Dear Insane Children, 

Get ready for a Halloween Special Live Stream over on YouTube! Woo!

Hit THIS LINK to join us at 6PM PST on October 30th (9AM HKT on the 31st). 

During this stream, we’ll review all the latest art and story progress on the Realm of the Queen of Hearts.

And there will be PRIZES! Wooo.

Crowd Design #20

We also discussed Anger and the Queen of Hearts during the Crowd Design Session earlier this week. Crowd Design Sessions are hosted on our super-amazing Discord Server – an exclusive perk to Insane Children here on Patreon. 

If you missed it live you can always catch the recorded version on YouTube. 

Hit THIS LINK to check out Crowd Design Session #20.

See you all tomorrow! 

From Shanghai with Grrrr,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

As we continue our exploration of the Queen’s Domain we linger a moment within the walls of Judgment. Omri sends along an updated variation on The Courthouse, which reflects our comments from last week. This new version is more ordered, clean, and purposeful – yet also manages to capture the labyrinthine nonsense we often see in overly-ordered systems. 

As I mentioned previously, I see Judgment as arising from Order and the Queen’s Realm as the Seat of Order. 

It’s been said that we (mankind) are here to bring order to chaos. It’s what most of us spend our days doing – building things, completing projects, cleaning, improving, learning, and enacting. Even our most chaotic of activities – where we bet on uncertain outcomes – require as their foundation, rules of engagement which rest atop a functioning and ordered society. 

But too much order is as deadly as too much chaos. 

Perhaps it’s better to say, “We’re here to bring a little order to chaos and/or a little chaos to order.” Does anyone have a better way to capture that notion? 

Subject: Alice L.

As far as Alice’s adventures are concerned, she must walk that line between order and chaos if she hopes to achieve her goal. It’s a solid analogy for the struggle we all face – especially as we transition from the chaotic, rule-free world of adolescence to the ordered, rule-based reality of adulthood.

We speak often of the “confrontation with chaos” as a catalyst for learning and behavior modification. Burn your hand on the stove and you’re not likely to make that mistake again any time soon. 

But what might it look like to have a “confrontation with order?” A hand dipped in a vat of liquid oxygen will also “burn” and a lesson will surely be taught. A child locked in a perfectly featureless, soundless room may go mad faster than one locked within the chaotic walls of an insane asylum. 

Which hell would you prefer? 

Alice’s confrontation with order starts with a passage through “judgment” because chaos and order are relative concepts. Judgment is the candle in the darkness which illuminates our relative position – our perspective. The distance between passivity and rage is defined by our judgment of experiences relative to our knowledge and perspective. 

This is why I believe the Queen’s Realm – home to judgment and anger – might also contain an exploration of Alice’s sense of “ought.” What ought to be? What’s right and wrong? Ethical? Good? 

The Queen is aware of her role in this experiment. By holding hostage Alice’s last tether to the safety of childhood, The Queen forces Alice to choose between the ethical and the expedient. Between what she ought and ought not. 

She forces Alice to transition from one who is judged to she who judges. 

Knave-l Gazing

All sounds like a lot of navel-gazing to me! Let’s kill something! 

Fear not! There will be lots of killing. And among those we’ll design to absorb your rage… The Knave of Hearts! 

Omri’s designing him to be as annoying and kill-worthy as possible. Of this character he says: 

i think this works, i know that most of the our characters are ugly and monsterous outside and it reflects on their insides but this Knave…

i think it works because technically he can seem to be an ally to Alice but then turn on her.

also this is a character i’d love to cosplay.

Thoughts?

should we go Older and Ugly? in the line of the Hatter?

What do YOU think? And speaking of what you think… 

Crowd Design Session!

Tomorrow at 6PM PST we’ll host another Crowd Design Session over on our Discord Server. Join in as we continue to discuss The Queen’s Realm, Anger, and Judgment. We’ll kick things off by talking about PATREON though – so if you have any comments or feedback on Patreon as a platform from the perspective of a Patron, join the chat and share your thoughts!

I’m heading to Los Angeles on Friday for 2 days – where I’ll attend the Patreon Assembly event(s). There I’ll have a chance to share our feedback directly with Patreon big-wigs. So… let us know in the comments below or during tomorrow’s Crowd Design Session. 

