Dear Insane Children, 

I sometimes look up from the mass of swirling creativity we’ve collectively brought into existence and think “WOW! WTF!?” There’s just so much going on! I have to-do lists to keep track of my to-do lists. Let’s get started! 

Out of the Woods

All of the physical rewards are at the distribution center in Shenzhen! The Illustrated Books, Coloring Books, Card Games (in multiple languages), play mats, scarves, collector cards, and collector boxes… ALL THE THINGS are manufactured and ready to ship! Here’s pallets of game boxes…

To you that might look like a photo taken with a potato by a person who maintains a psychopathic disregard for framing and composition but to me it’s pure gold. Finished game boxes on a pallet in Shenzhen ready to ship to Woodies around the world. Yay! 

Martin’s crafting a Kickstarter update with details on address lock-down and steps leading to the final days before shipping starts. If you’re a backer or you pre-ordered via BackerKit then you will receive an email this week with a confirmation of your shipping address and a link to a page where you can submit an updated address if necessary. 

Pirate Jam 2019

Lots of planning, discussions, and meetings going on to get Pirate Jam 2019 ready for sea. We’re hitting the water April 2019 and plan to have 20+ pirates aboard a fleet of 6+ boats. Last week we secured additional sponsor support and an updated logo treatment from Alex. Woo!

Question: Is it worth adding this stuff to the Mysterious Shop? We can’t really mass produce it unless we know there’s demand… I just don’t know if there’s demand? 

I’m heading to Thailand from December 15th~Jan 3rd to check out the sailing route we’ll take for Pirate Jam. During that time I am also traveling to Sriacha to meet with government officials so we can discuss opening a new studio in that region. 

Spicy New Studio

That new studio is where we plan to make the following games in roughly the following order:

1) Out of the Woods (digital card game)

2) GIBS (name TBD, but basically an old-school FPS shooter)

3) Alice: Asylum 

There are ongoing talks with several large corporations (all of whom you know) and a handful of investors and publishers – all working in concert to help make the development of these games a reality. 

Meanwhile, your continued support here on Patreon ensure we are able to maintain momentum on design and art pre-production. You are quite literally the reason why we are in this amazing place today!

Design Meeting

Tomorrow we’re hosting the first-ever Discord powered Crowd Design meeting at 09:30HKT, which is 17:30 on Monday for those of you in Pacific Standard Time. 

Here’s info on our Discord Server. Note that you need to be at $5 or more and processed for one month’s pledge in order to access the server. 

During the meeting we’ll discuss the long list of design suggestions made by our community over on the Asylum Wiki. You’ll be able to hang out in the Discord chat and participate with the discussion via text and voice (depending on whether you’re selected to join the voice chat). It’s sure to be a sh!tshow since it’s the first time we’re doing anything like this… so, come along and laugh at our ineptitude. Wee!

Alice: Asylum

You know, you’d think with all the flack these big publishers are taking from their recent AAA game flops… we’d have a certain publisher beating down the door for a solid, narrative-driven, non-political, straight-up single player, action title… I mean, did they not see how God of War knocked it out of the park?! Crouton!!!!

I’m sure we’ll get there eventually but it’s more than a little frustrating to see these guys continue to struggle with the idea that gamers don’t want to be told, “If you don’t like it, don’t buy it,” and “Hey, micro-transactions are the future… deal with it!” 

You know what’s the frikken future? Boxes of Nutcracker Soldiers turned into weapons of mass destruction! 

Omri says of this (awesome) design: 

1. Like ants, She can place a box and have a horde charge the enemy
2. he can be picked up and used here and there in the game, like a companion of some sort.
3. he can be turned into an enemy
4. Think about actually changing him into BRITISH soldier toys.

I want a box of these for Christmas! 

As mentioned during last week’s live-stream, we are making really good progress on the narrative – and especially the “twist” – in art, writing, and with the feedback coming from our amazing Crowd Design group here on Patreon and over on YouTube. If you’ve not checked it out… Here are links… (SPOILER ALERT!)

Full Live Stream 

Excerpt on Shadow Alice 

Meanwhile, myself and RJ continue our back-and-forth around the narrative creation process. He’s recently sent me a couple of excellent pages which inspired some pages from me… we’re getting there!

