Hi everyone

Font Lord here with a little FAQ type post for you all based on some questions you had in the previous post about the upcoming super awesome bunny+print promotion month.

So, without further ado, here we go…

1) You need to be at the $75 tier BEFORE October 1st, otherwise you’ll miss out on the promotion.  So please change your pledge during September to get that deal if you need to.

2) No, there will be no way to choose the angry or love bunny.
Simply giving everyone at that tier the same bunny cuts down on a lot of behind the scenes management.
Like having to set up extra projects on Backerkit or Survey Monkey and then doing extra data collection on those places and then you have the potential that people won’t get their surveys due to spam filters and people might hold off on filling in their surveys for months so we need to keep track of those guys.  
It just adds much much more randomness and chaos to the situation we’d rather avoid.

3) The same goes for mixing and matching different prints and multiple bunnies.
There’s going to be no way to alter these things.
The promotion is 1xAngry Bunny+Bag and 1xWatcher print. Full stop!

4) Although offering a random bunny would be less troublesome than point 2 and 3, we still think that people would prefer to know what’s coming rather than wait a few weeks for delivery and then not get the thing they’d hoped for   🙁

5) If that is going to be your first ever month at the $75 level, then yes, you will still also get the Chaos necklace as well as the print and bunny.
Such deal, very bargain. Wow!

So there we go.
I think that’s covered everything from the previous post’s comments   🙂

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children, 

As I’ve outlined previously… we have a dedicated Business Development person on the team now. He’s tasked with helping us take the Alice: Asylum pitch to a variety of investors and publishers. He’s asked that we also provide one or two more pitches for the discussions as this helps to increase the chances that something gets funded. It gives our team and studio a bit of depth. So we’re working on a couple of small pitch documents – starting with a few ideas based on The Wizard of Oz (book series by Baum). 

Here’s an Oz pitch outline drafted by Alex based on a couple of brainstorming sessions. This is our “Jurassic Park meets Westworld meets Oz” variation. We’re working on a “Lost” variation as well. 

Have a read and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

OzLand Lost
Working Title • Elevator Pitch / Synopsis

V2 – 20.08.20
Written by American McGee and Alex Crowley

Core Plot:
Machine vs. Magic / With Man in the Middle. We can do this. But should you?

Events:
• In future, people can experience life either in person, or as VR avatars.
• Oz is found, then bought / owned by a global megacorp.
• Through a series of events, Oz is marketed and launched as a theme park.

• Magic of Oz, controlled through the machines of global megacorp.

• Magic cannot be controlled, causes destruction and death in theme park.

• Player is initiated by global megacorp to investigate the cause of destruction, but is reluctant due to past experience with Oz, or knowing the danger of what is involved.
• Girl who used to work at park > Forgets > But you have to help us! > Reluctant savior

• Player arrives in Oz, veil is quickly lifted, accompanying team is killed, mystery needs to be resolved. This is the hero’s journey.

• Who, what, where, why,  when.

Who:
D0rothy (player?)
Global Megacorp (Emerald)
Emerald Employees (Who?)
Oz Characters / Wizard? – (Head of Emerald)
Tin Man? Lion? Scarecrow?
Patrons of Park?
ToTo? 

What:
Blood drenched mystery ruckus in the magical Theme Park of Oz, OzLand, owned and operated by evil global megacorp, Emerald.

Where: (locations?)

Hidden Island “OzLand”, Themepark, Earth, Emerald HQ Complex / Beyond?

Why: Player will discover the cause of destruction, and prevent / cause more of it.

When: Future Based – Sci Fi / Tech mixed with Arcane Magic of Oz.

Alex’s second attempt at knitting pieces together.
Less chaff. Feeling like a better fit now.

BACKGROUND:
Our World & The Land of Oz:

The story begins in the future, our Earth.

Social media and human interaction has progressed (devolved) to the point where the norm is for people to pilot humanoid robots / androids, like a VR experience, rather than visit places in person.

Human to human interaction still occurs, but it is of high society to protect oneself and live your best life within an android avatar.

Earth is blessed with advanced technology. On the surface, it is prosperous and autonomous, thanks largely to the monopolous influence of “Emerald”.

Emerald is a global conglomerate that controls health services, infrastructure, military technology, entertainment, social security, law enforcement, tourism and living arrangements. Basically your life.

