World Literature

If you 1. like filmmaker Tim Burton and 2. play video games, you're most likely familiar with American McGee, the quirky video game maker who, most recently, created 'Alice: Madness Returns' for Electronic Arts. This and the game's predecessor 'American McGee's Alice' (released way back in 2000), let players explore a dark and twisted version of the classic Alice in Wonderland story, complete with a blood-splattered heroine who wields a giant knife and uses an oversized pepper grinder like a Gatling gun.

Now that the new game is in stores, McGee says, in a recent blog post, that he and his studio, Spicy Horse, will be refocusing on creating free-to-play browser games, which will include some in the 'twisted fairy tale' genre (perhaps similar to the episodic American McGee's Grimm from 2008?), plus a new, not-yet-announced game created in collusion with Bejeweled maker PopCap. From McGee's blog:

Over the coming weeks and months we expect to announce more details about a range of exciting projects, including the collaboration with PopCap. For the "Alice" fans, we've got some twisted fairy tales being adapted into F2P format – very dark stuff. And the creative minds at the studio are also stretching out, building a diverse offering of IPs which we hope will capture audiences around the world.

One thing that McGee says the studio main focus is merging casual games with a top-notch 3D video game experience. "My belief is that this combination will be the next big wave in the casual online space, " McGee says in the blog post. "Where audiences have had their fun with great 2D Facebook games, the market demands evolution, and we hope we've got the secret formula."

Details on McGee's PopCap project are slim at the moment. All we know, thanks to Gamasutra, is that his studio is working on an online 3D version of one of PopCap's games, which will initially launch in Asia. I'm placing my bets on a new game based in the world of Peggle. That's complete speculation on my part, but you have to admit - the Pachinko-style game's wacky mascots, such as Bjorn the Unicorn and Kat Tut, seem to fit right in with McGee's idiosyncratic sensibilities.

Tags: alice madess returns, alice video game, american mcgee, american mcgees grimm, bejeweled, ea, ea games, electronic arts, fairy tale games, peggle, popcap, popcap games, spicy horse, tim burton