Dear Insane Children, 

While I’m doing boat work in paradise our efforts on Asylum continue. This morning I had an exchange with both Omri and Joey regarding what might become the 2nd most important character in Asylum, Shadow Alice. 

Omri wrote to me with the image (above) of Lizzie as one of Alice’s primary (or perhaps THE primary enemy). I wrote back to talk a bit about how that might work in relation to Alice’s true enemy being Shadow Alice. Here’s what I sent him along with the note I sent to Joey detailing Shadow Alice… 

First, let’s try to keep in mind that our main character in the game is 13 years old. Many of the images we’ve seen in pre-production seem to show her looking a little bit (or a lot) older. To show the contrast between normal Alice and her shadow… let’s be sure to show normal Alice looking young, innocent, hurt, and scared. Shadow Alice can look a little more grown up – dark, bitter, angry, vengeful, and ready to scream, fight, and do damage. Normal Alice should look like she needs her mother or that she wants to run away. Shadow Alice won’t back down, is looking for a fight, and is probably a bit deranged. 

The next thing… we need to think about what the “shadow self” is to Alice. This is the aspect of our personality which we deny, which frightens us, which we hide from ourselves and from others. It’s the dark side of us which we heard whispering in our ear to harm other people (for harming us), to lie (because no one will find out)… but the main thing is that this is the side of us we are embarrassed to admit to ourselves or other people exists. We tell ourselves we are nice, honest, pure, and sweet… and we hope other people see us that way as well. But then we have dark thoughts related to life – to power, violence, sex, etc. Those thoughts, that side of us we don’t want to face or admit, is our shadow self. 

Now… many psychologists and therapists believe that we are not whole or complete until we face our shadow self and accept it. To be complete we must integrate the shadow self. In some cases that might also mean allowing some of the shadow self’s impulses to be expressed. Maybe you’re always nice at work… but on the inside, you want to yell at other people for being lazy and worthless. Embracing the shadow self would mean you stop pretending to be nice – you stop worrying about hiding the shadow self – and you raise your voice, yell, and show emotion when others are being lazy and worthless at work.

For Alice… she’s a 13-year-old girl who has always viewed herself as sweet, innocent, harmless, and good. But like all children who are transitioning to adults, she’s having confusing thoughts about life, existence, morality, mortality, sexuality, and other topics. She’s barely aware of some of the darker questions of existence… she’s in no way prepared spiritually, intellectually, or physically to answer them.

After the violent and horrible death of her family, she’s forced to confront Chaos. She’s forced to confront the painful nature of reality – one in which people she loved died screaming in a fire while she was unable to do anything to save them.

Shadow Alice comes from a place ruled by Chaos. She’s not bothered by the family’s death. Their death is her freedom. She can spread her wings now – take control and exert her desires and will on Alice’s psyche. All of Alice’s dark impulses can be set loose – without parents, there are no rules, no chores, no school, no manners, no concept of acceptable behavior. Shadow Alice is the rawest form of every teenage kid angry at the world and no longer worried about consequences. She can say, do, and be anything she wants – even if that path is short, violent, and ultimately pointless. 

These two sides of Alice’s personality will have to merge if she’s going to move forward, survive the asylum, and be ready for the coming battle. Shadow Alice has nothing on normal Alice’s logic, reason, and rationality. But normal Alice wouldn’t stand a chance in a fistfight with Shadow Alice. If either one of them “wins” alone they both lose. If they are able to merge their best elements and discard the worst – then she has a chance. 

It will be fascinating to see what Omri and Joey produce in their efforts to illustrate Shadow Alice as a living, breathing, terror-inducing character. 

And it all started so pleasantly… 

That Omri’s “family portrait” illustration he’s been working on – his idea is that we offer this to Patrons along with a frame (and sans the Asylum logo) so that you all can have the Liddell family in your home. What do you think? 

We also have Alex helping with the Asylum wiki – working with Magus to improve the artistic presentation of our design portal. If you’ve not yet had a browse of the content there, check it out! 

More art, narrative, and design stuff in the pipe and coming soon… 

From Thailand in the Sun, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

UPDATE: 9 OUT OF 10 of you who’ve written to say your name isn’t on the list… Your name IS on the list. Please, don’t just “scroll search” on your mobile phone. Wait until you can view the list from a desktop/laptop PC and a web browser (ideally, Chrome). Then hit CTRL-F to do a proper search. Thanks!

