Dear Insane Children, 

A lot of people are unaware of the fact that Alice: Madness Returns was the first-ever AAA Western Console Game to be developed primarily in China by a mainly Chinese development team. Prior to its development, there were lots of Western games (and I mean LOTS) which relied on outsource art production in China. But to have a team of artists, programmers, animators, level designers, led by a group of producers, game designers, and creative directors – all of whom were located in Shanghai at Spicy Horse, was a first. 

As such, the game is somewhat of a legend in China and especially among the local game development scene. If you visit any development studio, outsource company, or art house, you’ll find at least one copy of the “Art of” book in every room. 

“The Art of Alice: Madness Returns” was published by Dark Horse shortly after the release of the game in 2011. It became an instant bestseller. And in Japan, the English Language version occupied the #1 Best Seller (Foreign Book) spot for weeks. Prompted by that success, Dark Horse produced a Japanese Language version which went on to become a best seller in its own right. 

The English and Japanese versions are now Out of Print and Sold Out – and there are NO PLANS for reprints (DON’T ASK). If you want to buy one, you’ll have to head over to Ebay. There, they regularly sell for anywhere between  $170USD and $700USD (depending on condition, whether they are autographed, etc). That’s a 35x increase in value in some cases! Woo.

So it’s no surprise that a local Chinese company has picked up the rights to re-publish the book in Chinese (Simplified only – there will be no Traditional Chinese version). Since its release, the Chinese language version enjoyed a period of “panic buying” and has seen steady sales since. Go Alice! 

I’ve managed to get my hands on a few copies of the Chinese Language version and put them up for sale in the Mysterious Shop. The price there includes shipping (with tracking) anywhere in the world. And I’ll autograph each and every book we send out. 

For the collectors among you, this is a rare opportunity to grab a bit of the game’s development history. And to own the “Art of” book produced in the same place where the game was developed. The signed copies of this new edition are sure to become as rare and valuable as the English and Japanese language versions did. 

You can hit THIS LINK to go to the Mysterious Shop and check out the “Art of ” book there. 

—

APOLOGIES for the straight-up advertisement of a product at Mysterious. I try to avoid doing this as much as possible. But this is one of those rare situations where I know serious collectors will be upset if they miss out. I promise not to make product placement like this a regular feature in Patreon Posts. 

More design, art, production stuff on the way this week. And a Live Stream! More on that soon!

From Shanghai In The Raaaain, 

-American

Dear Insane Children

It’s the most magical time of the month again.
When all the good karma you might have built up can hopefully sway the Gods of RNG in your favor as we choose 5 lucky people (from both Patrons and our last YouTube vid) to win… AN OMEGA NECKLACE !!!
One of the new, super awesome ones too!!

Here we go…
Rolling it…

* Nygel Manser
* Mathias Harvyl
* Guinevere Spurdens
* Vanessa Sherman
* O. Marquardt 

Congrats to all our winners and look forwards to getting an Omega Necklace in the post in the (hopefully) not too distant future.
They’ll be shipped out in July as we don’t have them from the factory yet.

I guess I can round things off with another Lulu pic as is tradition, even though I posted a Lulu yesterday   😛

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children

Font Lord here again, coming to you direct from Font Manor, with a few little bits and bobs of housekeeping ‘n stuff you might be interested in knowing.

Firstly, as you can see with the large image atop this post, we wanted to remind you of next month’s print, called The Ringmasters, by Omri Koresh.
(So that’s for people charged in July)
Finally rounding off the triptych of Circus Posters.
Look… LOOK at how awesome they all are lined up in a row…

*sends virtual fist bump to Omri*

Secondly, for those of you waiting on the survey for the Chaos Necklace choice for being charged at the $75 level this month, fret not, your surveys are coming.
I have decided to switch over from the old system of doing this (via Survey Monkey) to a new and infinitely better system of doing this (via Backerkit).
Survey Monkey was ok ‘back in the day’ but is really no longer fit for purpose.
So anyway, I have set up the new system and have sent out a few mails today to smoke test that it all works and nothing terrible will happen, then the rest of you will get emails Thurs/Fri.
Hurrah !!

Thirdly, I guess I’ll mention this again as some of you didn’t see the last shipping update post I wrote.
In a nutshell, shipping is still kinda broken in the world.
If you have received a tracking ID and you check it, likely on  http://stone3pl.com/  or  https://t.17track.net/  and you see there hasn’t been an update since early to mid-May or something, this is unfortunately ‘normal behavior’ currently.
Please add 3-6 weeks from whatever you see as the last date on your tracking before expecting to see the tracking update or get a delivery   🙁
*shakes fist at COVID*

Fourthly… LULU !!!

Ok, that’ll do it from me.
Stay safe out there !!

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children, 

Quick update for those of you who’ve been following along on my Adventures in Massive Migraines.

A few weeks ago an MRI of my head (skull, brain, etc), revealed no brain worms, cancer, or other possible sources of my recurring migraine headaches. This was a relief but also frustrating because it meant I still had no idea what was causing my headaches, nausea, weakness, tingling in hands, ringing in ears, etc.

So we went back for an MRI of my neck last week and… 

You see that little side-ways V-shaped spike poking out from between two vertebrae and compressing on my spinal nerve? 

That’s called a Herniated (or slipped) disk. And the resulting pinched nerve is what’s causing all my problems. 

So… yay? At least I now know what’s going on. And there’s hope for non-surgical treatment through rest, exercise, diet, and physical therapy. 

And we’re fortunate to be living only 10 minutes away from a newly opened high-tech hospital that focuses on exactly these kinds of problems, so… double yay? 

Always look on the bright side!

I’ll not bore you with any additional updates on this topic – unless they are really interesting, gory, or otherwise engaging.

