The Art of Alice Madness Returns

The World of Concept Art

The Idea

My main goal for this Blog chapter is to discover, analyse and explain:

Why are the weapons memorable in videogames.

How and why they are designed that way, and why that particular style is used.

In designing the iconic elements in games, what does the designer have to do, how does the concept artist design the weapon, how do they maintain the core elements, how do they make them iconic, how they create memorable prop designing.

Why is that weapon important, the story behind it, the gameplay elements that brings, the distinct artistic design used, the shape, form and elements of concept for a particular weapon.

These are the questions and thought I had when reading the concept Art book of Alice Madness Returns.

I really Enjoy Dark Fantasy worlds, and this game offers the players a unique takeover of a classic tale.

PRE-PRODUCTION

The pre-production of Alice: Madness Returns started in mid 2008, inspired by a particular prequel.

The Spicy Horse art team created the game Alice: Madness Returns based from the work of American McGee, a videogame designer and creator of American McGee's Alice, a third-person action-adventure videogame based from the novel: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The Original author inspired the Team of Spicy Horse to work on a sequel based on various concepts arts of the original game and using the intriguing and dark American McGee style.

I never played American McGee's Alice, and I only briefly when trough it by accident when I was researching the sequel. This creepy takeover of the story of Alice in wonderland really did build a legacy of fan arts and inspired the game designing Team into creating Alice Madness Returns.

I'm really thankful that this piece of media exist.

The Game and Gameplay

Alice Madness Returns is a 2011 psychological horror, hack and slash, action adventure, platform videogame developed by independent studio Spicy Horse and released by Electronics Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is a sequel of American McGee's Alice created by American McGee a videogame designer. The game has strong goth aesthetics.

Alice Madness Returns follows the Alice Liddell a girl suffering from a trauma caused by the death of her family in a fire. Alice was discharged from psychiatric clinic and now lives in an orphanage for mentally traumatized orphans under the care of Dr. Angus Bumby. To get rid of the trauma and learn the truth of her past, she once again falls into Wonderland, were a new evil force has corrupted it.

The game is played from a third-person perspective. The player controls Alice for the entirely of the game for running, jumping, dodging, attacking, and shrinking.

In combat, Alice gains a small of weapons that can be utilized in several ways. 

Her primary Weapon is the Vorpal Blade, a decorative kitchen knife.

The remainder of her arsenal is somewhat akin to the benign and mundane items that take on deadly quality in Alice's tainted Wonderland in the first game.

A pepper grinder that becomes a crank operated gatling gun, used to attack at distance and shoot various points of interest. the game presents various other bizarre weapons.

Diving into The World of Concept Art

My goal is to create unique weapons, to archive this I need lots of inspiration and ideas.

So I went to the Library and, looking around the game section, I found a particular book:

• The Art of Alice Madness Returns

This book really opened my eyes regarding the structure and workflow of a game company, I'm glad I read this book, it did really inspired me into continuing my journey as 3D weapon artist and dedicate myself on the process and unleashing my creativity.

The Role of a Concept Artist

Is important to develop a solid design language for the costume, character, or prop

A world of advice is to focus on getting one thing right, my goal is to focus mainly on the fantasy weapon design and the concept behind it.

"It is faster and cheaper to design design an idea on the sketch phase than during the full production".

Concept artist are the first link in the production chain.

They must understand the first goals of the particular subject matter in the context of the entire project. Then they must be able to resolve the tricky issues such as visual design, function, and purpose.

As concept artist is important to establish the visual design of a weapon.

As a weapon belong to a fantasy world, this gives the designer freedom of artistic expression, for creating a fantasy prop and concept for that particular weapon.

The job of a concept artist is hard, stressful but fulfilling, being the one behind the design choice of a particular weapon and creating them is what I'm aspiring to do as an artist. One of my dreams is to create and build a weapon that will be eventually put in an a fun and enjoyable videogame.

Concept artist traditionally have a background in illustration and fine art.

