Dear Insane Children, 

Our little Asylum is rapidly filling with new Inmates – all anxious to get their hands on a Chaos Coin. To all the new arrivals – WELCOME! Your support and involvement is greatly appreciated 🙂 

Today’s art comes from our good friend Omri. He’s delivered yet another stunning illustration of Alice’s adventure through Asylum. The Jabberwocky (and his spawn) dominate a scene of fiery destruction. This is in keeping with his allegorical position as the “Black Dragon” in his treasure-filled lair. The metaphorical representations here are at the core of Alice’s internal battle. 

Before we go any further… last week’s live stream made me realize we need to start throwing out spoiler warnings. This is an interactive design / writing process where we’re going to define the scope, narrative, and design of Alice: Asylum. If you don’t want the surprises spoiled, stop reading when you see spoiler warning. If you want to engage in the creation of the next Alice game, then continue reading and share your comments / feedback below.

– SPOILER WARNING – 

As was mentioned on last week’s live stream I think we’re likely to see the Jabberwocky presented as Alice’s primary foe and his destruction as the overarching goal in the surface narrative. Something along the lines of: get your bearings (find the Internal Compass); arm yourself (find the Vorpal Blade); and defeat the Dragon (find and kill the Jabberwocky). But this is an illusionary quest and set of goals. 

What’s the real quest? Well, we’ve been playing with the idea of Alice’s true foe being her own Shadow Self. And it might make sense to split that shadow into the elements we see represented in “Alice” and “Madness Returns” – namely Rage Alice and Hysteria Alice. 

Fighting these two Shadow Alice’s in order to reincorporate them would make for a nice symmetry and set us up nicely on the path to the narrative of “Alice.” While I was thinking on this idea privately I received an email from Alex C. in which he proposed the same thing – so I think there’s a powerful shared vibration with this narrative setup… 

What do you think? Have you ever found yourself fighting external foes and challenges only to realize that the greatest foe is yourself… the most difficult challenge is confronting your own shadow self? I know I’ve been there… and incorporation of our own potential for malevolence is often a critical step in overcoming trauma and depression.

Leave your feedback and comments below. We’ll go through your thoughts during the next live stream. 

There is no live stream this week as I am currently in Dallas, Texas visiting with family. See you all again when I am back in Shanghai! 

From Texas with Yee-Haw, 

-American

The Chaos Coin promotion seems to be causing a lot of, well, chaos. In hopes of making things a little more clear here are some recent comment responses I’ve written: 

The Chaos Coin is a physical coin. Owning one grants you a matching virtual coin in Alice: Asylum upon which we’ll encode your name (per our approval).

Material: Copper core with nickel plating. 

Size: 4.5cm diameter

Weight: 28 gram

You need to have pledged (and paid) $35 in the month where we reach the 2000 Patron goal. We don’t know what month that will be – but we’ll get there a lot faster if everyone interested would pledge a minimum now ($1) and then wait until we reach 2000 Patrons. 

At the moment we hit 2000 change your pledge to $35. Once you’ve been processed for that month at that amount you can reduce your pledge (OR keep it at $35 for 2 more months and get a free Art Print as well). 

We will deliver the coins everywhere in the world. 

My Patreon is set up as a monthly subscription to help support the various projects we’re working on. You can pledge any amount from $1 to $1,000,000 per month and that amount will be charged one time each month around the start of the month (1st-5th of each month). 

Our current goal/reward is the Chaos Coin. It unlocks for all Patrons who are processed for a pledge at $35 or higher when we have 2000 or more Patrons. As I write this we have 1,275 Patrons.   

If it is your goal to “game the system” and get the Coin for as little as possible then I recommend the following: Set a pledge at $1 right now. That increases our Patron count and moves us closer to our 2000 Patron Goal. When you see us hit 2000 Patrons adjust your pledge to $35. After you’ve made that adjustment wait until the next payment is processed. Then adjust your pledge back to whatever level you’re comfortable with. Keep in mind that two more months at $35 gets you an art print of your selection.

