Dear Insane Children, 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. We are just wrapping up a big National Holiday here in China – Labor Day Week. During the holiday, we took Lucky with some friends to a nearby National Park for a day of sun and fun where Lucky ran into Pucca… 

Meanwhile, our pre-production team continued their efforts on Alice: Asylum with Omri turning in a stunning render of Alice confronting the Red Chess King and Queen (main image, above). 

Of this he wrote: 

about this image- i keep seeing Alice’s parents as the queen and king, they are the chaos, they are the guilt. the sister i still feel should be somewhere but perhaps something else. so for me- personally making half chess pieces make “No sense” and in that case can work well for chaotic chess. IF you’ll find it suitable for the story we can also redesign the chess pieces to be halves in general.

To which I replied: 

This is fantastic, @Omri – I love it. And I DO have a place for it… I realized this whole section can be moved to the Real Wonderland area Alice will travel to after she escapes from The Snow Globe. This makes sense because she’s going to revisit a lot of the places that Shadow Alice previously explored and conquered. And it will give us a chance to fill in some blanks and answered some unanswered questions from the previous games.

And the timing of all of this is great because I am just wrapping up the final bits and pieces on the first section of the game – Inside The Snow Globe – then moving to the second section of the game – Real Wonderland. The idea is that Child Alice finally escapes from The Snow Globe only to wind up in Real Wonderland. Hatter is waiting there for her and explains that unless she stops Shadow Alice all is lost. 

In the sections that follow, Child Alice will chase Shadow Alice through a sequence of scenes linked to areas in the first and second games. The idea is that Child Alice needs to “walk a mile in my shoes” to understand everything Shadow Alice fought through and conquered. 

Crowd Design Time

Like I said above, this will offer a chance for us to answer some unresolved questions – or to fill in some mysterious blanks. Now… I’ve said many times that I think answering ALL of the questions is boring and that we should leave some questions unanswered in order to maintain a level of mystery around Alice and her adventures. 

That being said… Let me know in the Comments below… What answers would YOU like provided in the revisiting of these areas from the first and second game? And what areas would you like to see revisited? You could want to go back there because it was beautiful – or you want to see what it turned into after Alice left – or because you think it might contain some useful information. Think about it… and let me know! 

Burning Memories

Adam also sent over a final version of another of Alice’s recovered memory scenes. 

I’ve included this as an Attachment to this post in case you want to do like I did and make this your Desktop Background. Enjoy!

From Shanghai with Pucca Kisses, 

-American

Dear Insane Children,

We recently shared the latest Major Update to the Design Bible here and on various social media platforms. The feedback has been 99.9% positive – and no surprise… the latest version looks wonderful!

But I did see a few comments along the line of “so many years and not even a screenshot of the game!” or “too much art and and no demo?!?! SMH!” Well, I don’t want people wearing themselves out with unnecessary head shaking, so I was thinking we could address these comments during our next Live Stream…

LIVE STREAM TIME! 

We’ll host another live stream over on Twitch and YouTube this week. The usual place and time. Wednesday, April 28th at 7PM for those of you in PDT… 

You can join us via my Twitch or YouTube Channels… 

https://www.twitch.tv/americanmcgee

https://www.youtube.com/americanmcgeeofficial

Hatter Explains

Another person doing some explaining… Hatter! He’s telling Alice all about The Brain, Eyes, and Heart “Hero Pieces” that she needs to collect in order to escape from Wonderland. This beautiful illustration (main image, above) was initially sketched by Norm and then painted/colored by Omri. Amazing work together! 

Let us know in the comments below what you think about all this explaining. 

And be sure to share any questions and feedback you have in the Comments below. We’ll read and discuss those during the live stream. Yay! 

Plushie Dreadfuls

We will also have some new Plushie Dreadful prototypes and designs to share… like this updated version of “Shy”

Awwww. Isn’t she cute? 

And More!

And lots of art, design, and other fun to share… with prizes! 

Like this sketch from Adam depicting some additional memories we’ll explore with Alice. Wow! 

