American McGee is starting preliminary work on a third 'Alice' game

By Gabe Gurwin Published September 6, 2017

After the original American McGee’s Alice hit PC in 2000, years went by without much hint of a sequel, but developer Spicy Horse eventually released Alice: Madness Returns to middling reviews in 2011. Though the reception likely wasn’t what McGee and publisher Electronic Arts were hoping for, the game still found its cult audience, and it looks like a third game could be on the way.

“Fresh off the success of [card game] Out of the Woods on Kickstarter, American McGee will start work on a proposal for the next chapter in Alice’s adventures, tentatively titled Alice: Asylum,” reads an announcement on McGee’s website. “This proposal will include artwork, design outline, and a financial/business model. When this proposal is finished (and assuming all the numbers and constraints make sense) it’ll be sent to EA.”

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While we hadn’t heard much about a new game up to this point, McGee did use Kickstarter to successfully fund the Alice: Otherlands animation series in 2014. The short filsm use drastically different art styles and bear little resemblance to the game aside from Alice’s clothing and actress Susie Brann. The short A Night at the Opera is particularly unsettling, with a stop-motion effect that makes the characters look like corpses.

Following the release of Madness Returns, McGee expressed disappointment with the way Electronic Arts had marketed the game, saying that the publisher tried to showcase more horror and gore in trailers than was truly representative of the full experience.

It remains to be seen if McGee will get Electronic Arts’ support on a third Alice game, but you can keep track of his progress by watching his live-stream gameplay sessions on YouTube. He’s currently playing through Madness Returns.

In addition to his work on the Alice series, American McGee has also worked as a designer on Doom II, Quake II, Grimm, and Akaneiro: Demon Hunters. His Shanghai-based Spicy Horse studio shut down in 2016, but will still function as the brand name for his projects moving forward.

What do you hope to see in a third Alice game? Do you hope it moves more into horror territory? Let us know in the comments.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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