Dear Insane Children, 

It is the nature of Chaos to arrive when we least expect it. Order and calm are the natural origin of Chaos. And Chaos is the precursor to order. Like sleep turns to waking and waking to sleep. Somewhere in the divide is Slumber – that space where time passes without awareness, without concern. 

We drive to work without being aware of the actions we perform or the route we take. Until one day there’s an instantaneous explosion of glass and steel. Our world is turned upside down but we’re hardly aware of how we got to this place. Where did THAT come from? And then we struggle to put the pieces together again, until once again… we slumber. 

The Slumber

One aspect of Alice’s story we’ve never really explored is her life before the asylum, before the fire. We’ve seen brief glimpses and heard the distant screams but never viewed that world as Alice saw it in The Slumber. 

With Asylum we have an opportunity to explore and be a part of Alice’s world before the Chaos. To see and hear her family in the moments leading up to the explosion of their reality. 

That’s a world illuminated by this latest illustration from Omri. A snapshot of the space we’ll explore, through Alice’s eyes, at the start of Asylum. 

What do you hope to see there? And how might that change your view of Alice and her struggle? 

We’ll discuss this – and more – during the livestream on YouTube tomorrow. 

Live Stream

Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel… You know the drill!

That’s 6PM PST on May 22nd. Or 9AM on the 23rd here in Shanghai. 

Hit THIS LINK to set a reminder. Better yet, buy a dog, train it to set an alarm for the correct time, and give it a treat. That’ll probably work more reliably than the YouTube reminder system! 

Don’t be late! 

From Shanghai with Zzzzz,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

The Cheshire Kitten Plush Collector Set Patreon Goal is UNLOCKED! Yay!

All Patrons at $50 (or more) for the month of August 2019, will receive the Cheshire Kitten Collector Set mailed anywhere in the world (free shipping). 

The Cheshire Kitten Collector Set contains the following items: 

• Cheshire Kitten Plush – 30cm tall
• Nylon Waterproof Bag (reversible) 
• Cheshire Embroidered Patch – meow!
• Early Access Code for the Cheshire Lair in Alice: Asylum
• Free Shipping everywhere in the World

How Does This Work?

Follow these simple steps:

1) Become a Patron NOW at the $50 level. Click that link to do it!
( if you’re already a Patron at a Tier above $50 you do not need to do this, you already qualify for the Plush Set ) 

2) Wait until you’re charged in September.

3) After being charged in September, you’re free to adjust your pledge however you like.

That’s it! For $50, you’ll get a Cheshire Kitten Plush, Cheshire Cat Embroidered Patch, Early Access Unlock Code, and the Cheshire Bag!  

FREE SHIPPING! Collector Sets will be express-mailed (with tracking) anywhere in the world for FREE. 

Why Become A Patron? 

As a Patron, you’ll gain Early Access to Patron-only posts, artwork, design discussions, and more. At $5 a month you can also access our super-secret Discord Server where the Insane Children gather to discuss all the insane things!  That’s also where we host our weekly Crowd Design Sessions! 

And your support powers our team of artists, designers, and writers who are busy creating the Design Bible for Alice: Asylum. We are 100% Fan Funded!

Join the Asylum! You’re mad if you don’t. But you’re insane if you do! 

Questions? Send a Private Message!

If you have a question or concern, Please PM US! That’s the BEST WAY to get your question answered quickly!

We can’t promise to see and answer every comment you leave on this post. 

Here’s how to PM us on the Patreon Mobile App: 

And on the Web Version of Patreon, just hit the “… More” Button and click on Message.  

The Fine Print

This offer is only available for the month of August 2019. After that, you will still be able to purchase the Cheshire Kitten Plush Collector Set at the Mysterious Shop for an increased price.

Patreon Pledge Charges are like a utility bill. You pay for this month’s Rewards or Perks next month. For example, a January Reward or Perk is paid for on February 5th. If you pledge this month, it counts for this month, but you’re not charged until next month on the 5th.

Cancel or adjust your pledge at any time after the Reward Pledge is paid. No further fees or obligations! But you must manually cancel or adjust your pledge.

You are responsible for VAT, import duties, and/or additional delivery fees imposed by your local government or postal service. 

We’ll start production of the Cheshire Kitten Plush once we have a final version of the design/sample. After we hit our Goal, it will be 30+ days until we start shipping Rewards. After that, delivery takes 15~35 Business Days to most places around the world. 

Cheshire Kittens are hand sewn and embroidered. Each Kitten is unique and may vary slightly from the samples shown during Crowd Design. Minor sewing issues are not covered by our return or refund policy. Have a major issue? Send us pictures and we’ll sort out a replacement or refund. 

