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62-474: American James McGee (born December 13, 1972) is a retired American video game designer . He is best known as the designer of American McGee's Alice , its sequel Alice: Madness Returns , and his works on various video games from id Software . American James McGee was born on December 13, 1972, in Dallas , Texas to an eccentric mother who was a house painter. His only interaction with his biological father

124-399: A Kickstarter for a new game, American McGee's OZombie ; however, due to slow/lackluster funding the project was canceled. Another Kickstarter for a project called Alice: Otherlands , a planned series of short films leading to a theatrical film, was announced a few days later. This reached its goal on August 4, 2013, and was officially confirmed. In September 2017, McGee announced that he

186-407: A context to an event in a game, making the activity of playing it less abstract and enhance its entertainment value, although narrative elements are not always clearly present or present at all. The original version of Tetris is an example of a game apparently without narrative. Some narratologists claim that all games have a narrative element. Some go further and claim that games are essentially

248-475: A few cracks at executing a pilot , and if he or she doesn't deliver, the project will be quickly abandoned." Video game development can be stalled for years, occasionally over a decade, often due to a project being moved to different production studios, multiple iterations of the game being created and abandoned, or difficulties with the development of the game software itself, such as loss of funding, overambitious scope, and poor development time management. In

310-513: A form of narrative. Narrative in practice can be the starting point for the development of a game or can be added to a design that started as a set of game mechanics. Gameplay is the interactive aspects of video game design. Gameplay involves player interaction with the game, usually for the purpose of gameplay is entertainment, education or training. The design process varies from designer to designer and companies have different formal procedures and philosophies. The typical "textbook" approach

372-521: A game designer in the United States is $ 130,000 a year. World design is the creation of a backstory, setting and theme for the game; often done by a lead designer. World design can also be the creation of a universe or a map, as well as topics or areas that are likely to be pursued by the player. It is a map referenced for creation of everything as it shows where it is and allows for the most logistical design in any given game. World design shapes

434-411: A game designer is designing game play, conceiving and designing rules and structures that result in an experience for players. Thus game design, as a discipline, requires a focus on games in and of themselves. Rather than placing games in the service of another field such as sociology, literary criticism, or computer science, our aim is to study games within their own disciplinary space. Because game design

496-416: A game designer with less than 3 years of experience earned, on average, $ 55,000 ( £37,874.88 ). A game designer with more than 6 years of experience made, on average, $ 105,000 ( £72,306.58 ). The average salary of these designers varies depending on their region. As of 2015 the salary of experienced workers has shifted to approximately US$ 87,000 ( £59,911.17 ) As of January 17, 2020, the average annual pay for

558-403: A game designer with more than six years of experience earned an average of US$ 65,000 ( £44,761.22 sterling), US$ 54,000 ( £37,186.24 ) with three to six years of experience and $ 44,000 ( £30,299.90 ) with less than 3 years of experience. Lead designers earned $ 75,000 ( £51,647.56 ) with three to six years of experience and $ 95,000 ( £65,420.24 ) with more than six years of experience. In 2013,

620-559: A little more wicked." In 2005, McGee left the United States and resided for a time in Hong Kong before moving to Shanghai , where he has lived since 2009. Once in China, he created Spicy Horse , at one point the largest independent Western game development house in the nation, 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

682-467: A long time without progressing to post-production .) Some projects enter development hell because they were initially designed with ambitious goals, the difficulty of meeting those goals was underestimated, and attempts to meet those goals have repeatedly failed. But the term is also applied more generally to describe any project that has unexpectedly stalled in the planning or design phase, has failed to meet its originally expected date of completion, and

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744-428: A new project is being discussed (either internally or as a result of dialogue with potential publishers), the designer may be asked to write a sell-sheet of short concepts, followed by a one or two-page pitch of specific features, audience, platform and other details. Designers will first meet with leads in other departments to establish agreement on the feasibility of the game given the available time, scope and budget. If

