The Art of Alice: Madness Returns

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

My wife loves any form of morbid twists on fairytales, especially Alice In Wonderland. She hasn’t played this game or the first one however the artistic detail in this is absolutely incredible. Highly recommend to anyone who simply collect macabre or have played this game. Great piece. 5 stars.

This book is wonderful if you want to see copious amounts of conceptual art, and get an idea of how it was applied to the the actual game. There is a good amount of digital painted, sketch and photo manipulated work. If you love things dark and grungy, this is the right book. However, if you wanted a deeper collection on the design of Alice and her dresses, though this book does contain a lot, it might not be for you considering the book covers all aspects of the game from level design, character and monster design, items, and concepts of how movement and actions are performed. Also if you were more interested in the paper style cut scenes, there is a section about it, but it's not very large, and you're better off researching the scenes separately. If your looking for complete and finished artwork though, there's not a lot here either, and your better off looking online. Despite that though, this is a really good book for game designers and concept artists.

I am a huge fan of American McGee's Alice and ,its sequal, Alice Madness Returns. Naturally, I am a big fan of the series dark and twisted art style, and when they announced this artbook, I knew I had to get my hands on it. Due to me not having money at the time and me saving up for other things, I couldent get the artbook at the time of release, and I waited almost an entire year before I decided to buy it. After the long wait, I finally got the book, and it does not dissapoint in the slightest. The art in this is everything you would expect it to be. Its very dark and demented, and shows very well how the minds at Spicy Horse studios managed to turn the strange, colorful, and bizzare world of Alice in Wonderland, into a demented and nightmarish hell hole. There are small comments from people that made the book on almost every piece of art, and the book really shows how much the art changed before the final product. Some pages even have art for bosses and levels that never made it into the final game! Overall this book is an amazing artbook that anyone who is a fan of the game, American McGee, or just dark art in general needs to buy. Its worth every penny.

Really didn't know what to expect when I got this book but knowing the game revolved around the art style I knew it would at least be interesting. Most games have very sub par art books especially the one's that are preorder items and such but this book really pulls out all the stops. This book isn't just a bunch of sketches and advertisement art with in game screen shots, it is a well written and interesting and informed book with some large unused art. Some haunting imagery and explanations of the thought process behind the creation and why they decided to go with the designs they chose for the game. If you like some serious art books, Dark Horse really did a great job on this and their work on the Avatar The Last Air Bender Book was also a great book. Check it out.

The look on my son's face when he opened this gift was priceless! Beautiful book full of colorful artwork from the game. Would recommend this book to anyone who is an Alice fan.

When I saw the price of the book on Amazon I was so excited to buy the book I didn't think twice that it might be too good to be true. I haven't had issues with buying books from Amazon in the past and it's not something too serious. The book was in good condition the only problem was the paper bindings are loose on the first ten or so pages in the front and a few in the back. Which was disappointing because over time the pages, if not careful, could come apart. Had the description on the website mentioned the loose page bindings I would have been okay with the condition of my order. I saw the book before at my local comic book store and it didn't have that issue.

By far, the best of the game's artbooks I own. Features notes on the criative process, and a lot of designs that weren't included in the final game. And I mean a lot....clothes, different Alice models, levels that were cut, enemies...really, it's a huge book! I can recommend this not only to fans of Alice, but also for people interested in dark, twisted, evil ilustrations.

Amazing and definitly a must have for fans of the Alice games. Wish they went more in-depth with the basic enemy characters and the concept sketches of them.

Gorgeous art work. The pictures are beautiful and it was great to read about some of the things the developers had to say. Lets just say I have crossed all my fingers and toes for a third games because Madness Returns is my favorite video game.

Amazing artwork and concept work! A must have for anyone who is a fan of the American McGee's Alice series! The artwork is only more dark than the game itself! And the notes from the artists and American McGee is pretty insightful into the process of developing a game from concept art upwards.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

For anyone looking for any supplementary material to the world of Alice the madness returns this is it. The dark tone is reflected in this art book and the images and information provided are a must have for any fans of either the original Alice or the sequel. Hardcover book, lots of artwork and design sketches, commentary from the designers and promotional material. Good stuff

the artwork is amazing

My wife loves this book, and I find her frequently browsing the pages. She's working with an artist on integrating some of the pictures into a side, chest to thigh tattoo. Given what I've seen in some of the pages, I'm not sure if I should be excited or terrified about this.

Great gift

This book is filled with beautiful and inspiring artwork from American McGee's second Alice game as well as the back story that helped to bring the game to life. It's a fantastic companion to the game, but it works well as a stand-alone piece too. Great for anyone interested in whimsical and creepy art styles. Some pages may be a little too graphic for kids under the age of 10 (but if you've played either game you know exactly what you're getting yourself into!)

The art in this book is amazing. Full color, thick pages - perfect. The book only discusses the visual art of the game. I do wish the collaborators talked about the evolution of the story they decided to tell. However, I am very pleased with this purchase.

This book is BEAUTIFUL! Standard shipping took about a week or a little over to get here though, so I would suggest faster shipping if you aren't a patient person. This book is WAY bigger than I thought it was going to be, it's about two of my hands length long. Product Dimensions: 12.4 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches. It also has a lot more pages than I was expecting, so that was a really nice surprise. It contains lots of ideas and concept art that didn't make it into the game. It also shows some finished products and ideas for the different sections of the game. Over all, this is a great book. The art is beautiful, it has plenty of pages, and it was a joy to look through and read.

If you're a big fan of the game, then you will not want to pass this up. This really dives into the game. You'll get to read and view how the process went in creating this beautiful game. You get art, notes, and a forward by Mr. McGee himself. The art is amazing, and you'll probably find yourself staring at a pages for long periods of time. I did anyway. They show you the many ways levels were originally created, and how Alice was suppose to look before they changed it. You get to see art pieces of things that were suppose to be in the game, but didn't make the final cut. If you're a fan of the game, or just a fan of art in general. This is a must own.

