Dear Insane Children, 

A new image from Omri showing the Umbraland version of Hatter’s Domain! 

The Alice: Asylum pre-production team continues to explore ideas related to what we’re calling “Umbraland” – the result of Shadow Alice taking over Wonderland. Child Alice arrives in this place after years “under glass” – kept in stasis inside Snow Globe Wonderland. The final chapter of the game will pit these two characters against one another to decide the fate of Wonderland…

BUT!

How do you imagine we might resolve a battle between the Shadow and Child Self? Should the Shadow win? What if the Child wins? What impact would that have on Wonderland? On Alice’s psyche?

And when you think about PTSD and potential outcomes as they related to our internal “selves” – what direction do you think would be preferable? Do you know people who, after suffering through PTSD, allowed the Shadow to consume them? Or perhaps they reverted to their Child selves?

And what if neither side “wins” this fight? (This is the direction we’re going in the writing, BTW).

What’s the best way to communicate this sort of resolution where the Shadow and the Child both win and both lose?

Let me know in the comments below what you think!

From Shanghai with A Shadow Child, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

Font Lord here.

It has come to my attention that there has been some confusion about how to get the Memento Mori Coin.

I figured the previous instructions/rules were pretty clear, but let’s take a look…

I said…

“…make sure your Patreon tier is set to be at $35 or above before June.
Then when you are charged in June, we’ll send you out the coin + bag + stand”

Seems pretty clear with no wiggle room error, but to answer those of you who are confused about whether you are getting the coin set or not, let’s break it down.

1) Did you set your tier to $35 or above before June?
2) Did you get charged, i.e.. did money come out of your bank account to pay for your Patreon subscription in June?

If you answered yes to both those questions, then congratulations, you’re getting the Memento Mori Coin Set. Yay!

There ARE some people who tend to get charged later in the month, but point 2 still applies to you as long as it happens in June, no matter the date.

There we go.  Simple   🙂

Can’t imagine there are any more questions to be asked, but if you do have any, pop ’em in the comments below.

Editor’s (American) Note: Don’t mind Font Lord. He gets cranky when people don’t understand his Fonterly Fonting (writing). One other thing to note is that whenever you pledge at $35 – at any time, during any promotion – it does count towards a Free Art Print. It does not matter if time passes between those $35 payments. For example, you could pledge $35 every 3 months, and on the third payment – Free Art Print! Yay! 

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children, 

Joey has turned in another beautiful illustration from the world of Alice’s imagination. This image captures some of the ideas we’ve discussed for the Memory Mines “maw” section – a place where recycled memories are pulled up into the roots of a tree… The Tree of Imagination perhaps. And those memories are used to fertilize Alice’s imaginings. 

The image Joey provided does not properly capture the notion of this area I was aiming for. But I’ve let her and Omri know that this is good enough for now. It does manage to contain several of the key ingredients that make this area unique… so it’ll do for now. 

Meanwhile Jen is working on a new Plushie Dreadful design based on the idea of Depression / Numbness. The idea here is that this flat, lifeless bunny will contain a notebook into which you can scribble your thoughts and feelings… 

This continues our efforts in exploring bunnies with emotional/psychological themes. Let Jen know in the comments below what you think of this idea! 

And Adam continues to crank out stunning imagery from the memories of Adult Alice as they explored by Child Alice. In this latest image we see a scene of mixed elements from the Home from Wayward Children alongside the Infernal Train. Wonderful! 

On the Biz Dev front… we’ve had some good movement this week. Mysterious officially brought on a CFO to help guide the process of fundraising alongside the project we’re putting together with Redacted 1 (Chinese Publisher). And Redacted 1 now has the latest Oz: Adventures / Mysterious Studios planning and budget stuff in hand… so we’re hoping to see movement towards getting that deal done in the coming weeks/months. Fingers crossed! 

In a few hours, I’ll drive west for 3 hours to an area called Moganshan for a 2-day man-cation retreat. Hoping to enjoy some hiking, swimming, and relaxing away from the constant (but lovable) “da! da! daaaaaa!” of Lucky 😉 Might post a few pictures to my Instagram account in case you’re interested to see what that area looks like. 

From Shanghai with Da Da Daaaa,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Did you know that once a person convinces themselves of a thing, it is nearly impossible to change their mind on that thing… even if you present them with solid evidence to prove their position is wrong? This same mental block can be seen when people cling to toxic relationships, excuse bad habits, and engage in other sorts of self-defeating behavior. It’s one of the great tragedies of human existence that we all possess the means to escape our mental/physical prisons but voluntarily choose to exist in suffering as opposed to changing our situation. 

Then again, positive change is not easy. If it were then none of the suffering and nonsense would exist in the first place!

The state we find Wonderland in after Shadow Alice has taken over is representative of the sort of Negative Change we do find easy. It’s always easier to roll downhill vs. pushing that rock up the hill. And this Umbraland version of Wonderland has definitely gone Down Hill!

Omri is doing great work on rendering what Umbraland looks like – revisiting familiar places from the previous two games and showing us what Shadow Alice’s influence has done to them. 

Can’t wait to go there! 

One problem people often have with self-improvement is the inability to recognize their own self-worth and value. That concept is often contained in the notion of “Imposter Syndrome” – a feeling of doubt surrounding your abilities that leaves you feeling like a fake or a fraud. Or feeling out of place to the point that you worry about being “found out.” 

It’s a powerful emotional state that can cripple our creativity – and actually tends to increase with success and visibility. The more attention you attract (perhaps because your work is good?!) the more you think that attention is undeserved and only a result of random chance. 

Jennifer did a design for a Plushie Dreadful based on this concept – image above. What do you think? Have you ever felt Imposter Syndrome? What do you think about a rabbit design based on this idea? 

Let us know in the comments below! 

Adam continues his work on Alice’s memories – visited by Child Alice in the Memory Mines. 

One of these frames has been selected for further rendering… but which one do YOU like?

Again, let us know in the comments! 

We WILL have a LIVE STREAM this week. Usual time and place. And there WILL be PRIZES!

You can join us via my Twitch Channel: 

www.twitch.com/americanmcgee 

That is the only place where you can win prizes. 

Or via YouTube… 

www.youtube.com/americanmcgeeofficial  

Hope to see you all there! 

From Shanghai with Lucky,

-American

PS: Happy Children’s Day!