Need info on Discord? Hit THIS LINK to learn more. 

Talk to you tomorrow! 

From Shanghai with Love,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

If you’ve ever spent hours trying to open a bank account or dealing with the Department of Motor Vehicles then you’ll know the meaning of “Kafkaesque.” Omri sent along an image this morning which explores one possibility for the interior of the Courthouse we’ll visit in the Queen of Heart’s Realm. And it inspired me to respond with an alternate suggestion for how we represent this space – and why… 

But First! 

I am back in Shanghai from Thailand and we’ll have a “normal” week next week – Crowd Design Session, Live Stream, etc. Then on November 1st, I am flying to Los Angeles for a couple of days in order to attend Patreon Assembly! 

Seems our Asylum of Insane Children is doing so well on Patreon that I’ve been invited to speak as a Creator Panelist during this exclusive event. Wow. 

A big THANK YOU, to all the Insane Children for everything you’ve done to grow our Patreon and make all this possible. Truly insane! 

If you have any requests or feedback you’d like me to pass along to the team at Patreon, let me know in the comments below. Font Lord and I do have our own list of ideas which we think would improve the experience for us as creators and for you as Patrons. 

Back to Surreality

So Omri’s idea for the interior of the Courthouse… This is the building we’re talking about: 

And what Omri wrote about his idea for the interior: 

i’m thinking about making the interior much much crazier than necessary but i don’t know what we will do there. i thought of making it into more of a building than an island area, a place that celebrates her guilt and looks pretty burned.

thoughts on any of this? is this the direction or should i rethink it into more the Island areas? i think weird is good in this case. thoughts on any of this?

personally i don’t love this concept i’ll have to redo another version. something a bit clearer.

To which I replied: 

We’re talking about the Courthouse… the seat of judgment. Judgment – as in judging a person or event – requires comparison to the expected or correct or “normal” standard. We expect standards to be reliable, fixed and achieved by trusted processes. Scientific. Verifiable. 

All of this suggests a place of order (law and order!). That’s the opposite of chaos – and evokes imagery quite different from the swirly confusion of chaos you’ve presented in the concept artwork. While I do not think the interior of the courthouse needs to be “expected” I also think it’s possible to create confusion from order. 

Think of millions of filing cabinets, endless processes, leading in circles, claiming to serve an ordered goal… but so labyrinth as to be… 

Kafkaesque! 

The idea is to create a sense of hopelessness and dread from the space as a function of order. 

We have plenty of places to explore chaos. The Queen’s domain… Anger… these are places of judgment, anger, righteous retribution, ORDER!

Attached are a couple of inspiration images. 

Those are my thoughts on the topic… 

But let us know in the comments below what YOU think! 

What do you expect to find inside the Courthouse? What shape does the seat of Alice’s judgment take in the surreal landscape of Wonderland? And how might the Queen’s ANGER warp what we see? 

Halloween Reminder

Font Lord asks me to send along a reminder of this month’s art promotion… 

 Everyone at $75 for the month of October will receive two pre-selected art prints. Those are “Hallowed Alice” and “Cheshire Grin” (shown below). 

There are a couple of Rules and Restrictions. Those are as follows: 

• Pledge $75 for October 2019 (pledge now; processed on or around November 5th). 
• If this is your first month at $75 you’ll also receive a Chaos Necklace (you can choose small or large size – survey sent later). 
• This offer is NOT available at the 3/$35 level.
• But if you’re doing 3/$35 it’s important to note you can jump in and out of that tier. You DO NOT have to have 3 consecutive months. 
• You can select these prints later with 3/$35 but you’ll select the prints individually, not as a set. If you want the set you’ll have to do that via this offer.

Font Lord Notes

One more note from Martin: Chaos Necklace fulfillment was delayed a bit due to the Chinese National Holiday and American (not signing stuff fast enough) so please allow a little extra time for delivery! Yay, Chaos! 

That’s it for now… Hope everyone is doing great. 

You are all very much loved and appreciated! 

