designer American McGee and his team at Spicy Horse are continuing to work on their remake of American McGee's Alice for Electronic Arts, the company also has another game that he plans to pitch to publishers during next week's Game Developers Conference. On his Flickr web page, McGee has posted up a couple of concept art pieces for the project; a mature retelling of the Red Riding Hood story.

The artwork depicts the title character with an axe and a disposition to use it on some mystical wolves. Again this is just concept artwork for a game that has yet to get the green light but it's clear that McGee still wants to revamp childhood legends. You can check out the other concept art piece after the jump:

[Via GameSetWatch]

It looks like the trailer and web site that was launched late last weekend that looked like an official promo for the upcoming American McGee's Alice remake was not official after all. McGee's blog site has posted up word that the trailer " . . . does not represent any of the final art direction or story elements in Alice 2."

Even though the video is not an official promo for the game McGee admitted in a forum post on his site that the creator of the video, Troy Morgan is a friend of his. Morgan posted on his official site that the video was made as an ad pitch to McGee and the game's publisher Electronic Arts. McGee also admitted he helped in launching the ReturnofAlice.com web site where the video was previously hosted.

However he still states, " . . . *i* never said the thing was "official". i distinctly remember saying the word "unofficial" - which last time i checked means the opposite of official." He also admits that his efforts to highlight the efforts of a fan have caused him some problems with EA. He adds, . . . "i *wish* we could release actual official stuff. but we can't. because we live in communist controlled china - oh wait... not because of that. for another reason. i won't dare mention it. i might get in MORE trouble."

Last February, Electronic Arts made the surprise announcement that they would release a new version of American McGee's Alice. The remake of the 2000 released game from former id Software designer American McGee is being handled at his Spicy Horse development studio in Shanghai and is being titled Return of American McGee's Alice.

It's been several months since any news popped up on the Internet about the game but apparently a teaser site was quietly launched late on Friday. There's not much to the site at the moment other than a couple of Flash pieces which link to a teaser trailer that, in a bit of a twist, is handled like a stop-motion movie rather than pre-rendered CGI. The trailer shows that Alice is apparently being treated as a mental patient after her first visit to Wonderland. The end of the trailer shows a "2011" release date for the game which means we still have a long time before its ready for prime time. You can check out the trailer after the jump:

February may be the shortest month of the year but it's turned out to be a huge one for PC gaming news. From the reveal of a long awaited sci-fi RPG sequel to the launch of a browser-based FPS to the delay of one of the most anticipated titles of the year, we were kept on our toes with lots of major and sometimes unexpected news.

Now that February is over we wanted to look back and remind both ourselves and you about what the big events of the month were like. You may disagree over some of our choices and that's OK. However all of the news items we picked will likely have effects, both big and small, that will be felt for a while.

Click on the image above to continue reading The Top 10 PC Game News Events of February 2009

The DICE Summit just had its first surprise new game reveal thanks to Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello. In a speech made at the currently running Las Vegas event, Riccitiello stated that a new version of their 2000 action game American McGee's Alice would be released for the PC and consoles.

The original 2000 game was released just for the PC and had former id Software designer American McGee leading a team at Rogue Entertainment to create a warped version of the original children's book. However the game itself didn't sell that well and a planned console version of the game was canceled by EA. That decision lead to the shut down of Dallas-based Rogue soon afterward.

Update: EA has now issued their official press release for the game and American McGee's development studio Spicy Horse has posted up what looks like a concept image from the game (reproduced here) on their site. They also state the title for the game is currently "the Return of American McGee's Alice."