806-431: A player's attention. A designer can then use these elements to guide or direct the player in a specific direction through the game world or mislead them. User interface (UI) design deals with the construction the user interactions and feedback interface, like menus or heads-up displays . The user interface also incorporates game mechanics design. Deciding how much information to give the player and in what way allows

868-412: A project will often be abandoned or cancelled outright. This happens quite often: Hollywood starts ten times as many projects as it releases. Less than two percent of all books that are optioned make it to the big screen. As David Hughes, author of the book Tales From Development Hell , has noted, one reason production is delayed is that, after producers, directors, and actors have been attached to

930-425: A project, they may request script rewrites. Another cause of delay is that, after people have been attached to a project, they find they have conflicting interpretations of it or visions for it. For example, the director and the studio executives may have different opinions about a film's casting, plot or budget. Development delays can also result when a lead actor or a key member of the production team withdraws from

992-427: A relationship with a trans woman . When McGee was sixteen, he came home from school and found his house empty and abandoned; the only things left were his bed, his books, his clothes and his Commodore 64 computer. His mother had sold the house to pay for two plane tickets and the fee for her girlfriend's gender confirmation surgery , leaving him on his own. He packed up his computer, dropped out of high school and took

1054-469: A released game may also result in any prospective sequels being delayed or cancelled. If a film is in development but never receives the necessary production funds, another studio may execute a turnaround deal and successfully produce the film. For example, Columbia Pictures stopped production of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Universal Pictures then picked up the film and made it

1116-410: A research and writing process. Designers may oversee focus testing, write up art and audio asset lists and write game documentation. In addition to the skillset, designers are ideally clear communicators with attention to detail and ability to delegate responsibilities appropriately. Design approval in the commercial setting is a continuous process from the earliest stages until the game ships. When

1178-416: A situation in which a film has entered production but has remained in that phase for a long time without progressing to post-production. Television series can experience development hell between seasons, resulting in a long delay from one season to the next. Screenwriter Ken Aguado states that "development hell rarely happens in series television", because writers for a television series "typically only get

1240-465: A studio doesn't dare break up with. And that's how you end up for two years just, you know, polishing a turd . Until, finally, somebody walks away, at great cost." With video games, slow progress and a lack of funds may lead developers to focus their resources elsewhere. Occasionally, completed portions of a game fail to meet expectations, with developers subsequently choosing to abandon the project rather than start from scratch. The commercial failure of

1302-594: A variety of odd jobs, finally settling on a Volkswagen repair shop. At 21, McGee, an automobile and gaming enthusiast, moved to an apartment complex where he met and befriended John Carmack . Carmack offered McGee a tech support job at id Software , where he was quickly promoted to level designer and music manager. McGee, along with Kevin Cloud and Tim Willits , were part of id Software's "second generation" of developers, working on games such as The Ultimate Doom , Doom II , Quake and Quake II . In 1998, McGee

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1364-447: A video game. This encompasses many different elements of the process. Writing in video games also includes the elements in which the literature is presented. Voice acting, text, picture editing and music are all elements of game writing. Level design is the construction of world levels and its features. Level design makes use of many different fields to create a game world. Lighting, space, framing, color and contrast are used to draw

1426-402: A woman she knew in college that named her child "America": 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. McGee had a number of stepfathers when growing up until his mother finally settled into

1488-442: Is media - and software -industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in a stage of early development for a long time because of legal, technical, or artistic challenges. A work may move between many sets of artistic leadership, crews, scripts, game engines , or studios. (The related terms production hell and production limbo refer to situations in which a film has begun production but has remained unfinished for

1550-433: Is a particular kind of designer, much like a graphic designer, industrial designer or architect. A game designer is not necessarily a programmer, visual designer or project manager, although sometimes he or she can also play these roles in the creation of a game. A game designer might work alone or as part of a larger team. A game designer might create card games, social games, video games or any other kind of game. The focus of

