Dear Patrons,
Another wonderful image from Joey has just arrived. Below I provide feedback and discuss what we might see upon exploring the interior of this domain of Anger. There’s also a bit of thought on the next domain, Bargaining.
We’re closing in on our next Patreon goal and the addition of another artist to the project. With both Joey and Sonny working on illustrations Wonderland will take shape much faster.
Someone asked in a comment how many artists I plan to bring onboard during pre-production. Ultimately that question is answered by the level of support we’re able to maintain. This is why Patreon is so critical to the process – your support directly powers this production.
It’s my hope that we’ll continue growing our mailing list, Patreon support, and collection of design/art materials through to October of 2018. Who knows how big this thing will get? But I’d like to have a mountain of detail about the new game by then – and be ready to launch a massive crowdfunding campaign.
But first we need to get a presentation ready for EA. That means a collection of images and ideas we can condense into a 10~20 page PPT. Keep this in mind as we race through high level illustrations of domains and major characters. That’s the content I need to tell the overall story for Asylum. After that’s done and approved we can dive into all the insane details.
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October 15, 2017
Joey:
I had a rough color sketch of queen’s castle, I will continue if you feel this is the right way.
I will be working on some ideas of Alice’s weapon until I have your feedback on the background, then I would continue on that.
Are you on a trip or sth.? Haven’t hear from you recently.
Oh, I am also working on Alice’s face on our very first image in Asylum.
American:
Joey, The initial sketch looks great. Really does a good job capturing the emotional concept of Anger.
I imagine an interior space of dark/burnt corridors filled with smoke and flames. Pools of fire and jets of flame erupting all around. It would be like walking into the brightest point of pain in Alice’s psyche – all recalling the night of the fire which killed her family. An eternally burning building filled with burning enemies and traps, echoes of distant screams… excellent.
Please feel free to explore some of the interior areas in your next illustrations.
After that, we’ll want to move to the next domain – Bargaining. In the Grief Cycle this is the stage where, without accepting the trauma/pain, a person tries to make a deal so it’ll go away. Alice might attempt to exchange her own life for that of her family or to exchange her sanity/consciousness for release from her psychological pain. How we represent this in terms of location/art is a big question. For the narrative part, we can lean on any number of tropes (as with the examples above). Who in Wonderland might hold the power to release Alice from her anguish? This character is likely to be pivotal – a devil in disguise who offers Alice a Faustian deal only to turn vengeful when Alice finally rejects the idea and tries to move to the next stage…
Some ideas to chew on!
Yes, I am currently in Thailand working on my sailboat. It’s out of the water and we’re repairing many things – hot and dirty work but it needs to be done from time to time.
You probably don’t need to spend much time on Alice’s face these days. I think we have enough of an idea of her and her dress for the presentation I’m building. I do think we could use more work on the Cheshire Cat though. Doesn’t feel like we’ve really captured the right image yet – many of the fans are asking for a version where he actually has fur. So maybe try a variation based more closely on the Cat from the first two games – but try to have him look a little more healthy, with a bit more fur. You should still include the idea of burning in the areas of his tattoos.
Soon I’d like to add another artist to our group. Sonny is interested in joining us and I think he’d make a great addition to the team. He’s especially good with characters – so we could have him take a stab at the Cat. I’d also like to have him start on illustrations of other main characters like Hatter, Mock Turtle, etc.
I look forward to seeing your progress with the weapons!
I’m back to Shanghai for 2 days this week and then off to the US until 30th of October. Let’s keep in touch and continue making progress on all this stuff. I can work wherever there’s the Internet! 🙂
Cheers,
-American McGee
Mysterious Inc.