The video game is gorgeous, and the art book is just as gorgeous, if not more so. Beautiful illustrations and artwork are held very well on their pages in a beautifully designed book. The printing and binding are also impeccable. As a graphic designer, presentation is everything, and oh man this book presents everything with top-notch quality. I definitely recommend it even if you haven't played the game and are just interested in a darker extension of Lewis Carroll's world.

Absolutely beautiful and super interesting!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I love seeing the un-used ideas from the game, the development process, and what went into making the final product. The artwork is so twisted but is absolutely gorgeous. Everything is in full color and I loved reading this book.

I was expecting smaller and less amazing, but this art book completely exceeded my expectations. It is wonderful quality, thick glossy pages, beautiful art. The packaging was great too, nothing got damaged. The only bad part is that if you didn't finish the game yet there are spoilers! So I can't read past the pre part before I finish the game :P Oh the temptation! :) Great product.

OK.

I love the quality and the pictures. This is one of my favorite games and I am excited to have this book. It sits on our coffee table with our Marvel and DC encyclopedias. The artwork in the book is so beautiful.

I purchased this for my daughter at Christmas and couldn't be happier that I did. When she opened it she couldn't stop thanking me and yelling "I can't believe you bought this for me, thank you!" I was on the fence about it when I looked at the artwork at Amazon before buying and was totally comfortable that I was getting something she would love.

Bought for daughter who loves the game. The artwork in this is stunning.worth every penny.

This book is fabulous, it's jam packed with original conceptual art from Alice MR. High quality, vibrant print - must have collectible book for true Alice fans.

Great book, lovely pictures, beautiful art. The story behind anything can be quite the interesting read and this one is definitely worth the time.

SUCH a cool addition to my collection! It's a beautiful, sturdy book with great content. It has a nice balance of pictures and info. Big and glossy. A popular coffee table read amongst friends.

I've been a fan of Alice since the original game on the computer and I can't wait for the 2nd game to come out! Anyways the book came in a box. After I opened it, I was already staring at the front cover. I love the cover alot, it shows you exactly what your getting your self into before you open the book. The book is hard covered and the pages are thick and have some nice weight to them. This is one of the better art book for video games I've had. Most of the other ones are paper back. For what it costs right now ($20) this book is definitely a must buy. If you are a fan of Alice from the original game on the PC you should get this one. Theres tons of content to read about the processes and somethings about the upcoming sequel. The art itself is very beautiful, its dark and yet there is so much detail put into every page. There's comments and such on each page, its very nice to read what the artists take on things were. My favorite section was Alice and her Dresses, which shows you sketches and reasons behind the designs and such. If your a fan of Alice you should get this book, the price is nice. If you like the original fairy tales that were more dark and morbid, than you would probably like this book. You won't be disappointed, it also makes for a good gift for those who like more dark and twisted things.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I received this a couple of weeks ago, and it's such a beautiful book to flip through. An overall nice mixture of character design, element design and environment design. The text is informative without being overbearing. In all, I feel like they put a lot of effort into making this book. Would highly recommend for anyone who is a fan of the game, or who wants to expand their "Art of" book collection.

Bought for a gift for my fiance, she loved it.

I have been collecting Alice stuff for many years now, and when American McGee made the 1st Alice game... I was hooked. I am glad there is a 2nd one and that someone thought to publish an "art of" book about it. Inside is a very nice collection of game and development art.

Girlfriend loved this game, she got several tattoo ideas from this book

Immerse yourself within the depths of Alice in her demented wonderland- filled with creepy creatures, asylums, puppetry, and surviving through the madness... A certainly must have for any artbook collector...! A wonderfully hard cover book filled with pages and pages of vivid concept work! Certainly a favorite of mine I can't stop looking through! (I seriously can't get enough of it) I really wished they had published more of their brilliant concepts and designs that hadn't made it to the game! Very professional binding and spellbindingly smooth pages. Brilliant concepts to a brilliant game!

This book was good but my main gripe would be too much background art and not enough about the characters. The background art in this book was good, some great but some of the characters didn't even make it into the book! They had lots of things like random fish hanging on the walls but no Tweedle art and only two pictures of Mad Hatter concept art. I did like the different Alice dresses and concept art, I just wish they would have given more time to some of the others. I like to know the background of the characters and wish they would have give more time to that but over all I would recommend the book to Alice fans.

This book contains some of the most beautiful concept art. I love alice and wonderland and almost all of it's adaptations and this book was both inspirational and stimulating. It was definitely a one of a kind story and I hope to play the game soon.

This thing is HUGEEEEE, like no really its a really big book and worth it the picture doesn't show how big that thing really is but it is a huge book.

I bought this book with the game. I was a fan of the original game so when it came out I snatched it. The art in this book is breathtaking. I acutally used this book to show my tattoo artist pictures so he could do a tattoo of alice since I like the games so much

This was ordered as a surprise for my daughter. I know from thumbing thru the online pages that she will absolutely love it. Shehas a huge "Alice" collection and this will be a treasure.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

beautiful art from the game. came in good condition.

I got this for my sister. I thought it would be creepy, but my sister loves it. Says it gives her lots of inspiration.

I got this book used and the only issue is the spine was cracked but otherwise it was in great condition. I'm not a gamer so I couldn't get far in the game at all when I tried it.

I was quite impressed with the quality of this book. It is 9x12.5 inches so it's a nice size and a good deal on Amazon. It's also full of inspiring art in various stages from concept to finish. I thoroughly enjoy it and recommend it.

Such a gorgeous book. If you love the game like I do you will really appreciate the artwork. Just gorgeous. Pretty good sized hardcover book.

It's an awesome book. I loved looking at all the different designs they had before the finals. Some characters in the book didn't even make it into the game, which was also really cool. The packaging was very secure and it arrived in time. No complains.

The product I bought was used and I expected it to be a little better. The pages are falling off the spine..

Came in good condition and was excellent as a present; we're very big fans over here and the extra material and full color pictures are just stunning!

Beautiful although somewhat violet art work.

Great boo, hard cover, great detail in pictures. Shipping was fast. Great for tweens or adults. This would make a great gift for anyone who loves the werid.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

awesome coffee table book. My daughter (the recipient) says her favorite part is seeing the "making of" sketches... and the things that did not make it into the game.

