Dear Insane Children,
Joey and Omri finished “Turkey in the Oven” (kidding, kidding… I think the official title is “Fire House”) and it turned out great. And just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday!
Speaking of that holiday… while we don’t exactly celebrate it here in China, it is a tradition to cook lots of food and invite over some of our friends. And, yes, Yan will cook a turkey. Yay!
That being the case, this week will NOT have a live stream. But I will continue to send updates related to art, design, and story.
Speaking of STORY… sad news! Alex’s computer died. It’s in the shop now (it’s a Mac) and should be back in service within a week. Apparently, it needs a new control board. Don’t know about you… but every Mac I’ve owned since 2000 has died at least once from this issue. Crazy. Anyway, that puts the typesetting work for the latest version of the narrative outline on hold.
I told Alex he might as well enjoy some time off. Maybe he can have an Australian Thanksgiving? (I almost made a joke about their indigenous people in relation to the same in the US, etc… Dark humor. I’m sure you can guess).
These are reference images I attached to a response I sent Omri in relation to a christening scene that takes place in the game…
the section we’re discussing reads:
“At the pulpit, the priest holds a screaming newborn baby in the air, then lowers it into a bath of water. This is a memory of Alice’s christening. She is reborn, as the baby touches the water its screaming stops and the scene goes black.”
First, I ?want to suggest a change: ?The christening does ?NOT have to happen at “the pulpit” – a location where we normally see the priest addressing the congregation. See the attached images for reference – create a new space similar to these… dedicated to the christening. It can be a room or an alcove… I like the room scene.
Second, the christening process… can involve pouring water over the head OR the complete submerging of a child/person into the water. I ?want to see this as a complete submersion.
This usually happens with the priest standing in a large pool of water with the person, supporting them as they are lowered on their back into the water until their head is submerged.
And why this scene matters…
This is a rebirth scene. A doing away with of “old life” ?and start of something new.
I ?think we could see baby Alice in a gown (reference below) ?float down from “above” ?in the scene, land in the arms of the priest, and then be submerged all in one smooth action.
We should NOT see her brought out of the water. Because she must still travel the road ahead in order to be reborn. This is the submersion. The lifting out of the water happens (metaphorically) ?later in the game.
In-game we’ll probably have the water turn black (to represent Chaos) but I do not think you need to worry about trying to capture that detail in this illustration.
Will be interesting to see the final illustration that comes out of this.
And it links to…
Which is the start of a new illustration from Gareth. In response to this image, I wrote:
Looks good to me… Couple of things: ?The tea being poured looks odd. Hard to distinguish if that’s coming out of his face or what is going on. Maybe it’ll resolve with color… but the framing is a bit odd.
The snow globe is meant to crash to the floor… so we should see broken bits of it on the floor (along with water) ?around Alice on the floor.
(Note related to the Christening Scene I ?just sent comments on: ?This is one of those places where Alice is being born out of water… the other side of the christening. We should think about linking this scene with the christening scene in some way… could be lighting, framing, the way Hatter touches/holds Alice, Alice’s clothing, etc. Something to think about).
Tying all those threads together… fun stuff.
I hope everyone is has a wonderful week wherever you are. And stay out of the oven!
From Shanghai with Cranberry Sauce,
-American