Dear Insane Children,

It has been said that if one enjoys eating sausage, one should never visit a sausage factory to observe it being made. It’s also been said that one should never mix metaphors and innuendo. For these and all my various sins, I repent. Oh, wait, I live in a godless country… never mind. 

Today we’re taking a look at the guts of the sausage… the busy work that constitutes the bulk of the Business Development effort going towards Alice: Asylum. The un-glamorous, un-celebrated baby steps towards convincing someone to give us millions of dollars to make a game about a girl with blood on her dress and a knife in her hand. 

The Setup

One of the groups we’re pitching to fund and publish Alice: Asylum has asked some basic questions about the product. These questions are so basic they seem to suggest this group has never seen (or heard of) the first two Alice games. This situation becomes more comical when the identity of said group is revealed but Shhhhh… 

So, we need a document. A document which describes our game to a group who have never heard of or seen or played or been on the same planet as AMA or AMR. Fine. Fair enough.

I’ve attached my first draft of this document. It took me about an hour to write. Another hour to re-write. And now it’s in front of your eyes. Behold! Feast upon! Revel in!

Oh, and 10 minutes to mess with the banner art in Photoshop. Woo.

Where You Come In

We’ll have a Crowd Design Session tomorrow at the usual time (as selected by Magus). 

During that session we’ll talk about your suggestions for making the Attached Document better. 

How can we make it better? How can we make it more convincing? 

Well, put yourself in the mindset of a person who has never played an Alice game. You have millions of dollars in your pocket and an international distribution network for games – both physical and digital. 

How might the document convince you to invest your money and network in a new Alice game?

That’s the challenge. That’s where you come in. Make the sausage!

Let’s Do a Thing

I could send the document as-is. It already answers the basic questions and follows the required format. 

I’m NOT just sending it as-is for the following reasons: 

1) I think you are brilliant and can make it better. 

2) You get to see some of the Regular Work that goes into pitching a financier/publisher. 

3) Sausage is people.

See You Tomorrow

Have a read. Collect your notes. Join us tomorrow. It’ll be fun! 

See you there!

PS: This thread and document are EYES ONLY – meaning I’d prefer if you NOT share these outside of The Asylum. 

PPS: Yes, that is Omri’s latest rendering of the “Pris as Fortune Teller” Poster. 

-From Shanghai with Sausage,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Font Lord and Stick Boy back with another FAQ video – this one covers all the details related to the Cheshire Kitten Plush Collector Set. 

The $50 Tier for this Set has been Activated. So… if you want the set, select that Tier! 

Remember if you’re at the $75 Tier, you don’t need to do anything. You already qualify and you’ll still get your regular monthly art print. 

And if you’ve never been at $75 before… this is an excellent time to do it. A First Month at $75 during the month of August, 2019 would net you the Cheshire Kitten Plush Collector Set + Chaos Necklace + Art Print. That’s a pretty insane deal! 

This is the art print for August – the one which will ship to everyone at $75 – or can be selected by people who’ve done the 3-for-1 Art Tier.

And, and, YES, the $50 Tier WILL COUNT towards the $35 3-for-1 Art for those of you who are collecting towards that goal. The $75 Tier DOES NOT count towards the $35 Tier 3-for-1 Art. There you go! 

So… break out the popcorn. Watch the video. Laugh at Martin’s lumberjack shirt.

From Shanghai with Kittens, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

I’m finally back at my keyboard and trying to get caught up on several days of unanswered emails and overflowing to-do lists. 

Omri “bumped” a particular email thread regarding Tarot Cards and sent me down a rabbit hole of symbology and narrative. I thought you might like to chime in as I know many of you are experts on these topics. 

Omri wrote, “ “the Fool” he is the first card, numbered 0. He really fits into the realm of Denial, we should find him around a cliff. in gameplay as the fool is always near a cliff.

I don’t know what to do with the dogs but i thought of 2-5 dogs with him and him with a reversible head, the character is the symbol of new beginnings and endings. His symbol is a flower with a harlequin hat, i merged those in. somehow the flowers should turn weaponized.

An initial sketch but i feel this is a good direction. I imagine that if we can break him apart and Him- Getting merged back automatically… he can look wonderful. he can have 3 dog heads with tons of teeth with dog speed and with two extra long arms etc. we can merge these “parts” together so wrong it can be wonderful.

He is the beginning and he is the end, that’s his literally his symbolism. “

To which I replied, ” 

The Fool

The beginning and the end… if you look at our outline for Asylum you’ll see where we begin and end isn’t in Denial. It’s in a state called Slumber. As I’ve described during several of our livestreams and design sessions… Slumber is the state you’re in when you drive to work and have no idea how you got there. It’s the state we live in while thinking we’re in reality, in control, and aware of the direction we’re heading… when in fact we’re lying to ourselves and the people around us. 

It’s Slumber that we’re in as we walk towards that cliff (Chaos). 

Once Slumber has led us over the cliff we’re forced into Denial. Denial is the state of telling ourselves that, “Hey, dammit! I WAS AWARE OF WHAT I WAS DOING!!!!” when, in truth, we were not. 

So… The Fool is the perfect representative of Slumber. 

Before you resist this interpretation… remember when you asked me, “Why the hell is The Moon in Denial??”

I finally remember. 

It’s because The Moon represents illusion. Such as “Another reading of the Moon card is the existence of illusion. Some hidden truth must be discovered, for what you are seeing now may just be a trick of the light. You must search for the hidden forces that must be unraveled.”

That’s why I put the Moon above Denial. Hur dur. I knew there was a reason! 😛

Back to The Fool… 

If we’re going to use this card for Slumber – and I think we should – then the character portrayed should be Alice in her Circus Outfit. She is the fool – the one who walked over the cliff into Denial. Those dogs… surely they should be Cheshire Cats? In most of the cards there’s only one dog – and he appears to be warning The Fool of the dangers along the path ahead. Wouldn’t be better… Alice walking towards the cliff dressed in the Circus Outfit with the Cheshire Cat behind (but being The Cat he’s not really bothering to warn her…) – If you want someone who looks like he cares then insert the Rabbit (white, plush, or other). If you want some symbolism with that… 

The rabbit as well as the hare have been associated with moon deities and may signify rebirth or resurrection. 

Which might suggest that our rabbit is actively LEADING Alice towards the cliff because he knows that she must face Chaos if she’s going to grow and transform.”

“We have two lives… the life we learn with and the life we live after that. Suffering is what brings us towards happiness.”

Your Turn

Let us know in the comments below your thoughts on this exchange and the representation of these narrative elements in the symbolism of Tarot. Right direction? Wrong direction? Or perhaps you’ve got a creative twist to share? 

From Shanghai in The Moon,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

It might seem like we’re off taking a break but we’re actually still hard at work! FontLord was over at the Underground Lair today and we made some adjustments to our cameras, mics, and lighting. To test the new setup we also recorded a couple of FAQ videos… the first of which is presented here. 

I think we still need to crank up our output volume a bit. We’ll do that! 

Anyway, have a look, let us know if you like this format. And we’ll see you all again soon. 

PS: Yesterday Yan and I visited a giant makeup factory in Shanghai. She’s making plans for a line of cosmetic products aimed at Alice fans. We’ll share video from that adventure along with product ideas during next week’s live stream! 

From Shanghai with (still) Ffffff,

-American