From Shanghai with Explainations,

-American 

“The Universal Trinity” is the latest amazing illustration from Omri. 

I described some of the meaning behind this image in a previous post. We’ve also referred to this image as “The Muses” – because when I look at this, and I now have a print of it hanging on the wall over my monitors, it helps me think more deeply about the separate but interconnected nature of the “different” characters in our story.

We have Child Alice, Shadow Alice, and Adult Alice. Different aspects of Alice’s personality and psyche – each distinct. Also inseparable.

I study people so that I better understand how to write them. And one thing I’ve noticed is those who deny important aspects of their personalities tend to criticize those traits when detected in other people. For example, a passive person who denies their innate aggressive tendencies, and portrays themselves as “sugar and rainbows,” will be easily triggered by anyone they perceive to be aggressive. But will also use that experience as an opportunity to release their own pent-up aggression – and then blame that release on someone else.

This goes to the universal notion that energy can neither be created nor destroyed – only transformed. And that when you deny a type of “energy” in your system, you do not rid yourself of it. You only hide it temporarily and then transform it … oftentimes into something equally negative.

Be yourself.

Which brings me to the topic of Omri – the artist behind “The Universal Trinity” illustration. One of the things that I really like about Omri, aside from his amazing art talents, is his blunt and honest nature. In a world of people who mask their emotions and meanings, it’s refreshing to work with someone who is open and transparent about their feelings and needs. Very happy to have him on our team and bringing his energy to our creative work! He too is an excellent muse!

This week is a LIVE STREAM WEEK. Details on the time/date (the usual) coming soon. 

Do you have any topics you’d like to hear us discuss? Questions? Feedback? 

Drop them in the Comments below! 

From Shanghai with Multi-Love,

-American

Hi everyone,

Alex here, with an update on the Design Bible and its progress.

[NOTE: The Design Bible PDF is attached to this post and can be downloaded via the link on this page.]

Here are some key points of interest concerning the design bible moving forward.

A few things to note;

1. The PDF attached is a work in progress.

Some areas are tidier than others, others need a bit more work. You’ll see everything continue to take shape and become more refined naturally as we continue our work.

Where you see “lorem ipsum” jargon and placeholder text, there is still copywriting and information to be finalized in these sections. Like we said. There is still lots of work to be done.

—

2. Inventory, Chapter Summaries and Key item Sections.

I have been focusing on creating templated re-occurring layouts, (Such as weapon summaries, character encounters, etc.) in the Chapter Summaries at the end of each narrative section.

This is designed like a “Pause” screen, that allows you to dive into your progress and additional lore that might not be immediately communicated in the game-play experience.

You’ll see blank areas allocated for a running tally of Key Items the player collects on their journey. This is similar to this screen from A:MR; (See below).

Once all weapons and key items are finalized, the UI here will reflect this.

It will gradually be filled as the items are collected in the Narrative, so you’ll have an accurate running tally of items and their collection rate as the story progresses.

Areas like the “health / mana / sanity” bars are largely placeholder and signify area allocated to the UI once we boil down the gameplay and mechanics a little more. Stay tuned.

—

3. Weapon Quirks / Weapon Summaries.

In the summaries, you’ll find conceptual outlines for the weapons and items as they are collected.

After game design discussions, we’ve landed on;
• Weapon lore;
• Weapon perks (weapon quirks in our game), and;
• Specific Attacks per weapon.

We’ll complete these outlines as the information required becomes locked in.
The current text is ideation and conceptual, but we feel they’re heading in the right direction.

We’re also working on summaries of Key Characters and Enemies encountered, so you can keep tabs on who Alice meets, and who she chops up into meaty chunks.

—

4. New Art Tasks Throughout / Narrative Enhancements.

As we’re working through the DB, we’re noticing room for potential new art tasks, (posted throughout) that will enhance the narrative and improve the reader experience.

As we progress, American and I will be reviewing these potential new art tasks, then if greenlit for resource allocation, we’ll be placing them in the workflow for the artists, and continuing as we go to improve the DB. 