This item is gorgeous and definitely worth a purchase for any fan of this game or game series.

i got it and i love it but the on the top there is a slight damage to the top of the spine :(. all in all though the book is still good and that is why i didn't give it a 5 star

I Love American Mcgee's Alice Madness Returns, the art work is very beautiful, it's not something you would regret buying :)

One of my favorite games of all time, and the art is impeccable

When it came in the mail I was especting for a small book to be honest, turn out it was really big, like an A4 and full color, the ilustrations are so good, the print quality is incredible. You will totally love to have this book, even if you didn't played the game, it's that good.

very good book saving for xmas gift

I played the first game when I was younger and I loved it; so naturally when I heard they were making a second one, I had the highest hopes it would at least be as good as the first. Turns out, the second game is BETTER than the original (in my opinion at least), and a lot of that has to do with graphics and atmosphere. So I had to buy this book, to get my Alice "fix" and finally see what the creators had in mind during production. Turns out, there's a ton of lovely art in here. All dark and gritty, but still wonderful to look at. Also very imaginative! Everything is presented, from backgrounds to character designs, and of course weapon and dress designs. The game has some tragic undertones, and those are made even more evident in the artbook thanks to a design of Alice having been lobotomized (and absently staring while drool drips from her mouth). I'm glad that exact image was not used in the game itself, because really, it's depressing enough already. The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is a number of paintings / drawings which feel unfinished and a bit too naive to me. Bear in mind that I'm not an avid game player, and all the rest of my artbooks are about animated movies - so my standards regarding art quality are a bit higher, I guess. There is, of course, some awesome art in this volume, but those detailed and complex images really just bring out how "lazy" others are. Still, if you love the games or are a fan of dark fantasy (and maybe of Burton-ish aesthetics and stories), I warmly recommend this book. The positive truly outweights the negative and as a whole this book is a very high quality product. The binding is good, paper quality is good, much of the art is genius and of course the concept is memorable and striking. Recommended.

This book is so cool the art is amazing

My fiance fell in love with this. This is now her precious book. Worth it!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

LOVED this book!!! its AMAZING!!! The only con is that it doesn't came dressed in a plastic bag.

The video game storyline was a bit lackluster but the art? Holy moly! So glad I bought this and it arrived so quickly!

I wish there were more character sketches than the landscape concept art, but still an interesting read!

Amazing art book. defiantly recommend for anyone who loves creepy dark art work. Lots of different designs, just wish there were more concept art for the different dresses.

the style of the art work in this book is to simply put it incredible. i have never played this game but this book cand easily make a person want to check it out. this is what alice in wonderland could look like in a dark animated film could be. truly remarkable its a must have.

Bought this for a teenager who loved the game Alice: Madness Returns, and she loves it. It has great pictures throughout. A must buy for fans.

This book has some nice art work. It's got lots of level and character designs that didn't make it into the finally product which was nice to know.

Love this book. The art is beautiful

This book is not want I expected. I though this would show and tell more of the game being produced and how they came up with the ideas and styles. The book touched on that subject but at times the text was just babbling about how they fought over Alice, her dresses and such forth as artists. The scenery was fun to look at and i do not regret my purchase. I wish they would have told more on the main characters such as Cheshire cat, hatter and his tea mates, Dr. Bumby, the caterpillar and such in terms of style, inspiration, backstories and more but they were all left out aside from Alice which explained some and then left some out with a lot of holes in how things came to be or why they did or did not use something.

I had high hopes for the quality & contents contained within this fantastic art book, and it didn't disappoint me. Imagine a middle school textbook that has been slimmed down in width by about 60-65%, that should provide with an idea of the volume. It provides great facts about the style of the game with high quality pictures. I have yet to find a flaw, which I doubt I will find.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

fast ship and beautiful book!

The artbook is a fantastic purchase for anyone that can enjoy a set of unique and sometimes grotesque art. If the book was to disappoint me in anyway, it would have to be the fact that a lot of what is in the art book did not make it to the game. A shame considered when the game has great execution of the art style, but is lacking in so much content. Highly recommended.

The artwork is amazing. This book is everything I wanted.

the alice art is awesome. love this book.

This is a great collection of all the art in the game and then some. I love it.

Gorgeous and surreal art, plus plenty of in depth info about the game. Even includes the other dresses Alice wears in-game. Definitely worth buying

Just finished the game. Good story and beautiful levels. This book is cool showing alternative designs and the making of characters/levels.

Book is good although would have prefered the paper version. Would love to have it on bookshelve instead. . .

I am fascinated by Mcgee’s Alice . This book incredibly highlights his artistic visions

Great book, I was surprised in a good way, because it was so big. I love it.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Great book, arrived pretty fast. It is as described, 184 pages of amazing art of Alice. Beautiful book and great quality print.

Th Art of Alice Madness Returns was exactly what I wanted - it came as described and arrived earlier than expected!

takes you so much deeper, it is amazing to see how the game and story came to be. a must read for all fans.

I do like this product because I didn't expect the book to be huge. I thought it would be a medium size. I love that the pictures are very detailed! The book is hard covered and smooth which will protect it from stains.

Superior. Art is everything.

got here on time and it's great!

What a great art book for reference of creepy things in this world. Beautiful pages and wonderful to look at.

Awesome as images and contents, deep in the preproduction material, and show you all the entire sketches ideas, and thoughts on this marvellous grotesque game. A must to buy for fans of the previous chapter! Many pages to make you enter in the twisted vision of Alice Liddel!

From an artist's perspective and a graphic design viewpoint, this book appeals to a lot of people - even those not familiar with the character.

Beautiful graphics! Amazing game!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Super interesting to see all of the things that didn't make it in. High quality prints and beautiful artwork.

Great art work book. Wish there were more photos from the game than the concept art. Overall good though.

It's so nice to have this book! I played the game myself and I like the scenes and characters inside. This book really let me have a chance to get closer to them and it's fun to know how they were created.

some of the drawings are a bit creepy for me but love this book!! One of the best drawing books totally down for another edition

This is a great book. Amazing artwork and interesting concept ideas. I am very glad that I ordered this book, highly recommended for all Alice or even art fans.

