Dear Insane Children,

Stop! Before you read any further into today’s update (which does contain some pretty amazing stuff)…

See the cover image for today’s post? That’s by our good friend Omri Koresh. He’s doing amazing work for the Asylum project but he’s also got a really beautiful art book project of his own over on IndieGogo. 

Please consider supporting his efforts by backing HIS CAMPAIGN.

Why? Because it’s a direct way of showing love for the artist who brings you this sort of gorgeous madness…

He says of this image… 

“It’s when the hatter is sad about his friends that were hurt because of the explosion in the lab. in my mind he of course blames Alice. In this image he’s looking at the glass and thinks about how he was before the accident. His body is also mechanic of course, so he made himself higher, hence the old Book version vs the Game’s version.

I think i’ll call it “I’d like to forget what you did” as referring to Alice.”

Omri’s said he’s interested in creating more of these story illustrations and I am encouraging him to do so. Can’t wait to see what he produces next.

Of the Queen/mask image called “I survived the fire” he says…

“I thought that in the AMA game the queen is a disease on the world with tentacles. so i thought of making the new queen as young Alice, seeing the fire, constantly. because it’s her guilt that’s literally eating her alive.  and if the queen is being created in the asylum world, i think it fits.”

Speaking of the structure and narrative of the world, I’ve been working with Joey on a world-map of the new Wonderland. Based on our initial chats she turned in this image: 

Since then we’ve had a deeper chat about how to represent Wonderland during this period of history. Here’s my thoughts: 

Joey, 

This looks like a good start. It has me thinking about the shape and meaning of each area… 

Since the new symbol for Asylum is the Chaos Symbol, I think maybe we should consider a layout based on this shape (or the number contained in the shape: 8)… (we’ll need to create a new “stage” to make this work)…

When we first enter the story we’ll be in a stage called “Shock” which is just like a horrible nightmare of Alice’s family dying in the fire. It’s a part of Wonderland – since everything in her mind is a part of Wonderland – but after the first part of the story we’ll never be able to go back there. It will be like a bomb and a fire at the start – and it will break Wonderland into many pieces. We can place this area in the center of the Wonderland map – like a volcano or a floating island with a massive crater in the middle – or a sort of inside-out black hole which is releasing fire and smoke and chaos into the world. 

What remains of Wonderland needs to be floating around this central core. We’ve talked about this before… having each of the areas of Wonderland as a floating island – broken pieces of the world as it was before. (Some examples other artists follow).

I can imagine these pieces are floating in orbit around the “Chaos Core” just like the planets are orbiting the sun. Some of the floating islands may touch from time to time – allowing Alice to jump from one to another or complete some puzzle which requires alignment of the areas. So think about the map you’re drawing like a map of the solar system. There can be variety in the orbits – they don’t all have to be around the same plane … think about an “atomic orbital” instead. 

For now, you don’t need to worry too much about the design/art of the areas included in the list which you’ve not yet explored. You can create generic floating island masses to represent those – and maybe make them unique by placing a large statue or building on them which is related to one of the Wonderland characters. We’ll sort out the specifics of the “owners” of these places in the coming weeks. 

***

That’s it for today’s update on art and design. As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. We’ll discuss your feedback during this week’s live stream.  That’s scheduled for Hong Kong Time, Friday, April 27th @ 09:00AM (6PM PST on Thursday, 26th). 

CLICK HERE to set a reminder via my YouTube Channel. While you are there, be sure you are subscribed and that you hit the little “bell” icon to be reminded when we go live. Lots of people saying they aren’t getting reminders. /shakes angry fist at YouTube.

Before we go…

AN IMPORTANT REMINDER FROM MARTIN:

Be sure to update your Patreon Profile to include your shipping info. Otherwise we can’t send you rewards! 

That’s it for now. 

OOPS! Just saw that our friends at Freaky Fandoms emailed with details of this week’s podcast where they will discuss the life and writings of Hunter S. Thompson. Be sure to check it out over on Soundcloud!

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American (and Lulu)

Dear Insane Children, 

Martin and American (that’s me) have set a time for this week’s live stream. You can set a reminder via YouTube – or set your alarms for 09:00 Friday Morning, Hong Kong time (5PM on Thursday, PST). We’ll discuss Pirate Jam, Asylum, Out of the Woods – and we’ll continue our play through of “American McGee’s Alice.” 

If you have questions or comments on recent Asylum development please be sure to get those into Patreon prior to the stream so that we can address those during the stream. Yay!

Here’s something to consider and discuss during the stream… 

For Pirate Jam we created some pirate doubloons which measured 4.5cm across and featured the Pirate Jam pixel skull. They came out really hefty and impressive!

