OZombie to be renamed something less terrible

An American McGee game set in a twisted alternate version of Oz sounds like an intriguing prospect. One called "OZombie," however, not so much. As a result, the Alice creator is going to rename the game to something less groan-inducing.

"'OZombie' is causing too much confusion," said McGee in a Kickstarter update. "'American McGee's Oz' would be great if that name weren't owned by Atari and others. We need a new name and will come up with one shortly. Suggestions?"

McGee is also removing the recently added Alice film rights stretch goal from The-Game-Formerly-Known-As-OZombie's Kickstarter. Unfortunately, Kickstarter won't let McGee remove tiers once backers have selected them, so the 80 or so people who donated to this are being e-mailed and asked to drop their "Alice" selection. Once that's done McGee will start a separate campaign for the Alice movie.

The Shanghai-based developer noted that it will create a new campaign video focused solely on That-Oz-Game.

Elsewhere, McGee voiced his frustration with the perceptions of his Oz Kickstarter. "So far every attempt I've made at being transparent, adding value to the campaign and inviting discussion has been turned into something negative," he lamented. "It's incredible to me how deceitful and outright mean the media are being about what we're attempting (and these days, about Kickstarter in general). Same goes for a vocal minority of backers on this campaign. Every misstep is an insult, every wrong move a 'scam.' Can this new plan overcome that tendency towards negativity?"

"I'm looking forward to your feedback on these questions."

Go on, then, Internet. Give the man some constructive criticism. Is this what you want?

The Oz-based American McGee project is currently struggling with only $135,013 of its $950,000 goal raised. It has 27 days to go before its 5th August deadline.