American McGee launches OZombie Kickstarter, Alice still on his mind
American McGee's Spicy Horse development studio has picked a game for Kickstarter that's been pickling in pre-production for a while: OZombie for PC, Mac, Linux and latest-gen tablets. It's a twisted take on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the books, not the movie), starring the Scarecrow as the former king of Emerald City, exiled and mentally tortured. Series author L. Frank Baum describes the Scarecrow as "the wisest man in all Oz," after all – and now he's the most evil.
Players will take control of Dorothy's great-great-granddaughter, alongside the Tin Woodsman and the Lion, to fight the Scarecrow and his army. OZombie is a single-player-centric game, with a multiplayer mode unlocked after completing the main campaign. It features multiple game modes, spanning RPG, tactical combat and exploration, and has a narrative focus.
Spicy Horse is looking for $950,000 in the OZombie Kickstarter, and it has 41 days to get there. In one day, it's raised around $60,000.
Earlier this year, Spicy Horse said it would launch a Kickstarter for either OZombie or Alice: Otherlands, American McGee's next foray into the Alice universe. The Alice license is tied up at EA following the launch of Alice: Madness Returns in 2011, and Spicy Horse is negotiating to get it back. Spicy Horse has started pre-production on Alice: Otherlands already.
"I won't stop trying to make new Alice games," McGee writes in a Kickstarter update. He continues: "We're still having meaningful and productive conversations with EA regarding Alice. Truth is, it's an important bit of IP for them and for us (and for you!) which means that negotiating a deal is going to take time."
