Alice: Madness Returns Creator Announces New Game Based on Plushie Dreadful Toy Line

Alice: Madness Returns, American McGee, Plushie Dreadful

For years, video game designer American McGee has been trying to get the third installment in his cult classic Alice franchise made to very little success due to the rights ownership by EA. After years of struggling to get the project going, he eventually announced his retirement from game development in 2023. Today, McGee has announced that he is preparing to return to game development as the Director of a game based on the popular Plushie Dreadful soft toy line.

American McGee’s game development career started at id Software as tech support but earned a full development role, working on games such as Doom II and Quake. After being fired from id, McGee went on to work at EA where he directed American McGee’s Alice and later its sequel, Alice: Madness Returns, both of which have gone on to become beloved cult classic games. Since, McGee has tried to gain the rights to create a sequel to the series titled Alice: Asylum, even crowdfunding a pitch bible to bring to EA, which was ultimately rejected in 2023, which resulted in him retiring from game development.

Following his departure from EA, McGee has continued work for his family business, Mysterious, who creates the Plushie Dreaful toy line. McGee has revealed that he is preparing to develop a brand new game based directly on the toy line.

2026 will be the year of Alice: Floofness Returns ?
Plushie Dreadfuls: THE GAME pic.twitter.com/GlzMCA6SCT
— ? American McGee ? (@americanmcgee) December 30, 2025

According to McGee, the game will follow “the universe of Plushie Dreadfuls living inside of Wonderland“. His announcement video features accompanying concept art which retains the cutesy-yet-dark aesthetic of his past work. He also claims that talks have begun with a studio to develop a demo for the game as he will begin work on the story and concepts in the coming months.

Given McGee’s direct involvement with Plushie Dreadful as a company, it seems as though this project is in safer hands than his previous cancelled titles, which were at the behest of EA, a publisher that has moved further and further away from auteur-driven work in the past few years. That said, it seems that this project is still very much in the early days, with a lot to go before the game enters full production.

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