Dear Insane Children, 

Today is a good day – the creativity is flowing strong. Very happy to have you all along for the ride! We literally could not be doing all this if it were not for YOUR support here on Patreon. The amount of art, design, writing, and management going into all our pre-production efforts would be impossible without YOU. 

So, first off… THANK YOU for helping get us here!

Next, we have the latest from Omri. A SUIT of all things! He says of this and his other efforts: 

1. Suit because i think if fits best, if people won’t like it i’ll do a dress in the same theme/colors etc

I also want to design a Mercury dress which will be like the Fleshmaiden but in silver. but that’s later on. 

2. Next Dress, is the R.Queen, bloody but Pleasure.

3. reworking the chaos according to feedback. If you need to feedback me on the Darkening dress this is the time!

So, what do you think? A suit for Alice? Leave your comments below. I will reserve my feedback… for the live stream later this week. Then we can discuss this in full and add your comments into the mix. 

We humans seemingly exist to tell stories. Stories put things in order. Words on paper are part of a magical structure. Like notes of music or numbers in a formula. The meaningful combinations are as infinite as the randomly senseless ones. And meaning is found inside, outside, upside down, backwards, zoomed in, zoomed out, sped up, and slowed down. Read enough books, watch enough movies, listen to enough music… see enough faces, and you start to recognize the patterns everywhere.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about take 38 minutes and 35 seconds to listen to Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song” at 800% Slower.

Maybe read this while that plays… 

[SPOILER WARNING]

She alone survived the fire. But, she doesn’t quite believe it. “IT” is the fire, the death of her whole family, and her survival. 

In her fragile state, she’s wondered if/(pretended?) this is all a dream, a vivid nightmare. She’s hoped it. She’s invested in the dream. She’s wondered if she might create an alternative ending—so the dream might be easier to manage/cope with or just disappear. But she knows something is wrong. And often she has lucid visions of the horror. But one day, when she’s feeling (relatively)“strong,” she closes her eyes, to “sleep . . .perchance to dream”—and risks a retreat to her treasured Wonderland. 

She arrives. But, if not for a fleeting glimpse of a RABBIT, wherever it is she has “landed” would be unrecognizable. Wonderland the refuge, its familiar geography and topography, has been blown apart, fragmented like her mind. There’s nothing familiar, comforting, consoling, safe, or enjoyable about it.

This Wonderland is a series of islands suspended in space—small planets in a sunless, starless galaxy. Her domestic tragedy seems to have triggered a cosmic event, a big bang. Wonderland has morphed into unstable and dangerous domains. The planets are in retrograde jetting away from a once benign core; lit by fire, nuclear fuel, coal, candles,, gas etc. Each planet (LEVEL) is uniquely symbolic; uniquely populated with familiar or vaguely reminiscent characters, decorated, and equipped with unique challenges, enemies, weapons, “toys,” etc. Each is primarily associated (not co-terminous) with a STAGE of Grief. Each could be associated with significant (if not always intelligible) astrological and alchemical signs, color schemes, nursery rhymes, obscure Victorian references and odd bits or popular culture.

Alice perceives the likelihood of a link between her (certain though non-specific) damaged self and this strange version of Wonderland. To fix this alien, “broken” incarnation and return it to “normal,” she intuits, may help her help herself. But, like Humpty Dumpty after the fall, she can’t do it. It’s a fool’s errand (she’ll realize eventually). Doomed to failure. Not possible; not even desirable. Too much has changed. She’s lost too much. Still, her awareness of the enormity of the challenge, (and the impossibility of success as she defines it) won’t stop her from trying to reconstruct, cure, resurrect, overcome, etc., etc.

I’ve attached the full “Alice 3 Notes” document as a PDF to this post. Have a read, have a think, then post your comments and feedback below. Keep in mind this is a process – we’re outlining the broad strokes. I think we’re close to capturing the general shape of the thing. Can you see it? 

Does it suit her?

We’ll discuss in full during the next live stream. 

Oh, and this… 

That’s the box and tube containing Asylum Pitch Materials going to EA in the UK. Should arrive with them in ~10 days. Cross your fingers for a positive reception! Lulu is there next to the bags in which that stuff, plus your Patreon posters, are contained. She approves! 🙂

PS: Story, design, art, and other elements are going up on the Asylum Wiki. Feel free to have a browse. 

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American (and Lulu)

Dear Insane Children, 

It’s Monday in Shanghai and I’m once again down the rabbit hole (in the underground lair) chipping away at Mysterious work. In the background I have “Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons” playing. The original violin concerti is one of my favorite things to play while out sailing and hearing certain passages instantly transports me back to the sea. Richter’s re-composition of the work is… magical. 

