Environments

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Alice: Madness Returns/Concept Art.

London#

Concept art studies for the interior of Bumby's house.

Here is an early map of Victorian London showcasing various locations. The map shows places that are present in the final product like the docks, Hyde Park or the Rutledge Asylum as well as others that couldn't be visited such as St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London, Parliament and a Central Hub? Nevertheless, how big of a role the London segments were originally supposed to have is unclear but it certainly seems interesting.

Speaking of interesting, below you can see a collection of concept pieces depicting the beautiful yet sooty atmosphere of London. Interestingly in some images Alice is wearing her Wonderland outfit, suggesting that the London segments might have played a prominent role after all.

Wonderland#

Vale of Tears#

Giant floating clocks scattered all over the landscape. The adventure begins!

Hatter's Domain#

Notes: According to the art book, the big clock arena was originally going to have a face on it.

• The level "Always Elevenses" was previously called Teamaker.¹
• The teapot cannon is absent from the final game. Alice would use this device to launch herself to unreachable locations.²

Tundraful#

Deluded Depths#

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ On the right side, is what appears to be an early world map of the Deluded Depths domain. The original world was much larger in size and would feature numerous locations that Alice would traverse through. Such locations include deadly dark rifts, deep caverns, a kelp forest and a giant fishbowl (for whaterver reason). However, due to possible time constraints, most of these areas were absent from the final release except the town and Lost Souls Locker (graveyard). The scrapped areas seemingly got replaced with Inky Veil, Choral Coral and Oyster Garden: Beds.

Note: The killer fish artwork was an early idea for a barrier in case Alice strayed too off the map. At first some small fish would come and nibble at her, slowly causing damage. If she had gone too far, monstrous giant fish would suddenly appear and reduce Alice into seafood and the screen would fade to black by the sheer overwhelming swarm.³

Oriental Grove#

Note: One of the concept pieces above, showcases Alice riding on a dragonfly. This was not present in the final version.

Queensland#

Rutledge Asylum & Hyde Park#

Dollhouse#

To the right we have a rough concept piece of the Dollhouse domain. The area is split between two different paths. One for the Doll Girls (right) and the other for the Doll Boys (left). In the center there is a big colorful castle that connects the two locations, leading straight to it. It is unknown if this was meant to be an early design of the Insane Children's fort or another location entirely.

In the final game, the Doll Boys are completely absent.

The Infernal Train#

Notes: The Infernal Train was intended to be a bigger and longer level.⁴

• The beetle creature in the second image is absent from the final version. It is unknown why he has cut and what his involvement in the story would be.

References#