In my last message to Joey regarding concept artwork I hinted at variations on the Cheshire Cat’s presentation. Perhaps a younger, less emaciated cat? One who is still working towards getting all his ink done?

I still don’t know if changing the Cat is even the right decision. Is he timeless? Does he age? Clearly he changes or Alice wouldn’t have remarked at the start of the first game on how he’d “gone mangy.” It’s this line in particular which spurred my thoughts towards how his appearance might be different in an earlier Wonderland era.

Here we have two variations on the Cat to consider – both younger in age, one more full in figure. 

I think making him younger works. His famous silhouette is still recognizable – and that’s important. He’s cute. And I wouldn’t mind seeing him in this form being a bit more playful… less serious. Can our Cheshire Cat be anything but serious? That’s a serious question. 

The fattened cat… doesn’t really do it for me. Mainly because his silhouette is destroyed and he’s less recognizable as “ours.” If we took away the tattoos… any remaining resemblance would be destroyed.  

What are your thoughts? Take a moment to reflect on the original cat…

Some other things to consider while we discuss the Cat and his presentation… 

• How would a new form change his behavior, movements, and presentation in-game? 
• Does a new form lend itself well to cos-play, costumes, and make-up?
• Do we anger the “old audience” by making these sorts of changes? Do we attract a new audience with a gentler, more lovable cat? 
• Here’s a fun question: Does it matter which side he wears his earring in? This was a hot topic when we first did his design (in San Francisco, circa 1998). 

For now I’ll ask Joey to stop iterating on the Cat and start work on some environment illustrations. Both the Cat and Alice we have now will work fine as stand-ins for those scenes. And during the coming exploration we might discover ideas which help us re-shape our thinking about how both these critical characters are presented. 

A Bit of Housekeeping

Again, I want express humbled (and a bit shocked) gratitude at the amount of support flowing into Patreon. I wasn’t sure using this platform was the right decision but it feels like a natural extension of the weekly live streams we’re doing on YouTube. And I am really thankful for the financial support. I’ve never liked asking for help or support and even struggle when we do Kickstarters to get my head around the nature of the model. 

These sorts of things (crowdfunding, early access) put a knot in my stomach because they often create expectations and reactions that are difficult to manage.

I want to be very clear: The work I’m doing now may or may not result in a new Alice game. But it will result in stuff of value – concept artwork, illustration, story, and design. And those materials will be shared with you in full. So, at a minimum I hope everyone understands that all we may ever get from this is a beautiful collection of art and design. If I can assume you understand and accept that then I can sleep better at night. 

That being said, I will do everything in my power to have these visions transformed into a final game product. And… I can’t say anything else on this topic… just that there are things going on behind the scenes which make me feel confident in pursuing this path. When I can say more than that you’ll be the first to know. 

Lastly, all of this content is being made freely available to the public… but in order to give Patrons something special in exchange for their support I’ll be setting “Early Access” on 3 out of 4 posts (or some ratio roughly like that). That means 3 out of 4 posts will be time-locked for 3 days so Patrons have early access. Every 4th post will be posted publicly from the start. After an Early Access post has been up for 3 days it’ll automatically unlock so the public can see it. 

Myself and Martin will also do our best to share all this content around various social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. 

I’m still learning the best way to engage with this model. If you have suggestions or ideas please feel free to share them in the comments below.

Hope all that makes sense.

Live Stream Tomorrow

We’ve scheduled our next live stream for tomorrow morning (09:30AM Hong Kong time on Tuesday). You can set a reminder and view the stream  HERE.

During that stream we’ll answer your questions and read your comments. LOTS to discuss this week! Please join in the fun!

From Shanghai, 

-American 

Dear Patrons, 

I’m really humbled to see so many new Patrons joining our adventure so quickly. Thank you, very much, for your trust and support. 

We’ll continue today with an art update from Joey and my feedback for this new image and the images to come. 

