The Battle of Queensland

Dear Insane Children, 

A quick post this morning with the final epic version of Omri’s latest illustration… Alice running through a battle between Card Guards, Chess Pieces, and Chaos Monsters. Set in Queensland, this scene is taken from the Asylum Narrative document we’re working on. And it’ll be featured in the Design Bible. Woo! 

There’s a crazy amount of detail in the full image. Omri’s split it into some smaller images for your viewing pleasure… 

And you can grab the full-scale image here: 

Makes for an excellent desktop wallpaper. 

Amazing work, Omri! 

And all thanks to our Insane Children here on Patreon for supporting our team of artists.

From Shanghai with Awe,

-American

Woo Hoo! Discord Chat Incoming.

Dear Insane Children, 

Font Lord here to give you all a quick heads up that there will be an Asylum narrative discussion Discord chat on Friday 10am Shanghai Time.

This will take place at the following times around the world…

New York         = Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 10:00:00 pm
Los Angeles   = Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 7:00:00 pm
London            = Friday, March 19, 2021 at 2:00:00 am
Moscow          = Friday, March 19, 2021 at 5:00:00 am

Simply log into your Discord and head into the Wonderland server.
Then you need to navigate to Design Discussion/Whispers of Insanity to hear us speaking, but also be sure to have the ‘writing on the walls’ tab open too for simultaneous text chat.

We may call upon you to speak if you have something to say, so make sure you have a working mic setup if you want to do that     🙂

Hope you can join us then.

– Cheers

Mini Bosses and Distorted Vagin… Um.

Dear Insane Children,

My headache has gone from deathly to manageable so I’m back with an update. But first, thank you, to everyone who sent well wishes. If you scroll back in the Patreon posts, you can find the image of a CT scan that reveals why I get these headaches. Unfortunately, knowing why I get them does not mean I can avoid them entirely. I just need to be careful with my neck… and sometimes things need moving or picking up… and careful goes out the window. Ouch. 

First image today is a sketch from Norm of a mini-boss design from Alex. This is the Judgement Boss we’ll encounter at the end of the Courthouse area.

Omri added an updated sketch along with a note… 

To which he added: 

“guys.

we need to change the design slightly.

the head looks like a distorted vagina.

Norman i’ll write you. i love the frame but the head opening to the sides look bad now that i see it in black and white.

i’ll sketch on this and send it over to you, i think if we’ll pop out more the HEAD aspect it will work.”

To which I replied (after I stopped laughing): 

It’s gross and I love it, norm.

I can’t really see much difference in the edit. And I do not see anything wrong with it looking like a distorted vagina. Anything can look like that if you squint hard enough.

Anyway, let us know in the comments… what you think about all of this. When you stop laughing. 

Speaking of… Adam also sent over the Final version of the Jabberwock emerging from his metal womb. This includes a claw wrapped around the door and some other final touches. 

Adam also recently set up a new Instagram account. If you want to check out the work he’s doing on Asylum and his other beautiful work, head over and give him a follow: 

https://www.instagram.com/vitaj_art/ 

Decision Coin 2021

Remember when we were going to produce a Decision Coin to mark 2021 and all the years we’ve been trying to get Asylum off the ground? That got interrupted by Chinese New Year and other things… but it’s back! Alex just sent over an updated version of the file we’ll send to the factory… Adjustments were made to ensure manufacture quality. Check it out: 

I can’t remember exactly what we said about these… but I think they will be offered via Patreon and Mysterious? And will go out to everyone at the $35 Tier? Don’t hold me to that! I need to confirm with Font Lord…

Main thing is, these coins are once again heading to production. So, yay! 

Narrative and Art Tasks

The team continues to crank through producing content for the Design Bible. 

Inspired by this image from Joey, I wrote: 

“Why should I be bothered by chaos? My throne is built atop the framework of your struggle against it. The weight of oppression would crush your skull if you thought of anything but supporting me. And the chaos would consume you if you lowered your blade to see the truth. That’s your cage of violence and fear. That’s why we paint the white roses red.”

The whole thing got me thinking about the nonsensical structures of power that define the world we all live in. Might channel some of that into the Asylum narrative (at least as it relates to characters like The Queen. 

