Deeply weird Alice video basically begs EA to fund the game

pcgamer.com:

Designer American McGee is best known for his striking videogame adaptations—though adaptation may be too weak a word—of the children's classic Alice in Wonderland. The last game, Alice: Madness Returns, was released in 2011 and is still available on Steam(opens in new tab), though 2000's American McGee's Alice is much harder to get a hold of(opens in new tab).

McGee has in recent years made his intentions clear and public: He wants to make a third game, Alice: Asylum, and has a Patreon dedicated to funding the game's development (which has 3,224 paying subscribers(opens in new tab)). Thing is, though, the game isn't actually in development: It's still in pre-production. McGee released a draft script for the game back in 2021, but now he's gone all-in on trying to get old publishing partner EA interested in funding it.

A new video posted to Youtube announces the release of the 414-page design bible for Alice: Asylum (thanks, RPS(opens in new tab)), which is currently only available to Patreon subscribers but should unlock for everyone at some point today, along with some gorgeous concept art, design notes, and mock-ups of how the game will look.

Then there's a rather naked plea to EA to send us a big cheque, please. At the end of the video EA's logo appears above the text «Let’s make impossible things happen… together.» This strikes me as the developer equivalent of texting your ex in the small hours asking why they haven't returned those missed calls. McGee has in the past been explicit about the fact that the goal with all this pre-release stuff is to «have that plan approved by EA» (2021) before raising the funding to develop the title. But it seems like EA is at the very least late, late, for a very important date.

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