Our full Terms and Conditions (returns, refunds, etc) can be found HERE. 

—

THANK YOU, for all your love and support! It’s fans like you that make all this possible. 

From Shanghai with Love and Meow,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Today we’re taking a look at the User Interface and User Experience for Asylum. Want to take a quick refresher on the concepts of UI/UX? Check out THIS LINK. 

Alex says of what’s presented here: 

 The whole idea is: Smooth, seamless transition between gameplay and item management. Keep the player in the action.

My thought process was to look at this as more of a “whole experience”, as rendering small parts of UI / UX at this stage might be fruitless until we establish the foundation of gameplay mechanics.

As such, here is a gameplay and control set mockup, which is a starting point, and can be thrashed about.

And a couple of quick notes on what we’re sharing here before you jump into the comments… 

First, PlayStation controls are chosen for no particular reason. This DOES NOT indicate a preference for PlayStation nor indicate any plans in terms of any platform. I’ve said many times before: We’ll try to deliver Asylum on as many platforms as makes sense. PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo (ButtJack), PC, etc. This is NOT the thread to discuss platforms. Save it for later, please. 

Second, this is all Work In Progress. Nothing is set in stone – not the controls, not the weapons presented, NOTHING. We’re here to start a conversation, discuss options, and work towards penciling in our initial hopes and ideals. 

Third, lets keep it positive and constructive. Don’t like something? Explain why in a way we can apply towards improving towards something you would prefer. 

With that out of the way…

Alex shares a series of design pages starting with Controls (first image, up top). 

Font Lord noticed an issue contained in here straight away…

 If the game is still live (even if it goes into slow motion) when the selection wheel appears, you can’t make the wheel appear with a d-pad press, as this will take your thumb away from the left thumb stick. Games usually use a trigger for this function. 

Up next, Alex shares a weapon select system he says is “inspired by DOOM (2016)” – there are worse places for us to draw inspiration.  

He next presents an overview of controls for Alice’s Modular Dresses – a topic we’ve covered quite a lot in previous Crowd Design discussions. 

We then have the game’s HUD and Pause Menu concepts presented…

Lastly is Alex’s idea for Inventory / Map / Etc… 

Of this concept there’s a group consensus that such an animation, played every time we hit the trigger button, would quickly drive everyone crazy. The first time we see it… “hey, that’s cool” The 100th time we see it… perhaps a little less cool. 

There you have it! The foundation for a lot of discussion and decision making! 

Let us know in the comments below what you think!

Crowd Design Session

We should have held a Crowd Design session this morning but I canceled it due to allergies and migraines. Don’t know I can do much to solve the allergies problem but the migraines… I went to the eye doctor this morning and discovered that they were likely a result of my glasses being the wrong prescription! Now that that’s (hopefully) solved… 

We have a lot of material here for next week’s design discussion. I’d like to combine this together with the weapon design material shared yesterday. That should fill out one or two sessions (at least). 

So if you’re an avid gamer with opinions on controls, interface, UI, UX… take a serious look at yesterday’s and today’s posts on these topics. Share your thoughts in the comments below and make note of things you’d really like to discuss during the next Crowd Design Session. 

Look forward to hashing all this out with you!

From Shanghai with Sniffles and Sneezes, 

-American

Dear Insane Children,

Were I sharing this with any other type of children I’d … well, I’d not share it! Blood and violence ahead! 

Today we have a collection of weapon design ideas from Alex. With blood! Yay!

Of what’s presented here, Alex says the following: 

I feel as long as every weapon has a unique use on the roster, and the weapon has a fun gameplay strategy to use, it’s welcome.

If the weapons are to be earned, they’d serve well as rewards for narrative milestones and mid-boss / level boss battles. The boss battles could be connected to the weapon gained by defeating them.

And obtaining a weapon can serve as good story beats.

I think we need balance between classic weapons that are symbolic to the series, and introduce fresh weapon concepts into the mix.

I feel if we base the majority of weapons on real world toys, we’re wasting the “wonder” of Wonderland. However, I love the idea of young Alice using toys and what’s available to her when she is “defenceless” at the start of the game. Love the marble idea in stealth sections Omri.

The Victorian-era medical/asylum world is full of its own horrible weapon inspiration too.

I’m sure we’ll arrive at an interesting final weapon load-out.

I’ve had a bit of play with getting some weapon deets on paper.
Attached.

Rather than start from the physical object / weapon in Alice’s hand, I wanted to think of combat options, and interesting / fun mechanics in-game.

Then apply a physical weapon to the combat option.

I’ve attached some weapon concepts for primary and secondary firing types, plus some details on how they could perform in-game.

