Dear Insane Children, 

Woo it’s busy around here. In the last week, I’ve been to the hospital for migraines and the dentist for a painful tooth; Yan’s been to the hospital for pregnancy checkups; and Yan’s mom is off to see her brother in the hospital – meaning increased Lucky duty for myself and Yan and Lulu. I’ve had a bunch of meetings related to Alice (TV series); Akaneiro (more on that later); and Oz: Adventures. There just aren’t enough hours in the day or days in the week!

But fear not! TONS of progress still happening even if I can’t find the time to share it here on Patreon. 

For example – check out the main image above! 

Alex is working on design and UI/UX for Asylum. That includes defining things like Difficulty Selection, Gameplay Balance, and Combat Loops. 

He’s sent me a bunch of documents to review… 

And while I’ve not had time to fully review and comment on these ideas… I thought we could open this up to Crowd Design!

So I’ve ATTACHED the ZIP File Alex sent me to this post. You can download it and examine all the design materials contained within. Then send your feedback to Alex via the Comments below!

Of this material, Alex says: 

1. A Full First Pass on Resource, Economy and Weapon Attack Data 

This contains a few PDF Spreadsheets containing;
1. Full Ammo, XP, Health, Pickups and Resource Economy for Alice: Asylum.

2. Full Outline for all primary and secondary firing modes for all weapons in Alice: Asylum.

This information is presented as data at this stage, but will be typeset and placed in the “Pause Screen/Inventory” pages between the Narrative along with visuals.

I’ve included an early pass on the Vorpal Blade using this information and structure. 

—–

2. Conceptual Layouts for Selecting “Hysteria/Inferno” Special States

I’ve made some Conceptual Layouts and some Animated UI mockups that explore;

1. Using Alice’s Necklaces for Different Abilities we’ve outlined in the Narrative. (Rage/Inferno & Hysteria).

2. A new concept that I wanted to explore that uses; The Alchemy Symbols/Runes on Alice’s Dress Pockets, as Gameplay Modifiers that can be equipped by the player to adjust playstyle.

This allows for 2x different Equippable Alchemy Symbols for a player to mix n’ match secondary abilities. These abilities could enhance, or lean into their preferred attacks, weapons or abilities. 

Struggling in combat? Buff Alice’s Combat with a Rune.
Want to focus on Ranged Weapons and Sniping? There’s a rune for that too.

The idea is to build on Alice’s ToolBox, and offer these runes in the Gameplay areas as items that can be found in secret areas or unlockable via challenge spaces in one of each of the 12 worlds.

They’re not game-breakers, and the idea is a very skilled player could finish Alice without ever equipping one, but these offer some fresh versatility and open up the experience largely with the different combinations available. 

It also adds practical meaning and gameplay purpose to something that has been a staple of Alice’s look since 2000. These symbols I’ve chosen and abilities could all be edited, and changed to suit their true “Alchemical Meaning” but I’ve had a solid crack at finding that balance in the first pass.

The Content I’ve attached, will all link up and reference one another when looked at in detail.

—-

3. Difficulty Settings and Intended Gameplay Experience

See page layout and content attached that explains these in the DB.
Any edits required, let me know.

—-

4. Game Design Ethos / Soft Gates and Hard Gates

Another DB layout that explains a scenario and how a player might tackle a situation in game. Flexibility and encouragement to get creative with Alice’s abilities in Soft Gated areas.
Focus and objective-based achievement to progress in Hard Gated areas. (ie: Kill a boss, defeat all enemies, solve puzzle etc to proceed.)

Any edits required, let me know.

—-

Gameplan moving forward is to wind most of this supplementary Game Design content in the earlier chapters and the content for the “Pause Screens” near finalized by end of March. I’ll continue typesetting the Narrative and pages as I go.

The next DB update I expect will be a PDF snapshot of all of this coming together in the DB layouts alongside Narrative Content and Script. So a WIP sample of the real deal.

Thanks, Alex! 

There’s a lot to consume and comment on… and that should keep you busy until the Live Stream later this week. 

That’s right! We’re back with another Live Stream this week. Usual time and place. 

And we’ll have plenty of time to discuss Alex’s design proposals (and your comments during the stream. 

You can find links to Twitch and YouTube via: https://linktr.ee/americanmcgee 

See you soon!