As always, feel free to provide feedback in the comments below. We’ll go through your comments and try to answer your quest`ions during the upcoming YouTube live stream. Make sure you are subscribed to my YouTube Channel and have ticked the notification bell so you’re notified regarding upcoming live streams.

Also, did you know we recently set up an official “Alice: Asylum” Facebook Page? Head over and give it a “like!”

October 1st, 2017

Joey, Thank you for turning around new art so quickly. I hope you’ve got something nice planned for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Looks like it’s going to rain all week in Shanghai but we’re driving south to visit Yan’s parents – hopefully the weather will be nicer down there. 

I am going to work on the wonderland image, Alice would just be a small shadow in this image, so I did a seperate version of her, I did a normal one with blue dress and another one colored in ash as you mentioned. Give me some comment on them.

The two versions of Alice you’ve done are fantastic! I really like the way you’ve rendered her face and stance. The dresses are both wonderful – as is the chaos necklace. The Ash Dress is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind – I think you’ve nailed this one. And I think this is the sort of outfit the cos-players will absolutely love. I can imagine the fiery highlights being made to glow faintly in the game – would be interesting to see her move through dark spaces with this dress providing a constant warm light!
Let’s stick with this dress concept – The Ash Dress – for now. It’s great for exploring the first couple of domains as Alice makes her return to Wonderland.

On the concept image you’ve written some notes – in response I’ve attached the a2_narrative_timeline.xlsx file. You can use this to get a feeling for where we are in Alice’s history. “Alice: Asylum” actually takes place before “American McGee’s Alice” and “Alice: Madness Returns.” While this is the 3rd game to released in the series, it is actually the first chapter in Alice’s story. 

Keep these dates in mind: 1863 – the year of the fire – Alice’s family is killed. 1864 – Alice admitted to Rutledge Asylum. 1865 – Alice is 13 years old – THIS is where “Alice: Asylum” takes place. 1866-1873 Alice in a coma. 1874 – Alice returns to Wonderland in “American McGee’s Alice” – age 22. 1875 – Alice is 23 and ventures into “Madness Returns.” (Check out the 2nd tab of the spreadsheet).

So “Asylum” takes place exactly 10 years before “Madness Returns.” 
Important to keep the timeline in mind when you think about Alice’s physical and psychological state. 

As for wonderland, is there anything different than the one we have in Alice 2(the wonderland she just falls into is not broken, quite bright and happy)? I mean something different or some different toys? This is the wonderland she goes to when she is 13, much yonger than the one we did in Alice2, shall there be toys or typical stuff for a yonger girl? what would those be? Maybe Matryoshka dolls? What are the typical toys for children during that time? And we are still going to have snails and mushrooms because they are the classic stuffs in wonderland, right? 

When we first see Wonderland in “Madness Returns” it looks healthy and alive. This is because of the battles fought in the first game to put things right again. Of course then the Train begins its mission to destroy everything and Wonderland is once again thrown into disarray. But we are going back in time 10 years – to a place before all that…

At the start of Asylum we will assume (for now at least) that Wonderland and its inhabitants are unaware of the turmoil brewing outside. Actually, I want to stress that they are in denial about what’s going on. This is important – Alice knows her family’s dead but she’s still in denial about this fact. That means the characters in Wonderland (Alice’s subconscious) will also be in denial that anything’s amiss. 

As we explore we’ll discover just how broken things are – but upon our first entry the scene should be beautiful, inviting, and safe. 
Why not try Alice in miniature for the first Wonderland scene? You can place her in a forest of flowers – with a giant snail – a rocking horse – a collection of dolls (remind people of the nightmare that was the Dollhouse Level in Madness Returns!) – a toy soldier, etc. Here’s a collection of toys from that era…
 

I will do some sketches first, and if you think of something, write to me as soon as possible.
If we are not so sure about wonderland, maybe I will start on the cat first? What do you think?

You can work with the cat or Wonderland next. It’s up to you. What do you feel most inspired by?

Also, something to think about over the next couple of days… RJ and I are talking about the story quite a lot these days. And I want to explore the idea of modeling Alice’s journey through Wonderland around the “Kubler-Ross Five Stages of Grief.”  You can read more about this concept here. 