All fast and loose and here to thrash about, but here to get the conversations rolling.

Have also attached a concept for a “Mad Hatter’s Table Setter”.
A weapon pulled out of the testing labs of the old mad bloke himself, which I had a bit of fun on.

Some really wonderful concepts contained in there. And presented in a way that really helps to sell the use cases, modes, and effects. 

I have to admit I laughed out loud at the image of Alice chainsawing that Card Guard. It’s so funny to think of Alice running around cutting her enemies in half with that thing – obligatory DOOM-style “putt-putt-putt vvrrooooom!” sound effects – I might even ignore that it’s a terrible anachronism. 

But I’ll leave it to you kids… Can Alice have a chainsaw? 

And what do you think of the other concepts presented here? 

What’s the mix of weapons you want to see? New designs? Previously seen designs? A mix of both? And what about “magical” vs. “realistic” (at least as realistic as a weapon in Wonderland might be)? 

We look forward to your thoughts in the comments below! 

From Shanghai with Vroooom, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Did you miss this week’s Crowd Design Session on Discord? Fear not! You can listen to the full session over on YouTube. Hit THIS LINK to tune in. We covered a lot of interesting topics in this session – ranging from weapons and power-ups to helper characters and abilities.

Live Stream

We’ll have another live stream this week at the usual time. That’s 6PM on Wednesday for those of you in the US (PST). 9AM on Thursday for those of us living in the future.

Hit THIS LINK to set a reminder over on YouTube.  And, hey, while you’re there, check out some of the other videos on my channel, hit Like on a few you like… and help us grow our reach. Yar! 

In this week’s livestream we’ll discuss the concepts contained in the area called Shock. This is the first area Alice will explore in Asylum. Our artists and designers are busy filling in the details for this area and your feedback is critical to the process! 

We’ll be burning down the (doll)house. Poor little piggies. That’s what happens when you combine the cuteness of Jennifer’s drawings with the flames of chaos. Oink! 

Lots of art and design to discuss. Don’t be late! 

From Shanghai with Oink,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

THANK YOU! Such great comments on the last round of design and prototype posts for the Cheshire Kitten Plush. I really appreciate all the effort you’ve put forth in providing constructive feedback. And I am really pleased with our progress thus far. It’s almost as if… we’re getting better at this stuff with each new round! 

Above you’ll see the revised design sheet from Omri with many changes based on your comments. 

I won’t list my feedback as it would essentially echo what most of you have already said. Seems we’re all on the same wavelength. Yay!

This sheet is going to the factory today. We’ll then wait another ~10 days for a new prototype. Once that’s in hand, I’ll share with you ASAP. Also, we should expect to receive the physical Prototype #1 in the mail soon. That’ll be fun to play with during our upcoming live-streams. 

What about the bag?

Alex also sent over the updated print designs for the Nylon Bag. These are much cleaner now that the logos and branding have been removed. I approve!

The final bag will feature an internal zip/velcro pocket. And it will be high-quality and quite sturdy.

We’re sending this design to a factory to get some samples made. 

What do you think? Is this bag worthy of carrying your groceries home? 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Rutledge Asylum Patient Tags

A reminder that we’ll ship a uniquely numbered Asylum Patient Tag to every Patron at $15 (or above) for the month of May. A couple of notes on this offer:

• Pledge $15 (or more) for May and you’ll automatically receive a tag. 
• May is this month. We are in May. You need to PLEDGE NOW. 
• Patreon charges are like a utility bill. You pay for May in June.

Still confused? Follow these instructions: 

Step 1: Set your Tier to $15, $35, or $75 RIGHT NOW! DO IT! NOW! 

Step 2: Wait until June 15th. 

Step 3: Is it after June 15th? That’s it. Adjust or remove your pledge. 

Step 4: Carry on. Your tag will arrive in the mail soon-ish.

A couple of FAQs: 

Q: Can I have my name on my tag? A: No, this would murder Font Lord. 

Q: Can I have a specific number? A: No, this would cause American to hari-kari.

Q: I have allergies to… A: Paint the metal with clear enamel (finger nail polish).

Q: Will this be available outside of Patreon? A: No. This is a Patreon exclusive. 

Q: What’s my tracking number?! A: We don’t start shipping until late June 2019.

Q: How long for delivery? A: 20~35 business days to most places in the world.

Q: Do you deliver to XYZ Country? A: Yes, we delivery everywhere in the world!

Font Lord and I wracked our brains trying to think of some creative new question one of you will ask regarding this offer. No prize to the first one to surprise us with something we couldn’t think of!

From Shanghai with Insanity,

-American