Dear Insane Children,
Things have been a bit hectic here in Shanghai since the arrival of the new baby! And I apologize for being a bit slow on posting to Patreon as a result. But just because I’m distracted by Baby Things doesn’t mean our team of artists and designers is slacking off!
Main image above is a collab between Adam and Omri – depicting this scene from the Narrative Outline:
A FINAL INTERMISSION (HUB-WORLD)
MAD HATTER’S DOMAIN (BARGAINING REALM) – HATTER’S WORKSHOP
Tick-tock.
Alice steps from the Hall of Doors and quickly returns to Hatter’s Workshop. Alice now knows the secrets of the darkness, and what has created it.
Hatter is in a distant state of mind. He explains; Only 1 Moon remains. Tick-tock.
The chaos clock in Hatter’s workshop is nearly completely consumed by the shadow. Everywhere Alice looks in his workshop, darkness is seeping in, through window sills, under doorways. All other entrances and exits from Hatter’s workshop are blocked.
Alice has everything she needs. All that is left to do is complete Alice’s quest and assemble the fragments she has collected and find her way home.
Hatter reveals a sarcophagus, emblazoned with winged beasts.
A mighty Gryphon is carved on its hull.
And it’s a beautiful scene!
Omri also delivered an illustration where we see Alice gazing upon the memory of her family home – in a place we refer to as Slumber.
From the Narrative Outline:
Through a cloudy transition, Alice and her Rabbit enter Slumber and find themselves in scenes last seen at the start of the game – a snowy British countryside with Alice’s family home in the distance. It is a starry night but there is no moon in the sky this time.
Alice
My true home? I’ve been here many times before. What have I missed…?
We PLAY as Alice runs across broken floating islands in the Slumber realm. Her Rabbit plush leads her through an environment that is broken, unstable, and tremors sporadically.
Chaos seeps in through every crevice. This world is dangerous and breaking apart, the Chaos has followed Alice here. They head towards a rising plume of smoke in the distance.
There are some additional elements Omri designed for this that you’ll see in the Design Bible. Really stunning!
And Norm, Omri, and Alex are working on some action illustrations for some critical scenes towards the end of Asylum where we see Young Alice confront Shadow Alice.
Awesome stuff!
And last but not least, Adam is working on … um, something that contains a lot of spoilers.
I’ll just let the gruesome images speak for themselves. Avert your eyes if you feel the need!
And a bit of Oz… Gareth delivered a sketch of Richard Umbra’s lab. And we’ve developed some interesting ideas for his character in general… excited to share those details soon!
In Shanghai… we’re still in a lockdown but things are getting better. The city is reporting 0-Society-Covid which means infections are no longer spreading and most places have no new cases. Today (Monday in Shanghai) marks the start of re-opening. But we probably still have a few weeks (at least) before things are really back to normal.
Meanwhile, life continues.
From Shanghai with Love,
-American