Dear Insane Children, 

As our art/design team turn their attention to Hatter’s Domain we’ll start to explore elements of the story, visuals, and design you’ll find there. 

Joey sends over an illustration of Hatter’s Domain *before* the explosion which blew it to bits. This provides a foundation for the area around his domain and his workshop – a mixture of Classic English Countryside with a strong dose of Hieronymus Bosch. 

Also on the list of areas to explore in Hatter’s Domain: The interior of Hatter’s laboratory and observatory, a giant tea table, interior of Hatter’s cottage/home, the interior of Hatter’s workshop, and some of the surrounding “countryside” – all blown to bits, of course. 

Look forward to seeing lots of beautiful new art! 

Enamel Pins – Progress and Possibilities

Jen continues her efforts on pin designs…

We’ve generated a selection of designs based on The Jabberwock. Jen initially submitted Design ‘C’ and I suggested that we add the alchemy symbol for Fire (upright triangle). We also played around with spreading the triangle around the edge to create a hint of a Chaos symbol. And there’s one which just plops a Chaos symbol right into the background… 

Which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below! (I quite like D and E). 

She also sent over The Carpenter from AMR: 

This started with the design you see on the left. I suggested we take the ship’s wheel out of his ear. And then thought it would be nice to have the V turned into the alchemy symbol for water (upside-down triangle) which resulted in the final image you see on the right. 

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below! 

And last but not least… 

Some of you may remember this Mock Turtle design from our previous exploration of pin/patch designs. 

I still think he’s cute but I don’t know that he fits in with the overall dark/magic theme we’re building towards with this set. 

What do you think? Tu Turtle or Not Tu Turtle? 

Still one more big post I’m working on for this week. It’s making my brain hurt – in a good way – so I don’t know if I can have it done before the weekend… but I am trying!

From Shanghai with Turtles,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

I have several different Patreon updates drafted – one talking about the Enamel Pins, one talking about PTSD and Alchemy, and another one talking about Hatter’s Domain… trying to get them done! But life keeps throwing distractions at me. For example, a huge amount of time today was spent on printing, signing, chopping, scanning, and mailing all the documents necessary for renewing China visas for myself and Martin. Woo, paperwork. Kill me now! 

Anyway, THIS IMAGE can’t wait! 

You need a new desktop, phone screen, EVERYTHING image. AND THIS IS IT!

Behold… “BLADE FAce… oh, wait… Omri actually calls this one… 

“Looking In The Shadows” 

The model is named Brittany Nelson and Omri’s used her for “Alice and Cheshire” plus “Wings of Steam” – and says she’s got “the perfect British face” even though she’s actually an American.”

So there you have it! An amazing new image you can plaster onto everything. 

And, yes, we’ll make this an Art Print for an upcoming month. 

Let Omri and Brittany hear your feedback in the comments below! 

From Shanghai with Not Enough Time,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

It was not an easy task but our mods (thanks AsteriaVisual and Magus!) managed to piece together a video for this week’s Crowd Design Session. 

If you missed it live – or just want to listen to it again – click THIS LINK to check it out over on my YouTube Channel. 

In this episode, we did a deep dive into the narrative theme of Hatter’s domain. “Bargaining” is the stage Alice is going through represented by this area. And I think it may contain a critical concept upon which our entire game narrative might revolve. 

Have a listen and share your thoughts in the comments below!

From Shanghai with Click-click-clack-clack,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

A parting shot from The Queen of Hearts as we leave her realm and move forward into the Mad Hatter’s Domain. 

Omri sends over the Throne Room illustration (main image above) which he says we should use as an Art Print. And so we’ll do that! This will be the Art Print for November… as in NOW. 

If you’re interested in this print and currently at the $75 Tier then, great, you’ll get this print next. Or if you’re at 3/$35 you can select this print when Font Lord sends out the surveys in December. 

Norm also added a bit of color to the Anger Monster he’s been working on… 

Woo boy. Don’t look forward to fighting THAT in-game! 

Speaking of Anger Monsters…

There will be NO LIVE STREAM this week. Sorry!

Behind the scenes here in Shanghai myself and Martin are in the process of canceling our old work visas and moving them to the newly formed legal entity for Mysterious in China. It’s been a somewhat frustrating, slightly scary, and very involved process… And there are some steps happening this week (mainly Thursday and Friday) which we cannot miss or mess up. So… 

We’ll push the Live Stream to next week! 

We did have an excellent Crowd Design Session over on Discord this week. But the Internet Gremlins made a mess of the recording process so it’s taking a bit longer for our mods to edit. 

Thank you, AsteriaVisual and Magus for your efforts in producing that video! We’ll post it to YouTube once it’s done. 

From Shanghai with Monsters, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

As you’re aware we’ve got Jennifer working on a collection of Enamel Pins which we’ll offer as a “Set of 4 + 1 Exclusive Pin” here on Patreon and then as just the “Set of 4” over on Mysterious. Final numbers of pins and the “exclusive” details are TBD… as are the selection of pins on offer. 

Another interesting pin design from Jen arrived last night – seen above – Hysteria Alice as seen from above. Which got me thinking… 

Yan is working on Mysterious Makeup and recently discovered that we can “stamp” designs onto the eyeshadows. Who knew? Here’s an example of what I’m talking about… 

And this got me thinking… 

Maybe our enamel pin designs can do double-duty as the “stamps” we use on the eyeshadows?! 

