Dear Insane Children, 

I posted this over on Instagram but figure there are a few of you here on Patreon who might also be interested in the discussion… 

Feedback Time! Comment below on these design concepts for the Mysterious Makeup Box Set.

We’re working on the art and design for the box which contains the makeup box-set. The items in the box set will have their own box artwork – based on the “Alice and Flamingo” image by Joey.

A simple reference image for this is presented in the first picture (top left). For the box set artwork – what style do you prefer? Style (A) is simple – just the butterfly wings and “Mysterious” brand name. Style (B) adds a subtle pattern to the mix. And Style (C)… well… Yan and I like (A). And we want to further simplify this presentation by removing the Chinese “?” character from next to the “Mysterious” brand name. We also want to remove the artwork on the box sides – and just leave the sides empty.

We’re going for a “less is more” approach because we think this lends an air of maturity and quality to the product presentation. When we look at existing brands in the makeup space we see that it’s usually the cheaper (quality/cost) brands which tend to go really splashy on the box artwork. Higher-end brands tend to be minimalist in terms of colors and density of visuals.

Put simply: The “Insane” box would work well if we were making another “Out of the Woods” card game. For a makeup line which we hope to position mid-market, we think the more subtle approach works better.

But, hey, maybe we’re wrong! YOU tell us what box style you prefer! (A) (B) or (C)? We look forward to your comments and feedback. And will use your input to guide the next steps towards making this project a reality.

Credit to @alexceeart for the excellent design work.
 

PS: The comments over on Instagram are really blowing up. Seems the voting is heavily leaning towards (C). That’s not what Yan and I thought would work best – but then that’s the point of opening this conversation up to you, the fans. 

We look forward to your comments! 

From Shanghai with Insane, 

-American & Yan

Dear Insane Children, 

Omri sends along another concept image from the Realm of the Queen of Hearts. As we’ve discussed previously, this realm is an analog to Alice’s Anger as she traverses the stages of PTSD. The entire realm and all its major inhabitants – the Queen especially – are fuel by and addicted to Anger. 

We all know there’s a kind of power to be drawn from Anger. That’s why we have so many catchy quotes which embody that concept:

“Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.” 

“Turn your pain into anger. Anger into motivation. Motivation into success.” 

But it requires energy to stay angry. Which is why harnessing anger to accomplish things is a zero-sum game. There are better, more efficient, and less destructive ways to accomplish our goals. 

But no one tell that to the Queen of Hearts! 

She’s literally harnessed The Sun and is using its warmth to drive an Engine of Anger allowing her to build weapons of war and the armies to wield them. 

In the image above we see The Sun, a prisoner chained inside a dungeon, designed and built by The Mad Hatter.

In response to Omri’s delivery of this art I wrote, 

So, yes, the “sun” can be Alice’s burning anger. It’s being used to fuel the Queen’s “factory” which outputs the dogs of war, weapons of rage, armies of anger, etc. We should see that this is the Queen’s source of power… but, it’s also her weakness. If Alice (and the Rebels) can get past the Shield Generator they can set it to overload… which will blow up the Queen’s entire domain. Alice can learn of this fact from Hatter (he helped build all this machinery). But someone will have to stay behind and hold the lever to make the thing explode – of course 😛 

Speaking of tropes, there’s a couple of cheeky ones in there!

 Angry Judgement 

Balanced judgement is one of Anger’s first victims. When we’re angry we make bad decisions based on faulty judgement. That’s why “the best answer to anger is silence” and “the best fighter is never angry.” 

As Alice makes her way through the Queen’s Realm she’ll come across – not sure how yet – the seat of judgement, The Courthouse. Here Alice will witness or experience the sort of nonsense decisions made by a psyche addled by anger. 

Speak logic? Death sentence! Whisper reason? Off with her head!

I suggest we attach this building to an Execution Factory where all the Queen’s enemies are led after receiving judgement. A sort of gauntlet of horrors ultimately leading to death. 

Prepare to Croak!