In Emerald Corp we trust.

The magical Land of Oz is in our world, but cannot be reached with ordinary means.

The magical gateway to Oz is located off the Southern West Coast of the Americas, close to the equator.

It can only be accessed via a magical gateway, opened by freak tornadoes / hurricanes.

The Oz “rumour” is investigated by a team of scientists / researchers working for Emerald.

The gateway is opened by an artificial tornado, manipulated and controlled by Emerald technology. A mysterious Emerald scouting team passes through the Gateway to Oz.

The team explores the world of Oz, finding only ruins.
A beautiful mysterious graveyard, a world lost and destroyed by an unknown catalyst.

Returning after a triumphant expedition, Emerald announces to the world it’s groundbreaking discovery. A lost world of magic, wonder and a fresh new place to explore for the world.

Claiming the land of Oz as Emerald property, (trademarked and secured) the company announces opening Oz to the world!

Witness the glory and beauty of a lost civilisation. See it from the safety of your own Android. Come and explore the wonderful world of Oz. A never before seen NEW location on Earth.

For a price.

OzLand Open for Business:

The OzLand theme park is hastily constructed to maximize on the “buzz” generated by the discovery.  Emerald constructs a sprawling theme park overlay, strewn amongst the ruins and existing structures of Oz.

It is a beautiful harmony of cutting edge technology and immaculately crafted customer experiences, all dotted amongst the infinite Oz oddities, dormant and lost to time.

The Emerald owned and operated theme park, restaurants and accommodation facilities are monolithic in size. They are gleaming towers of pristine construction, littering the horizon. The park is tied into the lore we automatically associate with Oz.
(Yellow brick roads, witches, colourful cities, magic, adventure).

A fun, elaborate, well crafted park, suited for all ages, there’s something for everyone!

The park is built over and carved into the ruins. Modern technology and architecture bleeds in and out of ancient and organic citadels, castles and mysterious structures.

The park itself is populated of a mix of real-life performers and android / piloted patrons, all carefully curated and scripted to enhance a customer’s experience in the Land of Oz.

Photo opportunities cost extra.

As the park opens to thunderous applause and a rampage of customers, something else stirs from below the carefully constructed Oz Theme Park facade. Something secret, something sinister.

OzLand Truth:

Emerald has always known there is more to Oz than meets the eye.

Their initial scouting team consisted of representatives from Military, Health and Infrastructure. Why the haste to capitalize on the Oz discovery?

The faint signals of unknown energy sources were also discovered.
Magic. A new and possibly limitless energy supply.

Content to pass on the tourism duties, theme park operation and monetary generation to Emerald’s relevant division, the construction of the theme park also houses gigantic, underground secret Military spec research divisions.

These hidden laboratories and expedition crews have been created with the sole intent of unlocking and exploiting the secrets of the newly discovered Oz magic.

Emerald’s tourism and lifestyle division is an unknowing front.

They are purposely occupied with generating money and allowing the public to explore the selected areas of Oz on the surface. They assume all is safe. They are wrong.

Patrons and most Emerald Theme Park Employees are oblivious to Emerald’s underground research efforts.

The secretive research attempts to manipulate, and control the dangerous magic of Oz, culminate in radical experiments, designed to control the Oz magic.

While small successes and advances are made, the core of Oz magic remains a mystery. Emerald fails time and time again, until one day, calamity.

A mysterious large scale explosion destroys the research centres, and decimates Oz, the Theme Park and a large portion of the Emerald research facilities.

Unstable magic rips across the land. Androids, human lives and Oz inhabitants are killed, or changed by the magic in droves.

Affected inhabitants exhibit changes in three distinct ways:

1. Unstable Psychosis / Telekinesis (Brains).
2. Untamed Bloodlust, Ferocity (Courage).

3. Insatiable Desire to consume specific flesh of humans and wildlife, namely (hearts).

Or a dangerous mix of the above.

The smouldering island remains, wrought with ruin, broken cities and death.
Oz Magic is out of control, and Emerald needs to clean up this mess before the whole world is made aware of it.

Stock prices could drop.

Enter <The Player> Dorothy 2.0?:

Dorothy  (player) appears to be a blank slate.

Re-awakened, deep within the Emerald research facility, Dorothy is coerced to investigate the park, and sort this mess out. Her memory wiped, she is unsure of who she is, or what she is? Only that she must help Emerald.

