American: Migraines Return

Dear Insane Children, 

This has been a bad week for me. I spent two days in bed with terrible migraines. The other days were spent feeling week and confused. And we’ve spent two mornings at the hospital trying to figure out what’s going on… 

If there’s any positive to all of this… I am fortunate to have a newly opened hospital just 15 minutes from the house which specializes in neurology, migraines, and the like. And I have Yan holding my hand as I go through the process of seeing doctors and being diagnosed. It’s also worth mentioning that the Chinese medical system is, in relative terms, pretty miraculous. These recent visits, the MRI scan, and the painkillers they’ve given me… so far have totaled a bill of only $800RMB (about $112USD). Yan reminds me this would all be free if I were a Chinese citizen. Yay for socialized medicine? 

Anyway, I don’t want to stare at this screen too long as I have a suspicion that it’s all my screen time causing these migraines. I usually start work (staring at the monitor) around 7AM and go until 5PM… And I wasn’t getting migraines at all for the three months of Golden Exile in Thailand… a time during which I was unable to stare at a computer screen for more than ~1 hour per day.  The headaches started again almost as soon as I was back in Shanghai so… 

I’m going back for an MRI today at 4PM. Will report back with any news. 

Work Continues

The team is still hard at work even though I am incapacitated.  Omri sends along sketches for Alice’s “jail cell” in the Circus Domain. And…

 Alex working on:
• Piecing Together Slumber / Previous Artwork for Narrative (in progress)
• Colour Material Guide Template Example (to do – through in next few days)
• Facebook Video Cover Edits (v2) – (in progress)
• Overall Narrative / Writing – (in progress)
• Social Media Icons for Webpage – (to do)

Omri working on:
• Moon Concept Art
• Alice’s Holding Cell in Denial Concept Art
• Confirmation for Alice’s Dress Transition (With Norm)
• Anything else?

Jenn working on:
• Material Examples (On Hold until Example from Alex ready)
• Alice Pixel Art Game
• Potential Mysterious Merch
• Anything else? 

Norm working on:
• Alice’s Poses (Refining selected Poses)
• Anything else?

Joey working on:
•  Joey, please have a look through Monday for something you’d like to work on, or Chat to Omri or Myself for a task to work on 🙂
• Anything else?

Dario working on:
• Refining The Moon Concept Art
• Anything else?
 

Your support makes it possible for our team to continue working despite global pandemics and the occasional crippling migraine. Thank you for that! 

I’m hoping to be back to normal soon. And will post more updates next week. If I am unable to do so then we’ll hand things over to Martin and Alex for a while so that The Spice continues to flow. 

Your understanding is much appreciated. 

From Shanghai with Owwwww,

-American

Write, write, left, right?

(There is a PDF attachment to this post. Please download and read it!)  

Hello Insane Children,
Alex here with a little bit of news to share from behind the curtain of pre-production.

Over the time we’ve been working on the Alice Project you might have seen my concept artwork pop-up from time to time on here.

Recently, I’ve shifted my focus within the team to project managing the design bible tasks, and co-writing the overall Alice: Asylum narrative with American. 

When it came to the narrative structure, we needed to ask ourselves a few questions on how best to display this information in the design bible.

Were we writing a novel?
Were we only displaying key story beats and allowing the audience to fill in the blanks?
How did the gameplay fit in?
Or the dialogue?
What tone would we use?
How much scenic detail would be established in the text written?

After some back and forth and establishing some goals to hit, American and I completed a little experiment.

The PDF attached is a mix of screenplay, then switching to game specifics and mechanics when they arise in the narrative.

This is the format for how we’d like the narrative to appear in the design bible.

There are two or three key points where gameplay could be introduced, which are unmarked in the document.

Can you spot them?

IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE:
From our conversations this morning, American and I established that this story PDF definitely breaks away from some previously long-standing established points, artwork and opening scenes in the narrative.

Nothing is cement in this PDF.

It’s only a proof of concept that displays story in a format that is easy to digest, and is hopefully, an enjoyable slice of story telling.

We’re sharing it here to let you know American and I are happy with this FORMAT of story telling.

The question is, are you?

Is this format of story telling presented in a way YOU would be happy to read in the design bible? Alongside gorgeously rendered key artwork scenes, storyboards, game mechanics and concept art?

We want to communicate as much of the possible gameplay, narrative and mechanics as possible, so you can get a real feel for what we’re trying to achieve with Asylum in a cohesive video game format.

Also, did you enjoy reading it?
Does this piece of story hit the targets you’d expect from an Alice game?
Could this piece hold weight as a part of the Asylum story?

Let us know in the comments.
Cheers everyone, more to share as it rolls out.

– Alex 

Piggy Bombs and Twitch Streams

Dear Insane Children, 

In case you missed yesterday’s Live Stream over on Twitch, here’s a LINK to the recorded stream on YouTube.

You’ll note that it starts about 40 minutes into the already running Twitch stream because someone (ahem, me) forgot to press RECORD at the start of the stream. Oops. Anyway, you didn’t miss much! 

During this stream we did cover a lot of your feedback and comments as well as review lots of new art and design. 