OH, and those images above from Joey… THAT is what we want Alice to look like in the final game. Excellent! Really happy with the fact that we’ve finally nailed all the important elements needed to visually represent her in-game. 

Speaking of live streams…

EU Live Stream Incoming!

I’m seeing on the news there’s all sorts of rioting in the streets of Paris, Berlin, and other EU nations. Come on, guys! I know you’re missing the EU Live Stream but you don’t have to burn the place down. We get it! You need another EU Live Stream … well …

Follow THIS LINK to set a reminder and join us for the next Live Stream. 

That’s at 7PM, 6th, December 2018 Hong Kong Time. In Paris that’ll be 12pm Noon. Feel free to join us with your yellow vests on. We promise not to shoot you with the water cannon. 

Mysterious Things

Lots of interesting stuff being added to the Mysterious Shop these days. Most notably would be the Alchemy Key Necklace Set. 

These took quite a long time to design and manufacture… but the final result turned out great. Hit that link above and get the full details. Jen’s also added some cool new shirt designs (based on Joey’s artwork). Head over and have a look!

Special Discount on Alchemy Necklaces for Patrons!

Use this code to get a Patron-Exclusive discount on the Alchemy Necklace Set:

PATRONALCHEMY

• 25% off Alchemy Keys – Necklaces
• One use per customer
• Active from today until Dec 31

* If you are a Patron and already purchased the necklaces without the discount code, email me (reply to your order confirmation email) and I’ll refund you the discount amount. 

Is that It?

I think I’ve ticked all the boxes…

The reality is that each of these things represents hours of effort per day to bring to life and maintain. I could not do this as an independent creator without your support. And it’s not just the financial support – but knowing that everyone out there is helping to bring to life all this art and creativity because it’s the kind of stuff YOU WANT in the world. 

Your feedback and suggestions makes all this that much more interesting. So, let me know what you think in the comments below! 

From Shanghai in the To-Do’ing 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

We’ve got a live-stream scheduled for this week – Thursday, November 29th at 10AM Hong Kong Time. That’s at 6PM on the 28th in Los Angeles. 

Hit THIS LINK to set a reminder. 

During this week’s live-stream we’ll celebrate the completion of manufacturing on “Out of the Woods” and will give away copies of the games as PRIZES. 

We’ve also fixed our audio issues (promise!) and won’t be assaulting your ears with microphone madness. Apologies to those of you who suffered through that last week! 

Out of the Woods – Shipping Soon!

If you were a backer of Out of the Woods on Kickstarter or pre-ordered it via Backerkit, please contact us if you need to update your shipping address. You can still pre-order the game via that Backerkit link. And I’ll add it to the Mysterious shop for live-sales once all the games have arrived at the warehouse in Shenzhen (should be early next week). 

VERY HAPPY to finally be finished with the creation and manufacturing of THAT! We learned a lot of interesting lessons along the way… let’s see how the finished product is received, then we might think about doing another physical card game!

Crowd Design Meeting

We’re putting together plans for the first-ever Discord-powered Alice: Asylum Crowd Design meeting. That’s schedule for next week on December 4th at 10AM (Hong Kong Time) which is Dec 3rd at 6PM for those of you in PST. Before the event I’ll post more details on how we’re connecting, format, etc. 

The basic idea is that myself, Martin, and our Mod team on Discord will go live in a voice channel which everyone can listen-in on. Everyone will have the ability to write feedback into a text channel which we’ll monitor for interesting comments. We will also have the ability to bring “live” guests from the chat into the voice channel – where we might brainstorm or seek clarification on an idea. 

We’re working from a page on the Asylum Wiki which contains tons of Community Ideas. The goal is to review these ideas one by one – then decide whether to Pass, Kick Down the Road, or Approve for inclusion in the design wiki. 

The session is scheduled to last for an hour and we’ll give ~5 minutes to each design suggestion. 

This is a first-attempt and so will likely feature lots of mistakes and learning. But I do hope it will eventually turn into a method we can employ on Asylum and the other games which are lurking in the pipeline.

OTHER GAMES?

Yeah, we’re working on a couple of other concepts. These are all in the pipeline which would lead to the creation of a new (Thailand based) studio and the eventual development of a new Alice game. Included in that pipeline are a digital-game version of “Out of the Woods” and…

Do you like cuteness? Gore? Subtle satanic-DOOM-like references? Post apocalyptic dystopian techno horror? Canabalistic techno-zombies? Did I mention the cuteness? Well… get ready for “GIBS!”

