Dear Insane Children, 

(I am making this post public as a Christmas present to all Alice fans out there – Merry Christmas)

From myself, Martin, Joey, Sonny, Omri, and Lulu… Happy Holidays! 

We hope you’re all cozy and warm on this Christmas Day! Myself and Yan are anchored off the coast of Ko Lanta in Thailand aboard Chaos. Our shakedown sail with the new name and numerous upgrades has gone smoothly thus far. The weather is cool and calm – perfect for tuning everything and getting in some much needed R&R. 

Progress on Asylum hasn’t taken a holiday… Joey and I continue our back and forth regarding ideas for the depression area of Alice’s psyche. Here’s what came from our previous discussion… 

After the holiday we should see a logo/key image from Sonny. Omri is working on Angelababy as Alice (for the film pitch). And Joey will continue work on location and game mechanic themes. I want to start nailing down the pitch outline for EA. All of this and more will be discussed in the next live stream from Shanghai. Expect that during the first week of 2018! 

From Chaos with Love, 

-American 

Greetings Insane Children! 

I hope you’re all set for a warm and wonderful Christmas and New Year. Myself and Yan have run away from the -3c super humid winter megacity wasteland of Shanghai and will be sailing around Phangn Nga Bay, Thailand enjoying a bit of sunshine and clean air. Not a terrible place to be… 

Meanwhile, work on Asylum continues apace. Joey’s submitted a handful of new images related to Alice’s confrontation with the fire. Sonny is working on a title/logo image which I hope to share soon and Omri is focusing on a photo manipulation of Angelababy as Alice. Fun stuff! 

Here’s the latest from Joey…

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American,

I did the concept of Alice on stairs fighting huge doll, also did a quick sketch of some of Alice’s movement.

Oh, we have a bloody Alice in Madness Returns as her most special outfit when her health is low, I did us here an Alice on Fire, this outfit could also be a special one she uses in some unique situation. Her hair doesn’t have to be straight as shown in the image, but I do like them to be glowing bright.

So, shall I work on the concept of Alice flying in the hole? Or you want me to work on sth. else? Shall I work on this area or shall I move on to another phase of emotion?
Cheers!

Joey

Joey, 

These images are fantastic. Really love them! 

How about working on one of the other stages of grief? You could do depression or acceptance? For depression… perhaps a level where it’s always raining, foggy, and dark? It could be a mixture of London, the Asylum, some park or forest where Alice played with her family as a child, and parts of Wonderland – all mixed together. These are places where there were happy memories but now those memories only cause her pain. So it’s like places which were bright and sunny and happy… but now they are cold and dark and rainy. 

Because depression can really cause a person to fall down and get stuck… maybe this area could be ruled by some sort of shadow… Alice has to sneak around and avoid being caught by some “dark beam” of anti-light. If she gets caught in the shadow then she will be lost to the darkness. Powerless, sinking into some deep dark place, and then have to climb out again… It could be like every time that beam hits her a pit opens in the ground under her feet and swallows her… then she has to climb out again. 

This level could be very lacking in color – lots of purple, brown, grey, black, and white… 

What do you think? 

Cheers, 

-a

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PS: A bit of housekeeping… The Chaos Necklaces are being manufactured as we speak. We’ve also got hands-on very nice boxes in which to ship them. And I’m working on a collector card to complete the set. Expect those to ship out in January. 

The art print for Patrons which should have gone out in December has been printed but not yet shipped. I’ll probably bundle that together with the January print (for those of you on the monthly art feed). Apologies for the delay – I was just swamped in December with travel, Mysterious business, meetings, etc. Will catch up in 2018!

I’ll also take a look at adjusting the $50/$100 tiers next month as was mentioned in a previous update. 

As always, please share your feedback and comments below. We’ll address all that during the next live stream (first week of 2018). 

From Thailand with Love, 

-American

Dear Patrons, 

I want to get your feedback on something… Since starting to focus on Patreon I’ve been humbled by the support you’ve provided to our work on Alice: Asylum. THANK YOU. You are awesome!

But… I feel like I’ve not properly managed the tiers and how they reward you as Patrons. Especially at the higher levels ($50 and $100)… these tiers are a bit confusing/redundant or nonsensical. 

I’d like to make some adjustments, but need your feedback before I do that. Here’s what I am thinking…

1) Merge the $100 and $50 tiers into a $75 per month tier with the following rewards: a) a Chaos necklace ($100 value) and b) a monthly art print ($100 value per month). That means you’ll get one necklace and art print after your first month and a new art print each subsequent month for one price of $75 per month. What do you think?