From Shanghai with Medium Difficulty,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

First up: There WILL NOT BE a Live Stream this week. Sorry! I have to go to the dentist on the usual live stream day. I have a new crown that’s decided to fail – so that has to be removed and I get to have a root canal. Wee! I’d change the time to allow for the Live Stream – but this dentist is only in that nearby office once a week. So… Yeah. 

Mark your calendar for the 10th of March though. That should be the magic day of the next stream. 

Now…. to some art and updates: 

Sarcophagus of Transformation

This item is seen in Hatter’s Lab throughout Alice’s initial journey to save Wonderland. She’s told it contains The Saviour who will stop the encroaching Chaos. But if you read the Narrative Outline you know… well, just go read the outline if you want to know! 

These sketches by Adam are all beautiful and I think they all look great. But I asked him to go forward on the one marked “A” – as the two bird heads facing off against each other does a good job mirroring the overarching narrative of Alice vs. The Shadow. 

Adam also turned in this absolute stunner – of a scene from early in the game where Alice is being chased by The Moon. Love it! 

Omri also sent over an updated version of the Orphanage Children/Child Dolls – with reference to one of them being a paper cutout doll. 

Scary! 

Meanwhile in Oz

Gareth rendered a vision – of what you’d get if Russell Crowe and Antonio Bandaras had a love child. Woo… be still my beating heart. This is the Spanish Captain – the quasi-main character of the first episode of Oz: Adventures. 

This art and the concept for the Flying Monkey – previously shared here – will be sent to 3D artists who will produce 3D models of both. 

Those models will be pulled into a scene we’re building in Unreal. That scene is designed to test some theories about producing interactive spaces using limited resources. I want to see if we can manage to reduce the number of assets required to convey the narrative and action of a particular sequence of the game. 

One common phrase you’ll hear in the games industry is that modern games are a sort of “asset tourism” – where the player breezes past a TON of very expensive art on their way to a puzzle section, combat box, or narrative scene. Is it possible that we only produce fully-realized 3D spaces in places where they are really needed? Such as combat arenas or puzzle sections? And that some of the connecting spaces could be done with more matte paintings and optical illusions? 

Those are the questions we hope to answer with the current series of experiments. And we’ll share the results (and maybe even some playable demos?) here with you when we’re able. 

As mentioned previously on the topic of Unreal and demos – I really wish we could have produced some demo scenes for Alice: Asylum. Certainly, we have the capability and desire. But EA made it very clear early on that we were NOT allowed to do anything relating to actual interactive game development – not even visual demos. So… that was Red Line we did not want to cross. Doing so would likely have resulted in EA sending a Cease and Desist with regards to ALL efforts of pre-production for a new game. And that would have been sad. 

But with Oz.. well, we’re free to do what we want. And what do we want? To produce some G. D. interactive stuff! 

I hope everyone is staying safe out there – crazy times in the world. A bit scary. A bit depressing. Here’s hoping the elephants come to their senses before the grass gets crushed. 

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

Font Lord here with a quick reminder of what next month’s print is.

As you can see above, it will be “Burning Birthday” for February Patrons charged in March.
So you now have 7 days to adjust your pledge if needed.

And of course, yes, this will become a choice for the 3x$35 tier Patrons when March rolls around    🙂

In other news, we do not have infinite space to store every art print selection we ever have, so unfortunately, we do remove them from the shop and the 3x$35 selection occasionally to make space for new and shiny prints.

We have now removed Alice & Cheshire and also House of Fire and Fury.
BUT we have taken the last 5 prints of each and created a ‘double print tube’ in the Mysterious store for $70.
We only have 5 tubes, so if this interests you.
GRAB ‘EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT! 

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children, 

LOTS going on these days but I’ve neglected to provide you with an update! First, we had a Live Stream last week. Here’s a link to a recording of that over on YouTube: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuwJxIQPO8s 

In that, we discussed the Alice TV deal, progress on the Design Bible for Asylum, and new work being done on Oz: Adventures. Check it out!

A New Adventure

I mentioned during that live stream that most of my work (related to story) is finished on Alice: Asylum (at least as it pertains to pre-production). That means I have time to start work on a new story – and so I’ve turned my attention back to Oz: Adventures. 

The main image above is from Gareth and depicts a scene where the Conquestidors survey the site of their shipwreck. This is currently outlined to be the first episode we’ll see in Adventures… with the following episodes introducing new storylines from other adventurers trying to survive the wilderness of Oz. *Note: The narrative will provide an equal-opportunity portrayal of mankind’s cruelties – it doesn’t just single out the Spanish as history’s only bad guys. Oh, no. 