The basic concept is that we go through five distinct stages when confronted with disaster (the unknown). Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. 

You can imagine that in the first stage of this – when Alice first arrives back in Wonderland – that things look normal and that all the characters she encounters insist everything is “great!” But as we explore we’ll notice there’s always something dark lurking at the periphery of our vision. By the end of the first stage the charade will be up and we’ll descend into Anger.

So… how can we render a beautiful Wonderland where things are also not quite as they seem? Something to think about. 

Look forward to your thoughts and next images!
Cheers,
 -a 

Dear Patrons, 

I think it would be interesting to share with you all the intimate details of pre-production work going into Alice: Asylum. In keeping with that idea I’m going to share email exchanges with the pre-production team when I think you’d find them valuable. Here’s an exchange with Joey (illustrator) regarding the next batch of images I’d like her to create. 

Please let me know if this sort of content is of interest. And feel free to share your questions and feedback in the comments below. I’ll go through your feedback and questions during the next live stream. 

Cheers, 

-a 

Joey,

The edited face is better. I still don’t think it’s exactly the way young Alice should look but it is OK for now. We also showed the face to fans (during yesterday’s live stream) and most felt the same way. We expect Alice’s face to be sharper, thinner, and the skin more white and clean. There’s also something about the eyes… they should be more fierce – not so hurt or damaged looking. No matter what she’s been through, Alice is always strong. We need to reflect that in her eyes. Finally, the teeth… you drew them so they look like “rabbit teeth” which is very distracting. 

These are things to keep in mind for later or when you find spare time to return her face. 

For now… Can you please move to some new images? There are two things I would like you to try… 

First… Alice in Wonderland. We want to see Alice, 13-years old, back in Wonderland. She returned to Wonderland from the asylum after the fire has destroyed her home. This is likely her first journey back since the fire. This Wonderland is from before the first game (American McGee’s Alice) so things aren’t so broken (yet). To start we want to try showing something very beautiful and inviting. You can use the first Wonderland shot in Madness Returns as reference for the Wonderland surroundings…

One of the key elements in this environment was the children’s toys. Dominoes, jacks, etc. You can consider including those sorts of children’s toys in the scenery as well. Making it a “vale” – a lovely natural scene – is good as this feels like a safe, attractive, and interesting place where we’d like to begin a journey. It is inviting. 

For Alice herself… we have some interesting questions to tackle. Because this is 13-year old Alice we need to consider how this is reflected on her dress. Probably there shouldn’t be blood on her. And the alchemy symbols will need to be different to reflect the earlier period in time. We use alchemy symbols to reflect the position along Alice’s psychological journey but I’ve not yet outlined the story enough to know exactly how I want this represented… for now, just use the symbols for Fire and Sulfur on her dress… 

For her necklace, we saw her wearing an “Alpha” symbol in the first game and an “Omega” in the second. Again, these represent a phase in her journey. In “Asylum” she’s still pre-journey, having just suffered the loss of her family and perhaps not having really faced the hell she’s been thrown into. She’s come through the fire but not yet been reborn (which happens at the start of the first Alice game). She is very likely in denial. As such, let’s give her a Chaos symbol for her necklace. You can play with various designs, but here are some examples of typical chaos symbols: 

Lastly, I think it makes sense that she retain the basic shape and silhouette of her dress but perhaps try rendering it in muted or black/white/gray colors? She’s just been through the fire, been psychologically burn to ash, and it would be interesting to see her clothing done in the color of ash (gray, white, black). Can you give that a try? 

As always keep in mind how much people enjoy using Alice for cos-play 😉

Second… The Cheshire Cat. He’s always first to greet Alice upon her (re)-entry to Wonderland and Asylum won’t be any different. But he probably should be, like Alice, different. At the start of AMA Alice remarks he’s “gone mangy” which suggests she doesn’t exactly recognize him in the form we see him in there (tattooed, earring, scars, etc). We know he’s been in Wonderland “on his own” while Alice has been in a coma. He’s watched as time has passed and Wonderland has changed – and he’s changed too. 