After the concept have been drafted and approved, it is then passed on the 3D modeler to be built. It takes consistent collaboration between concept artists and modelers to ensure that the final in-game 3D model effectively matches the expectation set by the concept.

A method that is growing in popularity is concepting the weapons in 3D using software's such as: Maya, Blender and ZBrush.

Then Texturing and finishing the image using Photoshop or Substance 3D Painter.

This process is something I been studying and practising for the past few years in University. Creating a model using Maya, importing it into ZBrush and applying the textures using Substance is the modern way creating any type of assets for videogames.

The Concept Art as to be relevant to the game style and it is the biproduct of the videogame development process.

Due to the nature of concept art, there will always be several images left unused for various valid reasons. They may be too ambitious for the deadline, or not suited for the gameplay.

There are other areas of video game development that works along side the Prop Artist, all of this are different jobs that require different artists.

Various roles in a Game Design Team

A game designer team is tasked into creating a videogame, various artists participate to the project in creating a fictional, playable world for an audience of players. There are various roles in the Team:

Character Modeler

Modellers will create various characters for the game using 3D Software's, usually from a preapproved concept image in the industry.

When done successfully, it will create memorable and iconic characters who looks great on the screen and benefits the game immensely. an Example would be Alice design and model from the game.

I really appreciate the model used for Alice Liddell, the design team did an amazing job on creating a unique, captivating yet disturbed character. The character of Alice of this game is my favourite between all version her fictional versions, this dark version of Alice stands out from the rest!

Environment and Prop Modeler

Focused on creating interesting objects, weapons, armours and props for the environment in the game. 

These modellers are required to "fill the gap" in the game world with suitable 3D assets.

The prop artist managed to create a "fitting world" by recreating the feel of wonderland, as the game progress the models get more sinister and dark as Alice journey trough the disturbed environment of the twisted revised world of American McGee.

Texture Artist

They create realistic and detailed textures on 3D models, bringing the model to life. They are responsible for creating materials, wear and tear of an object, and are needed on every project.

I really love the different "dresses" used this game, they do change with the different domains that Alice visits. The base black and white "London Dress" captures the grey asthenosphere of that time. Meanwhile the Blue dress is very captivating. When Alice enters "Hysteria Mode" the colours changes to white and red and it really makes me feel like a terrifying presence when I was playing the game.

Effect Artist

They create special effects needed in almost every game, such as: on-hit particles, smoke particles, muzzle lights, flashes, fire effect, and various other effects related to the game demands.

If something looks flashy, chances are the effect artist was behind of it.

The visual effects are amazing, it was very pleasant to play the game, the various animations used are really enjoyable, the effects on damage feel impactful, the trigger for the "Hysteria mode" does make you feel like a "demon" in a battlefield.

User Interface Artist

The user-interface artist create all of the on-screen art in games. They are the graphic designer of the video game industry, creating a variety of things, including the heads-up display elements, in-game messages, and various interactive menu.

The User Interface is really creative, the various main menus are particularly detailed capturing the "mental state" of Alice, the style used for for upgrading menu is my favourite of them all. The art used for the interactive is solid even for modern standards, it does the trick and it works well!

Alice and Her Dress

Alice Liddle is the main protagonist of the game, she is the sole survival of a house fire that killed her entire family, causing her to have immense traumas when she was a child effecting her perception of reality, as well as her "imaginary world", Wonderland, and its citizens.

Creating Alice using 3D models wasn't an easy task for Spicy Horse Team, the heroine of American McGee is very well designed, visually. She has a great silhouette from every angle and she's recognizable as being the Alice of Carol and Tenniel's creation, while having her own distinct "American McGee" style.

However, the art team manage to recreate the 3D model for the new Alice, after major revisions and discussions the team developed a model suitable for the audience and managed to maintain the style in a more modern game engine.

Their team goal was to make sure that Alice remained a character the players could relate to.

Alice personality got captured in game as she travels across the streets of London whit her nonchalant attitude towards the extreme and often violent events she witnesses or actively takes part in.