And while I have a basic understanding of some of the specific tales I want to tell… Conquistadors, WW2 Pilots, modern-day tourists, etc… I’m still working on (struggling with?) finding the overarching theme linking them together – and in making Oz the place where their issues are properly investigated and challenged. All this while exploring a backdrop of Oz’s own cultures, politics, and conflict. 

Very happy to have Gareth guiding this journey through excellent visuals. 

Check out those Flying Monkeys! A lot of great details – elements of the culture, work, and lives of these characters. 

The Flying Monkeys will be the first characters that we also render in 3D. Those assets will be placed into Unreal – and we’re hoping to have a tech demo showing some ideas of how Oz: Adventures might work as a hybrid game-graphic novel (more on that later). 

But, yeah, because we are not constrained by EA ordering us NOT to turn on a game engine (as is the case with Asylum), we WILL be turning on Unreal and building some prototypes in that engine for Oz: Adventures. Yay! 

And a scene depicting the Conquestidors’ first encounter with signs they are in Flying Monkey territory. 

Let us know in the comments below what you think of all this new exploration – and if you have ideas on the sorts of themes you’d like to see explored in this new narrative. 

Meanwhile, In Wonderland

Omri is working on a revision of the Insane Children / Orphans. This is an exploration of an update on the style you saw in Madness Returns. 

Of this design he says: 

i thought to make the signs into the middle part of the body for all of them
?and make the dolls into different kinds of dolls. i don’t want them all to look porcelain and “The Same”. i think each of their trauma is specific and unique so their design and materials should be as well.

So let him know in the comment below – what do you think? 

And Joey is working on a scene where Alice explores the memory of her visit to Radcliffe’s office. 

Of this Joey says: 

Exploring Redcliffe’s office. It was dark and Alice is walking around with caterpillar talking to her, then she saw her otherself standing right next to the desk, asking for the rabbit from Redcliffe(happened in AMR), the tone of the room started to change, little by little, soon to taht afternoon/or moring, when it really happened. I rendered 2 images with one lineworks, so this takes me some time:)

This room is not excately the same as in AMR, I moved the clock into the room, while in AMR, the grandfather clock was at the end of the asil, outside the room. I also played with some furnitures, hope that’s ok. We don’t have to make the room 100% like we showed in AMR right?

Let her know in the comments what you think!

That’s it for today’s update. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. And we’ll be back next week with more great art, story, and design updates. 

From Shanghai with Monkeys, 

-American

Hi everyone,
Alex here. I am the Design Lead amongst other roles for the Alice: Asylum pre-production project.

My work on the Design Bible last year was focused on delivering the best possible narrative experience for Asylum. From the feedback American and I have received, we’ve achieved that to a suitable level to proceed.

My work is now focused on presenting key gameplay concepts in the earliest chapter of the DB before the narrative experience begins. Then, I’m typesetting the remainder of the design bible content to create the expected 250+ page finished monster document this year. 

We are in the middle of creating a broad stroke chapter, that will help push and educate anyone to a sufficient level if they’ve never picked up and played an Alice Game before. 

We answer; What to expect? What is the gameplay loop? What the hell is a Bumby?

While that knowledge might be redundant to everyone who is already a Patron (we all know what a third-person game is and how wicked Alice games are), presenting this information in a concise way for potential investors is another job for the Design Bible to perform as a sales tool.

So, that’s what’s cooking currently. And we’ll have more to share soon.

For now, as an extension of this foundational work in the DB, the video at the top of the post shows some of the early work I’ve just completed.

A first pass, early days, but I feel these designs communicate the information needed.

A few early HUD concepts for; Health, Rage/Hysteria special states, A New “One-Hit Shield” Mechanic, (represented by the rose), and a very early Weapon Wheel.

So we’re sharing them here as they’re fresh out of the oven.
Have a look, watch the video, (volume on please), and drop your thoughts in the comments. 

The visual style draws inspiration from some classic games that came before and some remixed elements of Madness Returns.

I wanted it all presented in a legible, concise, and very “Alice” way for Asylum.

Much more progress is being made in other areas in the DB.
I’ll be dropping more updates shortly with more new design-orientated Alice stuff as soon as they’re ready.

See you in the threads!
Cheers,

Alex

Dear Insane Children, 

Wow! We’re off to a great start. Roaring into the Year of the Tiger!