Including a lot of fun “filler” art from Joey. Speaking of… I really want a doll-part candle holder. Seems like something we should have in the Mysterious Shop. 

Heading into the weekend here… expect more art, design, and story updates next week. Yay!

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American

Enter The Moon Through His Mouth

Dear Insane Children, 

I’m surprised that no one (not our Insane Children nor our artists) has pointed out the odd fact that our Moon is a man. But as I was going through the design notes and illustrations being created by the team this morning I realized that the wrongness of this is a good thing. Why? 

Well, this moon is manufactured. Dare I say… man-ufactured? Har. Puns. I kill me. 

Anyway, it’s a mechanical construction of Hatter Industries. And we presume its lead architect/designer to be Hatter himself. And Hatter never struck me as particularly feminine. Nor have any of his creations ever looked like anything other than big, clunky, masses of nuts, bolts, pipes, and gears… massively masculine. 

So it makes sense that if he were tasked to “build the moon” – he’d get the gender of the thing wrong. Hence our Male Moon. 

What’s good about this is that it should be an immediate sign to anyone paying attention – and who isn’t reading all these spoilers – that The Moon is not all he seems.

While Omri is sketching The Moon (main image, above), Dario is working on Alice’s method of flying to The Moon… in the form of a hot air balloon. She finds this balloon while trying to escape The Circus and cuts it free from its earthly tethers using her Vorpal Blade. 

Once inside The Moon she’ll fight her way to the Control Room (pictured above – thanks, Dario!) and steer her way towards The Queen’s Castle. 

A number of interesting design topics flowing from what’s presented here. 

Let us know your feedback and questions in the comment below. 

We’ll address those during the Live Stream tomorrow on Twitch. 

 https://www.twitch.tv/americanmcgee 

Remember that if you miss the Live Stream on Twitch – don’t cry! 

We’ll record the whole thing and post it to my YouTube Channel so you can watch it later at your convenience. 

From Shanghai with Hot Air,

-American

Humming and Hawing

Dear Insane Children,

What do you do when you’ve run out of things to do? Hum a tune? Whistle a diddy? Twiddle your thumbs? I don’t know about you but I can’t remember the last time I even had a chance to practice whatever-it-is-I-do… Between being a daddy, running a company, working on a variety of projects, and… oh, yeah, overseeing an Asylum of Insane Children… I hardly have two seconds to rub together! 

Same goes for our ward of insane artists – all of whom are busy knocking down tasks inside Monday – the project management software Alex is using to kick our butts into collective organization. 

Norm and Joey are working through the animation/move library (see gallery of images above). 

Omri and Dario are working on aspects of the game intro from Slumber to Denial and then heading to The Queen’s Domain. A lot of the work for these areas has already been done. So the main focus right now is on filling in those major elements that still need to be finished. Then the whole team will continue forward into areas of the game where we’ve not yet started to explore and work. 

The goal with all of this is to have a Design Bible finished by the end of 2020. And to then use that Design Bible (along with the license from EA – still working to secure that!) to attract the money we need to build a new game. I’ve got news on all of this and things are looking good… but as usual, it’s all stuff which I can’t yet share. Frustrating! 

Anyway, it’s one foot in front of the other. Get the Design Bible done and by that time I think there will be more to reveal. Fingers crossed!

Live Stream This Week

We will have a live stream (on Twitch) this week at the usual time (Thursday morning, 10AM Hong Kong Time). I’ll set up a scheduled stream time for that and send out a full notice tomorrow. 

How Are You Doing?

Hope everyone is doing alright these days… 

Wherever you are does it seem the situation is improving? If there was a lockdown… is it ending? Are you able to get outside? Go to work? 

Curious what it’s like for everyone out there. 

Here in Shanghai… it really feels like things are back to Business As Usual (with a number of important caveats). Still tons of people wearing masks at all times – even when driving. Though it seems lots more people are becoming lax about wearing them all the time. Lots of smaller businesses still closed – perhaps permanently – but almost all of the larger restaurants, cafes, stores, etc – are all open for business. Traffic on the roads seems to be back to pre-pandemic levels. Dunno… are we heading back to normal? 

Look forward to hearing how you are in the comments below. 

From Shanghai with Sunshine,

-American

The Moon

Dear Insane Children, 

Get your spacesuits ready! Today we’re working on The Moon

You may recall I previously shared a section regarding Alice’s imprisonment in The Circus (Denial Realm) and details of how she’s kept captive. Here’s an excerpt: 

The Circus Realm has become – in recent days – a bore. Alice has attempted to escape a thousand times. Being a precocious and curious child, she’s always in search of something more. She craves deep mystery, proper puzzles, and an unscripted adventure. The problem is, The Moon. He floats above Wonderland day and night (mostly at night?) watching and waiting for Alice to run. And when she does he’s there on her heels singing a gentle lullaby. Before she knows it, Alice is fast asleep. And when she awakes, she’s back in The Circus Realm. And, like a dream, her memory of running away and all the days before is foggy and unclear. So she writes herself notes to remind herself of what’s come before. And from those notes she knows she’s been trapped in this place for a very long time. And that her only hope of escape is a confrontation with The Queen. 

