Having previously taken on many job titles in the gaming industry, it only seems natural that American McGee would become the lead designer of his own game. In a way, Alice is a culmination of the many hats he has worn: He started out doing tech support for id Software back in the glory days of Doom. He quickly moved up in the company, honing his skills by contributing programming and sound effects to Doom and Quake. But he's best known for the level design work he brought to those titles and expansion packs for them.

After leaving id, McGee tried his hand at a couple of other businesses, including an offshore Internet gambling venture, without success. He was compelled to return to gaming by an offer to work with Michael Crichton on a game version of Crichton's novel Timeline. McGee left the project before it was completed, only to sign on with Electronic Arts in 1998 and quickly set to work on taking the world of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland to third person 3D.

In the midst of him and the development team at Rogue Entertainment in Dallas trying to finish Alice on time, McGee managed to take a moment to reflect on what his latest, and biggest, job role has been like.

GameSlice: It's coming down to the wire now as you guys work to finish the game.  How would you describe this pressure?

"This is the most enjoyable crunch time I've ever been involved with."

American: There is certainly pressure, but not of the kind that I’ve experienced on past productions. This time around we’re only fighting to make sure that our content lives up to our own expectations. On a technical level, things are looking great. Our animators have wrapped up all their work and now it’s down to the level designers and texture artists to finish things up. Of course everyone will be involved with final tuning and testing of the game until we go gold. Overall, I’d have to say that this is the most enjoyable crunch time I’ve ever been involved with.

GameSlice: What's been different for you about the production of Alice compared to the other games you've worked on?

American: The only other projects that I’ve been involved with from start to finish were those at id. Alice is my first real project outside of those I was involved with there. It has been an amazing two years since I first started thinking about Alice. Being able to witness something like this from the ground up is very unique, thrilling and at times terrifying. The main difference so far has been mostly in the level of organization that has been present throughout the production process. We’ve always had a very clear picture of the type of product that we’re producing and have almost never strayed from that original concept. Personally, my level of involvement with all facets of production has been gratifying and at the same time overwhelming… but it’s certainly something exciting and different.