Tag Archives: alice 2

Alice, Alice Sequel, Otherlands

Alice Otherlands Files

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The Alice: Otherlands Kickstarter ran between Jul 16 2013 – Aug 5 2013 and raised over 222kUSD. Project funds went towards The Pitch as described on the Kickstarter page:

The Pitch

With the acquisition of the film rights to the “Alice” property, we will begin work on animated short films inspired by the “Alice: Otherlands” concept. Our long term goal will be the development and production of a feature length film version of Alice’s story.

If this campaign is successful you will receive, at a minimum, an animated adventure into Otherlands. Beyond that, the success of this campaign will bring us one step closer to seeing Alice on the big screen.

A 12-month option on the film rights was acquired for 100kUSD. Remaining funds went towards the creation and shipping of physical rewards to over 3000 backers around the world, animation production expenses, overhead, development costs, and legal fees. For a detailed breakdown of income and expenses you can check out this graphic.

On October 31st, 2015 links were provided to all the finished digital content from the project. And by March 14, 2016 all of the physical rewards were sent out to backers.

Otherlands hit all goals and delivered all promised content and physical rewards.

In the years since the Otherlands download links were originally posted, they’ve grown old and died. That’s partly because hosting large content for fast download isn’t free. I’d hoped that after some years the content might end up spread across the Internet such that I’d no longer have to personally pay for hosting it. But judging by the daily requests I receive for download links it seems a single point for storing these files is still needed.

Providing Files Costs Money
If you backed the Kickstarter please read this Backer Only Update for details on downloading the Otherlands files.

If you did not back the Kickstarter please consider purchasing something from Mysterious, ordering “Out of the Woods” or donating via PayPal to support my creative efforts and hosting of this content.

You can grab the Otherlands download link and password HERE (subscription to this site required).

Alice Sequel, Featured, General

Alice as a cover girl

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GamePro is going all-out and featuring our very own Alice on the cover of their September 2010 issue.  According to the article on their website, Will Herring will be discussing the early previews of the game during his 14-page feature.  Will visited with us in China recently to get the scoop straight from the Horse’s mouth.

In addition to the overview of Alice: Madness Returns, Will also delved into the complex world of tracking the evolution and permutations of the intellectual property of Lewis Carroll’s slightly-addled heroine from the original stories penned in 1865 on through the movie treatment at the hands of Tim Burton.

For us, it’s excellent to be able to talk about the game finally, and even better to listen to everyone else talking about it, too.  If you missed the original announcement this past Tuesday, EA released the first teaser – and we’re all in agreement that it does tease!  If there was any question about it’s impending rating, we’re hoping that clears it up.

Get ready to snatch up your copy at the end of July.

Featured, Spicy Horse

Spicy Horse Art Store Launched

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Mistaken Identity

Mistaken Identity by Ken Wong

Spicy Horse is proud to announce the launch of its online art store. Now you can purchase original illustrations by the talented artists who power the studio – the same people driving the imagery for projects like “Alice 2”. The store currently features artwork by Ken Wong and Luis Melo. In the future we’ll include artwork from “Alice 2” and other studio projects.

Details from the store:

From the trusty band of artists at Spicy Horse comes the chance to own authentic pieces of art produced by our video game artists. Each image is specially licensed and produced on canvas for a lifetime of viewing pleasure, and each piece is licensed, numbered and signed.

Head over to the store and grab your own signed print today!

Spicy Horse Online Art Store

Grimm, Shanghai, Spicy Horse

Off the Map in China

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Off The Map in China

Off the Map in China

Gamasutra has posted an interview by Christian Nutt with your truly. It begins with…

Famous for his work with id Software and on EA-published cult classic Alice, American McGee set up shop in Shanghai, China, in 2007 with his new studio, Spicy Horse. Though the company’s first game, Grimm, for the GameTap digital service didn’t make a big splash, McGee maintains that developing the game was instrumental in setting up a tightly-run and efficient organization in China, one which has helped him reexamine the very process of developing games.

In fact, McGee suggests that most of what developers know about working in China is wrong. He suggests that process can lead to a crunch-free environment and great quality games — his team is currently working on a sequel to Alice for EA, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Says McGee, “EA has talked about trying to figure out how it is we’re doing what we’re doing, because clearly they’re looking at what we’re doing and they’re seeing us hit all the milestones and come in ahead of time, and come in high quality, and everything that they could ask for from a development team. [But] I don’t know if you could export it.”

Christian and I go on to talk about life and work in China, cultural and development impacts on starting and running a studio in Shanghai, and more. You can read the full article here.

Also, if you’re interested in some of the thinking that originally inspired me to move to China, I suggest you check out “Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic” The book examines how American culture has become obsessed with consumption – and how it’s destroying people’s ability to be happy with themselves and what they have.

Alice Sequel

Voices and Moves

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Cheshire Concept (old)

Cheshire Concept

As production on Alice 2 continues, the development team at Spicy Horse is making awesome progress. By many measures, we’re ahead of schedule – though it’s still too early to get overconfident.

While the internal team is cranking along on all cylinders, there are a few things we could use some outside “assistance” with. Namely, voice actors and motion actors for reference and actual use in the game. We have all our “bulk” needs covered – but are looking for a few special people IN SHANGHAI who can assist with lots of impromptu stuff related to VO and acting. These elements might go into the game or simply be used as temporary reference.

For voice actors – we’re looking for people (men, children, women) with BRITISH accents (real ones please). This will be used as placeholder – or could possibly make it into the final game (depending on quality, etc).

For stage actors – we’re looking for people with expressive faces and bodies – which will be used for animation reference and/or local motion capture sessions. Our animation director has requested “foreigners” for this role because she feels Chinese people and foreigners move differently.

If you are IN SHANGHAI and possessing actual Voice Acting or Stage Acting talent, the please contact me directly. You can do so by posting a comment to this article – it won’t be seen unless I approve it (which I don’t do for queries like this).