All of which leads us to the Croquet Grounds on our way towards the Main Castle. 

As Omri suggests, this can be part of that Execution Factory. Perhaps the idea is that once “judged” you’re sentenced to “croak” – because Alice struggles with the word “croquet” – which doesn’t seem all that bad until you realize that it’s a game you play till you’re dead. 

As a way of Alice reaching the Castle… it might be interesting to have her be the first victim to successfully navigate this death arena. 

Who would enjoy a well realized Croquet Mini Game in Asylum? If we link that with a highly developed, very useful, and powerful Croquet Mallet weapon… could be a lot of fun. 

I have a secret to share: One of my favorite games of all times was “Wii Sports” (on the Nintendo Wii) – which I played the Golf Game on a big screen nightly… literally one of the most relaxing and fun ways to pass time with a video game I’ve ever known. So, I’ll admit my bias towards realizing a solid “golf” control on Alice’s Croquet Mallet Weapon 😛 

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

An Audience with Anger

We all know where this leads… and it’s not a good place. 

Omri sends along the Final Version of the Queen’s Throne Room. A stunning concept image! Wow. 

Who says Anger can’t create a thing of beauty? 

Mapping It Out

I’ve asked our Art Team to look at mapping out a sketch of the journey we’ve outlined for Anger. That way we’ll have – like we do for The Circus Realm – a bird’s eye view of the area representing Anger. We can then discuss in more detail some of the encounters, challenges, and choices Alice might face. 

Got ideas and suggestions for this realm?

Add them into the comments below!

From Shanghai with Grrrr,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

We just finished watching Star Trek: Discovery Parts 1&2. And as someone who grew up watching the original (Shatner/Nimoy) series on TV (re-runs! I am not THAT old!), I found it to be a lot of fun in terms of the references made to events, places, and people contained in the original timeline. From the thematic echos of the TV series musical themes to the sound effects from the communicators and transporters… all familiar and comforting. 

Having watched so many episodes of so many TV series for so long it’s not difficult to become jaded to the tropes. I start yelling them out at the screen 15 minutes into a new series – “he’s the hidden bad guy!” “she’s not his real daughter!” “this is all just a dream/flashback!” etc. 

Discovery unexpectedly delivered lots of classic tropes on fresh platters thanks to some alternate universe magic. I won’t get into details here for fear of spoiling the fun for those who’ve not seen the series… but for writers and those interested in writing the series is worth a watch for the story twists woven across the series and characters. 

I bring this up because we’re grappling with a couple of our own “trope-ical diseases” (har) as a function of Asylum being a prequel to a sequel set in a time-warpy universe of imagination. We’ve got to run just to stand still around here!

Here’s the message from Omri which came with the Throne Room image I’ve pasted above. You’ll see what I mean… 

You said there will be 2 fights with the queen of hearts, the first version of the room can be with Alice losing and this version can be when alice eventually wins! 

The monster should be Anger. That’s what’s consumed The Queen (and Alice’s mind where the Queen is represented). We need to integrate blindness and seeing red… as in “blind rage” and “seeing red with anger” as these things actually happen when you’re crazy angry. 

We’ll have two boss fights. First one, Alice gets her butt kicked and her Rabbit taken. She losses because she’s angry. Luke Skywalker could have taught her this lesson. 

Second time around, she can win. And perhaps because she does something which causes the Queen to go blind with rage and anger. “

the actual monster isn’t designed yet, we will get to it eventually.

my only concern is that in AMA you do just that, you fight the queen, twice.

so perhaps in the first boss fight you actually shouldn’t fight the queen but fight her “Knave of hearts” and then be Presented to the queen as she captured Bunny.

the second time you go there you fight the large Monster which, again, shouldn’t look like the one in AMA.

Yes, we do fight the Queen twice! And there’s a reason (trope) for that. It’s meant to indicate progress the character has made towards growth and in overcoming obstacles. Without the two-part (or three-part) encounter, we can’t see Daniel-son (Karate Kid) get his butt kicked; montage his way to wax-on-wax-off ninja skills; fight the bad guy again; and ultimately win. 