Thank you, as always, for being supportive, kind, and understanding while I’ve struggled through this. There have been more than a few days in the past months where I’ve been unable to get out of bed – and I feel bad for those times when the updates weren’t coming frequently enough. Thankfully we’ve got a good team, good supporters, and the work – as you’ve seen – continues even when I am writhing in agony. Triple yay!

From Shanghai with Yay,

-American

THERE IS A NEW STORY DRAFT PDF DOWNLOAD AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST.
DOWNLOAD IT. READ IT.

Hello there Insane Children,
Alex here with another peek behind the scenes of pre-production.

Big STORY SPOILERS ahead in the PDF download on this one.
I’ll keep this post spoiler and specifics free, so read on with spoiler god-mode enabled.

Since we last spoke together, American and I have continued our work on the Alice: Asylum story. 

After our experimental format was received positively, (thank you!) we’re back at it, ironing out the specifics.

We’re deep-diving into the actual in-game story.

Fleshing out and positioning the narrative American will want you to encounter as a player. Starting from the opening cinematic, and moving you forward.

What we’ve now written is a much different, larger, and darker beast.
There’s a lot more teeth.

Hold onto your butts, it’s about to get real.

TWO IMPORTANT THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:

1. THE PDF IN THIS POST IS A FIRST DRAFT FOR THE OPENING CHAPTER ONLY.

It is the very first pass on taking our established key story beats, threading them together, and starting a cohesive narrative experience.

The analogy I used this morning with American was:

Getting all the clay we have lined up to work with.
Slamming all those pieces together.
Then dumping that clay heap on the table.
Ta-dah. Opening story.

It’s time to get sculpting in finer detail.

Severed heads and appendages from this draft will be on the cutting room floor.
A lot will be removed, or repurposed in the next pass.
And that’s great.

American and I agree, the key takeaway from this draft is:
We need to lean it up.

Speaking of which…

2. Scene Duration and Pacing.

As American explained in the last post, a page in this screenplay format roughly translates to 1 minute of screen time. We’ve got 17 pages here.

We’re going to try and cut that in half, (or close to) with the next pass.

And that’s not a problem. We both agree it’s entertaining overall, and there’s some fun scenes.

However, the current draft takes you on a slower-paced, guided tour through the opening. Explaining each step to you in detail. Stopping at each station as you go. Allowing you to take your time as a player. And ask questions.

The pace we want to hit for the story at this point, is more along the lines of strapping you into a fast rollercoaster.

That hits some gut-churning loops.
Then flings you off the tracks.
Over the fence of the amusement park.
And leaves you in a burning, grinning heap in the parking lot.

Sound good?

Much more story, art and experiences to share as we go.

In closing here, I just want to take a moment to thank all of you for continuing to provide the means for American, the team, and myself to make this happen.

We couldn’t do it without your support. I truly hope you’re all enjoying being along for the ride with us. Let’s make something special together.
Stay insane you beautiful people.

-Alex

Dear Insane Children, 

We had a lot of fun on the livestream over on Twitch yesterday. In case you missed it, the recording is now up on YouTube. And you can watch it via THIS LINK. 

During the stream, we talked a bit about the Circus/Denial Realm and Alice’s escape using a balloon to hijack The Moon. (Only in Wonderland would that sentence make any sense). 

And I must have missed this concept from Omri (image above) before we went live… He says:  

I thought that someone needs to ship the thing and i thought that if Humpty was there already and it’s His ride, it’s not over the top, it’s just glamorizing himself.

( i would like a ride that will bear my face and show how cool i am.)

we didn’t have him talk in either games, he was always a prop.

Also can be fun to see him Whole and at the end break and looking more like the one we met it AMA. alice never shipped things, she more traveled with people towards places, so she needs a co-pilot IMO.

And when I finally got around to seeing his idea and the concept image (after the live stream), I replied: 

I like the idea of the Balloon being own/operated by Humpty. And that it’s stylized a bit as his (shape, color, etc). Having him as the pilot is great. And he can drive the balloon while Alice fights off enemies. Keep in mind that these early balloons were often tethered to the earth – they didn’t want them just floating away free because they were scared of what dangers might lurk in the sky. All of this is good metaphor for escape – there’s a balloon, it can be used to escape, but it’s going beyond its design/purpose to be cut free. This will be Humpty’s first attempt at piloting it anywhere except up/down.  

It’s a nice solution that should make everyone happy. We get our balloon. We get Humpty Dumpty. And Alice gets a co-pilot. 

What do you think? 

Mechmoon 2042 Enters The Fight!

Alex sent along this sketch inspired by our chat during the livestream. And said… 

Hi guys, just dropping this in the pot for consideration after watching the live stream today.
Designed to be friendly one way, and sinister another with minimal transformation.

I’ve also had a play with mechanics on the Moon and an automaton form concept exploration.
It’s dumb.

Seems a bit nuts, but also might be something that ties in with the Hatter being nuts.

Moon Searchlights, and pilots in the eyes in the final form.
Some linear notes are also on the sketches.

To which I replied… 

It’s a fun idea… but… I prefer that the design of The Moon would be completely reliant on and/or built around the notion that the Lullaby Luller (weapon) is all this vehicle needs by way of Super Weapons. To add more stuff – a transformer-like conversion into a spinning-blade, attack helicopter thing… which is it? A stealthy and extremely effective device for transporting Alice back to Denial? Or a multi-tasking attack helicopter? 

Let’s stick with it being a single-purpose and purpose built device.  

What do you think? Should our Moon transform into an attack helicopter? 

We look forward to your thoughts in the comments below! 

PS: I have a phone call with our Corporate Overlords (they shall not be named)… and high hopes that we might see some forward progress. Cross your fingers! 

From Shanghai in the Summer Rains,

-American (and Lulu)