Dear Insane Children,
A lot of people are unaware of the fact that Alice: Madness Returns was the first-ever AAA Western Console Game to be developed primarily in China by a mainly Chinese development team. Prior to its development, there were lots of Western games (and I mean LOTS) which relied on outsource art production in China. But to have a team of artists, programmers, animators, level designers, led by a group of producers, game designers, and creative directors – all of whom were located in Shanghai at Spicy Horse, was a first.
As such, the game is somewhat of a legend in China and especially among the local game development scene. If you visit any development studio, outsource company, or art house, you’ll find at least one copy of the “Art of” book in every room.
“The Art of Alice: Madness Returns” was published by Dark Horse shortly after the release of the game in 2011. It became an instant bestseller. And in Japan, the English Language version occupied the #1 Best Seller (Foreign Book) spot for weeks. Prompted by that success, Dark Horse produced a Japanese Language version which went on to become a best seller in its own right.
The English and Japanese versions are now Out of Print and Sold Out – and there are NO PLANS for reprints (DON’T ASK). If you want to buy one, you’ll have to head over to Ebay. There, they regularly sell for anywhere between $170USD and $700USD (depending on condition, whether they are autographed, etc). That’s a 35x increase in value in some cases! Woo.
So it’s no surprise that a local Chinese company has picked up the rights to re-publish the book in Chinese (Simplified only – there will be no Traditional Chinese version). Since its release, the Chinese language version enjoyed a period of “panic buying” and has seen steady sales since. Go Alice!
I’ve managed to get my hands on a few copies of the Chinese Language version and put them up for sale in the Mysterious Shop. The price there includes shipping (with tracking) anywhere in the world. And I’ll autograph each and every book we send out.
For the collectors among you, this is a rare opportunity to grab a bit of the game’s development history. And to own the “Art of” book produced in the same place where the game was developed. The signed copies of this new edition are sure to become as rare and valuable as the English and Japanese language versions did.
You can hit THIS LINK to go to the Mysterious Shop and check out the “Art of ” book there.
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APOLOGIES for the straight-up advertisement of a product at Mysterious. I try to avoid doing this as much as possible. But this is one of those rare situations where I know serious collectors will be upset if they miss out. I promise not to make product placement like this a regular feature in Patreon Posts.
More design, art, production stuff on the way this week. And a Live Stream! More on that soon!
From Shanghai In The Raaaain,
-American