Alice: Madness Returns benefitted from the creative output of a wonderful team of artists and illustrators. Among them Sonny made a lasting mark by defining the look of several key elements such as The Infernal Train…

And the domain of Queensland…

Now he’s ready to join the Asylum and help define visuals for Alice’s next adventure through the looking glass. 

Adding him to the team is our next Patreon Goal.

Get early access, a direct line of communication to pre-production, and help bring Sonny on board the adventure by becoming a Patron today! 

Dear Patrons, 

We’ve got a final version of the initial Wonderland scene and some renders of Alice’s “Ash Dress” from behind with focus on the Flaming Skull (sounds like a yummy drink). 

Live Stream where we’ll respond to YOUR comments and answer YOUR questions – Sunday, October 8th @ 18:30 PST. Set a reminder and join the fun over on YouTube.

Here’s my response to Joey’s latest drop of artwork and ideas. Let us know what you think in the comments below. 

A couple of points to consider… 

• What about an arsenal of weapons focused exclusively on “fire” as a concept?
• How else might we leverage a “light on command” Flaming Skull?
• Any further feedback from cos-players on the Ash Dress design (front and back)? 

—–

Joey, 

The final version of the Wonderland environment is wonderful! The nutcracker is great – it’s reminded several people of a scene from the original game in which we’d also placed a giant nutcracker. I think this image will be great as an opening to the presentation we’re working on. Please be sure to send me the final hi-res file. I will also be printing copies of these to send our high-level supporters on Patreon.

Regarding future environments and the connection to colors – I do think your suggestion is a good one. Let’s connect each area to a primary color and complimentary color pallet. The next area (emotion) we’ll see is Anger – and anger is usually represented by dark red colors. That means we should expect to go into an area of Wonderland dominated by red – so let’s try the domain of the Red Queen. 

You can read about the Red Queen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_(Through_the_Looking-Glass)

Because she is a chess piece we should expect to see her kingdom structured around elements from a chess board. This was something we did in the first Alice as well. Though in “Alice” the area was presented as black and white – devoid of color. As you see here: 

For the Red Queen area this time I think it would be nice if you showed Alice outside of a castle. She can be surrounded by a sort of red/angry forest and plants. Maybe we can see there are guards at a large gate which Alice must find a way to get past. It could be around sunset so that the sky has a fiery red appearance as well? The point is to have the castle look more organic and colorful than what was presented in the first game. How do you feel about that? 

We also need to start thinking about weapons and skills for Alice. One idea presenting itself to me comes from the Flaming Skull on the back of her dress. We could build areas in which Alice must use the skull in order to navigate the darkness – or to keep monsters at bay. The skull can only burn for a limited time (10 seconds?) and after that, it must recharge. If she’s caught in a dark place or surrounded by monsters when the flames go out – she dies. This would lead to some interesting timing puzzles. 

It also opens the theme of “fire” as one of Alice’s primary weapons/skills. Perhaps we should explore a number of fire-related ideas for weapons? Fire is something kids love to play with – matches (flaming darts), fireworks (timed bomb), kerosene (lamp/flamethrower), ash/soot (cloaking or choking cloud/area of effect), etc. Let me know if you have other ideas – and we’ll ask the fans the same. 

Dear Patrons, 

Just in time for Halloween! I’ve added a collection of “Inmate” shirts to the Mysterious Shop. These designs were done by our friend and supporter Jennifer D’aww. And I’ve created a discount code for YOU my Patrons. Just use “PatronShirt” at checkout to get 15% off the regular price. 

Let the world know we’re all MAD here! 

*Discount is code will work until October 31st at 11:59pm.

Dear Patrons, 

We’re through the looking glass once again… Today we’re greeted by a vision of Wonderland during “Asylum.” 

During the live stream earlier today we discussed possible inspiration for Alice’s imaginings in this latest adventure. When exploring this topic we must keep in mind the nature of Wonderland and its relationship to Alice. Through the first two games we saw Wonderland as an extension or reflection of Alice’s psychological landscape. The characters she encounters represent her emotions or elements of her psyche. The obstacles she encounters are symbolic representations of the dangers she confronts in the real world. 

If we stick with the Kubler-Ross grief model as a template for the stages of Alice’s adventure then the first area she visits will be modeled upon “denial.” In this stage we can expect to see Wonderland as “normal” and the characters we encounter will insist everything’s fine. That’s why in this first image we see beauty, wonder, and safety. 

The topic of world structure was also touched on briefly today. I suggested we might explore a world where procedurally generated exploration zones (forests, mazes, etc) connect a fixed number of “puzzle rooms” or pre-defined set pieces. This would offer Alice a chance to explore, discover, and fight in a larger sandbox while also providing structure to the platform/puzzle and narrative elements of the game. 

We’ll continue exploring landscapes through the lens of grief. Meanwhile we also need to start thinking about weapons, moves, puzzle abilities, and other game play elements. 

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. Are there areas of Wonderland you want to revisit? Places you think were left out of the first two games? 

—

Because Martin and I neglected to address Patreon questions and comments during today’s live stream we’ll make a point to focus on those things during the next stream. 

It’s a major national holiday here in China so we’re off for a few days but will be back this weekend.

Cheers, 

-a

Martin and I discuss Alice: Asylum, Out of the Woods, and we play some Alice: Madness Returns. 

We realized AFTER this stream that we neglected to answer your questions and read your comments. Sad! 

So we’re planning another live stream for the near future where we focus on Patreon comments and questions. Expect that soon. 

And we will likely move to a twice-weekly live stream format in order to cover all the game play, Alice talk, Patreon comments/questions, Out of the Woods updates… and more! 

We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below.

Cheers, 

-a