So… the idea is to produce coins like these which feature the Cheshire Cat face on one side and the Chaos symbol on the other side along with the latin motto “Solve et Coagula” (dissolve to re-form). These “Chaos Coins” would be offered to you as Patrons and to future crowd-funding backers (at a higher price than is available here) – and would eventually make their way into Alice: Asylum as an in-game collectible/currency. 

We can attach a name/number to each of the in-game coins so that, when collected, you can inspect them and see to whom that coin belongs. That’s an interesting way of getting your name in-game! Plus, you’ll have in hand a physical coin which will last forever. 

I’d like to offer these coins as the next reward here on Patreon. Perhaps at the 2500 Patron level for all Patrons at $35 and above (when we cross the goal)? When thinking about cost, please keep in mind that the cost of the coins to manufacture is ~$10USD and shipping ~$10USD each. 

That’s a back-of-envelope sketch of the idea… please feel free to poke holes in it in the comments below. We’ll discuss your feedback during this week’s live stream. 

From Shanghai, 

-American 

Ahoy, Mateys!

The final episode of Pirate Jam 2018 is upon us! In this episode you’ll see which pirates took home the grog and which pocketed the gold! We had a ton of fun sailing around the seas of Thailand. Some really amazing games were made which we’ll upload to the Pirate Jam website soon. 

In the meantime, let us know the in the comments below your thoughts on this year’s event!

From Shanghai with Shivering Timbers, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children,

I’m finally back to Shanghai and getting caught up on all sorts of Mysterious, Alice, and Pirate-y things. My final days in Thailand were great and I was fortunate to spend time with my friends Liz and Jamie of Followtheboat for Songkran (Thai New Year). To see what sort of fun we got up to, check out the video Jamie put together: It’s pretty awesome. 

Meanwhile, production continues apace on all things Asylum. Alex just sent along a batch of sample pages from the License Proposal. 

I replied to him with this feedback: 

 Alex,

Looks really good to me. A couple of bits of feedback: 

I don’t know that the “Rutledge” text is required at the bottom of every slide. It’s a lot of text to carry from slide to slide for the point of suggesting that this is something from within the universe. Is there another way to do that – perhaps with less text? Perhaps keep the first line of it and lose the 2nd line (except for on a title page or something)? 

The font treatment on silver text (LICENSE PROPOSAL, MAKE EA GREAT AGAIN, etc) feels off. It appears weak, cheap, um… just very generic “photo-shoppy” in contrast with the rest of the treatment. I think it’s the use of bevel and the fact that the font being used ends up with “wavy bottom” along the bottom edge as a result of the bevel? Uncertain how else to describe it… just feel the overall effect is not in line with our theme. Can you try some variations? 

 —

Here are the other two pages…

What do you think? Any elements you think we should adjust or change?

Don’t worry about the copy too much as this point. We’ll finalize all that stuff for content and presentation. The main point of feedback at this time is related to the art and design of the presentation. 

Let us know your feedback in the comments below.

We’ll go through everything in a live stream later this week. More info on that in the next update. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel (and hit the “alert bell”) here…

https://www.youtube.com/americanmcgeeofficial 

From Shanghai with Lulu,

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

I’m still winding down Pirate Jam in Thailand but our art team continue their work on Asylum art and design. Joey just shared this amazing final render of the Flamingo image. For sure we’ll want to turn this into one of the autographed art prints available to Patrons! 

Progress is also being made on the embroidered patches. 

If you missed your chance to grab these as a Patron reward fret not! We’ll add them to the Mysterious Shop once they are ready for sale. We probably have another ~20 days of design and production, so don’t expect to find them in the shop just yet. 

Alright… I have to get back to cleaning up the boat and taking care of loose ends here at the marina. 

Share your feedback in the comments below! We’ll read through your thoughts when I’m back in Shanghai (after the 15th of April).

From Beautiful Thailand,

-American 

Ahoy Mateys!

The pirates are back with another episode from Pirate Jam 2018. More competitions, more games, and more fun in the sun. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments below. 

There’s one last episode in the pipe which we’ll upload soon.

Here in Thailand I said farewell to the last pirate (Brad) last night. He’d missed his original flight home, so we spent a day driving around and exploring Krabi Town together. Liz and Jamie are still in the marina with me and we’re trying to figure out what we’re going to do for Songkran this Friday the 13th. 

But first I have a couple of days of intense boat cleaning, bill paying, and other wrap-up business to attend to related to Pirate Jam 2018. 

Already thinking of ideas for Pirate Jam 2019 – might even end up splitting it into two events, each with 20 pirates (10 returning, 10 new). And looking at locations north of Krabi in Phang Nga Bay for our day stops. 

What do you think of Pirate Jam? Suggestions on how we might make it more fun for our pirates and more entertaining for our audience? Let me know in the comments below!

From Thailand,

-American