Since we reported on American McGee's latest Kickstarter, OZombie, the project has struggled to get funding. Nearly halfway past the funding period, they have only been able to rally $138,179 out of the $950,000 goal. McGee and Spicy Horse Games have not been lax and have updated to let backers know that they are taking action.
First off, the name OZombie itself is getting replaced. The Kickstarter has momentarily been renamed to Oz Action Adventure while they come up with a replacement. American McGee's Oz, of course, has already been made, and the rights to that still reside with Atari, as Mcgee himself points out. McGee collected suggestions from fans and have narrowed down potential titles to these four:
- Oz Adventure: Tyrant of Oz
- Oz Adventure: Strawman's War
- Oz Adventure: Broken Road
- Oz Adventure: Yellow Brick Road Warrior
The team is now asking for fan votes to help them reach a final decision.
And then there was the case of the Alice:Otherlands film rights. McGee thought to add to the campaign funding to acquire the film rights for his Alice IP from EA. EA actually sold the rights to a yet unnamed studio, and said studio has approached him with getting the rights back as a kindness. Of course, with the way the campaign has been going, it hasn't been working out.
Because of the way Kickstarter is set up, Spicy Horse had to contact each backer individually to get them to agree to remove the provision. Fortunately for them, Spicy Horse did get clearance from everyone and have already submitted it to Kickstarter as a separate project.
Finally, McGee is making a new project pitch video, showing off the game's design, story and artwork. They hope that the video will entice new backers, and they are also producing a gameplay demo to be released soon after.
McGee has gone on word that if the initial campaign ends, he will no longer be pursuing the project. He will be taking it as an indication that there is not enough market interest for said project.
Kickstarters have gotten a rough hit to their reputation in the fallout of the Double Fine controversy. McGee himself has spoken out in that games' defense, but now has to look after his own.
Source: Kickstarter
