Dear Insane Children, 

First up, a reminder about tomorrow’s Livestream on YouTube where special guest Roger L. Jackson (voice of the Cheshire Cat) will join us for a Halloween chat!

Hit THIS LINK to visit YouTube and set a reminder. We’re going live at 6PM PST (San Francisco time) on October 31st, (that’s Halloween – woooo). 

And we’re giving away literal FRIKKEN SKULLS for prizes this time around… can’t get more spooky than that!

Pirate Jam 2019

Arg, mateys! You’ll have noticed the video up-top which is the Pirate Jam 2019 Promo video. We’re taking submissions for potential pirates over on the Pirate Jam website. Hit THIS LINK if you want to check it out and sign up. 

I kinda feel like the Insane Children aren’t all that into Pirate Jam? 

Would love to hear feedback from everyone on ways the event might be made more exciting for Insane Children and for normal people who aren’t in the asylum. 

Have any of you watched the videos from the first two events? Anything stand out as particularly entertaining – or deadly boring? How might we improve what’s on offer? 

And… how many of you are game developers potentially interested in joining? Are you hesitating to sign up? If so, why? What sort of questions or concerns might you have?

Anyway, I’m excited for the 2019 event. We’ve got sponsors, ships, and core crew lined up and ready to go! Still plenty to be done on route planning and event setup – but since PJ2019 isn’t until April, 2019, we’ve got time… 

Rabbit Update

Omri sent along an updated image for the White Rabbit Plush. He’s  included additional details and instructions. And we have 4 (!) factories working on prototypes now, so I expect we’ll see some interesting results before too long. I’ve asked them to split between some factories doing Omri’s design (above) and Joey’s design (shared in the previous post here on Patreon.

Hey – did you order something from Mysterious in order to get a free Mini White Rabbit? If so, please note that these little guys ship separately from your main order – especially true if you’re ordering one of Jennifer’s nifty new clothing designs which have recently gone up. So, please refrain from writing to ask where your free rabbit is – he’s hopping his way to you all the way from China. Hop, hop! Give him a little time 🙂

The Shadow Self

And Omri sends along an updated version of the “Shadow Self” image he’s working on. 

Good timing since a lot of the recent talks I’ve had with RJ regarding the Alice: Asylum narrative revolve around the concept of the shadow self. We’re exploring ideas for how Shadow Alice interacts with “regular” Alice – and how the story of the two characters might intertwine, conflict, and eventually resolve. 

RJ is currently playing with ideas related to the narrative perspective on Asylum. He’s curious if we might be interested in seeing young Alice’s story as told by post-Madness Returns Alice. This idea opened up a can of (good) worms in terms of origin and resolution of Alice’s story in general. 

We spoke quite a lot regarding prequels – specifically RJ’s experience working for Lucas Arts and seeing first hand how the Star Wars franchise was driven into the ground with the “shall not be mentioned” episodes. So, we’re definitely avoiding *that* trap (thanks, Admiral Akbar). 

I’ve pasted a collection of notes and outline material into the Asylum Wiki. And the Wiki now has a Comment function which you can use after you create a Wiki account. 

Alright – we’ll go over more of this stuff on tomorrow’s stream! Don’t miss it! 

And be sure to get your QUESTIONS into the comments below so Font Lord and I can put those in front of Roger!

From Shanghai with Arg, 

-Captain Madcap (that’s my pirate name)

Dear Insane Children, 

Just a quick (and final) reminder of the Halloween Special: 2x Prints + Chaos Necklace… 

If you set your pledge to $75 (or higher) for the month of October you will receive the TWO posters you see above (each 47cm x 68cm) plus a Chaos Necklace* (large or small). 

That’s a collection of stuff worth $250 for only $75 – plus you get all the other benefits that come from supporting our Asylum work – including a special spot on our Discord Server, early access to art / design, and a voice in the creative process. Awesome deal!

Time is running out. Offer ends at 23:59:59 PST on Oct 31st!