Is she a hosted Android shell, piloted by the brain in a jar of the real “Dorothy”?
Is she someone who has prior experience with the park? An employee, a part of the park, stored away and protected for a mysterious reason.
Is she a defective Android shell from the Theme Park?
De-commissioned and awakened by the Oz Magic now surging through the park?

Or, is she someone with prior experience of being in the park, (a researcher, or tied closely to Emerald) and with her knowledge is coerced into getting to the bottom of it all. Despite her reluctance, through a series of events, D0rothy is deep in the thick of this mess.

She does not want to return. She does not want to be in Oz.
But does so, against her will to investigate on behalf of Emerald.

Once active in OzLand, her accompanying team is swiftly killed off, leaving her to unravel the mysteries of Oz on her own.

What is her connection to this world? Is she the catalyst? Is she the reason?
Is she subconsciously piloted by the original Dorothy? What caused all this bloodshed? Who’s to blame?

This is her journey.
Dorothy is no longer in Kansas anymore.

She is in hell.

—-

That’s it for the online of that variation of the story. 

A few things to keep in mind: 

Of all the pitch meetings I’ve been in where we’ve sold an idea “on spec” there’s always the assumption that what’s pitched is probably only slightly similar to the thing that ultimately gets made. In other words, this is a first draft. It’ll give people a sense of the team’s style and creativity but it’s not a set-in-stone template for the game or story we’ll ultimately end up delivering. So… we don’t need to tear this apart too much. The main thing is that we have a decent foundation, a beginning-middle-end, and some great artwork. 

Omri provided the rough sketch (main image, above) attached here. We’ll include some location, character, and “hero” images in the pitch document. 

There’s room for a few little tweaks if you happen to throw out some interesting ideas in the Crowd Design. 

Next up, we’ll look at the “Lost” variation of the story. 

From Shanghai with Toto (Lulu), 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Another busy week full of progress on many fronts. These non-livestream weeks are nice for me because it’s a chance to keep my head down and focus on everything we have going on. It’s easier to talk through all this stuff on a livestream though… so I’ll post a bit of stuff here … and then we can go through all the comments when we’re live next week. 

First… lots of progress on Plushie Dreadfuls. And we should have the Angry (above) and Love Plush Bunnies ready to ship mid-September. They’ll come with tote bags an be available for sale at Mysterious BUT… 

Lots of people on Instagram and Twitter asking me if these can be Patreon Rewards. And I talked to Font Lord and we came up with this idea… let me know what you think: 

Everyone at $75 in September (charged on/around October 5th) will get 1x Angry Rabbit Set (rabbit + tote bag) AND the Art Print for that month… “The Watcher”

So let me know in the comments below what you think of an Angry Rabbit + Art Print combo. 

And keep in mind that if you aren’t interested in the combo you can still purchase the Angry Rabbit (and all the other Plushie Dreadfuls) at Mysterious when they are offered for regular sale. 

Lots of progress continues to be made on the Chess Realm by Joey, Dario (images above), and the rest of the team. Let them know in the comments below what you think of these illustrations and sketches!

We’ll talk more about narrative and mission/adventure for this realm in the next stream. 

And your feedback (and feedback from our team internally) has been collected and is being sent to Roman for adjustments on the Alice 3D Model. I’m hoping we’ll see some updates to that soon and will share them with you when they arrive. 

Same goes for the 3D Environment being put together by Tao. And good timing – as that environment is inspired by “The Watcher” illustration. 

And I wanted everyone to know that I am working on a proper response to the story discussion regarding the opening for Asylum… and all the thoughts you’ve shared. Lots of ideas floating around in my head… so give me a bit more time to put together all your feedback and turn it into the next revision on that topic. 

Plus I am working with Alex on the story for “Lost Ozland” or “Ozland Lost” (working titles) or whatever we’re going to end up calling this thing. We had a very fruitful conversation this morning – and hit upon a lot of themes that work neatly within the context of “theme park built atop the ruins of Oz where magic and technology meet and cause problems for mankind.” 

Grrrr. Rabbits. 

So much creativity flowing these days! We’ll have LOTS to talk about on the next Live Stream. Woo. 

I hope that wherever you are, you’re staying cool and calm. 

As always, much love and appreciation for your support and trust. You’re making the magic possible.