So, we need to take him back in time and reflect the changes… but in such a way as we still recognize him as “our cat.” Does he still have tattoos? Maybe he’s just made to look like a kitten version of his older self? Something like this… a “tiny” Cheshire Cat might be cute? Does he gain his tattoos as Alice moves through this new game (this journey transforms him to some degree)? Lots of questions to consider… 

It’s a bit of a challenge and I’d like you to try creating several variations on the cat – a younger cat, a plumper cat, etc. Keep in mind we’ll want the cat to retain the voice of Roger Jackson. Thinking about that… it would be cute to hear Roger’s classic Cheshire voice coming out of a kitten-like Cheshire. 😉 

That’s it for now. I look forward to what you come up with next! 

Cheers, 

-a

As many of you know I’ve started work on art, design, and a project pitch for Alice 3 – tentatively called “Alice: Asylum.” Once of the first things I need to do when building the pitch for EA is to establish the setting and tone. For that I’m working with Spicy Horse artist Joey Zhuo (among others) to capture some illustrations of a 13-year-old Alice in the Asylum. 

What you see here is Joey’s first stab at this key image. 

While the tone and setting are pretty easy to capture there’s a challenge in getting Alice’s face and features just right. Joey and I have been going back and forth a bit to determine the best way to render Alice. 

In the image you see above she’s captured a feeling which reminds me too much of Ellie from “The Last of Us” – example…

I feel the freckles, reddish hair, and soft features don’t really suit the picture of young Alice I have in mind. Though Joey has sent along a range of facial “textures” to think about… 

Ultimately I don’t feel these capture what we’re going for. So I’ve sent Joey a bit of text feedback. But a picture makes it clearer so I searched around on Google until I stumbled on this…

This young girl’s features capture better what I have in mind. Sharper, cleaner, and with freckle-free, paler skin. Whoever’s child that is… she’s inspiring the central character for the next Alice game, so bravo! 🙂

I also sent along this image (which I believe was taken from the EA-published “Alice Storybook”). The style of this one screams “Ken Wong” and I wonder if he didn’t have a hand in its creation. I’ll have to ask him!

So Joey’s heading back to the drawing board to refine Alice’s features and get her more in line with my expectations. 

What do you think? Does the freckle faced Alice appeal? Or do you prefer the Alice more in line with the other images I shared here? 

Up next we’ll start work on images which explore Alice’s decent into Wonderland. These will probably feature a section of transition between the asylum and Wonderland as I really enjoyed playing with that sort of thing in Madness Returns. 

Meanwhile RJ and I have started sketching ideas for narrative to pull us through this next adventure. 

Out of the Woods Update

There’s more than just a mad young Alice to talk about these days. Check out this sneak peak at the border art for the House of Wolves from “Out of the Woods!” 

Want to share your feedback about all this AND see your name listed in the Patron credits for all to see? Make sure to join tomorrow’s Live Stream over on YouTube via THIS LINK. 

Looking forward to your comments and feedback in the comments below and over on YouTube during the stream. Speak with you all soon!

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American & Lulu

When I first invited you to become Patrons it was to support a series of game and video creations produced largely while bobbing around SE Asia on my sailboat. That was the plan back in July of 2016. Since then lots has happened. I traveled, sailed, shut down the Shanghai Spicy Horse studio, got engaged, encountered personal disaster, traveled and sailed some more… 

Along the way I’ve continued to examine the “what & where” of my creative output. In June I started work on and eventually launched a Kickstarter to fund “Out of the Woods.” That campaign successfully funded on August 18th. 

These days I’m laying out plans for the next 12 months. And I want to share those plans with you: 

The idea of sailing full-time has been abandoned (for now) but I continue to create videos and new projects. I’ve been doing weekly live streams on YouTube and have seen seen my channel grow significantly (at nearly 9k subscribers as I write this). I’m really enjoying the audience interaction and feedback. I plan to continue using live streams as a way of interacting with my audience and sharing development progress. 