If we did go with the Knave of Hearts battle as Omri suggests… we’d still need to include Alice fighting the Queen and losing … and then fighting the Queen and winning. Fighting the Knave to get to the Queen does not a fight with the Queen make. 

As for what that fight looks like – whether or not it replicates the Queen fight we see in AMA – I’m open to suggestions. But I really love tentacles. And it’s going to have to be a really good suggestion to get me to give up my tentacles! 

What If?

What if Asylum does contain a couple of story elements similar to the elements found in AMA? Is it possible we might damage the quality of the story more by trying to avoid inclusion of those themes than if we kept them and improved on them? “The Last Jedi” comes to mind for some reason… 

I’m all for the “use it if it works and improve on it where we can” direction of writing. Having the Queen of Hearts battle Alice using crazy giant tentacles – even if it’s similar to what we saw in AMA – doesn’t bother me. Imagine how amazing the tentacles will be with today’s technology! 

Let me know your thoughts on all of this in the comments below. 

Speak of The Devil

Darth Bumby.

He’s baaaack… 

Next Week – Back to Normal

We will resume normal livestream stuff next week. And hopefully everything else “normal” again as well. More on that later this week. 

 Font Lord Says  

A reminder that next month’s art print will be… 

This will be available to choose if you’re doing 3/$35 or you do $75 for this month (which is confusingly paid on October 5th). 

He goes on to say… 

Backerkit emails should come soon (we’re waiting on Backerit) – this is for both the Cheshire Kitten stuff and 3x$35 stuff. 

And, YES, you can NOW change your Tier. If you were at $50 for the Cheshire Kitten and you’ve been successfully charged then you can now safely adjust your Tier. 

We do hope that you’ll stick around – keeping in mind two things: 

That month of $50 counts towards the 3/$35 Tier, so two more months at $35 and you can select an autographed art print. 

If you decide to drop down a lower Tier, remember that $5 and above gets you access to our Discord Server so you can chat with our Insane Children and join our Crowd Design Sessions. 

Lucky Says 

He’s a good boy. Thankful for the time we’re able to spend with him during these first days in the world. 

Much love to you all!

From Shanghai with The Needs of The One, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Ever since the arrival of our Littlest Insane Child I’ve had this constant Sense of Christmas. Like that pressure you feel just before the arrival of a big storm except this is mingled with the memory of tinsel, candy canes, fake plastic trees, and eggnog. This child feels like the biggest gift I never knew I wanted.

I know you come here for the tentacles and knives but… 

And Now For Something Complete Different 

A note from Omri along with his latest updates to the Christmas Poster (attached above). 

I tried to insert Alchemy symbols… it doesn’t work for me, the concept of Christmas clashes for me with Alchemy, it’s too much stuff on one image.

I merged the symbolic designs of the Asylum into the image, i need to render it out fully,

I placed the text Alex advised.

 Should this be a card or a poster? 

I’m happy with the result. I mean… it’s got tentacles! It’s got what plants crave.

What do you think? Are all the elements there? Any final adjustments?

The BIG QUESTION is – what should we do with this? 

Card, Poster, or Other?

My initial thought is that I’d love to mail this out as a Thank You post card to Insane Children around the world. But we have to keep in mind that any sort of mailing (with tracking) will be ~$8USD per item… which if we were to send it to ~4000 Insane Children would be ~$32,000USD. And I don’t know how much we could protect the card from damage in transit unless we put it in a box… which increases cost… 

Then I was then thinking that we could bundle this as an Art Print with an upcoming shipment of the prints that would normally go out. As we’ve suggested for October – when there will be Two Prints in One Tube. Maybe we send this out in the tubes for November (along with the regular print for that month)? The only “problem” with this is that it means only those who are eligible to receive art prints would get it… 

Maybe some sort of hybrid… It’s a Post Card sent to all at $10 (or above) for a certain month + it’s bundled as an Art Print for everyone receiving a print that month? 

