spicy-horse posts

Alice: Madness Returns is a game that's been more or less under the radar since it was first announced over two years ago at DICE 2009. Not anymore, though. Computer and Video Games, reporting from a Electronic Arts press event, reveals that the sequel to 2000's American McGee's Alice now has a firm June 14 release date for the PC and other platforms.

As with the original the sequel takes Lewis Carroll's characters and Wonderland setting into dark places under the supervision of former id Software designer American McGee. The new third person action game, using Unreal Engine 3, is being developed by McGee's China-based developer Spice Horse.

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]

Alice: The Madness Returns is still a while from release, but that doesn't keep the developers from giving us little teaser trailer snippets. In this case, it's purely cinematic, but it acts as a good introduction to American McGee's Alice universe. Taking place somewhere in London (at least, we think it's London), the trailer has Alice distracted by the ghosts of her parents before being pulled into a puppeteer machine by horrific burning tendrils. The cinematic is not the best we've ever seen, but it's not bad, and it exudes an air of genuine creepiness.

When American McGee is involved, Alice becomes far removed from being a children story character. Alice: Madness Returns takes place 10 years after the conclusion of the previous game, and Alice is still struggling to overcome the trauma of losing her family in a fire. In an effort to overcome her nightmarish hallucinations, she must travel from London to a corrupted Wonderland, where she'll fight battles, interact with a cast of crazy characters, and uncover the truth behind her past.

This trailer is the first in four, and begins a new journey down the rabbit hole. The game is expected to release in the early half of 2011.

Download HD Alice: Madness Returns Teaser Trailer, Part 1 (14 MB)

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.

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."

Fan original American McGee's Alice might be intrigued by this early trailer for The Return of Alice. It looks like after rampaging through fairy tales in Grimm, American McGee and his his development studio Spicy Horse will be going back to the roots and continue Alice's twisted tale. The game is expected to come out sometime in 2011, so we can look forward to more information in the coming year.

Download HD The Return of Alice Teaser Trailer (11 MB)

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:

The Gametap digital download service continues to release new chapters of its episodic game series American McGee's Grimm. Today the latest episode is released, based on the Mulan legend, as as with previous releases this new chapter is free to play for the next 24 hours. As you may know the development team behind the game, Spicy Horse, is now working on their next project which is a new title in the American McGee's Alice series for publisher EA.

Gametap has also put one of their library tites into the "free-to-play" section until March 5. This time it's Sacred Gold, the 2004 fantasy action-RPG and its expansion pack from developer Ascaron Entertainment. Of course Ascaron has already released a ful sequel, Sacred 2, that was released for the PC back in October. In addition Gametap has returned a number of game titles to their free section, including Psychonauts, Metal Slug and Tomb Raider: Legend. They won't stay free forever as Gametap plans to rotate games in and out of the free section once a month.