Actually, we have no idea what we’re calling this thing just yet but “GIBS!” will work for now.

Push The White Rabbit

Don’t forget we’ve adjusted the next Patron Goal to unlock the White Rabbit Plush. While our Patron numbers are growing at a steady pace in response, we can still use YOUR help to spread the word.

Please, take a moment to post an image of this cute little guy on your social media feeds – Instagram, Facebook Pintarest, Twitter, etc. Let everyone know we need their help to unlock this wonderful new physical reward!

Alright, I have pirate thing to plan, mateys! Shiver me timbers, it’s getting busy around here!

From Shanghai with Arrrrg,

-American (Lulu’s napping)

Hi there  

Martin here with a quick note to tell you all that this will be the next art print as I’ve had a few messages asking that very question.
Continuing Alex’s series, we have scary Shadow Alice…   

So in order to get this, make sure you’re at $75 when you’re charged at the beginning of December.  You still have a few days to change your pledge if needed!

The 3x$35 Tier people who make it to their 3rd month in December can also choose this print too when they get their survey emails in early December.

FYI, January’s print is likely to be Alex’s ‘Hatter’ in the same style.  😀

Here endeth the announcement   🙂

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children, 

I’ve been thinking more and more about the end-game of Alice: Asylum and of the perspective from which the narrative is being told. As was (I think) mentioned in the most recent Livestream (godawful audio, sorry. we’ve fixed the technical issues now) – we’re looking at having the Asylum story told from the perspective of post-Madness Returns Alice. That is, shortly after Alice pushes Bumby onto the train tracks, she goes somewhere to integrate everything that’s happened.

During this process she discovers something’s missing. She’s finished the obvious journey but she does not feel complete or whole. The Infernal Train ravaged her mind and a lot of her past is missing. So, through some as-yet-unknown mechanism or plot device – she journeys back to her time in the asylum. She witnesses the journey of her 13-year old self through those early days of a Shattered Wonderland. 

We’ve talked a bit about the relationship to the Shadow Self… and the image you see above is, I think, the best representation of this idea we’ve seen so far. Young Alice adventures through Wonderland trying to repair her PTSD but finds herself in constant opposition to or competition with her Shadow Self. I’d thought previously she might need to integrate the Shadow Self in order to form the complete self required to move forward and reorganize her mental landscape then defeat Bumby. But…

Spoiler Alert

Now, I’m thinking… what if, at the end of Asylum, Alice confronts her Shadow Self, maybe even defeats her or reaches a stalemate… then decides to allow Shadow Alice to move forward into battle. 

Child Alice, the one we’ve been playing as in Asylum, stays behind in a sort of limbo.

Shadow Alice is who we’ve known from AMA and AMR… she’s all we’ve ever known. And Child Alice has remained trapped in the Wonderland post-Asylum. 

So… at the end of Madness Returns it’s Shadow Alice who is reaching back to find her Inner Child, not even aware that she was/is the Shadow. That memory of who she was and her promise to return and save Child Alice was destroyed by the Infernal Train.

I like the layering and discovery available to us in this narrative. What do you think? 

I don’t think, until this latest Shadow Alice image (the one up top) that we’d properly captured the Child Alice facial features or body proportions. What’s presented here is really close to what I had in mind. 

What do you think? Have we found “our Alice?”

Joey also sends along a new level / environment illustration. This time depicting a scene similar to a level in AMA – The Hatter’s Tea Party with Alice in miniature. I *love* settings like this one and cannot wait to see these rendered in-game. 

We’re also exploring ideas for future physical items – here’s a Cheshire Cat Head 3D model. Something like this might become part of a physical game box or other type of collectible. Perhaps a full-blown chess set? 

Meow?

I just posted a big update regarding Out of the Woods over on the Kickstarter Page. If you’re a backer, be sure to check that out. Everything is still on track for the factory to finish / ship the games by the 27th of November. That means we can start shipping rewards and pre-orders to everyone be the 1st or 2nd week of December. Yay!

Goal / Reward Adjustment

Since the latest Embroidered Patch Set doesn’t seem to be attracting much attention to Patreon, I’m going to remove it as the next Goal and just focus on the White Rabbit Plush. The Plush is currently set to unlock at 3222 Patrons.

