Dear Insane Children,
Last week I took multiple people + Lulu to the hospital (multiple times) (different hospitals) plus tried to stay on top of the usual business of updates, design work, streaming, etc. All of which meant a pretty insane week with not a lot of time left for all the things on my to-do list.
This week I’d like to devote some time to catching up on everything so…
No Design Session and No Live Stream this week!
That will give me a chance to provide full attention to a number of key to-do items related to moving things forward on our Alice efforts.
Sadly all of this Business Development work is currently under numerous NDAs so you’ll just have to wait patiently… No juicy updates or interesting tidbits to share when all is said and done. But…
Fear Not! At Least Not for Long!
We’ll be back to our usual schedule the week of the 22nd.
Expect a Crowd Design Session at the regular time (9AM on Tuesday – Shanghai time).
And a YouTube Live Stream at the usual time (9AM on Thursday – Shanghai time).
Links and info on those will go out this time next week.
That is the Final Version of “Surprise Guest” and the one we’ll convert into an art print.
What do you think?
And a nifty “head in sand” design concept from Jen (who also provided the pixel art of Alice seen above).
The End of Denial
It’s looking like we’re nearing the end of the tunnel on initial design work for Denial. Next up, we’re moving into Anger. Rawr!
Can’t wait to see what our team (including YOU) come up with for the story, design, and art contained in the Kingdom of the Queen of Hearts.
Harmony in Discord
Hey, just because I am taking a week to focus on BD tasks doesn’t mean the Insane Children have to take a rest from Crowd Design efforts.
Check out our Discord Server and feel free to organize a meeting of the Insane Children to discuss final elements you’d like to see in Denial before we head into the next domain.
One of the key concepts we still need to nail down is the narrative and nature of the Enemy Characters we’ll deal with in Denial.
Here are some guidance points…
It’s probably a good idea that this character be one that makes sense for Denial but can also be used as we continue to progress into later stages of the game.
One thing to think about in terms of the psychological reality of PTSD is that these phases are rarely divided along perfectly crisp borders. You can suffer Denial and move into Anger only to return to Denial or maintain hints of Denial while also being fully embroiled in Anger.
From that perspective it would be natural that an enemy we primarily associate with the concept of Denial might continue to follow us through the game – all the way until the end. Of course once we’ve beat “Denial” as a stage we might also have (mostly) mastered the art of overcoming Denial as an enemy NPC when we encounter it in later stages of the game.
So… a character based on Denial who:
- Is initially quite difficult to fight and defeat.
- Neatly represents the nature of Denial in shape, sound, and function.
- Is (more) easily defeated once we progress past the Denial stage.
- Feels at home in the later stages of the game as a fodder enemy.
- Establishes a logical arch of enemy design/development as a model we can copy to enemies designed around future stages of trauma.
Take a stab at that over on Discord and in the Comments below.
I look forward to catching up with everyone to see what sort of Insane ideas you’ve come up with … next week!
From Shanghai with BD on the Brain,
-American