Difficult decision… since I want this to be a holiday Thank You type of thing but also have to be realistic about the costs associated with shipping such a thing. 

Any ideas? Let me know what you think in the comments below. 

Registration Day! 

Yan and I are off to the ?????? (identification card office) where we’ll officially register ?? as a person and citizen of China. We’ve still not 100% settled on an English name. We got so used to calling “her” Lily while he was in the womb. Hard habit to break. 

A boy called Lily? 

“Dad, why did you name me Lucky?” “Because you’re lucky we didn’t name you Lily!” 

From Shanghai with Lucky,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

We’re back home safe and sound. Baby and mom are happy and healthy. Thank you, everyone for your kind wishes and love. 

Taking a quick break from cleaning the house and  learning how to “dad” to bring you a quick update. Thought you might enjoy a bit of Crowd Design while I am away. 

Crowd Design: Christmas Poster

Our art team continues work on various aspects of Asylum. Omri sent over the Christmas Poster concept image (posted above). I’ve sent him the following feedback: 

Looks great to me. A couple of things… 

First, the font is off, but you probably know that. That looks very 50’s.
Second, it needs more alchemy or strange symbols. 
December is Sagittarius is Saturn (Dec 13th is my birthday, btw, maybe a “13” in there for that?) 

Check out Father Christmas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Christmas
And let’s think about the Winter Solstice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice

Winter Solstice is the origin of the Christmas celebration date. Maybe include some indication in the image of the astrological alignment of the solstice? 

In terms of story and psychology… you could imagine the solstice as being Alice’s furthest point from sanity (happiness, warmth, etc). 
So it might make sense to put a subtle hint to her in a straight jacket or otherwise hint at the Asylum and its trappings? 

I’ll let you take it from here.

And from there… I’ll let YOU join in the conversation and send him some design feedback. Leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below. Remember to keep it positive and constructive!

Omri will check out your ideas and work them into the final image wherever it makes sense. Woo!

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American

Dear Insane Children

Font Lord here, to ease all of your minds with a soothing balm of information for what happens next with the Cheshire Kitten Set goal and to answer some of the common questions that have been flooding into our inbox now August is over.

—

1) OMG I HAVEN’T BEEN CHARGED YET.
It’s still early in the month. Most people don’t get charged until the first week is over, and even then, there are people charged later than that usually.  
Patreon will continue to automatically attempt to charge you throughout the month, so…. wait   🙂

2) IS IT TOO LATE TO GET THE PLUSH SET?
Yes. August is over everywhere in the world now. If you joined our Patreon or adjusted your pledge to $50 in September, that’s too late.  But don’t fret, the Cheshire Kitten Set will be available over on Mysterious in a few weeks time.

3) I NEED TO CHANGE MY ADDRESS.
No you don’t.
We will be sending out a ‘Backerkit Survey” email in about a week where you can tell us your address then, so keep your eyeballs peeled for seeing that in your inbox around September 9th.

4) SO WHEN ARE YOU SHIPPING? WHERE’S MY TRACKING INFO?
We estimate shipping will happen around mid to late September, and then Backerkit will auto-send you your tracking information as soon as we have it from the shipping fulfillment company.
Shipping takes on average 2-4 business weeks depending on where you are in the world.

5) CAN YOU JUST CONFIRM THAT EVERYTHING IS OK ON MY PLEDGE?
You can do this.  Does your account say that you have been charged $50 or above in September? Then relax, you’re getting the Kitten Set.

6) MY AUGUST PAYMENT IS (less than $50) WHAT HAPPENED?
Don’t worry, it’s your September payment that determines if you’re getting the Kitten Set. Not August. 

7) OHHH GEEZ, RICK. SOME OTHER ISSUE IS STRESSING ME OUT!
Well, if it’s not answered above, then you can still PM US.

So, to summarize.
Put your feet up, have a cuppa tea, and wait   🙂

– Cheers