American McGee
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This article's lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. (January 2013) |
| American McGee | |
|---|---|
 American McGee in 2004. |
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| Born | American James McGee December 13, 1972 |
| Occupation | Game designer |
| Known for | American McGee's Alice, Doom II, Quake |
| Website | |
| www.americanmcgee.com | |
American James McGee (born December 13, 1972) is an American game designer. He is perhaps best known as the designer of American McGee's Alice.
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Career [edit]
McGee began his career at id Software,[1] working on level design, music production, sound effects development, and programming in such games as Doom II, Quake, and Quake II. In 1998, he was let go[2] from Id and joined Electronic Arts, where he worked as creative director on several[citation needed] projects, including American McGee's Alice (with Rogue Entertainment). After finishing Alice, McGee left EA to found his first company, The Mauretania Import Export Company.[3]
Partnering with Enlight Software, McGee released the games Scrapland in 2004 and Bad Day L.A. in 2006. The planned American McGee's Oz, which was to be produced in conjunction with Ronin Games, was canceled over financial difficulties at Atari. American McGee's Grimm, developed by his Shanghai-based game development studio Spicy Horse for the online service GameTap, was released in twenty-three weekly episodic segments, starting in 2007.
At the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello announced that a sequel to American McGee's Alice is in development for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by American McGee's Spicy Horse studio.[4][5] In July 2010, at the EA Showcase in San Francisco, Spicy Horse and EA announced that sequel's title, Alice: Madness Returns, released less than one year after its announcement, on June 14, 2011.
More recently, McGee's Spicy Horse expanded to include another brand, Spicy Pony, to produce digital mobile media games for the iPhone platform. Their first title, DexIQ, was released in early December 2009, and its follow-up, Crooked House, was released in March 2010 (both had iPad versions released in June 2010).
On December 17, 2010 McGee's old company The Mauretania Import Export Company was dissolved and all intellectual property was transferred to Spicy Horse.[6]
Films [edit]
McGee has written a script for his interpretation of L. Frank Baum's Oz for Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney (seemingly displaced amid pre-production of Oz: The Great and Powerful,[7] written by Mitchell Kapner and being directed by Sam Raimi.[8])
The film rights to Alice were sold to Miramax and Dimension in 2004, before being passed onto 20th Century Fox and then to Universal Pictures the following year. McGee maintains credit as creator and producer of the film project.[9]
Personal life [edit]
McGee has stated his mission is "to create a unified production method for story telling across the interactive and film industries" and of himself, he says, "I want to be the next Walt Disney, only a little more wicked."
Upon inquiry about his unusual name: "Yes, my mother named me that. She claims a woman she knew in college, who named her daughter 'America', inspired the name. She also tells me that she was thinking of naming me 'Obnard'. She was and always has been a very eccentric and creative person."[10]
In 2005, McGee left the United States and resided first in the city of Hong Kong, then on Lamma Island, and currently settling in Shanghai.[11] Once in China, he created Spicy Horse, now the largest independent game development house in the nation,[citation needed] and helped found Blade (formerly Vykarian), a game outsourcing company. They produced American McGee's Grimm for GameTap (now owned by Metaboli) and worked on the sequel to his original Alice game, Alice: Madness Returns.
He also mentions that his inspiration for the macabre tone of Alice comes from his disturbing, dysfunctional childhood. For instance, on McGee's 13th birthday, his father, whom he had just met for the first time, was "stinking drunk" and assaulted the young McGee by attempting to gouge his eyes out with the intent of either killing or molesting him. McGee escaped this event by suggesting they "take both of their cars" to a bar and get drunk. Luckily, the father agreed. Shortly afterwards his father was involved in a car accident. "They got no more than 100 feet away when American's dad crashed into a telephone pole."[12]
Games [edit]
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (March 2013) |
- 1994 - Wolfenstein 3D, Tester (Atari Corporation)
- 1994 - Doom II: Hell on Earth, Level Designer (id Software)
- 1994 - Doom, Level Designer (Sega)
- 1995 - The Ultimate Doom, Level Designer (GT Interactive Software)
- 1995 - Doom, Tester (WMS Industries)
- 1996 - Quake, Level Designer, Sound Designer, Tools Programmer (id Software)
- 1996 - H!Zone, Co-Producer (WizardWorks Software)
- 1996 - Hexen: Beyond Heretic, Co-Producer (GT Interactive Software)
- 1996 - Final Doom, Level Designer (id Software and Atari, Inc.)
- 1997 - Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon, Level Designer (id Software)
- 1997 - Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity, Level Designer (id Software)
- 1997 - Quake II, Level Designer, Sound Designer, Tools Programmer (Activision)
- 1997 - Doom 64, Level Designer (Midway Games)
- 1998 - Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3, Sound Designer (Eidos Interactive)
- 2000 - Timeline, Co-Designer, Co-Writer (Eidos Interactive)
- 2000 - American McGee's Alice, Creative Director, Co-Writer, Designer (Electronic Arts)
- 2004 - American McGee Presents: Scrapland, Producer (Enlight Software)
- 2006 - American McGee Presents: Bad Day L.A., Creative Director, Writer, Co-Designer (Enlight Software)
- 2008 - American McGee's Grimm, Project Leader, Creative Director, Co-Writer, Co-Designer (Turner Broadcasting System)
- 2009 - DexIQ, Project Leader, Creative Director (Spicy Horse)
- 2011 - Alice: Madness Returns, Creative Director, Co-Writer, Designer (Spicy Horse) (Electronic Arts)
- 2012 - BigHead Bash (Spicy Horse)
- 2012 - Crazy Fairies (Spicy Horse)
- 2012 - Akaneiro: Demon Hunters (Spicy Horse)
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ "The Great American (McGee) Game". wired.com. 2000-12-25. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "John Carmack Archive - .plan 1998". scribd.com.
- ^ "(C) TMIEC". tmiec.com. Archived from the original on 2003-08-03. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ "The Return of American McGee's Alice Set For PC, Consoles". kotaku.com. 2006-02-19. Archived from the original on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "EA and Spicy Horse Return to Wonderland for All-New Alice Title". ea.com. 2009-02-19. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "TMIEC Website Announcement". tmiec.com. 2010-12-15. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ Fleming, Mike. "‘Alice’ Hits $1 Billion Mark As Disney And Other Studios Tap Public Domain Tales". deadline.com. Deadline.
- ^ Stuart Oldham (2010-06-14). "Sam Raimi circles 'Wizard of Oz' prequel 'Spiderman' helmer in talks for Disney's 'Powerful' pic". variety.com.
- ^ "Alice (2010) - Full cast and crew". imdb.com. Internet Movie Database. Archived from the original on 2010-10-11.
- ^ "American McGee's Personal Website and Weblog". americanmcgee.com. Archived from the original on 2005-04-03. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "An American (McGee) In Shanghai". kotaku.com. 2009-01-07. Archived from the original on 16 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "The Great American (McGee) Game". wired.com. 2000-12-25.
- ^ "RES ALERT December 5, 2002". res.com. Archived from the original on 2007-07-15. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
External links [edit]
- Official website
- American McGee's entry at MobyGames
- American McGee at the Internet Movie Database
- American McGee Reddit Questionnaire (January 21, 2013)
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