Dear Insane Children, 

I hope everyone enjoyed a fantastic holiday! Did you get all you wished for this year? Like a box of tentacles or a rolly-polly fish head? No? Well, now you have those things – sent with love from Joey. 

She also sent along ideas for power ups… in case any of you were feeling low on energy after too much family, food, and fun…

All of these concepts are based off ideas we discussed during the last two Crowd Design sessions over on Discord. You can watch those on my YouTube Channel. 

We’ll do another of those sessions in the first week of January… but at the moment I am in Thailand meeting with government officials, looking at locations for a new game development studio, and scouting locations for Pirate Jam 2019. 

That drone shot is over Ko Roi in Phang Nga Bay. It’s one of that locations we’ll visit during Pirate Jam. Much thanks for the beautiful drone shot goes to Jamie Furlong over on Sailing Followtheboat. They are also on Patreon – making beautiful travel/sailing videos – go give them a follow! 

We still have a few days out on the water and then I’m back to the marina where I’ll be able to share a larger update with more news and pictures. 

I’m back to Shanghai on January 3rd, at which point we’ll resume all our regularly scheduled livestreams, updates, design sessions, and more. 

TONS of exciting stuff to report in the new year! We’re going to make 2019 amazing! 

Let me know in the comments below how your holidays went. What are you looking forward to in 2019? And how can I make all our projects more valuable for you? 

From Chaos with Love, 

-American (I miss Lulu!)

Dear Insane Children, 

Greetings from sunny Thailand! I’ve been going like crazy since I landed on Sunday night. With help from Aku (former tech lead at Spicy Horse who is on this trip with me), on Monday we prepped the boat for sailing. Tuesday saw us flying from Krabi to Bangkok and meeting with local art outsource company YGGDrazil to discuss how we might work together on Alice: Asylum. 

We’re joined on this trip by our friend Sukrit who is helping arrange meetings with local game developers, outsourcers, and government officials who might be interested in supporting our foundation of a new studio and development of Alice: Asylum. 

Timed perfectly for this trip, Joey sends along two new Tarot Cards, with one of them being The Chariot. Why is this card so perfect for the trip I’m currently on? Here’s an interpretation of this card from Biddy Tarot: 

The Chariot Tarot card shows a brave warrior standing inside a chariot. He wears armour decorated with crescent moons (representing what is coming into being), a tunic with a square (the strength of will) and other alchemical symbols (spiritual transformation). The laurel and star crown signals victory, success and spiritual evolution. Although he appears to be driving the chariot, the charioteer holds no reins – just a wand like the Magician’s – symbolising that he controls through the strength of his will and mind.

The charioteer stands tall – there’s no sitting down for this guy, as he’s all about taking action and moving forward. Above his head is a canopy of six-pointed stars, suggesting his connection to the celestial world and the Divine will. In front of the vehicle sit a black and a white sphinx, representing duality, positive and negative and, at times, opposing forces. Note how the sphinxes are pulling in opposite directions, but the charioteer uses his willpower and sheer resolve to steer the chariot forward in the direction he wants.

Behind the chariot flows a wide river, symbolic of the need to be ‘in flow’ with the rhythm of life while also charging ahead toward your goals and intentions.

Joey also sends along a card for The World. 

Now… I’ll leave it to you Tarot experts out there to provide us with a mini-reading of the message contained in these two cards… but from my layman’s understanding it’s quite an interesting coincidence that Joey happened to send The Chariot and The World at the same time while I am in Thailand searching for a new development home.

Do you believe in coincidence? Or perhaps you lean more towards synchronicity?

Let me know in the comments below!

Omri sends along an environment rendering for”GIBS” into which he’s inserted Jennifer’s cute Space Marine. He’s definitely nailed the “DOOM” vibe I was originally thinking we’d include in this new FPS deathmatch game. That cute little Space Marine looks like “Uh, what?!” 

And Jennifer sends along a Recycling Rabbit from the GIBS universe. I like the little guy in the dump truck… more “Uh, what?!”