From The Shanghai Oven, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Last night, Roman sent over an updated Alice model. And this morning, I’ve uploaded a video of it to YouTube. Yay! Click on THIS LINK to head over and check out the latest turn-around of the 3D model. 

One thing I feel a little uncertain about… whether or not Roman’s made any changes to the facial structure. I loaded up New and Old in Photoshop and did an A/B flip back and forth… and maybe(?) the chin’s been adjusted a fraction? My brain tells me “no” … but the hair has certainly changed and that’s made a huge difference in the way the face looks. 

Since it’s only 8AM here in Shanghai and Roman isn’t yet replying to my messages… I’ll just post this as-is and we’ll get more details from him later. 

So… the main thing here is hair, dress, and effects. And let’s assume there are some more changes on the way. 

As usual.. Crowd Design Time! Let us hear your feedback and thoughts in the comments below.

From Shanghai With Dress on Fire (it’s hotttttt outside), 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

During our most recent Live Stream on YouTube (LINK) I talked about ?the need to create meaningful stakes for Alice in this new adventure. The problem being that Alice can “die” repeatedly in Wonderland and it means nothing for Real-World Alice. Compare that to stories like “The Matrix” where, “if you’re killed in The Matrix, you die here.” Yeah, the characters are running around inside a simulation but the stakes are real because real death can happen in the real world. 

In order for us to tell a meaningful story in Asylum, we also need to establish real stakes. 

SPOILERS AHEAD – Stop reading here if you don’t like SPOILERS. 

Also, if we’d kept the original idea as I outlined it during the last Live Stream, I’d also put a Trigger Warning here but I think this revised version does away with the need for that. And before we go any further – BIG THANKS to our Insane Children for al the great feedback during that Stream. Your comments really got me thinking about what was important about what I was trying to do with this scene… and made it (I think) much better. 

All of this is contained in a response to Omri’s posting of the Chaos Infected Chess Pieces (main image above). Of these he said: 

OK i know chess pieces are our “friends” in this realm correct? but i think this location makes sense to place them in the “enemies”? they are not NPCs really…

i thought about something, i thought that the queen of hearts would find it absolutely horrifying that the chess pieces are mixed. she wants ORDER. one of the big elements of order in chess is that the colors are separated, and equal. in chess it’s the same shapes, different colors- but what happens when everything gets mixed and confused? she would find it as abomination but i think we as players can find beauty and interest in them and they fit the realm.

To which I replied (spoilers!): 

@Omri I like these. And I know the situation with enemies might not be as clear as we’d like. I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently. It’s complicated by the fact that the Queen of Hearts wants to avoid Alice’s “death” because that would mean the end of Wonderland (as they know it). So she’s kept Alice in Denial and tried to protect her… to ensure Alice does not wake up. That means that the Queen of Hearts would order her minions NOT to kill Alice… but they might be allowed to capture her, put her to sleep, and return her to Denial. 

?Now, as a gameplay mechanic it’s not a great idea to force the player back to the start of the game every time they die (are captured, etc). So we need to come up with a mechanic which allows Alice to do the Normal Game Death things people have come to expect – with the addition of some sort of nod to “If you are captured by the Queen of Hearts’ soldiers too many times you’ll be sent back to Denial – or something akin to Denial.” 

Add to this the fact that we have Chaos (an enemy that takes over whatever it touches) consuming Wonderland and turning every creature it touches into a Tentacle Enemy. That means that Card Guards (minions of The Queen of Hearts) will attack Alice (with intent to kill) if they are touched/transformed by Chaos. 

What does it mean if Alice is overcome by Chaos? She dies. Both the Wonderland (Child Alice) and Real World (Adult Alice) will simultaneously die. And this is why it was important that we set the stakes for death (using the story opening I outlined during the last Live Stream) at the start of the adventure. 

We’ve all “died” a million times in games. By being blown up, missing a platform jump, being shot, drowning, etc. And this “death” presumably means THE END of the character… and that-would-be-that except, it’s a game and we can restart from the last save-game-check-point-whatever. 

So I’d like to simplify all of this… And re-present the Opening Scene Concept:

Let’s assume there are lots of Wonderland characters running around and they are mostly (99%) non-enemy NPCs. 