Do you want to take advantage of this offer? It’s simple… 

• Set your pledge to $75 RIGHT NOW. 
• Stay there until November 15th. 
• That’s it!

From Spooky Shanghai,

-American McWooooo (a Scottish ghost?)

* Chaos Necklace only available to first-time pledges of $75. If you’re already at $75 you’ll still get the two art prints but not the necklace (you’ve already got that!).

* Apologies for the blatant spam…  now I need a shower  😛

Let’s try this one more time. A new concept drawing for the White Rabbit Plush doll. Hoping to address some of the issues we saw with the first version based on your feedback. Who thinks the factory might actually deliver him with arms and legs detached? They are so very literal! ?

Any additional comments before we begin?

Dear Insane Children, 

Has everyone got their Halloween costumes ready!? What are you going as this year? I’ve just purchased the elements required for mine and will join Font Lord during the next livestream where mine and his will be revealed. Any guesses at what we’ll be? 

Next week’s stream is on October 31st @ 6PM PST and we’ll have Roger Jackson (voice of the Cheshire Cat, Mojo-Jojo, and Scream’s Ghostface – to name a few) joining us!

Hit THIS LINK to set a reminder over on YouTube. While there, make sure you’re subscribed and that you also click Like on a few of my videos – apparently that helps the YouTube algorithm collect more clicks for the click farm. Click, click, click.

During the Livestream yesterday we did an Artist Interview with Chris Vrenna. He talked with us about his experience working with Nine Inch Nails, Manson, making music for Alice, and life these days as a college professor. 

If you missed it, hit THIS LINK and give it a watch right now! 

We also reviewed new art from Joey such as the card guard image posted above. One of the ideas we discussed in relation to that picture is having the faces of the guards represent Alice’s subconscious fear of adult men. I was thinking it would be really interesting to model the faces of a collection of the “actual” men (villains) in Alice’s life and then have those placed under the fabric of the Card Guard masks. They might swap around, shout variations of snippets of dialog Alice overheard from those men, etc. 

What are your thoughts on this? 

Joey also sent along the “Dog Knight” who looks suspiciously similar to Lulu! Awww… Lulu would never assist a nightmare doll in attacking Alice. She’d chew that doll’s head right off! 

Joey’s also done a rendering of the “Jumping Fish” – pretty sure we had a different name for these guys in the games… but it’s escaping me at the moment. Anyone remember? 

We had a look at Alex’s WIP piece for the Alice poster in the “red” series. Be sure to check out the stream so you can see all 4 stages he presented. This image is going to be fantastic – and we will, of course, add it to the series we’re releasing here on Patreon. 

A few additional revisions by Joey here – suggesting that the “rat pin cushion” doesn’t have to be an actual, live rat… but perhaps some sort of rat doll. Being an actual (year of the) Rat myself, I guess I just don’t like seeing the poor guys abused. Eek! 

Rabbits

Lastly, there were a TON of comments on the White Rabbit Plush prototype. The general consensus being “that’s wrong.” And your feedback is heard loud and clear. I do hope everyone will please keep in mind that this is a constructive crowd design process – very rarely do original creative endeavors move forward without a few missteps. We’ve learned a ton already in this process. And there are two new factories working on prototypes with instructions guided by your feedback. We should see new prototypes in about 2 weeks.  

Oh! Rabbits! Forgot to mention in the last few posts, those Little White Rabbit Dolls are going out for free with each and every order over at Mysterious… 

So if you were looking to get your hands on one of these little guys, head over and grab something from the shop. You can do that via THIS LINK.

We’ll throw these in with all orders while supplies last – and I ordered ~1000 of them… so that should be for a little while? Don’t be late! 

From Shanghai with Ruff, Rabbits, and Rats, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

FINALLY! We received the first physical sample of a plush based on our drawing. To refresh your memories, here’s (one of) the concept images we were working with…

We have two other groups working on samples right now and should take delivery of those within 10~15 days. The recent holidays really messed with this process!

