Dear Insane Children, 

Here’s the latest Patron Exclusive track from the most recent video trailer for the Patrons: Save Yourself Alice (The Fire) by Alex. 

This was meant to be posted alongside the last big update from Alex… but got lost in the madness. Better late than never. 

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Say hello to your newest co-inmate in the Asylum!

??? – (Leeloo McGee) arrived at 10PM Beijing Time on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022!

She was 3.82kg and 51cm at birth. And arrived after an extremely quick labor/delivery of ~2 hours!

We’ve been a little preoccupied (as you might imagine) since her arrival. And just now starting to get back into the regular work groove. That means catching up on emails, clearing out old creative tasks, etc. 

The situation in Shanghai is kinda-still-the-same… we’re still in Lockdown. But things do appear to be improving? We’re hearing rumors that this whole thing should be OVER by the end of May. Certainly hope so! 

But in the meantime… Leeloo’s just started to open her eyes. Lucky is enjoying the lovely weather in the backyard. And Lulu is being a protective big sister. 

From Shanghai with a Lot of Love,

-Lucky & Leeloo & Lulu

Hi everyone,

Alex here again (Lead Designer, Co-Writer, + misc.) with something we would like your feedback on. Huge spoilers for anyone who scrolls down on this one, so you’ve been warned. 

—— SCROLL DOWN ——

Still here?

We’re talking final bosses in this one.

Preliminary work is currently being undertaken to land on the visual style and look for our biggest-big-bad of Alice: Asylum.

For those who have read the narrative outline, you’ll know that Alice confronts the last remnants of her Family’s torment in the nightmarish manifestations of Wilton J. Radcliffe.

Alice’s murdered family’s corrupt, rotten lawyer from Madness: Returns, and the other half of the child trafficking syndicate alongside Bumby.

In a first for the game series, during the end-game sequences, Alice resolves her inner conflict inside her own mind, and finds herself in the “Otherland” of someone else.

This area is inside Radcliffe’s mind, and this is where the “final battle” takes place in Asylum and the conflict in the story is settled.

The current design tasks are to;

1. Create the World aesthetic inside Radcliffe’s Mind. Create his “Otherland”. How does it look?

2. Create the appearance for Radcliffe himself and how he appears here. How does Radcliffe appear in his “Otherland”? Is this to Alice… or himself?

Early sketches and design process ideation is below, so in the spirit of open discussion, I’ll walk you through the design decisions and where we’ve landed with some back and forth within the team.

The first sketch above is one I created to get the ball rolling for preliminary art and creative direction.

A huge filthy lawyer with gold teeth. He’s grotesque and surrounded by wealth, gold, and filthy coins. Giant ledgers and books pile around, and the children are in their cages, ready to be sold as livestock above him.

If you want to get more into the initial direction, here is the image above with supplementary design notes. (You can download a high-resolution version of this one in the .zip folder at the bottom of the post if you’re interested in deep diving into this).

Also, books go squish.

It was at this stage, that Omri, Adam, American and I had a back and forth.
I think we were in agreeance that the level design was on the right track, but Radcliffe needed some work.

After talking to American this morning on our weekly touchpoints, I opened the door to find his thoughts and input. 

Here are some snapshots of American’s feedback and creative direction.

• American’s Feedback #1:
American really liked the idea of Calligraphy pens as spikes, and asked me to see if I could work these designs into hands. He loved the “hands” design of the Dollmaker in Madness Returns, and thought including Radcliffe’s hands in a similar manner would enhance the boss design.

• American’s Feedback #2:
American requested that the area for this boss fight area would be like a coliseum.

With Radcliffe placed in the center, and with everything he desired accessible within a 360-degree area, all within arms reach of his greedy mitts.

From that; the second pass resulted in the below level design concept; 
(Might be worth downloading the high res version and zooming into the details on this one).

Now, I really liked the design for the level and “coliseum” area of the first concept.

I drew the second variant of Radcliffe emerging from his “rabbit hole of gold” up to this point as a quick WIP (Work in progress).

Then, I wanted to get working on his calligraphy pen spiked hands.

And as I drew the hands… something else came out of my pen.

A golden masked monstrosity. Calligraphy pens for fingers, dripping gold. 
A crown of gold, ink and endless ledgers. This is how Radcliffe sees himself here.
Powerful, wealthy, a golden god of cunning and words. His ink is mightier than any sword.

But to Alice, we can see his corruption and darkness seeping through the cracks in his veneer.
American had also mentioned that Radcliffe himself would be weak in direct combat and would be classed as a “string-puller” and linked by “webs” to spring traps and do his bidding, in keeping with his character.

The symbology in his crown is representative of the symbol for “sun” and “gold” in alchemy, as well as an allusion to the 8-pointed star of chaos. 

