Dear Insane Children,
I hope everyone had a wonderful May Day Holiday – or at least a wonderful time in life while everyone in China was enjoying their May Day Holiday. We spent many of our days gardening, researching baby strollers, and catching up on all the latest developments in car seats. Now I understand why dogs get jealous of babies! Lulu’s never had such cool toys!
We also spent a bit of time in the workshop playing around with ideas for original pieces of art based on The Dollmaker from Alice: Madness Returns.
These are physical art pieces inspired by the types of “creations” you saw populating the Dollhouse Area in A:MR. Assembled from doll parts, wood bits, skulls, string, and insect bits (yes, literal bits of insects!). We’re crafting these by hand and will share our progress with you here and on my social media channels. I’m thinking we might auction some of these off at Mysterious.
And a few of them… we might figure out a way to mass produce them so they can be sold in larger quantities at lower prices. Who wants one?
Right now, Yan is painting a set of “Skull Boxes” (seen above) and I am assembling the shell and mechanism for the Baby Head Clock.
Which of these is your favorite? And what do you think about this effort in general?
Let us know in the comments below!
Art Release Calendar
I put together this handy reference guide for the art we’re planning to release in the coming months. Where it’s marked “TBD” means we’ve not yet decided – that will be an image from the pile currently in production.
For October, we’ll do the same as we did last year – two art prints for everyone at the $75 Tier (one will be the Cheshire Head poster you see pictured – the other is TBD).
We’ll include you all in the discussion around the TBD images.
As usual, if you missed any of these in the past, they are all made available over at Mysterious in the Art Print Section.
The OmriNorm Unicorn
Norm and Omri have recently teamed up on some really stunning designs – with Norm sketching the character art and Omri filling in the background and color. The results, like the Queen, Throne, and Throne Room images above – are why we’re here. This sort of design work is GOLD – and is what gives me confidence that we’ve got the right team building the foundation for Asylum.
A little reminder that we wouldn’t be here without YOU. Thank You!
Up next, Norm is working on character designs for the Unicorn. Looks like he’d give the Card Guard Executioner a challenge for the “most painful death in Wonderland” award.
This work in progress image shows Norm refining the design to make the Unicorn a little more surreal and Wonderland-y. I do prefer the wilder look.
Based on this design, I feel we’ll need to craft a really memorable narrative, location, and encounter for Alice’s meeting with The Unicorn.
What do you think?
Crowd Design
Speaking of having your say at the design table… I’ve just uploaded Crowd Design Episode #9 to YouTube. This was a special EU broadcast of the weekly design sessions where we continued working our way through gameplay suggestions.
Want to give it a listen? Hit THIS LINK.
A big shout out to our community and mods for getting up early (in the US) to record and manage this session. Asteria Visual, Magus, and Taylor – we couldn’t do it without you! Well, we could but then there’d be no recording or air conditioning noises 😉
Pleading From Font Lord
Omri sends along the re-work of the Pleading Dress. He says (and I agree) that the previous designs were just too clean and neat. At this stage in the game, Alice should be really low in terms of mental state and confidence. Her clothes should reflect that fact. What do you think?
Going hand in hand with that… it’s the start of a new month!
That means Font Lord has a massive task ahead to compile all the eligible Patrons and send out surveys for art prints and necklaces.
He pleads, “Give me some time to collect all the info and sort it. Then I’ll send out surveys and we’ll start shipping your stuff. Please?”
Poor Font Lord… Please do allow him a little time for the monthly sorting effort. Patreon’s back-end does NOT make this an easy task. Sad.
That’s it for now… it’s actually Sunday afternoon here in China but it’s been designated a “work day” so here we are!
More art and updates later this week along with a reminder for the Crowd Design Session and upcoming Livestream.
You are all very much loved and appreciated for the contributions and support you provide to us and our project(s). I hope you have a wonderful day! 🙂
From Shanghai with Skulls,
-American