American McGee and GameTap Partner for American McGee's Latest, American McGee's Grimm

GameTap today officially announced a partnership with game designer American McGee (pictured left) and American McGee's Spicy Horse studio to distribute American McGee's next game, American McGee's Grimm, through the online GameTap service. As American McGee revealed earlier this month in a now-removed blog post, the action-adventure American McGee's Grimm will be released on a per-episode basis and consist of 24 total episodes. Each episode of American McGee's Grimm will be based off a classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale--such as Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood, or Snow White--with a dark and distinctive American McGee-esque twist, much like American McGee's previous work on American McGee's Alice (PC). As new episodes of American McGee's Grimm appear, they will be integrated as new missions in the American McGee-designed sandbox world. To keep the pacing between episodes, American McGee and his staff at the American McGee-founded Spicy Horse at will use concepts equated to the the cliffhanger endings of television shows to entice further play of American McGee's latest. "My interpretation of these classic fables will provide gamers with an entertaining and interactive way of experiencing how the stories were originally meant to unfold," explained American McGee's Alice creator and Spicy Horse creative director American McGee. "The 'chapters' inherently lend themselves to the new episodic model that GameTap has perfected." "American McGee is one of the best known and most dynamic developers in the industry today and [American McGee's] Grimm is the perfect fit with our GameTap Originals brand," said GameTap VP of content Ricardo Sanchez. "American is really exploring the potential of episodic game development. Adding this exciting new title to our list of already successful episodic game titles shows our commitment to this proven format." The first episode of American McGee's Grimm is scheduled to premiere in the spring of 2008 on the American McGee-partnered GameTap service, which is fast becoming known for episodic gaming. Previously, GameTap distributed the first season of Telltale Game's episodic Sam & Max adventure games and, earlier this year, signed game designer Derek Smart to produce an episodic space shooter.