1612-579: Is an emerging discipline, we often borrow from other areas of knowledge — from mathematics and cognitive science; from semiotics and cultural studies. We may not borrow in the most orthodox manner, but we do so in the service of helping to establish a field of game design proper. A game designer is a person who designs gameplay , conceiving and designing the rules and structure of a game . Many designers start their career in testing departments, other roles in game development or in classroom conditions, where mistakes by others can be seen first-hand. In 2010,

1674-490: Is becoming more common among indie game developers, alongside alternative sources of funding. Alternatively, a game may be technology-driven , such as Quake (1996), to show off a particular hardware achievement or to market the game engine . Finally, a game may be art-driven , such as Myst (1993) and Journey (2012), mainly to show off impressive visuals designed by artists. In Rules of Play (2004) , Katie Salen and Eric Zimmermann write: A game designer

1736-490: Is languishing in those phases for what is seen as an unreasonably long time. Many projects that enter development hell are gradually abandoned by the involved parties and are never produced. Film industry companies buy the film rights to many popular novels, video games, and comic books, but often take years to bring those properties to the screen, having first made considerable changes to their plots, characters and general tone. When this pre-production process takes too long,

1798-458: Is started in earnest. There are various kinds of free 3D design software available to the public, from the mainly graphically focussed, such as Blender , to game engines and software development toolkits, such as Unreal Engine and Unity , that promote communities that self-educate as well as market 3D models and tutorials for beginners. Development hell Development hell , also known as development purgatory or development limbo ,

1860-463: Is to start with a concept or a previously completed game and from there create a game design document . This document is intended to map out the complete game design and acts as a central resource for the development team. This document should ideally be updated as the game evolves throughout the production process. Designers are frequently expected to adapt to multiple roles of widely varying nature; for example, concept prototyping can be assisted with

1922-598: 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. In 2012, McGee was focusing on free-to-play games for mobile devices with BigHead Bash, Akaneiro, and Crazy Fairies. In 2013, he opened

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1984-463: The amount of information to relay to the player. However, the UI in games do not have to be absolutely streamlined. Players expect challenges and are willing to accept them as long as the experience is sufficiently rewarding. By the same token, navigating or interaction with a game's UI can be satisfying without the need to be effortless. Audio design involves the process of creating or incorporating all of

2046-639: The band dredg , from their album El Cielo . Partnering with Enlight Software and its founder Trevor Chan , McGee released the games Scrapland in 2004 and Bad Day L.A. in 2006. McGee backed the Nintendo Wii as the "only truly next-gen console in same year." 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

2108-649: The computer industry, vaporware is the term for a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled. A number of popular audio series are dedicated to discussing the topic of unmade creative projects, including Development Hell , a Dread Central podcast which uncovers notable cancelled horror films. The concept artist and illustrator Sylvain Despretz has suggested that, "Development hell doesn't happen with no-name directors. It happens only with famous directors that

2170-427: The course of a game's development about the game's design; it is the responsibility of the designer to decide which elements will be implemented. For example, consistency with the game's vision, budget or hardware limitations. Design changes have a significant positive or negative impact on required resources. The designer may use scripting languages to implement and preview design ideas without necessarily modifying

2232-466: The designer to inform the player about the world, or perhaps leave them uninformed. Another aspect to consider is the method of input a game will use and deciding to what degree a player can interact with a game with these inputs. These choices have a profound effect on the mood of the game, as it directly affects the player in both noticeable and subtle ways. User interface design in video games has unique goals. A conscious decision has to be made regarding

2294-453: The designs. The couple has two children. One of McGee's favorite books is Stephen King 's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft . McGee had a sister, Mercy Covington, who was reported missing on November 10, 2015. As of January 2024, her case remains unsolved. Video game designer The video game designer is very much like the director of a film; the designer is the visionary of