The process of creating the main character was long and the team went trough various different designs.

Alice has four main weapons and the team created four "Dresses" that will be switched out depending on the weapon used by Alice, but this mechanic got scratched out in the main game.

Instead Alice will have different dress depending on the game area she is currently exploring.

The character can go into a berserker mode called "Hysteria Alice" depicted in Red-and-White colour scheme representing blood and rage. it is also a feature in game when Alice get low in health, the player can activate her rage mode making her dealing more damage.

The World Building and setup for the game is really intriguing and sophisticated. The level Design team did made lots of progress on evolving the idea of their predecessor.

The World Structure

The Guidelines that the Design Team made for creating Alice's world are:

• Keeping things bold and simple. Don't overdesign.
• Anything Alice experienced in Wonderland comes from something she's seen or read or heard about in London.
• Avoid demons or other religious content.
• Keep designs "Alice" - feminine, artistic, and playfully surreal.

The Team had to work hard to craft an experience for both die-hard fans of Alice, and for people who own Xbox and PlayStation.

The Pressure for the Team was only increased knowing they had to be compared against both the original game and the movies from Tim Burton and Disney. Not to mention the other works of Alice in Wonderlands in various films, stages and illustrations.

The Team managed to rose to the challenge, developing skills they never knew to spin out this fantastically rich, horribly devious world of imagination and nightmares.

I got lost exploring this fictional world many time, the puzzles were strategically places, using visual indications and/or sounds to attract the player towards certain areas or secret places.

I would recommend anyone to play this particular game, I recently had the chance of playing this and I'm very surprised that a game released nearly three console generation ago is still a solid work of fiction and entertaining media. this game aged like fine vine.

London

The harsh reality of Alice waking life

From the very beginning of the project, American McGee wanted to explore Alice's world Outside of Wonderland. The Victorian London of her waking life.

London in 1875 was not a pleasant place. The industrial Revolution tore up the streets, put children to work in factories, and soiled the sky with acrid clouds of black smoke; poverty, crime, and disease marched though the streets. 

The Designing Team wanted for the players to be able to see, breath, feel the seething city. The studio collected references files of architectures, fashion and graphic design from the period and studied maps for areas that could make compelling environments.

Victorian London is a grey, desaturated place. Low contrast and smoggy. All the wood is half-rotten every brick wall is caked in soot, and all of the streets are covered in unspeakable filth.

The Team approach for London's environment art was focused on bringing out those qualities in the materials. thought concept art, textures, shading and geometry. they attempted to break and sag every straight line, and fill every empty space with assets and meshes.

Wonderland

The imaginary world created by Alice's mind

Wonderland is an imaginary country created by Alice Liddle during her childhood. It is located 

Wonderland is split into several main areas, which are called domains, plus a few smaller area to interconnect them and break up the pacing. Some areas that Alice visited before, others were designed as entirely new experiences, with some familiar faces to guide the way.

Alice uses Wonderland as tool for exploring her shattering psyche and as a coping mechanism to deal with her mental health, which is usually known as "escapism" in this sense, Wonderland is Alice's method of catharsis as well as her sanctuary being perverted, and it is up to her to heal Wonderland in order to heal herself.

The world design of the Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings heavily influenced the art direction. each domain is strongly built around specific colours, materials, and shapes, controlled through style guides and colour scripts. The Team wanted a lot of variation between locations to give each a distinct, unique atmosphere.

Designing Wonderland was both incredibly fun and hugely challenging for the Spicy Horse concept-art-team. The Team were excited about creating a psychological dream space where anything goes, were they could break the rules of logic, gravity, geography, architecture, and consistency and still have it all work as a surreal, compelling environment. Everything in Wonderland is amplified and mutated by Alice's disturbed imagination, filtered through her uniquely insane understanding.

Weapons and Mechanics

These are the weapons that Alice will unlock as the main game progression:

• Vorpal Blade
• Pepper Grinder
• Hobby Horse
• Teapot Cannon
• Umbrella
• Clockwork Bomb

The Vorpal Blade

The Vorpal Blade is Alice iconic and primary weapon, a long knife that she uses to slash enemies in front of her.