But Wonderland is being overrun by The Chaos – its tendrils spreading like Smoke (that word is important, you’ll see why in a moment) and infecting those non-enemy NPCs… turning them into Chaos Tentacle Enemies. 

Death by Chaos Tentacle Enemy is DEATH. And requires a restart, reload, etc. (Some sort of system for “lives” and how many times you can “die” before a hard restart needs to be inserted here – later). 

We’ll NOT have any sort of “going to sleep and being returned to Denial” because it only confuses and clutters things. 

Here’s why SMOKE is important in connection with Death and The Chaos… 

The opening scene of the game goes something like: 

Alice Liddell, age 24, walks through the winter morning streets of London. She’s defeated Bumby and freed herself and the children of The Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth from his clutches. The morning is cold but bright and all seems well with the world… despite the distinct note of sadness in the accompanying music. 

On her morning stroll, we see Alice greet her neighbors, feed a cat, watch parents play with their children (pain and sadness in her eyes), and give an apple to an old lady. She pays the butcher and the baker. Lastly, she pulls a battered White Rabbit Doll from her bag and hands it to a street urchin before stepping into her tiny one-room home. 

She stokes the fire and throws a few more lumps of coal into the flames. At her desk, she signs a letter, and places it in an envelope upon a small stack of similar notes. She takes one last look at a picture of her family framed on her desk. Then turns back to the fire and stops the flue (blocks the chimney pipe). The room begins to slowly fill with smoke. 

?As Alice passes out, we fade gently into Wonderland… 

(game starts here)

—

That’s the second attempt at this opening scene and does a better job of setting up a connection between the Real World problem (death by smoke inhalation), the Wonderland Problem (Chaos/smoke destroying everything), and the overall theme: depression and loneliness leading to (attempted) suicide leading to a re-connection with one’s inner child and renewed ability to love oneself. 

—

Lots of themes we can explore in relation to what’s established here. But I feel this more neatly solves a number of problems I’d been grappling with … at the same time, it answers some questions related to enemies, Chaos, death, etc. 

Obviously this is still Work In Progress. I’ll post it to Patreon and we can get feedback from the Insane Children.

There you have it… 

While Young Alice is adventuring around Wonderland trying to save the day, Adult Alice is slowly succumbing to smoke inhalation. 

To answer a couple of questions that were asked during the stream (and which would be answered in-game via the narrative): 

Why would Alice decide to end her life? Well, we’ve seen her defeat her enemies and save the children of Houndsditch but when all is said and done she’s still a homeless orphan without a family. She doesn’t walk away from the end of AMR into a happy ending. And without a “mission” to give her purpose – without a mystery to solve – her life dissolves into day after day without meaning. Death seems the only out. 

How does Young Alice (in Alice’s psyche) “know” about the smoke and the stakes? We’ll wrap this in Wonderland surrealism and story – much as we did with turning Bumby’s efforts to wipe Alice’s memories into an internal representation AKA The Infernal Train. To start, it’s just “The Chaos” but later in the story, we’ll learn of Adult Alice, her depression, and the fact she needs rescuing. And since Adult Alice is passed out waiting to be rescued – we can interact with some ghostly form of her as needed (Chaos Alice). 

I’m sure there were some other questions… but I think they were mostly related to the “why” of the method of death I’d presented in the original pitch. I hope this variation answers or removes most of those. 

Hat tip to “SilentDream1989” in the YouTube comments for suggesting “fire/smoke” as an alternate (and more thematically appropriate) method for Alice to use to end her life. 

So… have a think on what’s presented here. Maybe let it sit for a while. Then share your feedback and ideas in the comments below. 

From Burning Hot Shanghai, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

We had a lively livestream over on Twitch yesterday where we discussed Alice: Asylum, played Alice: Madness Returns, had a look at Plushie Dreadful prototypes, and checked out new character concepts for Dorothy. 

And we didn’t even get canceled!

If you missed it (boo!) you can see the recorded backup over on YouTube via this link: 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75PoMLyRKtQ 

WARNING – MAJOR SPOILERS

Some (potential) major spoilers were mentioned during that stream so be careful – there is a spoiler warning ahead of it. And that spoiler needs a full explanation posted here on Patreon… something I will do in the next few days. Still digesting some of the excellent feedback provided by our Insane Children during the livestream. Thanks for that! 

From Freaking Hot Friday in Shanghai, 

-American