I’ll deliver “Out of the Woods” in early 2018. Assuming that’s well received I’ll launch another campaign for “Out of the Woods II” shortly after. My hope is to create a series of books and card games – each containing ten classic tales – and develop one or two of these projects per year. 

“Alice: Asylum” needs to be pitched to EA. If they like what they see and will allow crowdfunding then I’ll work towards launching a campaign for that around October of 2018. I’ve started working with artists for the initial batch of illustrations we’ll need. And I’m writing with RJ Berg the narrative and design outline needed for that pitch. 

To support this new approach I’ve switched the Patreon funding setup to “monthly recurring” as opposed to per-video/game. As Patrons you know that in the past I rarely hit the “charge Patrons” buttons on the videos I uploaded. In large part because I wasn’t really sure what that funding was going towards – though your support was much appreciated!

Now, with serious money going towards the art and design work on “Alice: Asylum” I know exactly where to spend the funding you supply and really need that funding more than ever. For example, a single illustration costs between $750USD and $1200USD. For “Out of the Woods” I spent nearly 30kUSD on art, setup, marketing, and labor before the campaign completed. It was a big risk and a big investment but it proved I could independently manage and successfully fund a large-scale project. 

Upfront costs on “Alice: Asylum” before the concept is pitched to EA will likely approach 10kUSD. If they approve the plan (and I feel pretty confident they will) I’ll need to continue spending towards the creation of a crowd funding campaign for that project.

So here we are… 

A year ago I thought I’d become a full-time sea pirate. I had no thoughts in my head regarding a new Alice game. And I’d not yet encountered the chaos which inspired me to create “Out of the Woods.” I was living in a “straw house” and saw it blown to bits. That’s life. Things change. Nothing’s permanent. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. I’m doing my best to take knowledge and inspiration from the chaos. 

With your help I’ll build a new house. The foundation is already in place. And the plan you see above is pretty solid. 

What’s in this for you? Going forward you can expect to see your names in the credits on the live streams, to get sneak peaks at art and design ideas on OOTW and Alice: Asylum, and … more? What else would YOU like to see? How do you think Patrons can best be engaged and rewarded around these goals? 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Pirate Jam 2017 comes to an end in this final episode where the pirates share their development work and overall thoughts about the jam. 6 developers present 6 unique games based on the idea of “impermanence,” prizes are awarded, and everyones sails off into the sunset. 

Thank you, to all of our Pirate Jam participants: Renee Blair, Ed Kay, Danny Day, Evan Greenwood, Tuck Abbott, and Matej Navara. 

Thank you, to our sponsors: Unity3D (unity3d.com) and Kenney (kenney.nl)

Special Thank You to Liz Cleere and Jamie Furlong of SV Esper. Follow their continuing sailing adventures: www.followtheboat.com

Want to check out the games or submit your application for the next Pirate Jam? 

Visit our online home: www.pirate-jam.com

Want to play the games or submit your own game to the jam?

Visit the Pirate Jam 2017 online space:  https://itch.io/jam/pirate-jam-2017

— Epilog — 

With Pirate Jam 2017 finished, what comes next? 

When we started this jam we weren’t sure where it would go or how it would turn out. There was a lot of nervousness on the part of our guests and ourselves. Would everyone get along? Could game development mix successfully with saiing? 

We pushed 6 strangers into a series of unusual environments, introduced them to sailing and life at sea… and the result was, as you can see, quite fantastic. In the end, everyone agreed not only that this was the best jam they’d ever attended, but that they’d be happy to do another Pirate Jam in the near future.

We learned a lot of ways to improve the setup and execution of the jam. We produced 6 great game concepts. And we delivered a daily vlog for each day of the event. With all this content and knowledge in hand, we’re now going to refine the Pirate Jam concept, pitch the idea to potential sponsors, and try to launch another event – bigger and better – ASAP.

If you have suggestions or comments, please share! I’d love to hear your feedback.