Dear Insane Children,
There WILL BE a Live Stream this week at the usual time.
Thursday at 10AM for us here in Shanghai. 7PM if you’re on the West Coast of the US. And we’ll be discussing the content in this post…
This is a BIG text-based post.
Here’s TL:DR version;
The first pass on massive, detailed core game design & data documents has recently been completed and is attached to this Patreon Post at the bottom.
>>> Scroll down, and hit DOWNLOAD <<<
Best viewed on Desktop.
MASSIVE SPOILERS WITHIN.
PDF and HTML (web browser) versions are ready to rock, and we’re sharing them with you now, (and other third parties).
This is all critical stuff towards the progress of the Alice: Asylum project.
Want the long version?
Keep reading.
————
Hi everyone,
Alex here. My “roles” on the Alice Project are ever-changing as needs arise, but today, I am writing to you from the perspective of the lead designer, an assistant game designer, and a producer.
The first thing I want to do; is thank you all for your patience in these communication gaps while we’ve been doing some serious work.
This morning, American and I just ticked off huge milestones towards whatever potential end goal we may see with Alice: Asylum.
These are data-driven, core-design elements for Alice: Asylum, namely;
1. Main Levels & Areas of Gameplay
2. Detailed Level Structure and Content
3. Weapons Detail
4A. Enemy Basic Abilities
4B. Enemy Overview & Structure
5. Enemy Detail List
6. Pickups and Resources Detail
7. Passive Buffs – Dress Rune System
8. Extra Key Tasks Areas Required
Some of it looks like this;
This is vital work in tying threads of Alice: Asylum’s game design.
To put things in context, a few weeks back, American, Adam (our tech lead), and I sat in on a high-level meeting with another third party (unnamed due to confidentiality for the time being).
This initial meeting was geared towards Alice: Asylum being reviewed and discussed with serious intent for actual game development.
The meeting couldn’t have gone better, and the bridge we’ve built with this third party seems positive, open, and constructive.
The action plan after the meeting resulted in the need for American and me to complete serious deep-diving into our data and the Design Bible.
We needed to present and boil down our existing ideas and information so game developers and programmers could have a clearer line of sight toward measuring their potential dev work.
After a focused few weeks of game design and compiling a vast array of data (and dreaming of spreadsheets each night), American and I now have many of Alice: Asylum’s core foundations ready for review.
Any prospective development partner can now potentially gauge an initial scope of work. And most importantly, attach a dollar amount to the development work involved.
Whether we’ve hit the nail on the head in the first pass is to be confirmed.
Regardless, by the time you’ve read this post, we’ve most likely handed the discussion back to this third party to let them get to work crunching numbers.
Our end goal this year is to have;
1. The Design Bible Completed (Our Creative Vision – More on that later.)
2. A Scope of Works established for the potential development of Alice: Asylum (Our Game Design Data – See attached documents.)
3. And; a Budget Projection in place that considers both the Design Bible, and Scope of Works to complete the full picture. (The Budget Document – This will be worked on by our potential Development Partner and relevant team members.)
When those 3x items are all in place, and everything is locked and loaded, we should have the full package for Alice: Asylum ready to go to be shopped around.
The idea is to put any financier at ease with investing upwards of US $30 Million into a project that is thoroughly considered and realistically measured from relevant angles.
Here’s a little snippet of the email we sent out today;
<START – Partial Email – Sections Edited or Removed>
A couple of important points to note.
1. The information contained within these spreadsheets is 100% open to developer input and expertise.
We are open to finding the best possible solutions to achieve the intended goals of quality and game experience by working collaboratively with you.
2. The Alice: Asylum game experience is not meant to “reinvent new and daring game design.”
We simply want to build a high-quality game, using familiar and proven game design elements in a fresh mix.
We want to create a familiar, intuitive, enjoyable player experience, using existing tropes, and tried and tested gameplay experiences.
We envision Alice: Asylum as a linear, modern, third-person action/adventure/horror game, blended with first-person shooter/action foundations.
Ease of use (accessibility), flexibility, level navigation efficiency, and smooth user experience are all key to what we want to achieve.
Alice: Asylum heavily focuses on story-telling, creating a “visual and audio feast” for players to enjoy.
<END – Partial Email – Sections Edited or Removed>
———–
So, what’s next?
We wait. And see what comes back. The discussion will continue.
From my perspective also assisting with Alice’s project management there’s a few things to note.
Given the scope and size of the work required to complete the Design Bible, we did not have time this year for this additional game design and data work in the original schedule, back when we mapped it out in March.
Data wrangling and categorically organizing game design is time-consuming and labor-intensive, but I think American, and I have covered some important ground quickly, and out of necessity.
Once a relevant party showed the right level of interest, it needed to be done.
Timing is critical, and we’re glad to have this early stage of potential development prep moving along.
We’ve adapted to spin the required plates as best we can simultaneously with our tiny team and resources.
My focus this year has always been on completing the Design Bible which I am itching to get back into after living in spreadsheets for the last month or so.
The team continues to crank out beautiful concept artwork, and there is a TON of progress to share on the Design Bible.
Speaking of which;
We will be sharing a HUGE update on all things Design Bible for Halloween this year.
Mark your calendars.
This one is going to be nuts, and might be the last big update before we release the Design Bible V1.1 PDF for the end of 2022-Early 2023.
———–
Live stream questions?
The Alice project is at a critical point.
We have work to do. Getting it done is our priority moving forward.
But when we do chat together from here on out, it’ll be important.
I’ll be making time to be in the chat on the Livestream with Martin and American later this week.
If there are any questions or feedback you’d like us to consider, please type them so we can see them easily.
Or, save your questions up for the live stream, and I’ll do my best to answer them in the chat when I see them.
Thank you as always for your continued support of the Alice project.
I look forward to sharing the journey and work we complete as it all continues to take shape.
Cheers,
Alex