From Shanghai with Ka-Ka-esque,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Omri sends along early concept sketches for a “Knave of Hearts” character we might find (and fight) in the Queen of Hearts domain. Of this idea he says, 

 Knave of hearts in the original Alice in wonderland story stole the tarts and Alice was blamed for doing it.

i think he can be a cool mini-boss. in hebrew he is called “the prince” i actually have no clue what is a “Knave” besides being a dishonest character.

i imagine him like the School’s bully, the principal’s son, in other words, the Queen’s son. “she told me to stop you” kind of character.

we just explored this concept so these are super early development ideas. can you please post them on Patreon and tell me your opinion?

i like him as a huge dumb character, he feels like the third sibling of the Tweedles.

Works for me! What do YOU think? 

Let us know in the comments below! 

And one of Jennifer’s friends tried out the carving templates on an actual pumpkin. The result is pretty impressive! 

You can grab the templates from THIS POST.

If you carve your own, let us know! Share it on social media with #americanmcgee or email it to us at support (at) mysterious (dot) design

From In-Transit with Love, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Fall officially arrived in Shanghai with “Qiu Feng” (autumn wind) which we felt strongly yesterday. It blew away the last remnants of summer’s warmth and put us on our way towards winter. Brrrr. 

I am not a fan of winter in Shanghai. It’s a cold damp affair with very little else to offer. Another reason why I’m thankful that the tropical shores of Thailand are only a few hours away. 

November to April are roughly the months of the Northwest Monsoon Season – during which cool dry air blows from the northwest (hence the name) over Thailand. This makes it an ideal time for sailing!

That’s why tonight I am heading to Thailand to begin prep work on “Chaos” my 36′ sailboat so she’s ready for the sailing season and for Pirate Jam 2020. During this time I’ll get her back into the water and start mapping out potential routes for our game developer pirates. Arrrg, matey! 

You can learn more about Pirate Jam HERE. 

Don’t Panic

I’m only away a few days and will still have Internet so that I can stay on top of the usual work stuff. And Font Lord is in Shanghai keeping an eye on support tickets, PMs and your other requests/needs. 

Our art team will continue their efforts on art and design for Anger/Queen’s Domain… 

Omri’s put final touches on the Queen’s Throne Room (main image above). He says he doesn’t know if this is art print worthy. What do you think? 

We’ve also seen some updates to the trains and stations for the Looking Glass Line. I like this more baroque look. And the Looking Glass sculpture on top of the train… well… 

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

These efforts are bringing us close to the end of this pass on the Queen’s Domain. When I get back we’ll start work on the next area – Bargaining! 

Mysterious Makeup

At that time we’ll also review the progress Yan is making on packaging and design for Mysterious Makeup. 

If you’d like to see the previous big update on her efforts you can check out the Livestream we did on YouTube HERE and HERE.

Your feedback on this work is really important – and we’ve got some great comments and questions from the community thus far. Keep it coming! 

Yan says that we should have some physical production samples to look at by early November. WOo! Progress! 

Font Lord Notes

Please note that there’s still a bit of a delay on sending out Chaos Necklaces and Art Prints from last month. Again, we had a bit of a slowdown because of the Chinese National Holiday and the arrival of Lucky. 

A lot of that slowdown has been with me (American) personally as I’ve struggled to balance all the work tasks and finding time to sign all those posters and cards. My apologies! 

On that note, all of the “Alice Come Back” art prints are now in various states of transit towards you. I signed and packed the last batch of those yesterday. But there are still 140 items (art prints) in the shipping system which I need to sign and pack – when I get back from this trip. 

Your patience and understanding are appreciated! 

Questions? Concerns? You can email us at support @ mysterious (dot) design

Yay!

Lucky & Lulu!

Here’s a little Lulu toe-licking Lucky to brighten your day! Awwww!

Going to miss them both! 

From Shanghai with Trip Prep,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

In this Halloween month of tricking and treating we have a special treat just for you… 

Pumpkin Carving Templates!

These were inspired by the Cheshire Cat pumpkin in Omri’s “Hallowed Alice” illustration. 

And our Insane Children INSISTED INSANELY during a recent live stream that this Become. A. Thing.

So – Insist and You Shall Receive! 

Cheshire Cat

Angry Alice

The Mad Hatter

The White Rabbit

And LULU!

Please be sure to carve responsibly. Return your knives to (NOT IN) the Orderlies when finished. 

If you want to share your creations with everyone be sure to tag with #insaneolantern – we’ll pull some examples and share them on the livestream! Look forward to your creative efforts 🙂 

From Shanghai with WoowooooowoOOooo,

-American