The third installment of Alice is something our favorite demented childhood-ruiner has been thinking over for awhile , and it's clear he's been thinking deep . American McGee's just spilled a bunch of ideas in a Q&A on Alice: Otherlands' Facebook page , and despite not yet having a publishing deal, it seems he's already got some dark ideas brewing—such as an online integration. Oh my. How will this non-fairy-tale end?
This time, the story is that Alice—having overcome both psychological and physical demons in the first two games—now wants to use her new found strength to "fight for the greater good." She'll do that by entering the damaged minds of other people. Also, with Wonderland presumably having been righted, she'll also get to explore new dark areas—"Londerland," a stylish portmanteau representing a demented London, is sounding especially cool.
Due to a limited budget, this third entry in Alice's story may be scaled down to a sidescrolling platformer instead, and it may go online for the first time, too.
"By building a server-based game we can push content and feature updates on a regular basis post-launch, so that the initial size of the game doesn't limit the eventual scope and richness of the product," McGee explains. "Under this model we could be pushing new features and domains into the game for years to come."
There'll still be a single-player campaign—in fact, you'll have to play through the whole thing first in order to unlock multiplayer. While there'll be some social aspects to Otherlands, thanks to the possibility of multiplayer, McGee stresses it won't be a full-scale MMO experience. Still, there's talk of implementing some "premium currency"—McGee says this while likely be used to purchase cosmetic DLC like new outfits. Hopefully we won't see it reinforcing paygates in gameplay, too.
A Kickstarter campaign is tentatively planned for July, and McGee is hopeful about earning $1.5 million. In the event that amount's not raised, or that EA doesn't give up the licence, a secondary Wizard of Oz-based project is also in motion.
While this possible third chapter in Alice's story sounds like it might be scaled down quite a bit due to budgetary concerns, this concept art suggests that the Spicy Horse team can whip up something beautiful, if given the chance.