I’ll still provide the Embroidered Patch Set #2 to you for $10USD via Mysterious. You’ll need this code: EMPATCH2

IMPORTANT: Enter that code at checkout and the item total will drop to $10USD. Please DO NOT add more stuff to your cart in order to unlock the Mini White Rabbit – these two offers are mutually exclusive. The EMPATCH2 code is only good for a single purchase of the Embroidered Patch Set 2 and won’t combine with the Mini White Rabbit offer. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. Yan’s in Japan so Lulu and I worked non-stop through the holidays alone… but are hoping to take a break tomorrow (Sunday) to cook a turkey and entertain some American guests for a Thanksgiving dinner. Yay.

I am truly thankful and grateful and all the ful’s to everyone of you for your support and love and trust. 

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

Lots of you traveling home for the Thanksgiving holiday this week. And we all have lots to be thankful for heading towards the end of the year. 

In honor of all we’ve accomplished together we’ll host a special Thanksgiving livestream over on YouTube. Let’s go through and discuss ALL THE ART, all the design, and all the progress we’ve made this year!

Join us at 6PM PST on Wednesday, November 21st (10AM Hong Kong Time on the 22nd). 

Hit THIS LINK to set a reminder on YouTube. 

From Shanghai with Thanks and Love, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

It’s crazy around here! So much going on… 

Lots of effort going into pre-planning for Pirate Jam 2019. I’m drawing up schedules, maps, and activities. We’re aiming to have 20+ Pirates aboard 6 boats, with the event kicking off on March 29th and going for ~10 days. In December I travel to Thailand to check the sailing route and make arrangements for shore support along the way. Arg, matey! Lots to do!

While in Thailand I will also meet with government reps to discuss the Eastern Economic Corridor and how this program would help us build a new development studio in the “Digital Park Thailand (EECd)” located in Sriracha, Chonburi. 

If you know me, then you know I LOVE spicy food – and that’s why I named my previous game studio “Spicy Horse.” The fact that the new studio might be located in the home of “Sriracha Sauce” (Rooster Sauce to many of you)… well, if that’s not a sign from the gods, I don’t know what is! 

Hmmm… what should we name this new studio?

BOXES! TUBES! POSTERS! Oh, my! This month Font Lord and I need to sign, pack, and send nearly 1000 posters! Holy shee-ite! This is the single largest month we’ve ever had to handle. Partly due to last month’s promotion and largely due to many of your “3 for 35” tiers coming due at the same time. Pray for our wrists! 

More artwork from Joey on the way! We’ll take a look at everything tomorrow during the… 

LIVESTREAM!

Here’s THE LINK for this week’s livestream. Martin and I will share all the latest art and progress on Alice: Asylum. We’ll also talk about Out of the Woods – which is ALMOST ready to ship! 

This week’s stream is at 9AM, Hong Kong time on 15th, November. For those of you in the US, that’s November 14th at 5PM (thanks, daylight savings!). 

Be sure to set an alarm, a reminder, etc. You don’t want to miss this one – we’ll do a live review of all the Rabbit Plush Dolls and talk about planning for those! 

Progress

Again, lots of progress going on behind the scenes. I wish I could say more but…

With Party X, who are responsible for the legal/license aspects of Alice: Asylum – there’s been a healthy exchange of terms, outlines, and other necessary elements.

With Party Y, of whom there are several, and who are responsible for funding, publishing, distribution of Alice: Asylum, also a healthy “flow” of necessary elements. 

And, as mentioned above, we’re making solid progress on the physical (studio) and personnel (dev team) aspects of the new game(s). 

I do hope to have more tangible things to communicate to you all by early 2019. 

But, in short, yay! 

YOU are a major part of why we are where we are today. Without YOU and your support – I honestly don’t think we could have made all this happen so quickly. I am constantly amazed and humbled by this process. I think it’s the favorite thing I’ve ever done in my life (work-wise). And, more and more, I think this could be a large part of the future of game development. We’ve wrapping together so many of the critical elements required for the healthy and successful development of artistic content. 

Another big THANK YOU. I really appreciate everything you’ve help me and our team accomplish. So glad to have you along for the ride! Can’t wait to see where we take this 🙂 

From Shanghai with Tubes, 

-American (and Dog Knight Lulu)