Dear Insane Children, 

We are having a live stream today at 7PM PDT (10AM Hong Kong Time). 

Join us on my Twitch Channel: 

twitch.tv/americanmcgee 

If you miss it live, you can watch the recording over on YouTube: 

youtube.com/americanmcgeeofficial 

We have LOTS to discuss today including the latest art and design on Alice: Asylum. For example, the amazing bit of art (above) from Adam depicting the entrance to The Forest Fortress… lair of the Great and Terrible… Bill the Lizard? What? 

Plus, we’ll talk about the OCD Rabbit Crowd Design comments and other Plushie Dreadful updates. 

BIG NEWS: We’re moving to the next stage on raising investment for Mysterious Studios (to build Oz: Adventures and then Alice: Asylum). And today’s stream will include a “call to arms” for interested game developers to join our pitch to investors and REDACTED 1 (big Chinese game publisher/investor).

 We’ll also read lots of your comments from previous Patreon posts. 

And there WILL BE PRIZES! Yay!

From Shanghai with a Migraine (that’ll make the live stream EXTRA fun), 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

Everyone, say “Hello!” to “OCD Bunny” – inspired by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder. This design continues in the tradition of our Plushie Dreadfuls based on themes related to mental health. Many of you asked for an OCD Bunny as a follow-up to Anxiety Rabbit… so here’s where we start the creative process!

It’s Crowd Design Time!

Here are some design notes I sent to Jennifer… 

1) ?The “excessive cleaning” ?idea is a great one. Further illustrate it by including scars, bloody marks, etc, on hands and legs – to indicate that he’s cleaned so much he’s stripped away skin.

?1a) Further to this we might include things related to cleaning: ?A little scrub brush; little white gloves (maybe he’s just “meat” ?under the gloves?); a little bottle of bleach; a face mask. ?

2) ?The watch idea is good – but we’ve always avoided shipping anything mechanical or that uses a battery. We simply *can’t* ship batteries. For a wind-up watch… we could do it but we’d need to stress that the mechanical watch is for appearances only – that if it stops (or is never) functioning mechanically, we DO NOT replace it.

?3) Should we address or include some nod to OCPD (vs. just OCD). From an online medical source: ?“People with OCPD may not see their characterological rigidity and need for perfection as problematic, despite its destructive effects on their relationships and well-being.” What could we include that would also address OCPD? ?A little book of rules? Being punctual – the little watch addresses this.

Now it’s YOUR TURN to add ideas to this design. What else would you like to see included in the character design or what’s included with this plush?

Let us know in the comments below!

From Shanghai with A Very Clean Desk, 

-American 

PS: CLEAN YOUR DESK TOO! 

Dear Insane Children,

Font Lord here!
I hope you’re all doing well?

With it now being half way through the year, we have been thinking about what could be the next big ‘thing’ we manufacture for all our lovely Patrons.

Of course you may all be familiar with what we have done previously such as the recent Memento Mori Coin (which is still available to purchase at that link if you missed out here on Patreon), and some of you may even remember the Dog-Tags we made many years ago.

But do you have any ideas of something you might find fun or interesting this year?

Bearing in mind it’s going to be at least 2-3 months before something could be prepped, so perhaps something Halloweeny or Christmassy would be in order?
Like last year we made a 2021 Art Calendar that was pretty popular (and actually still sells), should we do a 2022 one?

Sound off in the comments below with all your wild and wonderful ideas and we’ll take a look and see what we can do.

– Cheers (From a bonkers hot Shanghai)

Dear Insane Children, 

An interesting series of ideas were floated by Omri over on our Monday production board. I thought I would share those with you here… 

Omri says: 

OK i know we already closed this task but i did wanted to add 2 images that can be presented like speedpaints- i think this can be represented or not- do whatever you want. Showing the General structure and a Singular memory Entrance.

1. ?American you said that this place isn’t on Rails and it’s like stockpiles that go up above. and the bottom has “stuff” essentially. so i imagine that according to Victorian times it’s something like this.

There should be machinery or characters or enemies, i don’t know. something that piles the stuff, something that takes the stuff and places it somewhere. it can technically be done Air- without strings. it can Shrink as it goes up… endless possibilities…

He continues: 

But for this art i made it literal.

Bottom has stuff that tie up to the rope and that gets dragged up to the “pile” the top image has greenery as it’s a peek at the top area that is an underground forest- where the robot is.

Then goes on to say… 

2. Memory entrance- we have Stuff on the tree, whatever we decide to represent a memory, an object, a blob, whatever it is / will be. What i imagine now is that alice will enter it- if it’s a box, a doll head, tiny dollhouses, tiny asylum etc.