And There’s More

If you want a full-length catch-up on everything going on, check out the Live Stream from last week: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsS4Dmyhv_E 

Now…

One of the other reasons I might have a headache these days is that I am trying to unravel (and re-weave?) a major aspect of the Asylum narrative. Thing is, the core story is done. It’s an adventure where a little girl fights her way through Wonderland to get home. Easy enough. But there are many layers of meaning stacked atop that story… and I am trying to find the best way to communicate the THEME through all of those layers. 

Lately, I’ve been struggling with questions like, “Can Wonderland characters be aware of the nature of their reality and use that awareness to shape or bend the reality in certain directions?” There’s a mix of “Matrix” and “Inception” going into what I think I’m trying to say in this story…. and it’s not been easy. 

This is the main reason Crowd Design on the narrative stuff has been so silent. I would like to open this up to a broader discussion but I don’t know how to do that when I am still grasping in the darkness for the major concepts. 

Anyway, for those of you interested in the narrative journey, I appreciate your patience. Please know that I am working on the story every morning… chipping away at these questions and trying to shape something that we can all discuss in the coming weeks. 

Back at it… 

From Shanghai with Distortions, 

-American

Brain Pain

Dear Insane Children, 

Just a quick note to say that I had intended to write an update this morning… but I’ve been struck with another Killer Migraine… the sort that makes me feel like I want to vomit on the keyboard. Now that I know the source of these things (pinched nerve in my neck), I am pretty certain this is the result of moving some boxes (too quickly) yesterday. Sigh. 

I was going to include this new image from Joey… Alice meeting with The Queen. 

A bit of commentary was generated by this when Joey uploaded it to Monday. Mainly because it doesn’t really fit anywhere in our narrative outline. But I think trying to make it fit misses the point… it’s a wonderful and surreal illustration of two of our key characters. No, the details don’t make sense. But then… they don’t have to. It’s art in the most literal sense. And I love it! 

Anyway, I’ll be back soon (I hope) with updates on progress with our projects. 

There is, btw, a lot of positive news around “Alice” in general. Can’t say much yet but I am very happy with the news I am hearing, so… you can be happy too! 

From Shanghai with Vomit Head, 

-American 

Orange and Blue Become Friends!

Dear Insane Children, 

Font Lord here with a bit of an update about the next art print.

As you may have seen recently, we asked you to choose your favorite between the 2 images in this post to see which won and that would become the next print (for those charged in April).

But after thinking about it, even though blue sakura won, we decided they’re both great and it would be a shame to upset any people who had been looking forwards to the orange floating castle pic so we’re going to do an impromptu “Double Print Month”.

So for those at $75 charged in April, you will get BOTH prints  🙂
And as a quick reminder, if you’ve never been at $75 before, you can also get a Hysteria Rabbit too for your first time at that level, WOW!

Any questions about this, pop ’em into the comments or simply PM us here on Patreon.

– Cheers

OH NO! That’s No Hero!

Dear Insane Children, 

Behold The Jabberwock 2.019! Emerged from his Crypt of Improvement ready to take on The Chaos and save Wonderland… Except you know he’s not going to save Wonderland, is he? Nah!

But it was nice to think a saviour was waiting behind that door who would make all of Alice’s problems go away. Fortunately, she’s half-solved all her problems in the process of re-building this scaly not-solution. So she still has half a hope and a pretty good chance of saving herself and Wonderland. 

Another excellent illustration from Adam. He says this is still a work in progress – but it’s a really beautiful one. Another art print? I guess it’s a good thing that as we go through the narrative and illustrate these scenes, most of them end up being art print material. Seems to suggest it’s going to be a beautiful game! 

Let us know in the comments below what you think of our hissy helper. Does he have any chance for redemption? 

Live Stream

Join us over on Twitch/YouTube this week for another stream from the underground lair. Usual time and place: 

That’s Thursday morning here in Shanghai at 10am (HK Time) and if you’re on the West Side of the USA then it’s 6PM PST. 

We seem to be able to dual-stream these days so you can use either of these links: 

https://www.twitch.tv/americanmcgee 

https://www.youtube.com/americanmcgeeofficial 

Hope to see you there! 

From Shanghai in Green Steam, 

-American