I’ve talked with the team about the concept of The Moon and how we’ll present it during the early stages of the game. I want there to be a bit of misdirection with regards to the nature of The Moon. I hope that Players will initially perceive The Moon as a character unto itself – a sentient creature floating around the skies of Wonderland. But that notion will be shattered when Alice realizes it’s actually a large mechanical vehicle driven by minions of The Queen. 

Omri did a quick sketch of several variations on presentation. And he sent along a list of questions and comments. Let’s answer those together, shall we?

Omri Says: to have a face full moon, my problem with it is that in Victorian-era the moon was shown usually from the side… also it kinda looks like a sun without rays at the front so- a side face. that part is the outside in the general structure.

American Replies: Using Google Image Search I got back the following results… 

This seems to suggest that Victorians also had a notion of the moon as seen face-on. That makes sense because these interpretations of the moon are a function of the moon phases. And the moon phases have always existed. 

Full Moon = A full, front-on face. Crescent Moon = A side-on or silhouette face. My point here is that I think we’re free to choose which way we portray it without violating some notion of what the Victorian era people thought of in relation to the moon’s “face.” 

I had initially thought that our moon would be seen full face-on (a big round face). But you’ve presented a version I think might also work… 

If this were rendered as a 3D model and floated around the sky… I think it would work as well (as the full-face version I had initially envisioned). And would be interesting to see it looking up/down and side-to-side.

The main points to keep in mind: It needs to be able to animate (talking, looking). And when seen up close there should be details that reveal it is a manufactured object (a mechanical device – rivets, seams, etc).

Omri Says: i thought about the way it’s built, i think that the whole inside should be turned 90 degrees when the ceiling is a one way mirror so from the outside it looks like sky but from the inside it looks like a glass ceiling. also fits with the escher concept. also when you look “up” you actually see the denial realm from above, understanding you are actually upsidedown/tilted

 American Replies:  I think this sort of thing will be easier to show in 3D – or you can perhaps try to sketch it. Describing Escher geometry in words usually fails to get the actual idea across. 

My thought was that we keep the interior logical, mechanical, and “normal” (not using Escher geometry). Why? Because it’s a product of Hatter Industries. And Hatter tends to build big, heavy machines from metal, gears, rivets, springs, and very solid geometry.

Omri Says: railing, i keep seeing it on a railing. i’m not convinced on the air balloon/plane etc. i feel like there should be a maintenance chute where she can get inside of a cart and travel there, it’s canon for Alice. like the moon needs coal to work right? or some kind of organic material to use in order to work. so something must be reaching it, why not take a ride. i would imagine that for this kind of HUGE mechanical thing there would of been a security net that will make sure nothing will touch it. if the moon has the power to take alice and place her wherever it wants, it should have the power to shoot down whatever she’ll try to use to get near it. any basic security system will have that… just a thought tho. stars also hanging with the moon on the railing which should be randomized. 

American Replies: Rails are rail-y ugly. (Har). Imagine the rails strung across the sky, criss-crossing this-way and that. Not only will they clutter up the view but they’ll also immediately destroy the illusion that The Moon is a Wonderland creature (as opposed to a mechanical conveyance). Let’s not do rails, please. At least not here. Plenty of other places for rails. 

Omri Says: i want the inside to be a continuation of the face of the moon from the outside but deformed, horrible, scary and when you walk inside of the area i want his eye to follow you. so all the levels inside are actually centered and not touching the walls.

American Replies: Uncertain how this would work or be build/displayed in-game. I see you’ve tried to render something to show what it might look like… but as with most Escher concepts, the trick will be to translate that into in-game 3D in such a way as it can be viewed and navigated in some rational manner. 

Again, I would prefer a standard industrial/mechanical motif for the interior. That will provide lots of places for Alice to climb, swing, float, jump, and navigate her way to the control room. The interior is A Gameplay Level. We need to play inside there for a while.

If you have another way to render or present what you have in mind, go for it!

Omri says: so i understand you use the Moon mechanics to get to Queensland, great, is the railing good for this as well? personally i wouldn’t mind the having railing to break and the moon will fall with alice into queensland, and she’ll spill out of it into the big fight of the chess and cards scene.

American Replies: Yes, we’re going to carjack The Moon and drive it to the Queen’s Castle. We’ll crash some distance from the actual castle so that there’s some challenge in getting to the Throne Room. Grand Theft Lunar. 

Let’s make sure that when we crash we also smush a bunch of annoying Card Guards or something.

Please, no railing. Don’t make me rail against railing! 

That’s it for the back-and-forth on those comments. 

Omri and I also had a Skype call and talked about who would pilot The Moon. I had initially thought it might be minions from Hatter’s Domain (his workshop built the thing after all). But Omri pointed out that since The Moon is doing the bidding of The Queen it would make more sense for it to be Card Guards at the controls. I am fine with that too. 

Crowd Design Time!  

Let us know in the comments below what you think about The Moon, its design, and any other details that spring to mind! 

From Shanghai With Love, 

-American