Hi All

Font Lord here with just a bit of info about what’s going on with shipping these days (both Pateron and Mysterious)

I’m sure I don’t need to explain what COVID has done to the world these last few months, and especially with airlines and shipping routes closing down and not only that, the number of ‘boots on the ground’ in your country’s postal services and port of entry is likely also massively reduced and disrupted. There’s basically been delays at every step of the way.

So, without going into too much details about all the different types of issue I see when people write in, I would say that generally speaking, my information I give out to everyone who asks is the same.
We’re looking at about 4-6 weeks transit time recently  🙁
And that’s transit time. That doesn’t include the time an item spends going from distribution center to distribution center inside China before finally being put on a boat/plane and sent to you.

Apologies for all the waiting you’re having to do these days, and remember, I am certainly here to answer questions and give tracking links and ease your minds if you PM us (or contact us on Zendesk Customer Support). It just might take a little while to reply due to the number of messages I’m getting and the research I have to do on each particular order.

Once thing I would be interested in though is if anyone has received a print from us in the post recently? Like in the past 2 weeks?
If you could sound off in the comments, I could have a look at how long it was between shipping and delivery and that’ll give me some more data for knowing what the average shipping times currently are.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support and understanding during these very trying times. And please, let’s all continue to be safe.

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children, 

American here… feeling a bit recovered after last week’s battle with Massive Migraines of Mayhem. I think I’ve identified the cause – my computer monitor setup + staring at said monitors for too long every day. But I’ll get my MRI results tomorrow… so fingers crossed. 

Meanwhile, our team continues working on Design and Concept Art Work for Alice’s escape from Denial. 

Omri Writes: 

Attaching concepts and references.

thought of making it a humpty dumpty inspired Balloon but when it will “hit” the moon it’s like 2 faces who are kinda identical in concept and it looks not creative.

1. I think that the classic hot air balloon but with wings to control the movement and with icecream colors can work well.

2. the bottom, i think a gravy bowl with a broken or a full one-  handle can work. it’s like the moon “drinks” Alice visually.

3. Should someone work the Balloon? will there be a secondary character?

4. i don’t know where it will be placed in map so how things will look next to it yet, but theoretically it should work with the look of the general tents and rides. i think it should LOOK like a broken/Closed ride so it’s naturally planted in the realm.

To Which I Replied: 

Since the balloon is not designed to be (or planned to be) something that interacts with The Moon – let’s not add elements where the two things are made to interact. Having the balloon basket be something that looks like it’s designed for The Moon to drink from… no.

Keep in mind that my idea here is Grand Theft Balloon + Grand Theft Moon. She *steals* a balloon and tries to use it to escape. The Moon, in his duty as Alice’s Prison Guard chases after her but they end up crashing into each other. The crash should be violent, unintentional, chaotic, and dangerous. And it provides Alice with a dramatic shift in expectations… “That’s not a moon… it’s a flying contraption!” At which point she’ll board it and fight her way to the control room – much like Pirates of Ye Olde Times. 

This is a prison break. It’s a multiple high jacking. And it’s turning all the orderly, beautiful, purpose-built things in Alice’s world upside down. “Toys become weapons!” and “Little girls become pirates!” 

So…

Let us know in the Comments what you think about everything presented here. Should the Balloon be based on Humpty Dumpty? How do you feel about Alice as a Sky Pirate? 

More updates, art, and design this week – plus we’ll announce the Live Stream (usual time on Thursday, Hong Kong Time). 

PS: Thank you, everyone, for the kind wishes and understanding in response to my situation last week. I hate feeling ill and hate when I am unable to post updates and keep everyone in the loop. 

PPS: To all of our Insane Children in the USA… Holy Sh!t… stay safe over there! I can barely make myself look at all the crazy stuff being shared across social media. I sincerely hope everyone comes through this alright. And my heart goes out to everyone impacted by what’s going on. 

PPPS: I have lots of opinions on the political and societal issues underlying these upheavals… but the strongest statement I can make is this: I left the US back in 2004 in response to injustices and disparities  – within the borders of the US and through its actions abroad – because I felt I could no longer be part of what I saw as a broken system. As we talk about when discussing Alice: Asylum, I believe that the first stage of true transformation is “solve” (dissolving) – and perhaps that’s what we’re finally seeing in the US. If that’s the case, then I hope it leads to rebuilding around principals of fairness and equity for all. And… That’s what I have to say about that! Apologies for the political aside! 

From Shanghai with Relief (from migraine pain), 

-American 

Dear Insane Children, 

This has been a bad week for me. I spent two days in bed with terrible migraines. The other days were spent feeling week and confused. And we’ve spent two mornings at the hospital trying to figure out what’s going on… 

If there’s any positive to all of this… I am fortunate to have a newly opened hospital just 15 minutes from the house which specializes in neurology, migraines, and the like. And I have Yan holding my hand as I go through the process of seeing doctors and being diagnosed. It’s also worth mentioning that the Chinese medical system is, in relative terms, pretty miraculous. These recent visits, the MRI scan, and the painkillers they’ve given me… so far have totaled a bill of only $800RMB (about $112USD). Yan reminds me this would all be free if I were a Chinese citizen. Yay for socialized medicine? 

Anyway, I don’t want to stare at this screen too long as I have a suspicion that it’s all my screen time causing these migraines. I usually start work (staring at the monitor) around 7AM and go until 5PM… And I wasn’t getting migraines at all for the three months of Golden Exile in Thailand… a time during which I was unable to stare at a computer screen for more than ~1 hour per day.  The headaches started again almost as soon as I was back in Shanghai so… 

I’m going back for an MRI today at 4PM. Will report back with any news. 