2356-414: The direction the game goes towards. System design is the creation of game rules and underlying mathematical patterns. System design is the enacted simulation of a game designed to interact or react with the player. The "experience" a player has with a game is attributed to how the game's system is designed. A complex system with depth leads to a more unpredictable strand of events to immerse the player into

2418-504: The entire design team. This is the case of such noted designers as Sid Meier , John Romero , Chris Sawyer and Will Wright . A notable exception to this policy was Coleco , which from its very start separated the function of design and programming. As video games became more complex, computers and consoles became more powerful, the job of the game designer became separate from the lead programmer. Soon, game complexity demanded team members focused on game design. Many early veterans chose

2480-511: The essential features, polished well. Towards the end of production, designers take the brunt of responsibility for ensuring that the gameplay remains at a uniform standard throughout the game, even in very long games. This task is made more difficult under " crunch " conditions, as the entire team may begin to lose sight of the core gameplay once pressured to hit a date for a finished and bug-free game. Traditionally, game designers used simple tools like Word, Excel or just plain pen and paper. As

2542-431: The fact that it was due to "internal politics and my own failings". McGee soon joined Electronic Arts and worked as creative director on American McGee's Alice (with Rogue Entertainment ), which garnered favorable reviews. Discussions began soon after the game's release about making a film adaptation of the game ; initially Wes Craven was attached to direct the film, and later actress Sarah Michelle Gellar bought

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2604-422: The field has evolved and player agency and localization started to play a bigger role in game development, the need for professional tools has emerged for this particular field. Examples of software for narrative design and storytelling include articy:draft 3 and Twine . Tools like these often help to inform the earliest stages of the design and development process, before visual content and software development

2666-407: The film rights, but the film has remained in development hell . After finishing Alice , McGee left EA "in frustration" when the company fired his creative partner R. J. Berg and shut down Rogue Entertainment. In 2002, McGee founded the short-lived Carbon6, which two years later became known as Mauretania Import Export Company. McGee directed the 2002 music video for the song "Same Ol' Road" by

2728-433: The first Easter egg in a video game. Funding, traditionally provided by game publishers , who may have specific expectations from a game, must be taken into account, as most video games are market-driven — developed to sell for profit. However, if financial issues do not influence designer's decisions, the game becomes design- or designer-driven ; few games are designed this way because of lack of funding, though it

2790-402: The full implementation. These are referred to as the unknowns of the design and the faster they are uncovered, the less risk the team faces later in the production process. Outside factors such as budget cuts or changes in milestone expectations also result in cuts to the design and while overly large cuts can take the heart out of a project, cuts can also result in a streamlined design with only

2852-462: The game and controls the artistic and technical elements of the game in fulfillment of their vision. However, with very complex games, such as MMORPGs or a big budget action or sports title, designers may number in the dozens. In these cases, there are generally one or two principal designers and many junior designers who specify subsets or subsystems of the game. As the industry has aged and embraced alternative production methodologies such as agile ,

2914-519: The game design path eschewing programming and delegating those tasks to others. Video game design starts with an idea, often a modification on an existing concept. The game idea will fall within one or several genres . Designers often experiment with mixing genres. The game designer usually produces an initial game proposal document containing the concept, gameplay, feature list, setting and story, target audience, requirements and schedule, staff and budget estimates. Many decisions are made during

2976-424: The game in the future, he was not interested in being involved in future Alice projects. He also announced his retirement from game development, with plans to focus on his family and their family business Mysterious. 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

3038-468: The game's codebase . A game designer often plays video games and demos to follow the markets' development. Over time, it has become common for a game designer's name to misleadingly be given an undue amount of association to the game, neglecting the rest of the development team. This is in stark contrast to the industries' origins, when creators were often given little to no recognition. Coincidentally, this lack of credit lead Warren Robinett to create

3100-753: The online service GameTap , was released in 23 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 was in development for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by McGee's Spicy Horse studio. 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