Alright… I have to get ready to travel. We’re heading south from Bangkok to Sriracha today and going to look at potential studio space and housing. But first, off to meet the local government official in charge of Thailand’s digital media strategy! 

I hope everyone is happy, healthy, and warm out there. Getting ready for the holidays? 

From Thailand with Love (and missing Lulu!), 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

We’re hosting another Crowd Design Session over on Discord. That’s at 10AM Hong Kong Time on Tuesday, December 11th. For those of you in the US that’s 6PM PST on Monday, December 10th (less than an hour from when I am writing this update). 

We did one of these last week and it went off quite well. Starting at the top of the Suggestions Page over on the Asylum Wiki… we managed to work our way through a whole page of your ideas and suggestions. 

So… jump onto Discord, load up the Suggestions Page, and follow along. We’ll keep an eye on your chat comments and pull you into the voice chat when/if that makes sense. 

And, yes, these are more amazing Tarot Card illustrations from Joey. Pretty sure this is going to have to be a thing!

From Shanghai with Discord, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Yay! We did it! With help from our lovely Mods and Editors over on Discord and the Wiki – we managed the first-ever Crowd Design meeting for Alice: Asylum. Quite a few of our Insane Children joined for the live chat as we scrolled through the list of design suggestions collected over on the Asylum Wiki. 

If you missed it live, don’t despair! Here’s A LINK to the discussion posted over on YouTube.

From my perspective this was a great success. We had excellent suggestions and feedback from the design group. I was really impressed with the quality of the discussion. And I think we’ve firmly established that this is a functional way to open up the design discussion to the group. Have a listen and let me know what YOU think. 

And be sure to join us next time! We’ll meet again same time, same place next week. That’s Tuesday, December 11th @ 10AM (December 10th @ 6PM PST). 

Cheshire Cat Concept

Omri sends along an art concept for a Cheshire Cat as viewed through the eyes of 13-year old Alice. I like not only the scale idea but also the work he’s done to present a younger cat which isn’t a kitten. As much as I liked “Cheshire Kitten” I think the concept presented here might have more going for it… 

What do you think? 

EU Livestream Tonight

Don’t forget to set reminders for tonight’s livestream. That’s at 12PM (noon) Paris time (7PM for me and Martin here in Shanghai). 

Hit THIS LINK to set a reminder and join us.

Be sure to send your QUESTIONS and SUGGESTIONS in the comments below.

A Message from Our Sponsors

Our friends and sponsors Andrew and Deborah send along this special message regarding a special poll…

This week Deborah and I are doing something different. We have a tribute show coming out later this week to honor the late film composer Chu Ishikawa, but until we post that we have a poll going on for a special guest appearance we have coming up.

Can you shoutout the poll today? It’s for the inaugural episode for a new show 26 Movies from Hell. Here’s the link to the twitter poll where we are asking for votes on the first movie we talk about.

https://twitter.com/26MFHPOD/status/1068565268295643137

Head hit that link and head over to Twitter where you can vote on which movie they’ll cover first! (I voted for “Alice Sweet Alice” for obvious reasons!) 

Please take a moment to follow Andrew and Deborah on Twitter and check out their Patreon Page. They support us – so if you support them … then you’re double-supporting us. Or something… I get confused. 

Follow the White Rabbit

Don’t forget! We’ve got a White Rabbit goal to reach!

To unlock the White Rabbit Plush (click that link for full details) so we can send it to Patrons around the world we first need to hit 3222 Patrons. Ask your friends and family to join at $1 so we can hit that goal quickly – then everyone at $45 (and above) gets the Rabbit, Asylum Property Bag, and Lulu Patch mailed to them (FREE GLOBAL SHIPPING). 

Share the image above on your social media channels and let your friends know about all the insanity going on here in the Asylum! The more the madder!