A couple of thoughts… 

First off, it’s always a strange feeling to hold in your hands a physical creation based on an illustration. Coming from games, I’m still not used to watching something digital (art) transform into something physical – coins, cards, books, and toys… but holding this little guy is a great feeling. No wonder Alice didn’t want to let him go!

The thing that feels most out of place is his nose. It’s molded plastic and doesn’t fit with the era from which this toy would originate. My expectation was that the nose would be made up from stitching – so we’ll have to communicate that next time. 

Proportions, weight, and size are all good. You’ll love holding this little guy!

We need to think about how clean he is… is that alright? If not, how do we pre-grunge them? I kinda like it clean – and then let people decide how grungy to make him based on their intended use. 

Lulu is *insane* about him and wants to chew him. Perhaps we could just dump box-loads into the yard and let Lulu run around and maul them into the dirt for a while. That would probably achieve the required effect. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below! 

We’ll do a live review during tomorrow’s live stream. 

LIVE STREAM tomorrow. CHRIS VRENNA will join us. DON’T MISS IT!

And be sure to leave your QUESTIONS for Chris in the comments below! 

From Shanghai with Rabbit-Eating-Lulu,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Want a Chaos Coin Shipping Update? Scroll Down! 

Here’s your early reminder for Part 1 of our Halloween Livestream Specials…

Chris Vrenna will join myself and Font Lord on October 24th @ 6PM (PST)

CLICK HERE to set a reminder over on YouTube. And be sure to Subscribe, Like, and all that… so the YouTube algorithm has more data to ignore. Better yet, set a reminder on your phone or microwave – probably more reliable than YouTube :/

For those who don’t know… 

Chris Vrenna, (born February 23, 1967)[1] is an American musician, Grammy-winning producer, engineer, remixer, songwriter, programmer, and founder of the electronic band Tweaker. Vrenna played drums for the industrial/rock band Nine Inch Nails from 1989 until 1997, and was the keyboardist and drummer of the American rock band Marilyn Manson from 2004 until late 2011. 

I’ve worked with Chris on a number of projects including “Quake” and “American McGee’s Alice” – to both of which he contributed music and sound. He composed the entire soundtrack for “American McGee’s Alice.” 

Check out this Interview With Chris from back in 1999 where he talks about his work on Alice music.

During our livestream we’ll talk about music, games, and more. If you have a QUESTION you’d like addressed during the stream please mark it as “QUESTION:” in the comments below. SUGGESTIONS: and FEEDBACK: also work! 

This is The Depression Dress from Omri. And I think it’s wonderful! I also love the Orange Bunny. He might need to be “a thing.” 

Do you know who is currently wearing a Depression Dress? 

CHAOS COIN CHAOS

Our Fonty Lord and Savior, Font Lord is wearing a Depression Dress. Can you guess why? 

Well, it turns out that the recent Chinese National Holiday caused ~50% of the Chaos Coin shipments to go out ~2 weeks later than we’d expected. As a result, our estimated delivery times for those coins have been pushed out by 2+ weeks. 

SO, here’s a request: 

Please, STOP emailing to ask for tracking links. Give the delivery another 1+ week. 

With about 1/2 of you (1000 people) writing to say, “Um, sorry to be a bother but…” we’re getting about 2~5 such requests per hour. Poor Font Lord is answering emails in the shower, on the toilet, while sleeping, etc… and he still can’t keep up. 

Here’s the thing: Every one of the requests results in a tracking link and “it should arrive in 1~2 weeks, please be patient.” There’s nothing more to it. The coins are on the way! 

Set a new “freak out, I need a tracking link date” in your head: October 31st. 

If you still don’t have your Chaos Coin by THAT date, then email and ask for a link. 

THANK YOU! (Font Lord releases a sigh of relief). 

We do appreciate your patience and understanding with this. And apologize for not properly taking into account the disruption that would be caused by the national holiday here in China.

That’s it for now. Please be sure to join us for the special livestream with Chris. And get ready for the Halloween Special where we’ll have Roger Jackson (voice of the Cheshire Cat) with us on October 31st! 

Be sure to leave your QUESTIONS in the comments below!

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American (and Lulu)