I dig the aesthetic of a golden mask, hiding complete darkness behind it.
Note the doll’s arms and limbs hanging on his shoulders and from the spikes of pens in his crown and shoulders.

American would like the game experience here to be navigating the level to get to Radcliffe in the center of the world, then lobbing a Vorpal Blade into his “center of being” thereby shattering his own effigy of himself, ending the encounter.

I would love to throw a vorpal blade into that big dumb face, and shatter that mask.

Looking at the concept above, I see Radcliffe writing words out with his “fingers” on the book in front of him, where Alice is standing. Having what he writes attack Alice, either by ink taking shape, as lines of spikes, or entrapping her.

Regardless, I think this can be a frantic and high note to finish on if we balance the concepts right and land in the right place.

I think we’re on the right track… or at the least an interesting one here… but what do you think?

—–

You know the drill.

Sound off in the comments, and we’ll see where this one lands together.

I’ll be sharing the WIP sketches with the team, and we may see some more refined passes from other team members as we refine Radcliffe’s Otherland and the final big-bad in Alice: Asylum.

Big props if you get to the bottom of these long posts, we’ll catch you next time!
Alex <3

Hi everyone,
Alex here (Lead Designer, Co-Writer, + misc.) with a fresh Design Bible Update hot out of the oven. 

New video and music content are above.

The real meat of this post will be in the new Design Bible Sample PDF download at the bottom of this post.

Scroll down. Hit download. Let us know your thoughts.

—–

WHERE ARE WE AT?:

Short version; around 100 pages into the DB.

That equates to approx 40 pages of the V2 Narrative Script, with artwork, the additional gameplay sections at the start, and some intro pages to come.

The art team (Omri, Joey, Norm, Adam) is currently working on a set schedule to deliver the end-game design and art tasks.

This is all taking place in tandem as I create the DB itself. I am also creating new artwork and game design elements as we go.

IMPROVEMENTS & NEW DB CONTENT:

You’ll find some new visual improvements within the new DB PDF.

Some areas are much more refined.

For example, the “Pause Screen” running tally inventory pages between chapters are now fully populated with items (and empty nooks to fill new items).

There is also an overall rework of the page aesthetic and graphic design. This is more in line with some of the UI and UX screen mockups we’ve seen recently.

New content for gameplay and mechanics have been dropped in place, with more to come.

New artwork for the earlier chapters has also been placed, and we’ll be proceeding according to our schedule to complete the bulk of the DB work this calendar year.

There are also interactive URL links that will take you to supplementary video content on American’s YouTube channel when clicked.

This is something I will be tapping into more as we go, but for now, you can see the concept in action.

—–

YOUR FEEDBACK:

Before you dive into the PDF, being a work in progress, some areas still need work.

Namely;

• Anything that says {TBC} or {To Come} regarding artwork or copywriting is self-explanatory.
• If you see gibberish in words, this is “lorem ipsum” placeholder text for the layout and word count for content to come. Do not be alarmed. Content will come.

• Some icons on the enemies and bosses/combat need to be created. Blank spaces are left for now.

So with that in mind, the big question for you, the fans, is;

How does this format look to you?

Does it read well?
Does it look good?
Are you well informed?
Can you follow the story beats and understand the game mechanics?
Is it enjoyable?

—–

For those new here, I’ll copy-paste the key goals for the Design Bible for Alice: Asylum.

This is the rationale shared with the art team on our welcome pack for the new artists.

—–

We are now focusing on creating a finished, cohesive, informative, art-packed and beautiful “design bible”. This design bible will be our biggest and best tool towards securing a potential $30 million+ USD deal to “fund and create a published videogame.”

The design bible is designed to perform the following tasks:
1. Allow all Alice: Asylum videogame narrative experiences, key art and game mechanics to be easily understood and assessed by potential financiers. (For EA Games, Amazon, Netflix etc.)

2. Allow the Alice: Asylum videogame story to be experienced, enjoyed, and easily understood by anyone who linearly reads the design bible. The audience can experience Alice’s journey in Asylum in its entirety via the Design Bible. (For Alice Fans, Patrons, etc.)

3. Allow the Alice: Asylum videogame technical aspects and mechanics to be easily understood. All core game concepts are communicated for a potential development partner to assess undertaking and build the actual video game we pitch.
(For Epic Games, EA Games etc. or any potential Development Partner)

—–

So, for this hybrid/comic book/game guide/graphic novel/game design document… I am hoping it ticks all the required boxes so far.

—–

THE STORY BEHIND THE DESIGN BIBLE:

When American and I first sat down and spoke about creating this document, we both wanted to capture that feeling we shared when we were kids, poring over a magazine, game guide or manual for a game that we loved.