We want to strike the right balance between pacing, word count, and resource expended with the art team, and so far, I think it’s a happy balance.

—

5. Moving Forward / Closing Comments.

The design bible by nature is an ambitious document. The process we’ve built around it is meeting that ambition, and the workflow and structure built around it is sound.

The DB is designed to catch and provide as much information as possible, without it being overwhelming to process for the reader.

Simultaneously, it is meant to also provide high-level entertainment, cohesive narrative structure and supply an outline of the whole game experience that we want to create with Alice: Asylum.

The DB is also a sales tool.

Something we can drop onto the desk of an executive and show them, (in detail), what we’ve got, and what we want to do. And so far, from what I gather, even in these early stages, it’s been received very positively in meetings with the powers that be.

It’s a hybrid mix of script-writing, comic book pacing and presentation, a game design document, play-guide, art book, and a sales presentation.

There’s a lot more work to go, and we’re loving working on it.
I am having a blast making this document come to life.

Expect plenty more content, surprises, and updates as we proceed to completion.

I hope it lives up to your expectations and is something you’d be proud to read and share as a fan of Alice. Let us know how you’re feeling about this too!

-Alex 

NOTE FROM AMERICAN

Insane Children, 

Just a quick note to say THANK YOU, for helping our team bring this document to life. 

We’ll schedule a Live Stream / Zoom get-together with Alex in the new ~week so we can review your comments and throw some Crowd Design into the mix. 

Be sure to share your feedback and ideas in the Comments below! 

From Shanghai with Love & Appreciation, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

Presented here today is the final image in the series of 4 illustrated by Adam Narozanski for the scenes where Alice encounters memories of Dr. Angus Bumby. Adam says of this one: 

And the last Bumby of four, I made this one more dynamic. I imagined it could be the moment where the Bumby memory looses it’s power over Alice and the Dollmaker feels threatened, trying to claw his way out of a dark void which he is about to fall into? Just some loose ideas that were going through my head as I was working on it, all four of these were really fun to make.

And I think that sounds great. The idea would be that we see three variations on Bumby in previous areas of this particular “memory structure.” In those scenes, Child Alice won’t fight Bumby – though she will likely solve some puzzles and perhaps fight off some sort of guard creatures. But in the final room… the one pictured here (main image – above) – there could be a proper Bumby Boss Fight. 

Based on all the comments I’ve seen from everyone … LOTS of you would like another chance to give Bumby/The Dollmaker some well-deserved beatings. And I especially like the idea of Child Alice being given the chance to confront and destroy a representation of the evil that destroyed her family. Some serious cathartic action in there! 

In case any of you missed the previous illustrations in this series… 

Here’s a fun question for you: What would you title these four images? 

I’m thinking… The Terrorpist, The Hypnotist, The Puppet Master, and The Blackened Mean. 

Can you Crowd Design a better set of names for these? 

And I’m thinking… it feels like these should be presented as a Print Set… something I had discussed with Font Lord in the past. Perhaps something we offer over at Mysterious. Where an order contains 1 of each of these images (4 total). Probably packed in dual tubes. Thoughts on that? 

Let us know your feedback and ideas in the Comments below! 

From Shanghai with Terrible Puns, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

We hosted a Live Stream over on Twitch (and YouTube) yesterday. If you missed it… 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpwhx6fpdec 

You can watch the recording via that link. Lots of fun was had discussing the latest art, design, and story stuff around Alice: Asylum. And I gave everyone a sneak peak at the latest version of the Design Bible. I do plan to upload a PDF of the new version… soon. But I think we’ll first have another live-stream Crowd Design session with Alex via Zoom. More on that later. 

In the meantime, check out all the updates from yesterday’s stream. 

And enjoy this Work In Progress illustration from Omri (main image, above) – an image we might call “The Universal Trinity.” This does a good job of capturing the tangled relationship between the main characters in Alice: Asylum – Shadow Alice, Adult Alice, and Child Alice. 

The final render of this illustration will be epic! 

Let us know in the comments below what you think!

From Shanghai with Chaos, 

-American