December Shipping Update

A lot of you are (understandably) curious about shipping status and timing… I wrote a response to Dustin over on the Community Page with some details: 

For the record, it usually takes us about 2 weeks into the following month to process all the pledge/shipping data for a previous month. We then spend 2+ weeks signing, packing, and sending stuff. From the point where your package gets shipped (which can be 2~4 weeks from the end of a month) it’ll be another 20+ days for shipping. Shipping times depend on where in the world you’re located, weather, postal strikes, etc.   

We can check on your particular package if it’s absolutely necessary – there are tracking numbers on everything we send out – but we do ask you to take into account everything written above before making a tracking request. We sent out nearly 1000 posters last month. So if everyone starts writing asking for tracking info Martin will probably die. Please, don’t kill Martin.  

So… if you are waiting on a poster or other delivery from us do take this info into account. And, if needed, PM to ask for a status update. 

That being said, there will be a special exception for December. Please take note!

We WILL NOT do the usual processing and shipping in December. The reasons are as follows: 

1) The usual start time for shipping (~2 weeks into a month) lands on American’s birthday and also coincides with his scheduled departure time from Shanghai to Thailand for Christmas/New Year travel. 

2) Sending stuff during the holiday season increases the risk of damage, loss, and theft (from Porch Pirates). As such, we’re going to skip shipping in December and resume (with all the December + January shipments) in January. 

Having read all that if you still have questions or concerns please feel free to PM US. 

Expect a Slow Response

Our response time from mid-December until the first week of January will be SLOW. That’s because Martin will be back in England – no Internet at Castle Font Lord. And American will be out on the sea marauding and pirating – Pirates only get sea-mail. Har, matey! 

Things will resume as-per-usual around January 5th, 2019. 

I (American) will try to make some updates as I travel – since I’ll be visiting the tech park in Thailand where we’re looking to set up the new studio and doing some Pirate Jam location scouting. Might have some pictures and video to share along the way. 

See you on the Livestream tonight! 

From Shanghai with Insanity,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

I sometimes look up from the mass of swirling creativity we’ve collectively brought into existence and think “WOW! WTF!?” There’s just so much going on! I have to-do lists to keep track of my to-do lists. Let’s get started! 

Out of the Woods

All of the physical rewards are at the distribution center in Shenzhen! The Illustrated Books, Coloring Books, Card Games (in multiple languages), play mats, scarves, collector cards, and collector boxes… ALL THE THINGS are manufactured and ready to ship! Here’s pallets of game boxes…

To you that might look like a photo taken with a potato by a person who maintains a psychopathic disregard for framing and composition but to me it’s pure gold. Finished game boxes on a pallet in Shenzhen ready to ship to Woodies around the world. Yay! 

Martin’s crafting a Kickstarter update with details on address lock-down and steps leading to the final days before shipping starts. If you’re a backer or you pre-ordered via BackerKit then you will receive an email this week with a confirmation of your shipping address and a link to a page where you can submit an updated address if necessary. 

Pirate Jam 2019

Lots of planning, discussions, and meetings going on to get Pirate Jam 2019 ready for sea. We’re hitting the water April 2019 and plan to have 20+ pirates aboard a fleet of 6+ boats. Last week we secured additional sponsor support and an updated logo treatment from Alex. Woo!

Question: Is it worth adding this stuff to the Mysterious Shop? We can’t really mass produce it unless we know there’s demand… I just don’t know if there’s demand? 

I’m heading to Thailand from December 15th~Jan 3rd to check out the sailing route we’ll take for Pirate Jam. During that time I am also traveling to Sriacha to meet with government officials so we can discuss opening a new studio in that region. 

Spicy New Studio

That new studio is where we plan to make the following games in roughly the following order:

1) Out of the Woods (digital card game)

2) GIBS (name TBD, but basically an old-school FPS shooter)

3) Alice: Asylum 

There are ongoing talks with several large corporations (all of whom you know) and a handful of investors and publishers – all working in concert to help make the development of these games a reality. 

Meanwhile, your continued support here on Patreon ensure we are able to maintain momentum on design and art pre-production. You are quite literally the reason why we are in this amazing place today!