Speaking of magic we have an art drop from Joey…

She wrote this morning to let me know they got VPN working up in Tianjing and so she can now watch (and join!) the live streams over on YouTube. In case you missed it, we had a stream last week in which we reviewed all of Alice’s new dresses. You can check that out HERE. 

Joey says she realizes now that you all might enjoy seeing her work-in-progress sketches. So she’s updated the main image you see at the top of this post – to (per your feedback) turn the Pelican into a Dodo. And she’s shared a couple of the sketches which map out her progress towards the final image. 

If these sorts of progress images are of interest let us know in the comments below. I’ll ask Joey, Omri, Alex, and the other artists to share these as they go along. Lots of great content for an art book! 

Joey also sends along a collection of previously delivered images arranged in an overall color palette for the game…

Meanwhile Yan was busy over the weekend working on some ideas for new wallets incorporating the embroidered patches… 

Curious to know how many of you might be interested in a collection like this. Feel free to let us know in the comments below! And if you missed your chance at grabbing the patches via Patreon (or just want more – who could blame you?) – they are still available over at Mysterious (while supplies last). Grab them HERE. 

Last little bits… 

• The presentation package is going out to EA today. Cross your fingers!
• I also had two good talks with potential financiers / publishers last week.
• And we should receive an updated story outline from RJ this week. 

Now… I have to put a bunch of posters in tubes! These things don’t sign and ship themselves! 

From Shanghai with Lulu,

-American

PS: For those interested in the dresses here’s the entire lineup thus far. More on the way! Thanks, Omri!

Dear Insane Children, 

Just a quick note to let you know I’ve just set up the next YouTube Live Stream for 9AM Friday 13th of July (Hong Kong Time). You can set a reminder via THIS LINK. 

/insert all the usual stuff about YouTube being shit when it comes to reminders and whatnot. Set your own independent alarm / reminder to be sure.

And make sure you get all your comments in on recent posts about dresses, fashion, denial, guilt, etc! 

And! Another tarot image from Joey! More of these in the pipeline. What do you think of this one? 

From Shanghai on the Edge of the Typhoon,

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

Greetings from the insane heat of Shanghai! While it’s scorching outside we’re cool as cucumbers (Pickle Ricks?) in the underground lair – working away on Asylum, Out of the Woods, and a variety of other projects. My creative inspiration is being fueled by the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack which is streaming off YouTube in the background. Flow…

So, here’s what’s up: 

Chaos Coins are manufactured. The majority of them are being shipped to our warehouse/logistics partner in Shenzhen while a few dozen are routed to Shanghai where we’ll use them for marketing and promotion. I’m working on the packaging for the ‘set’ which we’ll send to eligible Patrons when we hit our 2000 Patron Goal – and offer for sale over on Mysterious.

We need around 400 additional new Patrons before this goal unlocks. You can help us get there by asking friends, family, and fr-enemies to become Patrons today. (Btw, that’s a Pirate Jam Coin in my example picture – I sent my only Chaos Coin off to meet with some Chinese billionaire-investor). 

Dress Design continues with a new illustration from Omri. This is the Denial Dress and I love it. The idea that Alice enters into Asylum looking at a Wonderland which denies the fire and destruction of her mental state – reflected in a dress which is perfect on the front and ‘horrid’ in the back… Brilliant! He’s working on another new dress and says…

This is what i thought, She was 7 when she last visited wonderland when it was perfect so she should look as close to the literary version of Alice. IF people won’t like the yellow, although it’s the original dress color, we can go Disney with light blue.

Hope it’s clear!

Next dress: Moon (Dark) Personal Shadow.

It will be a black dress again, i think it’s fine to have several black designs tops we’ll change it later. i’ll update you later!

I’m not so sure about the ‘endless love’ concept Omri’s presented – neither the infinity or heart symbols really link to the symbol library we’re working with… But I bet we can find appropriate symbols which tell the same story.

Also… “Disney light blue” – Uh, yeah, let’s not get sued to death!

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

Out of the Woods is also seeing solid progress these days. We’ve sorted out shipping setup; weights, costs, etc. And are just waiting on the factory to supply a Game prototype for approval so we can start mass manufacturing of that last piece of the puzzle. Expect photos and updates on the Game bits soon.

Asylum in general is moving forward. I’m working on the overarching narrative with RJ. We’re waiting on the Chaos Coins to arrive here so we can put together our License Package for EA – and mail that to them… hopefully this week! And (as hinted above) there are other talks going on with various potential financiers and publishers. I have a call scheduled this week which could prove to be quite interesting… fingers crossed.