Absolutely beautiful book. One of my favorite concept books! The detail and descriptions behind it are so inspiring!

awesome art collection goes perfect with my game and tshirt:)

Great book with many illustrations. Definitely for the avid animator to draw inspiration from

This is what an "art of" book should be like. This book is a very large format, heavy and extremely high quality product. The pages are crisp, very colorful and chock full of goodness from beginning to end. I highly recommend this book if you like "art of" books or are just a fan of McGee's Alice series.

Book is a great buy for any game art fans. Pages are beautifully presented in full color and add on to the story by showing art for never before seen characters and levels while also showing the creative process for creating the insanity that is Alice and her mad mad world.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I just wish that more of what was in this book had ended up in the game! The pages are very high quality and beautiful.

My niece is into art, anime to be more specific. The book has some very interesting and graphic drawings. However she loves it. Not too I personally would ever get it for myself but as for a gift for my niece. 100% satisfied!!!

It brings you an idea of how alice madness where designed. And why the characters and the world of Alice, is like it was. Alice madness has a great design, if you like the game art, this artbook is the complement that you would want.

I have been interested in McGee's Alice game for some time and this book is definitely worth the purchase since the price is good. The hardcover is nicely made and the pages were thick and the artwork are awesome, gruesome and pretty creepy. And horror genres are not my type of games! Give the book a look if you're interested in weird and creepy games. Words of warning: This book has potentials of spoilers for the game.

I love this, alice madness returns is my favorite game. It so beautiful and amazing, if you are a fan of alice, just buy it, you wont regret it :D

One of the most beautiful art book I had the pleasure to buy. Made in a great material, this's a book that all the fans of illustrations and the Alice universe must have.

This is an amazing piece of art, the concept art of this game is great, I really enjoyed seeing (and reading in some cases) the whole book, if you are fan of the game you must buy it. the quality overall is very high.

I was really excited to receive this book of art, and it did not disappoint! The art works amazing, and the information is just as good.

Very good art book.

I got this for my daughter who absolutely loves it. The book is good quality, well illustrated. This is the artwork of the video game, which includes sketches and concept artwork.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Great great art book. Perfect quality.

Beautiful art for a beautiful game

Love this book, came in perfect mint condition! Art is very beautiful

A really great book with magnificent art design, fans of the game or just fans of macabre things will like this book,

perfect book for illustrator and game lover

The artwork is incredible, the story of the making of the game impressive and the size of the book is well worth the $20

The book in itself is wonderful and awesome. Buy it, it's worth it, it is full of details and all the artworks are amazing. But, mine wasn't in perfect condition. I don't blame the shop, since the book was correctly packaged, I think it's te transport company who screwed it up.

loved the book, and the fact it was hardcover was great.

excellent book love everything mr mcgee does from the games to the artwork. :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

This is a highly recommended product to anyone who is a fan of the game as well as those interested in Tim Burton art style( with a little more twisted imagination added to it). The price is definitely very reasonable compared to some other artbooks which is double the price and have less content. This book shows the devlopment process to realizing the game's amazing art style and direction and has comments by the artist on their thoughts and devlopment process. To reiterate, this is highly recommended and definitely worth checking out. Digital copy is also available via the darkhorsecomics website and a mere 10 USD.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

everything is perfect!! thank youu!!! is Beatiful Book!

I couldn't be happier with this book. I LOVE this game so much, played it almost four times now, and this just completes my love for it in general.

This is a good companion to anyone that likes the game by similar title & dark artwork. My only problem was the binder of the book was slightly cracked/torn on arrival.

husband loved the graphics game play for me due to camera angle was a bit to get use too but all together a great game

Exactly what I expected..... Arrived on time ...... Got my money's worth. Book is very interesting on my quick flip through so I do recommend it for true fans. Woot.

The illustrations were well done, and any narrative was clear with discriptions. and the introduction from american mcgee was interesting.

Beautiful pictures and an awesome inside look into the making of Madness Returns. It is a very large book with lots of colored pictures. Well worth the price!

A dark, gothic, beautiful compilation of art of this visually amazing game. The product came way before expected, wich was a nice surprise.

Top quality, plenty macabre on each and every page! If you played the games; consider this a must have.

If you liked the Alice series, this book is amazing. The book's build quality is excellent. The art adds another dimension to the series.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Wonderfully disturbing art and behind the scene info from a great game.

definitely worth it if you are a fan of this game. fantastic.

We bought this book because my 15th birthday is comming up, and I wanted this book. I got a sneekpeek so the book wasn't damaged, but otherwise I havn't looked. But I'm absolutley sure I'll love this book to pieces.

I really love the book, but! when it arrived home it was with a lot of wrinkles and mistreated. the same with the other books. Other than that, the information and pictures inside were nice :)

I love the game but I wanted to see what led up to the amazing gameplay. I'm not disappointed!

incroyable ! great art work ,extremely well rounded from sketches to end product ,there's a lot of great talented artists in this book and their interpretation.

My daughter is a great fan of the game and loved the book, so I think it deserves 5 stars.

I love looking at the artwork that went into creating the end product, be it video games, cartoons, movies, it's awesome!

Wonderfully illustrated!

Alice madness is an amazing game! and has amazing art ambientations and characters! this book catches perfectly the scence of this amazing twisted art!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Love the Gore beautiful just beautiful I really really loved it the art was amazing and so hard to describe

Beautiful art work.

Just a beautiful book!

A complete guide to the Alice's Madness Returns Game. Great and detailed artwork. Stunning book, a masterpiece for those who likes art, animation, games and a lot of blood!

This art book is wonderful. It was well worth the money. I recommend buying this book for any fan of McGee's Alice. Also it's fascinating and completely gorgeous!

I got it for a lower price. It came with a few dents but the previous owner made me fully aware of them before I bought it. This Alice fan is very happy :D

This artbook is awesome!!! Very high quality!!!!! A must have if you love Alice Madness Returns game!! If you buy it you will not regret it!!

I order this book for my daughter, and she loved it.

It's an absolutely awesome book for those, who like Mad Alice.