2) Look at the $2-$15 tiers and let me know if you think these are structured correctly or could use adjustment. From what I can see right now they look OK… progressing from “access” to “video credits” to “in-game credits” to “access” when we have development builds… Makes sense to me but I want to make sure we’re doing this right. Thoughts? 

For the $100/$50 adjustment… to be clear, everyone who supported at these levels previously will still get a Chaos Necklace for their first month. Necklaces are in production at the factory now (picture of production sample above. We expect to take delivery of those in January). And going forward, for everyone in the $75 tier we’ll send out art… 

Anyone see any issues with this adjustment? Ideas for how better to do this? I don’t want to make a big move without your feedback! 

I look forward to your thoughts and comments. 

Cheers, 

-a

Dear Insane Children, 

Lots of new concepts to share with you today!

First off, two lovely pieces from Sonny – a baby Jabberwocky and our old friend Mock Turtle. I’ve asked Sonny to pull the style in closer to our expectations from Madness Returns. While I think it’s interesting to see a lot of these characters in their pre-fire state, it’s clear we all agree that we shouldn’t sacrifice our “look” for the sake of that concept. 

During the last live stream I probably mentioned my “concept art as tattoo” theory – basically that we want to see characters rendered in such a way as to make them “tattoo ready” – it’s an easy question, “Would I have this inked on my body?” With these two new images I for one can answer that with a solid, “Yes.” 

Speaking of tattoos… the 13th is my birthday and I’m leaning heavily towards getting a Chaos symbol done on my back. I like the idea of being reminded of chaos always lurking behind us.

Up next we have a bunch of new images from Joey. I’ve been talking with her about Alice’s abilities and how that impacts game play. She’s taken some of our chats and riffed on a couple of concept images…

We’re working towards listing Alice skills and abilities. These will help define the sorts of puzzles and obstacles we encounter in Wonderland. We’ve got things like slowing time, dress gliding/floating, climbing, pushing/pulling (perhaps with little magical helpers), and more… 

Joey is also taking a stab at defining our primary enemies. She’s focused in on a horrific combo of fire and dolls. Since the doll enemies in A:MR were some of my favorites (at least in terms of art direction), I am a big fan of this idea. What do you think? 

Tonight, I’m off to the premier of Tsui Hark’s latest film here in Shanghai. As many of you know he’s keen to direct an Alice film and our discussions around this topic continue moving forward. I’ll be updating him on all the latest art and design coming out of Asylum and see if there’s a way to link Asylum pre-production with efforts which might help us move forward towards a live action film. Fingers crossed!

We’ll have another live stream later this week (aiming at Thursday morning in Shanghai). Be sure to share your comments and ideas in the comments below and we’ll discuss everything during the stream. 

From Chilly Shanghai,

-American

“The secret is that only that which can destroy itself is truly alive… We must not underestimate the devastating effect of getting lost in the chaos, even if we know that it is the sine qua non of any regeneration of the spirit and personality.” – CG Jung

This will not be a happy story with a happy ending. It will start in fire and take us on a journey through denial, anger, and depression. The final stage of acceptance won’t see our hero having resolved the guilt, loss, and rage resulting from the loss of her home and family – but at least we’ll put her in a place where enough order is present that she might have a fair fight against the emotional chaos. 

We’ll discuss all of this and more during tomorrow’s YouTube live stream. Hit that link to set a reminder. We’re set to start at 0930 HK Time on Tues, Dec 5th – which I believe is 1730 PST on the 4th for people in the US (check!). 

While we’re talking Chaos… thought you all might like the two new additions we’ve just made to the Mysterious Shop…

Those are the Chaos Wallet and Chaos Coin Purse which are now part of the Vorpal Collection. Both are made from high-quality leather and feature  and embossed and stamped Chaos Symbol. Both are on sale during the pre-order window… I expect that’ll be the case until around December 15th, at which point we’ll start shipping these to customers around the world.

Work is also progressing on the Chaos Necklaces which will be sent to high level Patrons. Here’s an image of work on progress on those…

These aren’t yet ready for sale but you can sign up to be notified when they go on sale by heading over to the Chaos Necklace page at Mysterious. Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on these!

Important note regarding this month’s art print… 

I’m thinking about printing/signing the Hatter Workshop image you see above for the December artwork. Yes? No? Other suggestions you prefer?

Leave your feedback and comments below and we’ll discuss during tomorrow’s live stream.

From the Chaos of Shanghai, 

-American