Once you’re pledged at $1 you’ll automatically receive Patron updates – and I’ll be sure to send out a notice when we hit 2000 Patrons so that everyone knows to adjust their pledges accordingly.

I know there are a lot of you out there waiting for 2000 before pledging. But I guess we could hit 2000 Patrons in short time if all the fence-sitters would pledge $1 right now.

As I write this the coins are being manufactured. We’ll post more and better pictures/videos of the final product very soon. 

If you miss your opportunity to get a Chaos Coin via this Patreon Reward, you will have another chance to purchase it directly via Mysterious. The price per coin there will be somewhere close to $100. And we’ll also offer it when we start proper crowdfunding for Asylum but it’s too early to predict the tier/cost it will carry at that point. 

Questions or feedback? Share in the comments below! 

Dear Insane Children, 

There are a lot of things I find myself wanting to improve in relation to the first two Alice games when we start work on Asylum. Controls, design,  etc… but one thing in particular keeps popping up in my head with regards to the overall theme / genre / mood of the new game: Horror 

As much as I love the beautiful environments Alice explores in Wonderland – and I really love those places – it feels like a lot more could be done to sell the terror and isolation Alice must feel on these adventures. There’s plenty of opportunity for horror – has been in both the previous games – but we never really ‘went there’ in a meaningful way. 

This time around… let’s change that, shall we? 

And what could be more terrifying than CLOWNS + Tweedles?! 

“Welcome!!” indeed. 

Who wants to share a mental prison with these guys… 

What’s your feeling about horror? What sort do you like? What sort can’t you stand? What’s the best horror you’ve experienced in a film or game recently – and the worst? 

Drop your feedback in the comments below and we’ll discuss HORROR in full during the next… 

LIVE STREAM <— Click that link to set a reminder for this week’s stream.

We’re doing this one on Thursday @ 9AM Hong Kong Time (Wednesday, 6PM PST). Please join me, Martin, and Lulu. We’ll discuss Asylum, hand out embroidered patches as prizes, and watch me fall repeatedly to my death. Weeeeeee!

From Shanghai with Goosebumps,

-American

Dear Insane Children, 

I can think of four ways in which a person might date themselves – I become my own significant other; I reveal my birth era through cultural reference; I stamp a date on my forehead; or I pop a date in my mouth. 

Is there a fifth way to date yourself? 

When you’re done being silly with that… take a look at the calendar posted above. Last time I made one of these, heads exploded all around the Internet. Apparently I got some years/dates/events wrong… 

As I work through the story and narrative timeline with RJ, I want to make sure we’re building atop a solid foundation in relation to YOUR understanding of the game world’s dates and events. (What do I know, RJ and I only wrote the thing! :P)

Now… November 4th, 1864 is the date on Wilson’s casebook… 

On the 4th of November, 1864, he describes her as being “nearly comatose for a year.” That being the time span (1863-64) after the fire which kills her family.

Dr. Wilson spends November ’64 to April ’65 working with Alice as she struggles with PTSD resulting from the death of her family. During this period it’s hinted (in Wilson’s notes) that Alice may have killed a surgeon named Grantham (in any case, he had a “grisly accident” and died). 

April 1st, 1865 finds Alice has “shut down completely” and retreated into her psyche. 

I believe this is the start point of “Asylum” – at a point when Alice is 13 years old, has been in Rutledge for ~1 year, has suffered severely with PTSD, and finally shut down completely – exiting the real world and entering full-time into Wonderland. 

Note the “start point” doesn’t necessary define the first thing we’ll see on-screen when the game begins. That’s likely to be a sequence of events including (but not limited to): The Family; The Fire; Arrival at Rutledge; Destruction of Wonderland; Descent into Madness (PTSD); and Inciting Incident (call to adventure). 

