Recently, gamers once again remembered the games American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns. The reason was the developer's posts on social media.
American McGee decided to talk about what became a "signal" for him that his days at id Software were coming to an end.
Before creating the Alice games, McGee worked in technical support at id Software and then as a level designer on Doom, Quake, and Quake 2. The turning point came during one meeting, when he saw a Valve tech demo:
One day at id Software, while we were working on Quake 2, everyone gathered in Paul Steed's office to see what Valve was doing with our technology. There was a cinematic scene with characters moving around while a crane was operating, and several cameras were making panoramic movements to convey some element of storytelling. It was true cinematic storytelling using the Quake engine!
American McGee then exclaimed "WOW," but his colleagues did not appreciate it and "turned around and gave him a stern look":
Ha. At that moment I realized: "Alright. I want to tell stories with this technology. And these guys do not." That is why on the day I was fired from id, I cried at first... and then, as I was driving home with a box of my belongings in the trunk of the car, I started to smile. And then to laugh.
The creator later made American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns, which many players enjoyed, and to this day they continue to urge Electronic Arts to let McGee continue Alice's story.