Work Continues

The team is still hard at work even though I am incapacitated.  Omri sends along sketches for Alice’s “jail cell” in the Circus Domain. And…

 Alex working on:
• Piecing Together Slumber / Previous Artwork for Narrative (in progress)
• Colour Material Guide Template Example (to do – through in next few days)
• Facebook Video Cover Edits (v2) – (in progress)
• Overall Narrative / Writing – (in progress)
• Social Media Icons for Webpage – (to do)

Omri working on:
• Moon Concept Art
• Alice’s Holding Cell in Denial Concept Art
• Confirmation for Alice’s Dress Transition (With Norm)
• Anything else?

Jenn working on:
• Material Examples (On Hold until Example from Alex ready)
• Alice Pixel Art Game
• Potential Mysterious Merch
• Anything else? 

Norm working on:
• Alice’s Poses (Refining selected Poses)
• Anything else?

Joey working on:
•  Joey, please have a look through Monday for something you’d like to work on, or Chat to Omri or Myself for a task to work on 🙂
• Anything else?

Dario working on:
• Refining The Moon Concept Art
• Anything else?
 

Your support makes it possible for our team to continue working despite global pandemics and the occasional crippling migraine. Thank you for that! 

I’m hoping to be back to normal soon. And will post more updates next week. If I am unable to do so then we’ll hand things over to Martin and Alex for a while so that The Spice continues to flow. 

Your understanding is much appreciated. 

From Shanghai with Owwwww,

-American

(There is a PDF attachment to this post. Please download and read it!)  

Hello Insane Children,
Alex here with a little bit of news to share from behind the curtain of pre-production.

Over the time we’ve been working on the Alice Project you might have seen my concept artwork pop-up from time to time on here.

Recently, I’ve shifted my focus within the team to project managing the design bible tasks, and co-writing the overall Alice: Asylum narrative with American. 

When it came to the narrative structure, we needed to ask ourselves a few questions on how best to display this information in the design bible.

Were we writing a novel?
Were we only displaying key story beats and allowing the audience to fill in the blanks?
How did the gameplay fit in?
Or the dialogue?
What tone would we use?
How much scenic detail would be established in the text written?

After some back and forth and establishing some goals to hit, American and I completed a little experiment.

The PDF attached is a mix of screenplay, then switching to game specifics and mechanics when they arise in the narrative.

This is the format for how we’d like the narrative to appear in the design bible.

There are two or three key points where gameplay could be introduced, which are unmarked in the document.

Can you spot them?

IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE:
From our conversations this morning, American and I established that this story PDF definitely breaks away from some previously long-standing established points, artwork and opening scenes in the narrative.

Nothing is cement in this PDF.

It’s only a proof of concept that displays story in a format that is easy to digest, and is hopefully, an enjoyable slice of story telling.

We’re sharing it here to let you know American and I are happy with this FORMAT of story telling.

The question is, are you?

Is this format of story telling presented in a way YOU would be happy to read in the design bible? Alongside gorgeously rendered key artwork scenes, storyboards, game mechanics and concept art?

We want to communicate as much of the possible gameplay, narrative and mechanics as possible, so you can get a real feel for what we’re trying to achieve with Asylum in a cohesive video game format.

Also, did you enjoy reading it?
Does this piece of story hit the targets you’d expect from an Alice game?
Could this piece hold weight as a part of the Asylum story?

Let us know in the comments.
Cheers everyone, more to share as it rolls out.

– Alex 

Dear Insane Children, 

In case you missed yesterday’s Live Stream over on Twitch, here’s a LINK to the recorded stream on YouTube.

You’ll note that it starts about 40 minutes into the already running Twitch stream because someone (ahem, me) forgot to press RECORD at the start of the stream. Oops. Anyway, you didn’t miss much! 

During this stream we did cover a lot of your feedback and comments as well as review lots of new art and design. 

Including a lot of fun “filler” art from Joey. Speaking of… I really want a doll-part candle holder. Seems like something we should have in the Mysterious Shop. 

Heading into the weekend here… expect more art, design, and story updates next week. Yay!

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

I’m surprised that no one (not our Insane Children nor our artists) has pointed out the odd fact that our Moon is a man. But as I was going through the design notes and illustrations being created by the team this morning I realized that the wrongness of this is a good thing. Why? 

Well, this moon is manufactured. Dare I say… man-ufactured? Har. Puns. I kill me. 

Anyway, it’s a mechanical construction of Hatter Industries. And we presume its lead architect/designer to be Hatter himself. And Hatter never struck me as particularly feminine. Nor have any of his creations ever looked like anything other than big, clunky, masses of nuts, bolts, pipes, and gears… massively masculine. 

So it makes sense that if he were tasked to “build the moon” – he’d get the gender of the thing wrong. Hence our Male Moon. 

What’s good about this is that it should be an immediate sign to anyone paying attention – and who isn’t reading all these spoilers – that The Moon is not all he seems.

While Omri is sketching The Moon (main image, above), Dario is working on Alice’s method of flying to The Moon… in the form of a hot air balloon. She finds this balloon while trying to escape The Circus and cuts it free from its earthly tethers using her Vorpal Blade. 

Once inside The Moon she’ll fight her way to the Control Room (pictured above – thanks, Dario!) and steer her way towards The Queen’s Castle. 

A number of interesting design topics flowing from what’s presented here. 

Let us know your feedback and questions in the comment below. 

We’ll address those during the Live Stream tomorrow on Twitch. 

 https://www.twitch.tv/americanmcgee 

Remember that if you miss the Live Stream on Twitch – don’t cry! 

We’ll record the whole thing and post it to my YouTube Channel so you can watch it later at your convenience. 

From Shanghai with Hot Air,

-American