Mac game publisher Aspyr Media has announced plans to publish a Macintosh version of American McGee’s Alice, a new 3D action game that uses an enhanced version of the Quake 3 Arena engine and a storyline inspired by Lewis Carroll’s classic “Alice in Wonderland” stories.
Don’t think for a moment this is a game intended for kids, however. In this game, an older Alice returns to Wonderland to find a twisted, dreadful place that’s a darker shadow of its former self. Wonderland has been turned into something dark and sinister by the Queen of Hearts and her evil minions, and Alice will confront them all in her quest. To that end, players equip Alice with a variety of bizarre and deadly toys that she can use to destroy her foes as they explore the chaotic and deadly Wonderland.
Players will have to solve puzzles and find the exits to mazes along the way, as they explore levels evocative of Lewis Carroll’s original works, like the Pool of Tears, the Caterpillar’s Garden, the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and more.
American McGee’s Alice was designed by — you probably guessed it — American McGee. His resume includes level design for past Id Software successes, like Doom II and the Quake series. The game has been published for the PC by Electronic Arts, a company with whom Aspyr has been working closely in recent times to bring top titles to the Macintosh.
Aspyr president Michael Rogers calls Alice a twisted, wild game that sports stunning visuals.
“This is probably the most atmosphere-rich game ever made,” said Rogers.
Aspyr Media works closely with Westlake Interactive to port its game to the Macintosh, and American McGee’s Alice is no exception. MacCentral recently touched based with Westlake to find out the status of the port. Westlake business manager Suellen Adams explained that programmer Brad Oliver is handling the conversion. It’s still early in the development process, but Adams said that the conversion project is approaching first playable status, an important milestone. The release schedule for the Mac version of American McGee’s Alice is yet to be announced.
Westlake is already familiar with the core technology at use in American McGee’s Alice — last fall the company produced a Macintosh conversion of Star Trek: Voyager — Elite Force, another Quake III Arena engine-derived game. Although Alice is based on the Quake 3 Arena engine, the engine has been modified to suit this game specifically. Adams describes the scope of the Alice conversion as different from the Elite Force work they did, but on a similar scale. And for those readers who check Westlake’s own Project Status page frequently, Adams confirms that Alice was the company’s “Unrevealed” project. Adams also confirmed that Mac OS X support for the new game is undetermined at this time.