I remember reading the manuals and game guides for all the games I loved as a kid, even reading the old .txt files that came with Doom and the like on MS-DOS games on the PC.

Like a huge nerd.

I took these documents to school, to the dinner table, and read them in bed.

I’d be glued to the pages as I scoured over every detail, text passage, artwork, and design, diving headfirst into that world that existed on the page, on my screen, and in my imagination.

And I loved it. They’re good memories.

I hope that a sliver (or more) of that experience is shared by you as well as you read these pages for the Alice: Asylum Design Bible.

Each day I am at my computer, crunching away here, I hope that someone with a truck-load of cash will see this work from the team and back us to make this game happen.

I wish it with all my heart, but sometimes wishes aren’t enough, so there’s work to be done. 

RESPONSE TO THE DESIGN BIBLE WIPs:

From what I’ve been told by American, every time a WIP of the DB sits on the desk of a global mega-corp, the reaction is favorable, so hopefully, one day, it’ll be enough for them to get their checkbook out.

Much more to come as we go this year, but please drop any comments worth noting here or where I can see them, and I’ll do what I can to take reasonable feedback into account.

Thanks as always for your continued support as we try and make this happen together.

Cheers,

Alex

Dear Insane Children,

Sometimes the only way we get to new and interesting places is through a journey in which we must sacrifice a great amount. In the modern world, that might mean investing the time and money to fly halfway around the world. Or sailing for a week to a remote island. Or hiking for days to a secluded mountaintop. But what if you lived on the featureless plains and Kansas and wanted to get somewhere REALLY interesting? 

Some news illustrations from Gareth paint the picture…

Dorothy chases a tornado, clutching Toto in one arm and a bag of valuables in the other. She’s hoping to be pulled back into the Land of Oz after returning home and finding all she once loved is no more. Time passed more slowly in Oz – Dorothy barely aged a day. But all her family and friends lived decades in which they mourned and eventually said farewell to Dorothy. 

And the progress brought on by the passage of time didn’t sit well with Dorothy so… back to Oz. To the land of eternal life. To a place where time is frozen and progress isn’t measured. 

But not alone… 

Because Dorothy realized it wasn’t Kansas or “home” she missed but her Em and Uncle Henry. And though they’d perished long ago, Dorothy knew that death is no obstacle to the magic of Oz. A sprinkle of The Powder of Life and they’d be right as rain. A bit shrunken and removed from all the bits below the neck… but much easier to transport to Oz that way! Torsos and limbs could be fashioned later – even better than the meaty old bodies they had before.

So, um, yeah… Dorothy revives the shrunken heads of her aunt and uncle so she’s not alone when she gets back to Oz.  

How about some tentacles to lighten the mood? Joey did this excellent illustration of Alice mastering the tentacles as she reveals the secrets contained in Radcliffe’s Notebook. 

We are still very much in Lockdown here in Shanghai. And it’s unclear when the situation might improve. And Yan is now less than 2 weeks from the Due Date of our next child – May 8th. So it’s looking like we’re going to have a Lockdown Baby! There are extra stresses introduced by Lockdown but we’re managing things as best we can. And fingers crossed that the city comes out of this soon.

From Shanghai with Shrunken Heads, 

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

Thank you, for all the great feedback on the last Crowd Design post! Omri took that feedback and created a new version of Alice’s “End Credits” dress (main image above). 

And he also delivered an illustration for the “Angela” character who appears in the end scene. 

Alex’s response to seeing the Angela illustration is worth sharing: 

Hi guys, I’m writing to say that this actually hit me in a bit of an emotional way tonight. I created the character of Angela, and she was someone who kind of came to life in my head as we wrote the story.

?Seeing her like this, is exactly how I imagined she’d look.
?Better than even.

?Alice like this with her together, holding the little rabbit is really beautiful.
?It’s very special to see them like this together.

?They’re perfect. Thank you Omri for doing such a beautiful job. I’m sure everyone will feel the same.

?In regards to your questions;

?1. Yes, Angela is written as another abused Ward “cared for” by Radcliffe.
?Perhaps from another wealthy family, it was a tie that’s never explicitly stated that Angela was “Alice’s replacement” as mentioned in the last lines by ?Bumby before he dies.

?2. Angela receives Alice’s rabbit from Radcliffe. He does steal her rabbit, and he uses it to manipulate Angela.

?3. Correct. Angela is roughly the same age as Alice at the start of the fire. 7-8 years old.

Obviously an important character and story element for him (and for us all!). 

Omri also sent over updated designs for Toto and Dorothy. These will be used to drive the production of 3D models for these characters. And those models will be brought into the Unreal Engine (work being done by Adam L.) for presentation in-scene. 

And Dorothy… 

Let us know in the comments below what you think of all these designs! 

From Shanghai (still in lockdown!),

-American