Perfect and in times!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Amazing book, loved it.

yeah

when i saw the trailer for the Alice madness returns video game immediately i started saving up to buy it ,this is a really awesome video game for me especially since i love wonderland in a evil fairy tail!!!!,well my point is .This book is totally WORTH it !! i totally recommended .and i know for a fact that you are going to love it just as much as i do !! great art!!! also in the art book you get to see the great imaginative of Alice and her adventures in wonderland that have not shown in the game because of problems so they have to cut it , but there awesome!!!

Purchased for my son who was an art student at the time, he seemed to love it.

Good condition upon arrival but cheap binding. Pages are still in place but the binding is tearing and some pages are no longer connected.

The content in the book is perfect, but when I received the book in the mail, it had damage to it. The sides had dent marks, kind of like someone smacked the sides with a hammer. I'm not sure if there was an error boxing it, or if there was an error during shipping. I also know my book was not used for a fact.

I never completed the game because my playstation broke but for those not familiar, the game has striking visuals and concepts - from the animation, the backgrounds and the characters. The book is great because you get to see the pre-production concepts along with notes plus notes and photos of the completed game characters, scenes and backgrounds. It is a fascinating look not only the game itself, but how the characters evolved and the notes from the various people involved. From how they settled on a look for Alice, to the evolution of their London and Wonderland, you get in depth looks at the details, from small to large. Even if you have not played the game, the artwork here is intricate and amazing.

While I didn't play the first game, mostly due to not having a computer to call my own at time, I wanted to. I loved the images I had seen of it, loved the idea. Now a second game is coming out, and this book has been released with the developmental artwork. Oh. My. Goodness. I know that this is a pretty niche market - not everyone loves art/game books as much as I do, and certainly the full impact of one cannot be delivered via computer screen. I'm sure that Adobe Digital Editions, as awesome as it is, isn't quite up to showing just how fantastic this book is. The reader/viewer is taken through a full range of things that might be found in the game. The many variations that were tried for the characters, and Alice in particular are just amazing - down to dress designs and hair styles. I loved seeing the evolution of ideas and characters, different artists takes on things. The book is filled with gorgeous art work and makes the reader really appreciate just how much work and thought goes into the making of a game. I'd recommend this to anyone who is into dark art, or game art, who has loved Alice, or is excited about the release of Alice: Madness Returns. As I said before, it's very much a niche market, but for those of us who adore these kinds of books, this one is rich with stunning images. Delicious. Review copy via NetGalley

If anyone want's to know what is inside this book, it is essentially a ton of ideas for the new game Alice Madness in art work form. What is excellent about this book is it is virtually stunning and visually Macabre yet has that somber beauty of classic art work shown in mesuams. Each photo has a few descriptions of ideas that were either too scary, or just would not fit at all, plus it also has BETA photos of the planning stages for American Mcgees Alice Madness that goes into detail of the jumping and platforming etc. Overall i liked the book, i might be complaining about something small but the pages seems to be greased a tiny bit, like if i touch the page even after i have washed my hands with soap and dried them off it has a small bit which can leave residue but that is very small considering the pages are complete black it is hardly noticable at all. I would tell anybody that this is worth a buy due to the fact that now a days, we do not have that much oldschool games that come back and look better than ever, even in art work form.

I got an eGalley of this book from Dark Horse through NetGalley(dot)com. I loved the artwork from the first video game,

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

I am a big fan of the original Alice game by American McGee. It was a dark and gritty interactive depiction of Wonderland and it's o so many weird inhabitants. Even back in the days when the Quake 3 engine was still at large, the game's art design was exceptional with mind boggling level design, colourful environments and very organic structures. Alice: Madness Returns tried to recreate these wonders for the current generation of consoles. In my opinion the game itself was not nearly as fun as the original game, yet still good in its own right. However the art design was once again the star of the show and I was pleased to see that Dark Horse Books was also going to release an art book for the game... and what an art book this is! The Art of Alice: Madness Returns features a hard cover binding and its 184 pages are of very high quality. The book feels and looks phenomenal. The Art of Alice: Madness Returns features six distinct chapters and an introduction written by American McGee himself. The art presented in this book ranges from pre-production drawings, to high fidelity environment images (London and Wonderland), character concepts (literally every single character from the game seems to be in this book!), world object design and so much more. Small descriptions beneath some of the artworks will explain the things you'll see, which is a good thing and something I really missed in art books from Blizzard entertainment. The art in the book can be best described as Wonderland meets HP Lovecraft meets MC Escher. There are so many weird contraptions, impossible structures and otherworldly creatures to be witnessed in this book, that your mind will be blown halfway through the pages. Please, make no mistake. This book as well as the game itself is by no means anything you should show your kids. The images in this art book can be very aggressive, gross and - in layman's terms - generally eff'ed up. Even the cover itself may be enough to invoke nightmares in a child for weeks to come. The Art of Alice: Madness Returns has got to be the best art book in my collection as of now. You can still get this phenomenal book via Amazon for a very good price. I can't praise this book enough. Go get it now. For more Reviews like this, visit my personal homepage (check out my profile for the link) where I review video game art books.

I've wanted this book for years, and the CONTENT is amazing. Its full of wonderful concept art, and wonderful commentary by those who worked on the project. However. I gave it four starts because I ordered this NEW from amazon and when I received it today and opened it, the pages were bent and completely separated from the cover. I ordered two other art books at the same time, so they all arrived packed tightly in the same box. One was even still in a plastic wrapping, yet only Alice was damaged so it can't have been the result of rough shipping. So I warn you to be very wary purchasing this from Amazon -- its not the first I've heard of this particular book being damaged on arrival. Barnes and Noble sells it for roughly the same price.