Design Meeting

Tomorrow we’re hosting the first-ever Discord powered Crowd Design meeting at 09:30HKT, which is 17:30 on Monday for those of you in Pacific Standard Time. 

Here’s info on our Discord Server. Note that you need to be at $5 or more and processed for one month’s pledge in order to access the server. 

During the meeting we’ll discuss the long list of design suggestions made by our community over on the Asylum Wiki. You’ll be able to hang out in the Discord chat and participate with the discussion via text and voice (depending on whether you’re selected to join the voice chat). It’s sure to be a sh!tshow since it’s the first time we’re doing anything like this… so, come along and laugh at our ineptitude. Wee!

Alice: Asylum

You know, you’d think with all the flack these big publishers are taking from their recent AAA game flops… we’d have a certain publisher beating down the door for a solid, narrative-driven, non-political, straight-up single player, action title… I mean, did they not see how God of War knocked it out of the park?! Crouton!!!!

I’m sure we’ll get there eventually but it’s more than a little frustrating to see these guys continue to struggle with the idea that gamers don’t want to be told, “If you don’t like it, don’t buy it,” and “Hey, micro-transactions are the future… deal with it!” 

You know what’s the frikken future? Boxes of Nutcracker Soldiers turned into weapons of mass destruction! 

Omri says of this (awesome) design: 

1. Like ants, She can place a box and have a horde charge the enemy
2. he can be picked up and used here and there in the game, like a companion of some sort.
3. he can be turned into an enemy
4. Think about actually changing him into BRITISH soldier toys.

I want a box of these for Christmas! 

As mentioned during last week’s live-stream, we are making really good progress on the narrative – and especially the “twist” – in art, writing, and with the feedback coming from our amazing Crowd Design group here on Patreon and over on YouTube. If you’ve not checked it out… Here are links… (SPOILER ALERT!)

Full Live Stream 

Excerpt on Shadow Alice 

Meanwhile, myself and RJ continue our back-and-forth around the narrative creation process. He’s recently sent me a couple of excellent pages which inspired some pages from me… we’re getting there!

OH, and those images above from Joey… THAT is what we want Alice to look like in the final game. Excellent! Really happy with the fact that we’ve finally nailed all the important elements needed to visually represent her in-game. 

Speaking of live streams…

EU Live Stream Incoming!

I’m seeing on the news there’s all sorts of rioting in the streets of Paris, Berlin, and other EU nations. Come on, guys! I know you’re missing the EU Live Stream but you don’t have to burn the place down. We get it! You need another EU Live Stream … well …

Follow THIS LINK to set a reminder and join us for the next Live Stream. 

That’s at 7PM, 6th, December 2018 Hong Kong Time. In Paris that’ll be 12pm Noon. Feel free to join us with your yellow vests on. We promise not to shoot you with the water cannon. 

Mysterious Things

Lots of interesting stuff being added to the Mysterious Shop these days. Most notably would be the Alchemy Key Necklace Set. 

These took quite a long time to design and manufacture… but the final result turned out great. Hit that link above and get the full details. Jen’s also added some cool new shirt designs (based on Joey’s artwork). Head over and have a look!

Special Discount on Alchemy Necklaces for Patrons!

Use this code to get a Patron-Exclusive discount on the Alchemy Necklace Set:

PATRONALCHEMY

• 25% off Alchemy Keys – Necklaces
• One use per customer
• Active from today until Dec 31

* If you are a Patron and already purchased the necklaces without the discount code, email me (reply to your order confirmation email) and I’ll refund you the discount amount. 

Is that It?

I think I’ve ticked all the boxes…

The reality is that each of these things represents hours of effort per day to bring to life and maintain. I could not do this as an independent creator without your support. And it’s not just the financial support – but knowing that everyone out there is helping to bring to life all this art and creativity because it’s the kind of stuff YOU WANT in the world. 

Your feedback and suggestions makes all this that much more interesting. So, let me know what you think in the comments below! 

From Shanghai in the To-Do’ing 

-American