The weapon is a close range hack and slash tool that allows Alice to damage enemies in a series of combo attacks.

The Pepper Grinder

Alice will eventually unlock a ranged weapon, the Pepper Grinder, that fires pepper corn at speed just like rapid-fire machine gun, that can be used in combat, it used to shoot enemies from a distance. 

It is also an important weapon as it is the only weapon that can be used on Pig Snouts, the grinder's pepper makes them snout sneeze and disappear, revealing the hidden paths or a Duchess basket, a destructible mesh that can be attacked and reward the player with in game currency for upgrading the weapons.  

The Hobby Horse

The Hobby Horse is a heavy hitting club, that Alice can use to slam on particular environment assets to destroy them opening new areas, the weapon is also used in combat as a large hammer-like weapon for more heavy duty-foes and enemies with thought defences.

The weapon appears to posses a living quality as it neighs when used. 

Tea Pot Cannon

This weapon was created by The Mad Hatter's manufacturing company, it is the second long-range, gun-like weapon Alice obtains during her journey. It is a cannon-like device that fired out tea infuser balls that explode into steaming hot tea.

The Cannon has lot of power behind it, and it can damage and kill most enemies with ease in battle. It can be charged to fire more powerful shots and it will leave an area of effect on the ground that will damage enemies standing on it.

The Umbrella

The Umbrella is a preventing weapon used by Alice to block incoming damage and parry them if blocked correctly in time.

Deflecting incoming projectiles will send them back to the attacker.

The Clockwork Bomb

Alice also carries a Rabbit Bomb, it is a metal clockwork contraption shaped like a bunny and act as a explosive. It can be placed and detonated with the press of a button. the explosion is pretty moderate, it will destroy obstacle. 

Enemies will be distracted by the shape of it and they will try attacking it, giving Alice the time to escape and position herself, as well as breaking guard and harming foes when it detonates.

The explosion will not harm Alice.

Those Weapons are truly Bizarre

The weapons used in Alice Madness returns are truly bizarre, who ever came out with the idea of a giant tea pot? what about casually parrying explosive bombs with an umbrella? I can hear Dark Souls fans screaming in distance.

The game offers a vast variety of weapons that can be upgraded, some of them even change form as you power them up!

The vorpal blade is one of my favourite, as simple as it is, is very visually pleasant, and it does the job of slicing those pesky creatures.

Fun fact, the clockwork bomb act as decoy, because is shaped like a bunny and the enemies think it is a living creature and they will attacking it. I realized this when I was playing the game, this is a really cool gimmick.

Ranged weapon a hack and slash game? it just works with a bit of creativity!

The pepper spray is one of those genius ideas, making it a rapid fire gun make it is even more awesome.

The game offers a good amount of challenge. I did enjoy my experience exploring the macabre world of Alice Madness Returns. there were fights, platforms, puzzle and boss fights.

The work and dedication put into this project is remarkable. This game was created during a time were developer and companies truly cared for their videogames and the audience.

Conclusion

The weapons weren't the main thing that attracted me, it was mainly the particular concept of creating a distorted and sinister version of Alice and the dark world of Wonderland that lured me into playing this particular game, and I'm glad I did. I would recommend anyone to experience this wonderful masterpiece.

Coincidentally I found the Art Book related to the main game in my University Library, I guess fate wanted me to write this blog page.

Alice Madness Returns is a wonderful constructed game, that fully envision the original Autor ideas and manage to take them even in more dark areas. The game is very memorable and has a unique interpretation of a classic story.

Some of the contents and designs were cut from the main game. Thanks to the DLC Alice will be able to upgrade particular weapons in a more powerful and bizarre form, sadly I did not had the chance of finishing the game at the time I'm writing this blog page, nor I knew about the existence of extra content.

The End

Various Designs for the weapons

Different skins and designs not used in the main game.