Alice TV Series Deal

First, for those who missed it: Radar Pictures has brought on board David Hayter to write and develop a TV series for “Alice” – you can read more about that via a Google Search. Tons of articles out there to choose from. 

David has already started work on his vision for the TV series and is aiming to finish his pitch presentation around the end of March. He’ll then take it to the usual list of streaming services to find a home (funding, etc). He’s signed on for a year to make all of this happen – so I have high hopes we’re going to see something get done this time. 

I mentioned this before but it needs repeating: This deal happened because of you. When Radar approached me last year to talk about “Oz: Adventures” and our other projects – it was because of the work we’re doing here on Patreon and the live streams where we share our progress via YouTube and Twitch. The Radar team saw our work and reached out – after which we signed a deal for “Oz” and they picked up the rights to “Alice” (for film and television).

None of that would have happened if you weren’t supporting us here on Patreon. 

You have solidly proven the power of the crowd and what happens when fans get behind something they love. So, again, THANK YOU. Job well done!

Top Three Most Ask Questions Re: the Alice TV Deal

1. Will it be live-action or animated? A: I believe David is aiming to make this a live-action show. He worked on “Warrior Nun” most recently (co-writing and producing) – so check out the TRAILER for that to get a sense of his magical action-drama abilities. 

2. Will American (that’s me!) be involved? A: I can’t talk about the specifics of the deal just yet (always with those pesky NDAs and whatnot) – but I can say that I’ve already been involved and have also been offered official involvement with a credit/title on the TV show. So, yes. It looks like I’ll be involved. 

3. Where’s the GAME?! A: No news just yet on how this impacts the development of a new game. But I have always said that once we pitch this to Netflix, Amazon, HBO (etc, etc – long list of potential homes for this project) – that we’ll likely see movement on a game deal. Either one of those companies (all of which have game development aspirations and funds) or EA will step in and make something happen. And, as I’ve also said before, we’re in a great position to define what the next game will be based on the work we’ve done here on Patreon. 

Alice Design Bible Work

Our pre-production team (made possible by your support) continues their work on the Design Bible under the guidance of Alex. He’s mapped out all of the elements required to push towards a final Design Bible being delivered by the end of 2022. Still a TON of work to be done but it’s in good hands. 

There will be another giant post on this topic shared later this week where Alex will outline everything he has in store… Suffice to say he’s working on some awesome stuff: 

And as you can see from the Main Image Above – beautiful artwork is still being produced to illustrate the pages of the Design Bible. That image is of Alice witnessing the murder of The Knave at the hands of Shadow Alice. Another incredible illustration by Adam. Ouch! 

OZ: Adventures

And while the Alice: Asylum team continues forward on their mission – I am starting a Side Quest to deliver a pitch to Radar for “OZ: Adventures” as a TV series and game. 

That’s a Flying Monkey Castle… illustrated by Gareth. I’ve kidnapped him to work with me for a while on Oz art and he’s creating some really inspiring work. 

These are sketches of the Winkies – inhabitants of Oz that we’ll meet early in the first episode. 

That first episode is “Conquistadors In Oz” – and finds a band of Spanish explorers landing in Oz thinking they’ve discovered Rico de Oro (Rich in Gold) Island or some other mythical land. But when they try subjugating and murdering the local population (per their usual MO) they quickly find they are no longer in Kansas… and all that implies. Let there be blood!

Live Stream This Week 

There WILL BE a Live Stream this week. As you can see, we have a TON to catch up on!

Usual time and place. That’s Thursday @ 6PM PST if you are in the USA.

You can find links to my Twitch and YouTube Channels via linktr.ee/americanmcgee 

Be sure to post your QUESTIONS and feedback in the comments below. Bonus points if you use the QUESTION: format to highlight when you are asking a question – Martin will thank you for that! 

Housekeeping

Speaking of Martin… he asked me to remind everyone that there will be a DELAY in all things related to Three-for-35, Surveys, and Art Print shipping. This is a result of us just coming out of an extended holiday for the Chinese New Year. Please allow for a bit of extra time before you start to worry about or send questions related to surveys, shipping, etc. 

If you do have questions or concerns related to those things, be sure to send them to us on Patreon via PM – don’t post them in the Comments or Community section, please. 

That’s it for today’s post… but more on the way! 

From Shanghai with Love and Appreciation, 

-American