[...] This book depicts amazing, macabre and wonderfully disturbing art. The talented artists behind the video game The Art of Alice: Madness Returns (Electronic Arts will publish the game in 2011 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC) have helped create a book of their journey from original concepts to the finished product. In 2000 the PC game American McGee's Alice emerged as an early action adventure game and then kind of faded into obscurity. 11 years later McGee and EA are releasing a sequel to his macabre work. Dark Horse Comics and Spicy Horse Games have given fans a 184 page sneak-peak at the game and an amazing visual experience. The concept art work is captioned by McGee or a producer telling how a picture was created and describes the goal they were trying to achieve. There are also many finished pieces that made it into the game. There is an introduction by McGee and the rest of the book is broken down into chapters that focus on different aspects of the game such as locations, characters, and Alice's costumes. You also get to see some brainstorming sketches that were eventually scrapped for one reason or another. The art work is beautiful and horrible at the same time. Horror fans, gamers and casual or occasional readers of comic like me will appreciate this collection. This isn't your mother's Wonderland . 5 Artistically creepy sheep!

I played the original Alice back in the day and I was sort of hoping for a section on the graphics from the old Alice. But alas, this is a miniscule criticism and in no way diminishes my delight when I first browsed The Art of Alice. One always sort of holds their breath when anticipating a sequel...will it be bad? as good? better? I cannot comment on the video game, but the graphics are blowing me away. What I am loving in particular is the very dark Dickens-esque settings and characters. Wow. There's a little bit of steam punk, Tim Burton, I could go on... I just wanted to add two enthusiastic thumbs up to the other reviews. This is one of my favorite books I've bought this year.

Few game creators are as recognizable as American McGee is. Even people who have never played his Alice game recognize the artwork (such as myself- I watched a friend play it), so it makes a lot of sense that McGee would eventually venture back into the insane world of Alice. And because of that there's all new glorious artwork to behold! Just like with the original game, the artwork in this is just incredibly beautiful & freaky to behold. There's just so many different art styles here to look at & all of them are wonderfully detailed. Also included in the book are several explanations behind the characters, the ones that made it in & the ones that didn't. This is about the closest you can come to picking McGee's brain without pulling a Hannibal Lecter on him! The only downfall about this book is that now a whole slew of people are going to be eagerly awaiting the new game's release in June. This is just a gorgeous book & I can't wait to see what this all looks like in action. Seriously, this is one of the more beautifully laid out artbooks I've seen. 5 out of 5 stars (ARC provided by Netgalley)

This book was great. It's printed on nice, glossy paper, and full of lots of amazing conept art for this game (one of the best this gen). My non-gamer mother looked through it, and she really enjoyed it. She felt the need to point out all the "gross" pictures and let me know how unpleasant they were, but when she finished the book, she was really enthusiastic about it. It made me kind of sad, though. There was a lot of awesome content in here that didn't make it to the game... anyway, if you liked the game, think of this as the bonus content that comes with most movies, the deleted scenes and director's commentary you usually get.

I could not be happier with this book if I tried. The hardcover is just gorgeous. The paper is thick, glossy, and the colors are fantastic in it. It's a nice size and very easy to read through. This was a fantastic gift given to me and my only problem with it, is that I wish there was more to look at! This book is awesome for anybody into the "Alice" series, or a fan of American McGee's art style.

Nice art... really enjoyed

The imagery in this book is stunning, from the different versions of Alice as she was conceived to the dark and threatening landscapes and dreamscapes. The pictorial content reveals the process that lies behind the development of a concept to final artwork. Every page is thorough and consistently unbelievable. I am an artist and illustrator, I bought this book to add to my studio library, hopefully spark some new ideas. It is worlds beyond what I expected. Dark, intelligent, disturbing, wonderfully nightmarish, and inspiring, this book is a must have for video game designers, illustrators, painters, digital artists, and anyone who appreciates art with a dark side.

I just bought this item. Alice is the best game I have ever played. The graphics are crazy! And the story is insane. And I am buying this book to support McGee for a 3rd game and the movie. And I hope my support could go to a wizard of oz game as well *wink wink

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Received this as a birthday gift from a dear friend, it's absolutely gorgeous with high quality glossy pages. Take care when handling as you may leave fingerprints on the surface. Adore this book! Beautiful artwork and it's larger than a regular sheet of paper, exact measurements to follow later.

This is a gorgeous book from cover to cover! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is in love with any part of American McGee's world. This book is full of concept art that was done throughout the process of creating the game, including a lot of the final art that made it into the game (along with a LOT that didn't). There is an introduction written by McGee himself. Then, the book is basically the story of how the game was created. The different domains that the game covers are talked about in great detail, and did I mention the artwork is gorgeous?!?!?! A must have for anyone who appreciates the world of Alice!

I love all things Alice. Seen the flicks, read the books, even dressed up as a gothy Alice for Halloween. It's one of those stories that can easily be twisted and reinterpreted and remain completely enjoyable. One thing I've regretted never doing though was playing the original American McGee's Alice. I'm just not that big of a gamer, I enjoy video games... just not spending hours in front of them. When I heard a sequel was coming out I thought I'd check out this art book to see if I might actually want to break my rule and maybe buy the game. If you're not already convinced this book will sell you. the art team on this project exudes passion and had the potential to make this game almost endless. Imaginative, colorful and at the same time horrific this macabre collection of illustrations is insane... but in a good way. On that note, my only beef here is that so much of the art here is from stuff that was actually not put into the game. I mean, I'm thrilled to see it but it's kind of sad to see such great stuff not make it into the game. If you enjoy graphic novels and art books, are an Alice aficionado and love gothic, gloomy styling you'll dig this book for sure. Enjoy! **Review copy received via NetGalley.

Amazingly dark and beautiful a treat for the eyes. I found myself totally astonished by every page the details are just so intricate. The emotions drawn in the faces and scenery made the art work come alive. The coloring superb, drawing the eye where it wants. This is my kind of coffee table book. I want more- I can't wait for the game to be released

This book is definitely one to buy if you are interested in the development of a video game. Although there could be more information about the process (hence my 4 stars), this book is chock full of inspiration and beautiful, beautiful art. The different variations of Alice's dresses alone are stunning. People forget that lots of work goes in to video games. We're in a golden age of video game art, and this book is a testament to that.

This is such an amazing book, I got it for my birthday and I just Love it the whole books is so vibrant and full of detail on the game and design. If you have the game or even if you dont this is a book everyone should have

This book is amazing! Every page is in color and shows details of all the concept art. It also has the artists names and gives clear detail of all of Alice's costumes and her weapons. The only problem with this book is that some a few pictures don't have captions but other than that it is amazing. Really worth the price, Great buy, and if you are a Alice Madness Returns fan you will truly love it!