?IF we will keep the shrinking mechanic, it can work well. of course i believe that specific memories will be presented in a way that is more Clear to be said “go here” but this is the general idea i had. based on joey’s tree version.
?I think if the above is a memory tree we can have smaller trees in the forest as unique locations as well- if it fits the story you guys had in mind.

And provided the beautiful image of the little house under the tree (Main Image Above). 

And then said… 

We have the mines, we have the objects that represent the memories and we have the memories themselves- we don’t have the ENTRANCE to the Memory.

let’s say a memory that wasn’t processes is tied down to the floor OR is bigger and can’t be lifted up to the memory tree to “feed it” so this is a rough example of one of those memories. having a light source is a key for gameplay “go here as this does something”

we can also create “clogged areas” with an oversized object that can’t be lifted up to the tree, making everything else stuck and Alice will need to visit that memory in order to “release” it. once she exists that memory, it will shrink and go up into the air towards the large tree at the end. that way the player will have to enter that memory in order to proceed.

think of it like blood clots.

having “steps” where it’s basically stuff flying around

And I think all of this is really cool. I love the idea of “memory clots” that need to be cleared. And the visual of shrinking to access these memories inside the mines. 

Basically, I love all the things presented here. Excellent!

NOTE for This Week’s Live Stream

There will be a live stream this week but we’re going to host it on our Friday – that’s Thursday in the USA. 

Again, this means the live stream is on THURSDAY at 7PM for those of you in the USA (Pacific Time). 

It’ll be in the usual places – Twitch and YouTube. But join us via Twitch if you want to qualify for the prize giveaways. 

From Shanghai with IT’S HOT OUTSIDE!, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

Wheels on your train squeaking, creaking, and making noise? 

Why not try “Bumby Brand” Wheel Grease? 

Guaranteed to work on even the most stubborn squeaks. 

Throw a bit of Bumby under your train today. 

And enjoy the sweet silence of squeak-free wheels. 

Choo- Choo! 

Excellent illustration from Adam (main image above) depicting Alice shoving Bumby in front of a train. This is the last of the “memory scenes” we’ll do for the design bible. I’ve really enjoyed these. How about you? 

Speaking of memories… Omri put some finishing touches on the Tree of Imagination. Original drawing was done by Joey. And the final illustration turned out great. Love it!

And there’s new stuff in the pipeline. Alex went through and pulled a ton of new tasks from our recent narrative overview updates. Those will turn into sketches soon – and I’ll share them here. Like this latest update from Norm for Alice’s encounter with Bill the Lizard. We’ve turned him into a bad-ass boss fight. Eek. 

Let us know in the comments below what you think of these latest updates. And we’ll discuss your feedback during the live stream next week. Yay! 

From Shanghai with Squeak, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

One of the side projects we’re working on that I’m really excited about is “Scruffy Bumps” the revenge-murder-cat. He fits into a category I’ve started calling “Educational Horror” and is designed to teach people (children) to be nice to animals… OR ELSE!

You can watch us talk about Scruffy Bumps during the last Live Stream via THIS LINK (goes to Twitch). 

But what wanted to share today is the audio track linked above (main image). That’s a theme song done by our friend Tom Resnick – musician, voice actor, video director, and all-around creative guy. You may remember him from the excellent “Out of the Woods” marketing trailer we released a while back (see it on YouTube). 

This track has me smiling ear to ear. I can just imagine this playing as the credits roll on a Scruffy Bumps horror film. It gives me bumps… chill bumps to hear it! An excellent mix of Harry Potter, Thriller, and Nightmare Before Christmas. All my favorite things! 

We’re also working on aspects of the Scruffy Bumps lore… like his connection to an ancient Egyptian cat god (goddess?) – Maybe Bastet or Sekhmet? From the Wikipedia article about Sekhmet… 

Sekhmet was considered the daughter of the sun god, Ra, and was among the more important of the goddesses who acted as the vengeful manifestation of Ra’s power, the Eye of Ra. Sekhmet was said to breathe fire, and the hot winds of the desert were likened to her breath. She was also believed to cause plagues, which were called her servants or messengers, although she was also called upon to ward off disease.

What if Scruffy Bumps is the reincarnation of Sekhmet – returned to seek revenge on those who might cause suffering or injury to cats and dogs? She can possess any dog or cat as needed but primarily resides in the form of the black cat (with white) tail we’ve designated as Scruffy Bumps. 

Why the white tip on the tail? Yan added that as a visual mark of distinction – just to make the design something more than a pure black cat. After that, I had the idea that Scruffy Bumps was once a white cat… but that someone murdered him by dipping him in a can of oil (paint?) – so that he turned black except where he was being held by the tail. Dark! I know. But he’s a horror cat. What do you expect?!

Let us know in the comments below what you think of Scruffy Bumps. Do you have ideas on how we might improve his legend? Let’s Crowd Design some more dark ideas! 

From Shanghai with Scruffy Bumps, 

-American