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Alice: Otherlands Kickstarter successful
The Alice: Otherlands crowdfunding campaign successfully jabberwocky'd off with $222,377. The Kickstarter by game designer American McGee sought to purchase the film rights to the Alice games, which are owned by Collision Entertainment. "The funding will allow us to create a series of animated short films, pursue larger animated series possibilities, begin development work on a feature film and access larger funding options for a possible feature film production in the future," said McGee in a Kickstarter update. McGee's course correction to use the more popular Alice series for Kickstarter came after an unsuccessful (and eventually canceled) attempt to crowdfund OZombie, a darker vision of L. Frank Baum's OZ. That project concluded with $141,513 raised by 2,607 backers of a $950,00 goal.
American McGee looks for help snaring Alice: Otherlands film rights
American McGee wants to bring Alice back, but in a new form: as an animated film. A fresh Kickstarter from McGee's studio, Spicy Horse, seeks to purchase the film rights to the Alice games, which are owned by Collision Entertainment, a group of Hollywood producers, McGee tells VG24/7. All the negotiations are done, and now all McGee needs is the cash. The Alice: Otherlands Kickstarter asks for $200,000 and promises, at a minimum, "an animated adventure into Otherlands," with a big-screen adaptation of Otherlands as a long-term goal. The film's premise remains the same as its game counterpart, starring Alice as she roams London, entering the Wonderlands within other people's heads on a quest to defeat an encroaching evil. She may enter the mental landscapes of people such as Jules Verne, Thomas Edison, Jack the Ripper, Mark Twain, Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin, for example. The Kickstarter covers film only, not the production of another Alice game; those rights are still tied up at EA. The campaign follows Spicy Horse's cancelled Kickstarter, OZombie, which raised $141,513 of its $950,000 goal and had three weeks remaining. McGee stopped that project to take advantage of the Alice film opportunity. There's a limited window for McGee to purchase the film rights from Collision Entertainment; once that time expires, the rights will enter the open market. Collision approached McGee first, a move the group didn't have to make. "This is a kindness on their part – they could have gone straight to market and highest bidder, but they told me they think the rights belong with the creator of the property – me," McGee says. "I think they're right about this. I'd hate to see the rights end up in the hands of some faceless corporation or other entity with no emotional connection to the property."
EA, Spicy Horse to settle on Alice rights (or not) by July
Spicy Horse's negotiations with EA for the rights to the Alice franchise – and production of Alice: Otherworlds – continue, with the proceedings now expected to conclude in some fashion by July. "It still comes back to our negotiations with Electronic Arts for a licensing agreement to produce a new Alice title," the company said in a newsletter, speaking on whether it would produce Alice: Otherworlds or OZombie first. "Should we reach an agreement, then come July, it's full steam ahead on a Kickstarter for Alice. If we cannot, to Oz with Dorothy we shall go." Either way, Spicy Horse's next project will be funded through a Kickstarter in July, though the developer won't be announcing which project is actually going forward until the campaign launches.
Spicy Horse's Oz game is OZombie: 'If I only had some brainsss'
Spicy Horse's Oz game combines the undead with "an Oz not of our remembering" – it's called OZombie, and it stars Dorothy, Toto, the Lion and the Tin Woodsman. The Scarecrow, who always wanted brains, is cast as the villain in this iteration, and instead of carrying around a basket, Dorothy gets a repeater. Spicy Horse is unsure which game it will make next, OZombie or Alice: Otherlands, and it all depends on whether the studio can regain the Alice rights from EA. If Spicy Horse and EA work out a good deal, then Alice it is. If not, OZombie gets the green light and probably a Kickstarter. "Actually, the more I think about it – and the more I see/hear feedback from you guys – the more I'm personally leaning towards Oz," Spicy Horse founder American McGee writes on the OZombie Facebook page. "There's so much fun stuff to explore, so many interesting characters and locations to discover. Wonderland will also be there, if not today, if not the next project, then perhaps the one after that?" Keep in mind (and mind your brains) that OZombie is entirely separate from American McGee's Oz, the game Atari canceled in 2004.
American McGee's Spicy Horse working on a shiny new Oz game
Spicy Horse, the studio founded by Alice creator American McGee in 2007, is working on a game based on The Wizard of Oz – but it's not American McGee's Oz, the game that was canceled in 2004 when publisher Atari pulled funding. "This is not, in any way, shape or form, the title from 2004," Spicy Horse Community Manager Kelly Heckman tells Joystiq. The new Oz game is still in its early stages, and Spicy Horse has yet to decide which genre it will be – strategy, puzzler, platformer, action, FPS – though the studio has a few ideas. The game will be cross-platform between tablets and PC, Mac and Linux, and while Spicy Horse likes the idea of a physical product, it has no concrete plans in that regard. "It will be based on the entire Oz series – almost all 14 titles – so expect to see unique things not seen in previous incarnations," Heckman says. As legend has it, nearly a decade ago McGee began crafting a Wizard of Oz game, but Atari canceled it in 2004, after producing a handful of action figures and concept art. McGee went on to found Spicy Horse and partnered with EA to launch Alice: Madness Returns in 2011. Spicy Horse is currently in talks with EA to retrieve the Alice license, and it has plans for a third game in the series, Alice: Otherlands. Spicy Horse is working on two Kickstarters – one for Alice: Otherlands and one for Oz – but which project actually goes live will depend entirely on EA and how that Alice deal goes down, Heckman says. Yesterday on the Facebook page for Alice: Otherlands, one fan suggested that if Spicy Horse couldn't work out the Alice rights with EA, it should develop "that Oz title instead." Spicy Horse responded, "It's already in the works."
Alice: Otherlands is seriously considering Kickstarter, plans a video
American McGee's Spicy Horse development studio is getting serious about this Kickstarter idea for the third Alice installment, Alice: Otherlands. A Facebook page started in April contains multiple mentions of Kickstarter, potential rewards and teases about "hush-hush" negotiations with EA. Spicy Horse is now working on a Kickstarter video for Alice: Otherlands and it wants an existing Alice cosplayer to star in it. The shoot is scheduled for June in Shanghai, China, Spicy Horse's home base. "This contest does not mean the 'Otherlands' project will definitely happen – we're still working on deal-making, which could stall or fall through altogether," Spicy Horse cautions at the end of its announcement. For now, check out some of the early art for Alice: Otherlands and keep those Vorpal Blades crossed. Alice: Otherlands features Alice in London, where she invades the minds of passersby and plays around in thousands of diverse, mental Wonderlands, McGee told us during GDC. He envisioned it not as a AAA game, but as an online, cooperative, cross-platform experience between tablets and browsers – but that was before EA had a say.