If you’re expecting a Patron Reward Chaos Coin mailed to you and have questions… Please read this update CAREFULLY. Read it twice. 

We’ve submitted a list of 2095 Qualified Patrons to our shipping partner in Shenzhen. Patron Reward Chaos Coins will start shipping next week (September 24th, 2018) and all shipments should be fulfilled within 5 days.

I’ve posted A LIST OF QUALIFIED PATRONS to Google Docs. The information there is based on the shipping name and address you provided here on Patreon and is in this format: 

Last Name, First Initial, Country

Search the list for the name you provided us here on Patreon.

Use CTRL-F to search the list. If you message us to say you’re not in the list and we find you ARE in the list then we’re going to send Lulu to chew your face off (in the cutest way possible).  

If you find a match for yourself then there’s a 99.9% chance a Chaos Coin is on its way to you. There are a few duplicates – those represent multiple Patrons.
Remember to search by your shipping address name, not Patreon username.

If you don’t find your name then PM us, here’s how: How-to PM us. 

A couple of important points regarding these shipments: 

• PM us if you want your Name & Country info removed for privacy.
• Tracking links are assigned to each package.
• DO NOT write asking for a tracking link (not yet).
• Delivery time is usually ~14 days to most places in the world.

If your delivery hasn’t arrived by October 19th, 2018 then PM us and we’ll send you a tracking link and work with you to find your package.

Don’t stress! We have lots of experience with shipping tons of stuff around the world. 99% of stuff gets delivered on-time and without issue. For the 1% who run into trouble, we’ll help sort you out! We have tons of time and lots of energy to throw at any potential problems.

SURVEY UPDATE

If you’ve not yet received the Survey Monkey email invite for your Chaos Coin info, don’t worry! 

• You have 2+ years to fill in this info. 
• You can update your info at any time in the future using the link in the survey (until game release).
• A reminder email will be sent out next week (September 25th) for those who are still not able to find their survey email.
• The survey DOES NOT impact the delivery of the physical coin.
• Check your Spam, Promotion, and other folders – mysterious.emailbox@gmail.com is the send-from address.

If, several days after September 25th, you still can’t find the survey link email then PM us. Again, here’s the how-to on PM’ing us. 

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

You got it: PM US! It’s a lot easier for us to look at your account and sort you out via the Patreon Messaging System. 

THAT’S IT!

All this Chaos is actually really amazing! We’re doing impressive things by way of Patreon, crowd-design, content production, and reward delivery. You’re an impressive bunch, even if you’re all insane. 

From Shanghai with PM US,

-American (and Font Lord)

Dear Insane Children,

Just posting these up here quickly…

And…

The first image is Patch Set #2 – with the new A4 size background card from Alex. That’s the actual card size and the sample patches. We’re going to replace the Lulu patch with a Mercury Symbol Patch – Lulu will be reserved as a special patch available to Patrons (and used for future giveaways). 

Remember, Patch Set #2 is currently set as our next Patreon Goal. When we hit 3222 Patrons the goal unlocks. All Patrons at $10 and above the month the goal unlocks will have a Patch Set mailed to them (free shipping, anywhere in the world). So… let’s hit that goal! 

And the Rabbit Box… Also a new design from Alex… let’s hear your feedback in the comments! 

From Shanghai while Packing Bags, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

“Kill it. Kill it with fire!” Well, we tried that and this is the result – at least inside Alice’s mind. Family and home destroyed in a fire. Alice tortured mercilessly by recurring nightmare fragments of their dying screams. Manifest in Wonderland as insect-like automatons which serve to mechanically probe Alice’s psychic wounds ensuring they’ll never heal. 

During yesterday’s livestream it was suggested by one of our Inmates that these contraptions aren’t controlled by Alice’s family members but are a sort of articulated mobile cage in which they (or Alice’s memories of them) are trapped. For someone suffering from PTSD this analogy is apt. Memories of the trauma return at the slightest trigger – as if a mechanical button was pressed. The recurring pain is brought back like a song on a player piano. Once it starts playing it often keeps going to the point of exhaustion, collapse, or breaking. 

Some of the most insidious forms of trauma are those which include loved ones whose presence or recollection of now serves as the primary trigger for pain. Containing Alice’s family within diabolical mechanical creatures who stalk her through the mental landscape of Wonderland is a perfect analogy for this. The question then becomes… how does one defeat this sort of mental monster? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments below. 