Dark and mysterious, The Art of Alice: Madness Returns gives fans a peak into what it took to create the second game due out June 14, 2011. If you or someone you know likes graphics/ games that are a obscure and have a taste for the macabre you will certainly want to pick this number up!

Underrated. Ending is a bit anticlimactic but overall it's a wonderful journey. 😜

I will highly recommend this book to both the fans of the game and artists who's seeking inspiration. This book went far beyond all expectations. With almost 200 pages, this is an enjoyment for the creative-mind from beginning to end. I loved the game, I love this book, I'll promise you, this book is a piece of art. Don't hesitate, you won't regret buying this! - Kim B

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Este libro superó las expectativas que esperaba, bien expuesto, para los que disfrutamos el juego es un complemento mas que merecido.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE ART BOOK EVER ITS SO BEAUTIFUL AND WONDERFUL AHHHH THANK YOU! It was incredibly beautiful artwork and AMR is my all time favorite game so the book just made everything so much better!

Absolutely amazing art with phenomenal insight into the game and the work behind American McGee's Alice Madness returns it is a must buy for any true fan

Good product

Excellent item!! Great material!

I loved the original American McGee 'Alice' game, and still play it sometimes. I bought the game soundtrack music, and play it all the time. So I was delighted to hear that there was an updated game coming - it will have a lot to live up to! While waiting for the game's release, I bought this book, not expecting much. What a surprise! Even the weight of it surprised me. It's a heavy book, largely because it's printed on such high-quality glossy paper. The artwork is an utter delight. Artists (and game designers, I suppose) will find inspiration, and the rest of us will just gaze at these gorgeous pictures and lose ourselves in them. After the short intro by American McGee himself, there's a minimum of text throughout the book - just enough to set the scene for each section. If you loved the original game, or the new incarnation, or are just a fan of gothic takes on the Alice story, this is a must-have. I've added a short video, trying to give you a virtual 'flick through' of the book. What the video can't capture is how good the book actually feels to hold and read. Definitely recommended - I have quite a collection of 'art of' books, and very few of them are up to this standard. If you have any questions, post a comment and I'll try to answer.

Bought the game years back and never got round to completing it. While I hope to do so eventually, it's clear the vision here was greater than the end product. And it's the vision of the game that really makes this art book special. It's hard to get at a decent price now unfortunately, but if you can get a copy, the art is stunning and I'm sure anybody who is interested in dark fantasy would love it.

American Mc Gee's "Alice" series is famous for the dark twist it took on the fairy tale/dream world of Wonderland. This art book tells many stories behind the final result of "Madness Returns" and they being told straight from the creators. If you are a fan of Alice, or just find the game's art direction interesting, this is a perfect gift to yourself.

I have to say at the start that I am not a gamer - not since the days of Space invaders at any rate! - but I can always appreciate the art & design that goes into the production of the medium. For me, as a lover of the many diverse forms of art, this is such a wonderful book to add to my bookshelves. It contains some of the most amazing images - both painterly and computer-generated - that has complemented the Alice in Wonderland story I've ever come across. At times beautiful, ethereal, deliciously sinister and twisted, bleak, macabre and grim - as I turned each page, I was rewarded time and time again by the imaginative interpretations of the contributing artists; a veritable feast for the eyes! The accompanying text is illuminating, informative and sits easily and unobtrusively with the images. (And I appreciate the semi-matt paper the book is printed on that reduces light reflection!) There is a gallery of the aforementioned artists at the end of the book which is a nice touch - all credit to them! If you like your art diverse, exhilirating and definitely grotesque, then you won't be disappointed. Extremely good value for money!!

One of my favourite concept art books, the amount of thought they put into the designs is amazing. The game is beautiful and I had a lot of fun playing through the creepy dark world. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in concept art for games but also for film, tv and animation as it's interesting to see the processes from very rough sketches to full detail concepts and how they decided on the final aesthetics. It's a beautifully printed hard back book of great quality.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

The book is packed with sublime concept art and illustration from the video game, 'Alice: Madness Returns'. But you don't need to have played the game to appreciate the talented artwork on display. The content is well thought out and presented with a huge quantity of artwork and supporting text. The twisted nightmare theme of the game is consistent throughout. The binding is excellent and the hardcover is thick and strong - better than most 'art of' books out there. Overall, this book is a must for all 'art of' book collectors and concept artists/illustrators. Great collectors item for fans of the game too. I would put this in the same league as 'The art of Kung-Fu Panda' and 'The art of Sucker Punch'. Worth every penny!

This is one of the best artbooks for a video game. The game itself was a bit of a disappointment, but the art style was superbly dark and stylised. This artbook covers all of the ingame art and shows it all off beautifully. Print quality is great, as is the binding. Even if you do not care much for the game itself, it is a book well worth having if you have even a slight interest in it, such is the quality of the work inside.

A cracking hardback book to go with a cracking game. I bought my daughter the game as she loves Alice in all her guises. The game was great and my daughter enjoyed it all the way to the end. The book is to go with her growing love of graphic art. Its never left her side for a year. A book full of great character development and wonderful drawings and ideas for costumes and characters. Large full colour with great print quality. A great purchase.

I've brought this as a present for a friend, the book itself is great quality and the content is perfect for those who enjoyed the games. It is a little sparce on the details of pictures at times, but they've loved it.

As with most "The Art of..." books this one is of high quality and I would recommend it to everyone that is into this art style. The whole bloody, mad Alice inspired art is seriously awesome.

Just as dark and creepy as I remember great coffee book table. Love it. We are huge fans of the game. OH has a Cheshire cat tattoo..

If you like Alice and if you like video games, then this is a must have! It's hard covered and has an endless high quality sketches and full colored versions of the various steps of the making of Alice Madness Returns. Includes lots of versions that where not selected for the final work but are still amazing.

