After three years, it looks like American McGee is once again trying to continue Alice in one form or another.

American McGee, a former Quake developer best known for his Alice in Wonderland-inspired action-adventure series, is returning to game development with a spiritual successor inspired by his plush toys. McGee retired from game development in 2023 after Electronic Arts rejected his concept for a third Alice game. However, it appears he has changed his mind. In an interview with GamesRadar, McGee said several factors pushed him back toward making games. The first is Plushie Dreadfuls, founded in 2015 with his wife, Yeni Zhang, originally meant to help support the plan for the third Alice project, Alice: Asylum.

The product line became such a success that McGee even repaid an old loan to id Software co-founder John Carmack. Running a Plushie Dreadfuls pop-up store in Tokyo also pulled his attention back to games, after Japanese fans voiced their love for the Alice titles. The spiritual successor is still in the early stages, but it sounds like it will follow the story of James, an orphan who ends up under the dark wing of the Plushie Dreadfuls family, much like Alice. In a story outline posted on Instagram, McGee says the game connects directly to Alice: Madness Returns, the second – and so far last – entry in the series.

“It’s like a rocket that took off without our knowledge. I realized that I still have these stories to tell. I can’t just sit on these ideas because when I do, it drives me crazy. I’ve made a conscious effort to link the beginning of the Plushie Dreadfuls game with the end of Madness Returns. You could call that a spiritual sequel. There’s an obvious overlap, but not one that will get us in trouble with the lawyers,” McGee said.

McGee spent a decade trying to get a third Alice game off the ground with Electronic Arts, producing a lot of pre-production work that ultimately led to a design bible being published on Patreon. In the end, the publisher did not greenlight a new game, nor did it consider selling the IP, with McGee saying in a 2023 Patreon statement that Electronic Arts viewed Alice as an important part of its broader back catalogue.

There’s no denying the series still has plenty of fans – and we wouldn’t mind seeing McGee take another swing at it, whether through a spiritual successor or some other route. With McGee in full control of this new project, it should at least have a better shot at actually seeing daylight.

Source: PCGamer, GamesRadar, Plushie Dreadfuls, NME, Patreon, Patreon