And while we’re on the topic of centi-nopes…

Crawly, the doll-part centipede, spawned more than just horrified reactions. He (it?) also got me thinking a way in which we might present text, UI, manual, enemy descriptions, and other elements in-game… as if through the lens of 13-year old Alice’s way of seeing and labeling these things. Again, this was discussed in some detail during the live stream but the idea is that “Crawly” is exactly the sort of thing a little girl might call this sort of beasty. Another enemy we reviewed is “Itsy Bisty”…

A name inspired by the classic children’s nursery rhyme of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” but misspelled – a misspelling I suggest we hold on to if we decide to go the route of presenting the game’s text and other elements through Alice’s eyes. How far might we take this idea? Could the game interface break or evolve to reveal new elements as a function of Alice’s fear and progress? 

Heavy stuff… perhaps it’s tea time? 

Yes, the Teapot Cannons are back. Joey suggests these are kinder, gentler pre-Madness versions. Not yet clad in metal armor. Compared to those other horrors these two are downright cuddly!

Speaking of cuddly… 

Yet another revision on the White Rabbit Plush design. This time Joey’s adjusted the proportions a bit more… Skinnier, different leg/arm lengths, etc. What say you, Rabbit Design Council? 

At this point I think we’ll get this one made as a sample along with the design previously shown. That way we have two to compare side by side. Always a good thing. 

Alright, I am prepping for travel… will post another update of story, art, and fun once I’m on the ground in Thailand. 

From Shanghai with Nope, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

If you’ve never read it, I suggest you check out “The Wasp Factory” by Iain Banks. It’s a dark little book with an unexpected twist. Not for the faint of heart though as it contains gratuitous violence against all manner of beast and man. Still, as psychological horror goes, it’s … well,  The Irish Times called it “a work of unparalleled depravity.” And it’s one of my favorites… go figure. 

Livestream Tomorrow

Here’s THE LINK for tomorrow’s livestream. You know the routine… set a reminder of your own. But also click on that link and set a reminder over on YouTube so their algorithm gains more data to use in frustrating what people actually want. The Tech Giants can’t learn how to frustrate us if we don’t let them frustrate us! 

We’ll go live at 09:00AM on Thursday, September 20th (Hong Kong Time). You can use a website like International Meeting Planner to figure out what time that is where you live. For people in the USA that’ll be on Wednesday because you’re living in the past. It’s great here in the future. I ride around on an electric scooter and no longer have any use for paper money. Wee!

Speaking of people who no longer have use for paper money… Alice’s father has fire for arms! I should invite him over next time we’re making BBQ. 

There’s a lot to unpack in this new enemy design image from Omri. Let’s discuss your feedback during the livestream tomorrow. Leave your QUESTIONS and SUGGESTIONS (marked as such) in the comments below. Font Lord will read those while I play Little Nightmares. 

Patches Update

Our next Patron Reward will unlock at 3222 Patrons. It’s a set of NEW embroidered patch designs. The factory just started manufacturing these… so, let’s hit that goal! Maybe we can unlock it in time for the holidays! 

 That’s it for now… more fun stuff on the stream tomorrow. See you then!

From Shanghai with Fire for Arms,

-American

Hi Everyone

Martin here with a little FAQ about the Coin survey we sent out yesterday.
Just a couple of questions and clarifications.

1) Where’s my Survey?
Well, have you checked your inbox? Also try having a look in your spam folder before messaging us.  Also make sure you’re actually in the Chaos Coin gang before asking us where your survey is.

2) Can I use Latin for the message?
Actually we did get this question a couple of times.  And now we had a chat about it here, the answer is no. Sorry.  Please keep all messages in English and use English characters when writing your name too.

3) Can I use a quote from (insert celebrity/book/movie/poem/song here)?
I wish we could have clarified this much earlier.
Please use an original message of your own creation or only use quotes from stuff that’s in the public domain. (FYI, Alice IS in the public domain)

We’d really like to avoid potential suing and litigation  🙁
By the way, if there is a legal superman in our Patron list who knows all about the fair use and/or not of quotes and such, please PM us  🙂

4) Can I edit my pledge now I’ve completed the survey?
Yes, go ahead.  But please be aware that 3x$35 gets you an art print of your choosing  🙂
(Also you cannot mix and match tiers, e.g.. 2x$35 + 1x$75)

5) How can I edit my survey after I already filled it in?
Just use the link you already have.  You can edit for years with that same link.

– Cheers