It appears American McGee and his team at Spicy Horse are not waiting around to see if he can secure the rights to the Alice franchise for a new game. The company is moving forward with the other game it has been working on, set in a steampunk version of Oz.

The Shanghai-based developer launched a Kickstarter campaign for OZombie, and is hoping to raise $950,000. The predominantly single-player game stars Dorothy's great-great-granddaughter, who joins up with the Tinman and the Lion "to battle Scarecrow's mindless army for control of Oz." Very loosely based on L. Frank Baum's books, the game will treat Oz as an island set in the Pacific. Many of the traditional races will be included, such as Munchkins, Gillikins, Quadlings and Winkiesl, but the theme of the game suggests they will look no where near the way Baum may have envisioned them.

The game will be developed for PC, Mac, Linux and next-gen tablets.

The Kickstarter will run a bit longer than most, ending on Augugst 5. This isn't the first game Spicy Horse has crowdfunded, as it turned to the audience to complete funding for its last game Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, which was critically panned.