I’ll set up a YouTube Live Stream link tomorrow and share that in the next post (with more art). Get your questions and comments ready (and share them below)! 

From Shanghai with Lulu,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Please join me in saying “Hello!” to all the new inmates arriving in our asylum. Here’s hoping we make July the month to break 2000 Patrons and unlock the Chaos Coin Goal! 

Lots of great progress being made on Alice: Asylum these days. I’ve got in hand the mailing address where we’ll be sending the License PPT and assortment of physical goodies to EA. Just waiting on Chaos Coin production / delivery so we can throw a handful of those into the package… then send it on its merry way to EA HQ. (The email back-and-forth with EA these days is positive – so I’m feeling very good about where we’re at and where we’re heading). 

There’s even bits of movement along other fronts – funding, publishing, etc… but more on that when the time is right.

Live Stream Tomorrow

I’ve just scheduled a Live Stream over on YouTube (grrrr…) for tomorrow morning (July 5th, 9AM, Beijing Time) (July 4th, 6PM, PST) (Use IMP to translate to your local time/date). 

Hit THIS LINK to set a reminder. And TAKE NOTE: I am seeing a TON of people commenting that they are not being reminded by YouTube when we go live – even if they Subscribe, hit the Reminder Bell, and … maybe even when they set a Reminder via that link. INSANITY! 

I, like many other YouTubers, really hate what YouTube is doing to destroy the value of the audiences we build and to ignore the specific requests / intentions of viewers who subscribe to specific channels. Why even have Subscribe, Remind, and that useless “bell” if you’re going to ignore it all anyway?!?! /shakes fist at YouTube

Maybe you all just set a reminder in your personal calendars? 

The Alchemy of Fashion

Omri submitted the Blue Dress illustration you see at the top of this post. He’s asked a couple of questions and made some suggestions – his intention is to refine and improve the original Alice dress. This makes sense because it’s a new game but also because it’s a new Alice – she’s younger in Asylum. She changes. The dress changes.

Take a look at his comments (in the image) and give your feedback in the comments below!

For his question regarding which (alchemy) symbols – I wrote back to let him know that these symbols have very specific meaning and that we’ll need to define these as we move forward with defining the landscape of Wonderland (and Alice’s journey through it AKA her narrative). For details on the meaning behind the symbols in A:MR check out the Alice Wiki.

If you imagine the hero’s journey as an analogous to the alchemical process then you can plot stages of the transformation by combinations of elements. These will link the narrative to the locations and be reflected on the dresses. 

Seems this is going to be called The Guilt Dress! I didn’t say anything when first posting this image but I’m not a big fan of “Guilt” being a power-up emotion. “Rage” and “Hysteria” I get because they feel like the sort of emotions which might drive a person to great levels of energy. Yes, “guilt” can drive a person to many places, but it doesn’t feel like the sort of thing that drives powerful or frenetic behaviors. 

Anyway, tons of positive comments related to a “guilt” dress may have proven my instincts wrong? Another thing we can discuss tomorrow. Comment below, please! 

Final point regarding Fashion is that I’ve reached out to a number of prominent YouTube/Instagram cos-players and makeup stars to see if they might be interested in collaborating with Omri on the design and realization of some new dresses and makeup styles for Asylum. 

 That’s it from the Underground Lair today! 

With Love and Pockets,

-American (and Lulu)

Welcome Inmate,

You chose wisely. Now equip yourself for what lies ahead…

The Chaos Coin is a physical coin which grants the owner a small token of Chaos and a virtual coin in Alice: Asylum. Within the virtual coin you can embed a name and phrase of your choosing*. Carry this into battle as a constant reminder: Destruction contains the key to redemption.

Chaos Coins will be mailed to all Patrons at the $35 and higher level when we reach 2000 Patrons. 

You can help us unlock the Chaos Coin and lend your support to Alice: Asylum by becoming a Patron today. Patrons have early access to the ongoing pre-production effort where we’re producing design, art, and narrative content which is guided by your comments and feedback.

Check out some earlier Posts and read the Comments below to hear from our Asylum full of Insane Children. They’ll tell you just how much happiness is found in madness.

 *name / message length and rules TBD

Existing Patrons, This post is a landing page for Mailing List subscribers who choose to “Confront the Chaos” – a challenge from the latest Alice 3 mailing list email. Help me help them to become Patrons by telling them in the comments below what fun we’re having with the pre-production of Asylum!

From the Asylum,

-American McGee