American McGee's "Alice" is a series of two games released in almost a decade: the original of the same name was released on PC in 2000, and in 2011, "Alice: Madness Returns" was released in 2011. These games were released by Electronic Arts, and over the past few years, McGee has been trying to generate interest from both EA and fans for a third game called Alice: Asylum (another potential title is Alice: Asylum). (Another potential title, Alice: The Otherlands, was the subject of a Kickstarter but was never released.)

It didn't seem to be going well. In February of this year, McGee posted a video basically asking EA to fund Asylum, while at the same time acknowledging the publisher's apparent lack of interest in a sequel: busy jumping EA Sports' money out of the pool and showing a great deal of interest in continuing the cult favorite game. That is not at all surprising, given the lack of interest from modern EA. The problem is that without EA's involvement, everything would be ruined. The publisher owns the rights to "American McGee's Alice," but not American McGee.

The writing is on the wall and in April McGee said on Youtube that it was time for EA to leave and move on. He also announced that he was retiring from game design altogether, and to McGee's credit, he remained transparent throughout the entire period he was trying to make "Alice": throughout the period he was trying to make "Asylum," he remained transparent and had a Patreon that people could donate While he had a Patreon that people could donate to, he and others did a great deal of pre-production on "Asylum" during this period and completed a design bible for the game that was available for download.

In a follow-up video posted last week, McGee acknowledges the various events of the year and the fact that he disappeared for a while after EA gave him a definitive "no" in April. 'The rejection of our proposal pretty much destroyed us emotionally,' he said. Because we as a community and as creators had invested so much in this project, McGee said he felt a sense of "shame" at the failure to produce the game, and reiterated that he and everyone who invested in the game "need to move on." [As he put it,] neither his lawyers nor EA's lawyers have been able to resolve this issue for the last 10 years. In particular, he addressed the idea that since "Alice in Wonderland" is in the public domain, it might be possible to create some kind of spiritual sequel or unofficial successor. Says McGee, "If the solution were that simple, we probably would have pursued it by now." 'It's not that simple.'

And the designer offers a rather rosy view of what AI technology might be able to do in the future. Says McGee, "There is a ray of hope for those who want to see Alice's story continue."

"It's a design bible, a complete story, artwork, all the chapters, weapons, enemies, and everything else you need to develop a new game.

"This idea will be controversial to some, but take my word for it. And the design bible is the perfect thing to feed into an AI system to get it to fully build the game outlined in that design bible.

Hmmm. Seems like wishful thinking to me, but it could also be a McGee-style directive to those with real commitment to focus somewhere other than themselves from now on. He has made it clear that he wants out of the project.

"If I'm going to spend my time trying to figure out how to revive Alice's future, I might as well spend my time solving those [AI-related] problems instead of continuing to ask me questions related to properties over which I have no answers and over which I have no control." McGee adds. And if you are now starting to think about all the ways you might get sued or otherwise in trouble for pursuing such ideas, welcome to the club. I feel this way every time a solution to the Alice and EA problem is suggested on the Internet.

McGee thanked those who have taken an interest in his own health during this time and said he will now focus on things like his family and his day job. He concludes with a polite but unmistakable final suggestion to those who continue to follow him online for Alice's further development: "If your interest is in Alice, I encourage you to find other communities to continue the conversation.