The Art of Alice: Madness Returns
Dark Horse and Spicy Horse studio invite Alice fans to take a journey through the wonderland of American McGee's imagination for an unprecedented look at the creation of this magnificent and disturbing world. With an introduction by McGee, The Art of Alice offers an intimate look into the stunning and terrifying artwork behind this blockbuster reinterpretation of Lewis Carroll's enduring masterpiece!
Reviews (513)
Alice is back
Descontrolado, lleno de alucinaciones psicóticas, monstruos y objetos amenazantes el mundo de Alice Madness return desborda creatividad e imaginación. El equipo de Spicy Horse comparte, en este libro, el backstage y los secretos del proceso creativo. El libro, de tapa dura y hojas interiores de buen gramaje, está estructurado en 6 capítulos que nos permiten abordar distintos aspectos del proyecto y desarrollo del juego. Desde pre-producción a concepto de personajes, desde complejos backgrounds de locaciones a una página con las bios de todo el equipo involucrado. Cada boceto, cada pieza conceptual y cada arte presentado esta acompañado por detallados epígrafes que hacen que se pueda apreciar con claridad las etapas, y hasta los posibles diálogos, de los procesos involucrados en la creación de este video juego. En la etapa de pre-producción uno asiste a un intercambio visual de ideas expresadas a través de fascinantes y complejas ilustraciones, bocetos a lápiz de personajes a medio desarrollar, mapas de juego, climas y ambientes que nos transportan a esta etapa de anarquía pre formativa donde se pueden ver los lineamientos generales de arte del juego, pero con una libertad propia del estado de gestación. Muchas de estas ideas/imágenes no llegaron a plasmarse en el juego. Estas ausencias, presentes aquí, nos permiten entender todo lo que se debe crear para luego descartar en la búsqueda del producto final. Ya en etapa de desarrollo se develan las directrices para la construcción de un Londres gris, sucio e industrial que convierte a su contrapartida -imagen detrás del espejo- Wonderland, en un universo poblado de personajes híbridos, monstruos distorsionados por el sueño de algún lunático -pájaros con cabeza de vaca, ratones mitad mecánicos a cuerda, peces que son un solo ojo humano con aletas, pulpos borrachos- en colores estridentes por oposición al gris, pero con una paleta baja para construir este universo oscuro, sofisticado e infantil de una Alicia donde ya lo fantástico y lo maravilloso -ante una Londres victoriana que ya no es idealizada- solo puede tornarse amenazante, horroroso y, en este siglo XXI, banalmente lúdico. Ilustraciones de los distintos atuendos -no solo el clásico vestido celeste- y armas -desde el cuchillo de cocina a un martillo-caño- de Alice, más estudios detallados de movimiento y storyboards completan la colección de imágenes del libro. El diseño y puesta en página es limpio y simple a lo largo de todo el volumen. Las ilustraciones a doble página se intercalan con páginas plagadas de detalles, de menos de un cuarto de página, que desbordan creatividad y estimulan la imaginación, generando un ritmo vertiginoso y atrapante que acompaña la narrativa escogida. A pesar de poseer una estructura lineal el libro se puede abrir al azar en cualquiera de las 182 paginas y uno será igualmente hipnotizado y gratificado con solo una mirada a este mundo inquietante. Seleccionado en 2011, cuando fue editado, como el Artbook de Videogame del año, este volumen es una fantástica muestra de lo que debe ser un libro donde se exhibe el arte y concepción de un video juego. Atrapante, perfectamente diseñado e impreso, cada imagen se luce hasta el mínimo detalle. Indispensable en la biblioteca de cualquier fanático del juego e infaltable fuente de inspiración para diseñadores de juegos, ilustradores o artistas conceptuales.
Strange and outstanding
The Art of Alice: Madness Returns is a video game art book. A very good one. The book's a 184 page hardcover published by Dark Horse. It's in a large vertical format. The paper is thick low glossy. Binding is superb. Production value is top notch. The concept art and ideas are awesome. There are out-of-the-world background paintings, character designs, props, weapons and gruesome creations. Also included are discarded ideas that didn't make it - usually the too abstract. When you mix a classic like Alice in Wonderland with pop culture, video game designers, concept artists and throw in a Victorian-gothic theme, you get very strange new world. A world so dangerous Alice has to be equipped with a kitchen knife at all times or sometimes a Bazooka firing hammer (yes, hammer) or a teapot cannon. Every page brings a little element of surprise and twist. You can see crows with baby faces, Jack the Ripper with tentacles, Alice helping a mother giving birth to a load of kids (gruesome concept), an angler fish with human legs, cow birds, steampunk-like contraptions, a Chinese Humpty Dumpty, flying pig noses, embellished pieces of weaponry, etc. There are lots of mix and matches for things that shouldn't go together. The environment and set designs are amazing. It looks like some gothic Victorian hell that Alice is treading through. The landscape is ever changing along the game. They are beautiful and detailed. They totally nailed the mood. There's also plenty to read with the little captions that describe the designs, characters and stories. It gives a nice idea of how such a strange game came about. It's all very interesting to read. Some of the artists involved in the book are Ken Wong, Sun Guoliang, Luis Melo, Hong Lei, Wu Yuehan, Ben Kerslake, Nako, Tyler Lockett, Fellipe Martins, Pu Jinsong, Wang Shenghua, Yuan Shaofeng, Jin Lei. This is an excellent art book. It should be one of the best for 2011. (There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)
One of My Favorite Art Books.