Here’s the list of ideas for names and symbols to go with the “Classic Dress” and “Harvest Dress” colors being worked on. 

Seems like a fun cross-over to me. What do you think?

Let us know if you have ideas for names, symbols, or anything else in the comments below!

Jen also sent over a Mad Hatter “Tea Time” pin concept: 

And I suggested that this might be sliding back towards a “cute goofy” feeling which would feel out of place with the other more sinister pins we’re creating. My thought was that the Hatter’s hat by itself is already so iconic… I wouldn’t mind simply having a pin design based on it alone. Like so… 

What do you think? Cute Hatter Hat? Or Classic Hatter Hat? 

Again, let us know in the comments below! 

We’ll be discussing Enamel Pins and Hatter’s Domain during today’s Crowd Design Session. That starts at 10AM Hong Kong Time – 6PM PST (about 25 minutes from when I am writing and posting this). See you there!

From Shanghai with Stamps, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

As we continue our exploration of the story, places, and people of Alice: Asylum, we now enter into The Mad Hatter’s Domain. This area is representative of the “Bargaining” stage in Alice’s PTSD. 

Over on the Asylum Wiki we have a few notes scribbled down including this tidbit: 

(Hatter) spends his days working on a (mad) plan to put Wonderland right again. “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t … but I can!” Hatter can’t finish his work until certain (elements, emotions?) are collected. And he’s plagued by a certain gremlin – he’s convinced it was Alice he saw but now that she’s here and offering to help that theory no longer makes sense. 

Crowd Design Some Insanity

We’ll talk about Hatter’s Domain and the concept of Bargaining during this week’s Crowd Design Session over on Discord. 

Don’t know what a “Discord” is? It’s basically a super functional online text-voice chat thing… Imagine Skype but 1000x better. There’s an FAQ where you can learn more… Just CLICK THIS LINK

We’ll start the conversation at 6PM PST on Monday, November 11th. 

The Bargaining Stage

Hatter’s Domain represents Bargaining – the 3rd Stage in the Kubler-Ross Model of Grief. This stage is often characterized by an attempt at negotiation with one’s self, or a personification of the trauma (an individual perhaps), or a higher power – all as a way of regaining some notion of “control” over a situation. Of reverting to the previous state of Slumber. 

Confronted by Chaos, we find ourselves in an upsidedown world where things no longer make sense. The ground has gone out from under our feet. Our compass no longer points north. And nothing – especially other people – can be trusted. Reality is shattered. 

We are dissolved. 

Bargaining contains a lot of “If only…” statements. As in, “If only I had treated her better.” or “If only I had gotten a second opinion.” or “If only I promise to be better, will you give me…”

These represent an attempt at the impossible – to travel back in time and start over at some moment before the arrival of Chaos. 

The problem is that there is no moment which procedes Chaos. Chaos is transformation. It is inevitable. It is everywhere and always.

Bargaining is an attempt to resist The Inevitability of Transformation. About as useful as trying to resist time.

If we do manage to reach some sort of bargain – it only delays our transformation.

When we give up on Bargaining we abandon the hope of returning to the pre-Chaos state of being. We give up on clinging to our former self. We abandon our ego. 

And Then We Transform

What follows is Depression – a natural function of Ego Death. Depression is the state in which we’ve lost our Reason To Be. Makes sense… our Ego is Dead. There is literally NO POINT to anything anymore… and we need a new reason to be.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. 

Hatter and Alchemy

In Wonderland there’s no such thing as “Chemistry” as we know it. But there is the strange art of Alchemy. This melds together the physical (chemical) world with the psychological (mental) world – and links them together around the concept of Transformation. 

Hatter is Wonderland’s resident Alchemy Expert and has been hard at work on… 

What? 

Could be that he’s trying to piece Wonderland together again after the explosion (Chaos) that recently ripped it apart. He might even think he’s responsible for that explosion. This would be a sort of Bargaining with the nature of Wonderland’s reality. “Let’s put Wonderland back together again…”

And in order to do that he needs Alice’s help in collecting certain Elements. 

Whatever the case, Hatter’s Domain is wrecked…

Share Your Ideas!

I have quite a few ideas around this domain, what it represents, what Hatter is exploring, and more… but I want to hear what YOU think!

Let me know in the comments below. And join us for the Crowd Design Session tomorrow!

Let’s flesh out this Domain and make it surreal! 

Enamel Pins and Troubled Dreams

One more topic for Crowd Design tomorrow – Jen continues her efforts of designs for a set of Enamel Pins. Here’s an interesting design based on The Queen and Tentacles (my favorite)… 

She also did a revision of the Cheshire Cat pin based on a bit of feedback from me… Am I really the only one who saw “balls” between his eyes? Talk about bad dreams!

And a Teapot Cannon… 

Jen wants to know if the pins should all be Silver & Black or if there might be a few (like the Teapot) with a bit of color. 

What do you think? 

Let us know in the comments below!

Notes from Font Lord

He wants me to let everyone know that shipping times are (once again) longer than expected. This appears to be a global phenomenon and we have no idea what causes this or when it might get better. Basically, things are taking longer to ship around the world than usual… so if you are waiting on something (and have a tracking number in hand) you might see it “stuck” in transit for longer than usual. That includes tracking which does not appear to update for 5+ weeks! Yikes! 

3×35 and Chaos Necklace people – you’ll see your Survey Emails THIS WEEK. Yay! 

From Shanghai with Chaos,

-American