3162-466: The pitch is approved, early milestones focus on the creation of a fleshed-out design document. Some developers advocate a prototyping phase before the design document is written to experiment with new ideas before they become part of the design. As production progresses, designers are asked to make frequent decisions about elements missing from the design. The consequences of these decisions are hard to predict and often can only be determined after creating

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3224-463: The project, or is taken ill, or dies; when there are labor strikes involving the writers, directors, crew or cast; when there are disputes about intellectual property rights or contract terms; when there is turnover at the studio's executive level and the new leaders have a different vision; or when, due to changes in the wider economic, cultural or political climate, the film's topic comes to be seen as no longer marketable. Production hell refers to

3286-498: The role of a principal game designer has begun to separate - some studios emphasizing the auteur model while others emphasizing a more team oriented model. In larger companies like Electronic Arts , each aspect of the game (control, level design) may have a separate producer, lead designer and several general designers. Video game design requires artistic and technical competence as well as sometimes including writing skills. Historically, video game programmers have sometimes comprised

3348-468: 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 . McGee continues to live in Shanghai with his wife, Yeni Zhang. The couple co-founded Mysterious, Inc., a company that markets art, apparel, and accessories based on McGee's works, with McGee's wife Yeni overseeing

3410-401: The sounds that are in the game, like music, sound effects or voice acting . This includes the theme song and jingles used in title screens and menus. The disciplines listed above all combine to form the discipline of game feel . It ensures that the flow of the game and the user interaction with the game elements are functioning smoothly. Numerous games have narrative elements which give

3472-442: The use of pre-existing engines and tools like GameMaker Studio , Unity , Godot or Construct . Level designs might be done first on paper and again for the game engine using a 3D modeling tool. Scripting languages are used for many elements—AI, cutscenes, GUI, environmental processes, and many other behaviors and effects—that designers would want to tune without a programmer's assistance. Setting, story and character concepts require

3534-421: The video game. Content design is the creation of characters, items, puzzles, missions, or any aspect of the game that is not required for it to function properly and meet the minimum viable product standard. In essence, content is the complexity added to a minimum viable product to increase its value. Game writing involves writing dialogue, text and story. This is one of the first steps that go into making

3596-426: The world to fend for myself. The opportunity to work at id during those early years was so unbelievable—and the path it set me on in letting me go has been even more fantastic. I'm sitting here in Shanghai, China still drawing on many of the lessons and experiences from all those years past... it's been an incredible journey which all started with id [Software]. According to former id staff Sandy Petersen , Tim Willits

3658-423: Was fired from id Software. Later, McGee would say that the day he got fired was very meaningful to him: Probably the most meaningful day for me though [working at id Software] ... was the day I was fired. I felt a mixture of terror and freedom that was so significant and powerful—it combined together all the good and bad of the years I'd spent working with Carmack, Romero and the others... and kicked me out into

3720-407: Was on his 13th birthday, a meeting which turned violent as McGee's father drunkenly assaulted him that night. McGee was highly creative and was gifted in mathematics and science, taking an early interest in computer programming. He was eventually accepted to a magnet school for computer science. In explaining where his name came from, McGee has said that his mother was a hippie and was inspired by

3782-416: Was the one responsible for McGee's firing (although he did not mention Willits by name; referring to him only by "Snake" and "X"). Allegedly, during the development of Quake II , Willits deliberately gave bad level design advice to McGee and when he presented his work to Carmack, it angered him and McGee was fired soon after. McGee has stated to this day, he still has no idea why he was fired but acknowledged

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3844-727: Was working on a license proposal for Alice: Asylum , the third installment of the Alice franchise. McGee and his small team began working on a pitch book of "artwork, design outline, and financial/business model" which would be sent to EA upon completion. The pitch book was partially funded through the membership platform Patreon , and presented to EA in early 2023. McGee announced in April 2023 that EA ultimately rejected approving Alice: Asylum for both production and licensing after receiving McGee's pitch. Furthermore, McGee announced that even if EA were to reconsider their stance with production of

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