🗝️ 𝕾𝖆𝖑​✶

It would be fair to say that there was a fairly big disconnect between the game I wanted to make and the game EA Marketing wanted me to make when we were developing Madness Returns. The marketing team felt strongly that a Hard M title focused on gore, horror, and featuring a "psychotic" Alice was what audiences would respond to best. I did NOT want portray Alice as a psycho, cover her in blood, or "make things more sexy" (yes, that was a request). Famously, I pasted dildos onto the head of a giant snail in response to the "sexy" request and emailed that to the Marketing team. They stopped making those requests 😂 That I was even able to say "no" to any of this was a function of the finance deal that underpinned the project. It wasn't EA that funded the project - it was a bank in Los Angeles. And the deal was structured as film production deals are structured, via something called bond finance. This meant that so long as we stayed on schedule and budget, we maintained complete autonomy in relation to the design, story, and production. We had to stick to the original design and script that we submitted after the end of pre-production. And we did. For the entire project, we never missed a milestone. And as a result, we could say "no" to any and all requests or demands from EA. This setup was fantastic until it wasn't. When we got to end of the project, I knew we needed another 30-60 days for polishing (the game felt overly long in some places - editing was needed). EA, probably a bit out of spite, said, "no." Fair play. And so, we delivered the game precisely on budget and schedule without interface from EA. But also without the ability to request and receive a final month or two of editing. We made history in relation to all this. Madness Returns wasn't just the first AAA game fully developed by a Chinese team. It was also the first ever game to be bond financed in China. We were also the first team ever to tell EA gyf and (kinda) get away with it 😂