I am in love with the world that is Alice, and this compilation of art makes me want to play it for the 19th time! The 2-D cinematics really set the artistic vision in the game, which I think makes the game more of a Victorian style. The ideas conveyed in the book makes the person's familiar to the game realise just how many amazing ideas never included in the final release that would have been really interesting to work out and have fun with. I can only wish to be able to draw and have ideas as good and as well made as all of these in this book. If you are an Alice madness returns can or just want to look for a different look at Alice, this is the book to put on the wish list.

I bought it for my teenage daughter as she is into art and this game specifically. Haven't given it to her yet, but I am sure she will love it. Looked through it myself and it surprised me - a very good quality book, superb sketches, colours, it just sets the right mood.

The first thing that caught me by surprise was it's size. This book is really tall. The cover and the pages are of really good quality and the ilustrations are simply beautiful. I loved the game so much that I just couldn't resist buying this product. It is very beautiful and if you liked the game, do not even hesitate to buy this. I'm really happy with my purchase!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

This book is really nice. I bought it while I was still playing the game, but I must say it is really nice to be able to dive into the universe once again. The quality of this book is very high as well and they really explain a lot about the game and the thoughts behind it. A must-buy for an 'Alice: Madness Returns' fan!

Excellent artwork. Daughter loved the book. Very dark & gothic.

If you enjoyed the game 'Alice:Madness Returns' then you'll love this, the large hardback contains tons of notes from developers, concept art, original designs and quite frankly beautiful paintings. A lot of the work in here is outstanding and it's a shame that it had to be cut from the final game. Printed by Dark Horse the glossy pages really help the art to stand out. Anyone with an interest in the game or even game production itself should definitely take a look inside. Well worth it.

What an absolutely stunning artbook of the current excellent video game. Thoroughly recommended for insight into the games design and production and loads of useful information. This is a great treat for video artbook enthusiasts.

Absolutely amazing book - all the sketches, drawings, paintings and concepts are awe-inspiring. I loved the game the very first second I installed and played, so I had to buy the book.... and massively impressed. Always loved 'Alice In Wonderland' ... and this is no exceptions..... brilliant book, and would highly recommend to everyone

i had nothing less to wait from this book! great vibrant colours, extra artworks that didn't make it to the final game, backnotes... as a concept artist myself, i found it extra interesting and complete

If you are a fan of Americanbook to have MeGees, "ALICE" this book is for you. The artwork is stunning, cannot wait to play the game now. This is just a brilliant book to have.

Loved it sat and went though it in an hour. Lovely book amazing art inside makes me wanna jump back into the game again. The products perfect yodel did spoil it again with slow dilivary and were alittle rude

Perfect product and Fast delivery

Such detail and it is so big. I am so happy with this purchase even though it wasn't even for me. It was an xmas gift and my brother absolutely loved it. Its so much bigger than I thought it would be with countless pages. The imagery in it is wonderful and this is something any big fan of the game would love!

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Excellent illustrations to accompany a macabre game

As a massive fan of the game, this book is just as wonderful! I am constantly looking through it! Great to show others too!

Speedy delivery, product undamaged.

The art work is amazing but it you get to the back page to quickly and it leaves you wanting to see more

Loved the game, and when i found out about the art of, I had to buy! Really lovely book. would suit anyone who loved the dark style of the game :)

Beautiful artwork the book is amazing it, it shows why the game was great.

I bought this for my wife , who loves the video game .A beautiful book.

Definitely recommended - I have quite a collection of 'art of' books, and very few of them are up to this standard.

brilliant artwork

I love the artwork by all those amazing, talented artist especially all the gore elements they put in the game.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Love it!

This is a great art book. Really recommended!

one of my best buys ever! Everything about this book is amazing from the glossy pictures to the description about how making the game went. Its a must have if you like the game or even just the art work which is beautiful.

Buy it , do not hesitate. Super fine quality, it feels precious. Big, bulky book, with very fine craftsmanship. Was browsing through for hours. ;)

This is a wonderful item. The art cointained in this pearl is wonderful and unique. could not get more satisfied than I am right now, as I am reading this. A must for every gamer out there.

Simply amazing dark themed book. Remember, this is the art and how the art for the game was created. If you're uncertain about this product, do research first before purchasing it.

I got the book and it's absolutely marvelous. Do not hestitate if ur an Alice Madness Returns lover. Worth it.

I loved the game and seeing the art of the game blow my mind. I only wished I bought this on hardback and not kindle.

I love this book! When it first arrived, it was larger than I expected. It's just a little bigger than A4 and it fatter than I expected too. It's lovely on both the inside and outside and very inspiring as an artist.

Amazing artbook worth every penny. Especially for alice fans.

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.

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.)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

This book is as beutifull as it is disturbing. Fans will certenly love this piece of magnificent art. High resolution on all the pictures :)

My niece, an art student, wanted this book for her birthday and absolutely loved it. She said that 'the art within is epic!'

Este libro lo compré porque soy fan desde el primer juego, el segundo juego no tenía esa atmósfera deprimente y envolvente que tenía el primero, pero teniendo este libro me doy cuenta de que el error no estaba en los diseños de los artistas sino en el motor gráfico en si. Este libro del arte de Madness Returns nos muestra en gran parte ideas que no llegaron al juego final, lo cual es una lástima porque el diseño de personajes, incluídas diferentes versiones de alicia antes de ser concebida, son geniales. Algunas tan oscuras que Madness Returns habría tenído una clasificación mayor de ESRB si hubieran llegado al juego. El libro nos lleva por la mente de los artistas desarrolladores, lo que pasaba por la mente de American Mgee, desde que tuvo la idea del primer Alice y como fué tomando forma el proyecto. Incluye ilustraciones a dos páginas que sin duda son hermosamente macabras. El libro viene en pasta gruesa color negro mate, con el nombre "ALICE" en letras plastificadas con relieve al tacto, las páginas son de papel brillante, del tipo que se mancha fácilmente con dedos grasosos así que es recomendable no manipularlo con las manos sucias. Son 181 páginas donde los negros son profundos y los colores cuando los hay son brillantes, creando un contraste muy bonito en cada ilustración.Lo recomiendo mucho, tanto para fans como para estudiantes de arte, es un must have.