After all that and the events we’ll contain in “Asylum,” Alice doesn’t rise from her slumber until September 1st, 1873…

Based on her drawing we can assume she’s been in “our” Wonderland. The cat is “our” cat – tattoos and all. He’s also lacking in fur (suggesting that the loss of fur must occur during “Asylum”). 

The rest, as they say, is history. 

Please take a moment to review the dates and events. Let me know if I’ve screwed something up, left something out, etc.

For your efforts, here’s a bit from RJ as we muse on characters, motivations, and scenes… 

 “The Administrator thinks Bedlam’s the place for you, Alice; you’ll fit right in with maniacs and hopeless reprobates warehoused there.”  “You’re a raving lunatic. Evidently Rutledge cannot cure your craziness. We certainly can’t afford it. Your money is exhausted. You refuse to improve. You’ve ruined Wilson’s career. You won’t ruin mine. I’m a professional. I do not fail. Heal yourself, you wicked girl.”  
   Alice retreats to Wonderland. It, like her mind, has been blown apart. While bits of it had morphed in AMA, it was still a contiguous entity. Alice, to save herself, thinks reconstructing the broken version she now finds—and returning it to “normal,” may help her, too. But, like Humpty Dumpty after the fall, she can’t do it. It’s a fool’s errand (she’ll realize eventually). Doomed to failure. Not possible; not even desirable. Too much has changed.    She’s lost too much.   

Please remember: Early days. Nothing set in stone. Thanks. 

Oh! For those of you who missed out on the Embroidery Patches, I added them to the Mysterious Store. They are limited in number so grab them while they last!

From Shanghai,

-American 

Hi All

Martin here.

Just asking everyone who will be getting the embroidered patches (those of you who were at $5 and above when we hit 1000 Patrons), PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check your shipping info.
Make sure we have your address (added to your profile, don’t message it to us) and make sure that it’s right.

The deadline for doing this is 10am, June 4th, Shanghai Time.

At that point, I will be taking your info as final and extracting it from Patreon to send to the shipping company.

Sorry for sounding so stern.  I’m lovely and snuggly really.   😉

– Cheers

Dear Insane Children,

We have in-hand an updated version of the Alice: Asylum PPT! That means it’s time for another review of the license presentation – this time full of art and fury. Yay! 

For those of you in the UK/EU – Good News: We’re starting this week’s live stream May 30th, 7PM HKT, 12PM London Time. Click THIS LINK to set a reminder so you can join us and provide feedback in real time. 

For those of you NOT in the EU-ish time zone – sorry 🙁 You’ll be sleeping (or just waking up) for this one, but the stream will post to YouTube for later viewing and feedback.

Here’s a sample (3 out of 20 pages) of what we’re looking at during this week’s stream…

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THINGS HOLY – The text / info contained here IS NOT FINAL. The first person to write “Only 10-12 hour play experience?!?!?” is going to get Lulu mailed to their house for a biting (please mail her back when she’s done biting you)! 

We’ll talk about text details during the live stream – and work to make all this stuff final ASAP. When the text is final I’ll tell you, “This text is final” – and THAT is the time when you can comment on specifics 😉

For this review we’re looking at the general content of the PPT; the overall art / presentation of it; reviewing for clarity, flow, etc.

I look forward to seeing all of EU on the live stream tomorrow! 

Update on Embroidered Patches and Chaos Coins:

The coin factory is working on a mold for manufacturing. We should be able to see an actual coin in a week or so. We’re also looking at a “floating” frame to include with each Chaos Coin… something like this:

Our goal is to include the frame for free (as part of the current $35 pledge reward when we hit 2000 Patrons). I just think it would be nice for the coin to come with a display case so you can store it and show it off at the same time. What do you think? Would you prefer this or a “coin box” – we need to choose one or the other…

For the Embroidered Patches – the factory says they will be finished with manufacturing on June 1st at the latest. Everything will then be sent to our warehouse in Shenzhen. From there it’s 20~30 days for delivery around the world. So… fingers crossed, you should have these in your anxious little hands by end of June. 

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American (and Lulu)