Awesome concept art book. I played the game when it was on sale in Steam, and needless to say, I was absolutely intrigued by the game design. I knew that if the development team published an art book, I would need to buy it. Since Amazon houses a large selection of art and concept art books, I purchased it immediately when I found it here. For the price I paid, it was definitely worth it. There is a lot of variation between illustrations because the book included art from several artists during the development stage. Along with these illustrations are captions, housing thoughts or descriptions. Half a year later, this remains one of my favorites in my art book collection. Highly recommended to concept art fans or people who enjoy dark fantasy art.
A MUST HAVE for fans of twisted Alice!
Simply one of the best artbooks ever made. Just like what almost everybody else has mentioned, it's crammed with amazing artworks and definitely worth the money. Many artbooks that I've seen in the past are either crammed with words, or contained only a few pages but sold at a ridiculously expensive price. This one exceeds most of them, and every page is a delight. In addition, despite all the information and pictures in it, the book is almost spoiler-free (but you get a good glimpse of what will be in the game.) However, seeing it makes me disappointed in EA and Spicy Horse (yes, both are responsible for the actual game turning out not as brilliant as the concept.) I've obtained the artbook first before playing the game. After being thoroughly impressed with the art and starting to play, what I've expected didn't show up, or it either did but appear in an awkward manner that was off and didn't fit in the plot. I'd still say PLAY THE GAME if you have the chance to. It's not the best EA & Spicy Horse can give us, but it's not too horrible either. Anyway, it's a 5-star from me, and as the game didn't seem "complete" enough, the artbook did fill the rest of the stuff in. Great collection!
A must for any Alice fans
The first Alice game was one of my favorite childhood games. Needless to say, I was beyond excited when the sequel came out. Pre-ordered the artbook instantly. The artbook was absolutely gorgeous, filled with amazing artworks and detailed concepts. It gives lots of insights to what happened during the development of the game. It was interesting to see the deleted and cut contents. Highly recommend this artbook to fans of the game or anyone who like art in general.
The best thing I have bought in quite awhile
I usually don't buy things like this book because I always felt they were overpriced for just preliminary drawings with explanations and boy would I like to kick my old self in the teeth after getting this. First off, the delivery was FAST! I was not expecting this as fast as it came. I love it. When I opened it, I was very enthralled. The binding and cover are neat and very well put together. The true treasure is opening this book. The art is breath-taking. Even for sketches and collaborative art, it is amazing. I have always loved Alice since the first game and I find it great to get behind the minds of the people behind the sequel. That's why the commentary was enjoyable as well. You really get an insight into how this world came to be. Perfect buy. Just perfect.
Kindle version is not well thought out, diminishes content
I decided to purchase the Kindle version since the price dropped significantly and the hardcover is out of stock (perhaps even out of print). Unfortunately, the presentation of it was not well thought out. The book utilizes a 'comics' viewer that doesn't allow for pinch resizing or menu resizing of text (which is tiny!). It also does not allow the book to be rotated to landscape even though some of the art would be optimally presented that way. Paintings that are spread across two pages in the physical copy have a relatively thick black line down the center in the digital version--it's just bad presentation any way you look at it, and it mars what is otherwise a nice art book. I've requested a refund and will save my money for the hardcover version.
One of my favorite artbooks
This was one of the first art books that I got myself and it still remains one of my most favorite ones. There are just so many gorgeous concepts that are all printed out on high quality paper, and I never get sick of looking back to them whenever I need some inspiration for my own work.
Amazing Art and Very Insightful!
I have been a huge Alice fan since I played the original on the PC. I was really glad to see that a sequel was being made, and knew I had to pick this Artbook up as well. The book is a nice size which is great. It is a hardcover, and the pages are thick and very nice quality. The colors and art can be appreciated with the bigger size and the better quality paper. The content is beyond incredible. The art in the book comes with blurbs about the piece from the artist or a producer, and it often goes into detail about the piece, why it was made, and what the goal for the piece was. Most of the work is concept art, but they are of high quality. There is alot of complete pieces with full color and depth. Not just sketches or storyboards which is common in alot of artbooks you get as preorder bonuses with games. The book is broken into chapters, with each chapter giving insight on an aspect of the game, such as preproduction or Wonderland locations. Each chapter has art pertaining to the theme. So in preproduction, you see alot of the brainstorming and ideas that came up early in the game's development that ended up getting cut from the game. It's a real treat to see. Even the design of the characters are in detail. The book is about 170 pages or so, and has a ton of material to go through. I could not put the book down, and finished it in a day. It was just really good and kept my interest up the whole time. If I have any small gripes, it is that a few of the pieces which are VERY interesting, have no blurbs about them. There were a couple of pictures I had really hope had some context to it, but it only lists who did them. About 5% of the pictures have no blurbs. Also, some of the artwork isn't talked about enough. For example, there is a really neat picture released when the game was announced of alice scaling a tower crawling with snails and a mechanical snail at the top. The piece is here, but is only briefly discussed. Another minor gripe is that book is a bit spoilerish in that it shows some of the new characters and the new look of original characters. Also, in talking about the levels, alot of information is given about them, which kind of gives away a tiny bit of the story. It doesn't ruin the story by any means though. I couldn't fathom an artbook without ALL the material either, so I am glad it wasn't cut out for the sake of being spoilerish. I do wish there was a disclaimer somewhere though. Still, this is an excellent book, and one I enjoyed. I hope you enjoy it too!
Beautiful
This book exceeded my very, very high expectations. The pages are thick, clean and clear and the book itself is overflowing with fascinating information and impossibly gorgeous art. It's a shame that most of this art is limited to the confines this book-- it's flawless. On a more technical note, my husband is the VP of a very large board and card game publishing company that produces many hard cover RPG books of a similar size and heft. He was very impressed with the quality of this book, especially considering the price point. I have not experienced any page weakness etc.
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