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End-Game Spoiler Warning - Final Boss Initial Concepts
🕑 Added 2022-05-06 15:00:01 +0000 UTCHi 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.
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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?
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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
Comments
I know I'm very late to this but I remember how in Madness Returns it's mentioned that he's an orientalist and that the Oriental Grove takes shape after Alice's interraction with him, but maybe similar mechanics and motifs from that world can be used? The inkstone fly enemies for example, they're a pain in the ass during boss fights. Maybe have him ooze gold blood from his mouth to reflect the corruption of his spirit? The blood/drool could be an acidic/lava type obstical for Alice to dodge. He could even slam his fists in frustration and knock coins around which could cause damage but these coins could help Alice go up to him and stab his weakspots directly
I love the pen fingers and mask that can be shattered mid-late battle
So, I want to apologize in advance, for this is my first post here as a new Patron (and new to Patreon as a whole, this is the first project I've backed up, so maybe some of the things I'll say may be misinformed, naive or silly. Firstly, having Radcliffe as a final fight seems like a logical conclusion, consdering this character's story with Alice and her family as a whole. While I liked his golden grin version, I do feel going for the "darkness behind a golden mask" design, *especially* with the pen fingers, is a much more inspired an unique take on the inner monster of the lawyer. I do wonder tho, knowing that is supposed to be Radcliffe's own perception of himself, if there is a chance for any reference to the Asian influenced level from Madness Returns. We know the man has an interest (wether it's respectful or not is, well, debatable) for that side of the world, so would that impact his perception of his self? Would it be present on his final fight, or would it be more fitting for a level before the final fight? Has it been talked about before, in another post? Hell, would it even make sense, or is it just better to not thread already walked upon ground, even if it could be changed? Secondly, and this is more related to the patreon post itself rather, but it mentions a .zip file with higher def images. I can't seem to see it? Is it a tier-related thing, only those that plegde more than one dollar can have access to it? Is it time limited? Sorry for the stupid question, again, I am new to this whole patreon thing. Finally, I'm just really excited for what the future holds. Play both the original and Madness Returns and loved them both, so I'm glad to be an (admittedly small) passanger along the journey.
Thanks Mike for pointing that out I really appreciate it
Mike Webster
Radcliffe was a character in the other 2 games. In Madness Returns, you'd remember him as the guy that stole her bunny. He was not a good guy, like Bumby, to say the least. I think he was the families lawyer.
I thought Shadow Alice was the final boss who is this Radcliffe and what's his role in the game or is it too early to tell what his role is right now because it's a spoiler?
Alex Crowley
Hi everyone, I wanted to drop in here after jumping off a call with American this morning, and we both want to thank you for your feedback, engagement and care with the Works in Progress that we share here. In relation to where we are sitting from a narrative and design standpoint, there are a few different goals and visual targets we need to hit in order to satisfy the requirements for a solid "Radcliffe" character and manifestation design in Asylum. The key differences are that Radcliffe, (and Bumby) both have multiple, different representations visually, depending on who is "visualising" or "remembering" them at that point in the story. There are areas of the game where portrayals of Radcliffe are literal, (in the real-world, London, this is already established). The second appearance is an abstract representation, of how he appears in the high-horror scenes and twisted "Memories of the Shadow" (Dark Nightmare Versions). And also the final twist in Radcliffe's appearance and design is of how Radcliffe appears in his own mind in the Otherlands Finale section, when Alice deals with him once and for all. In applying this line of thought to foreshadowing, payoffs and reveals in the story, and working with his appearance to enhance a potential gameplay experience in the End-Game sections... we have a few overlapping and unique areas to consider in his design. At this stage, I would say the team are happy where the initial direction is heading. Our next step is to engage other art team members, who will handle the next refined pass we see for Radcliffe. As we push forward, seeing these WIPs and the initial direction and ideation is always interesting to see and share. Thanks for your feedback we'll keep you all posted as more becomes available to share for Radcliffe's designs.
Greyson Kehm
Here's what I wrote about how I thought Radcliffe should look in an earlier post: "In one of Alice's visions, Radcliffe is described as his "hands are soaked in blood, as he greedily pockets large wads of filthy, greasy and oily money with a multitude of gangly limbs." Ok, I'm thinking his inner monster is a big, fat(ter) version of himself. He is filthy, greasy, and oily, just like the money, and he's got a lot of limbs growing out of his fat, and their hands are all bloody. Adding to it, he's also got mouths full of dirty teeth sprouting from various places all over his body, gaping and snapping. His arms feed them with anything they can grab, which include fragments of Radcliffe's mind and his memories. Radcliffe's Vice is Greed, while Alice's was Wrath and Bumby's was Pride (or maybe Lust?). Having his Shadow devour his mind, showing his unbalance, would be a good way of showing that, I think." I think I might like the version you guys made a bit more, especially the part where he's a string-puller rather that someone who faces his problems directly like Alice.
Greyson, I love that idea! Alice fighting him is really just revealing to him the truth of what he really is and of what she really is! Aghh we nerd to get Alex and American in the comments! This is good stuff!
Greyson Kehm
Cool idea! And little by little, his true self is exposed, both to himself and to Alice, while she becomes less the Shadow and more her whole self. Then again, she's the one who can enter a person's mind and turn their subconscious into an Otherland. Her views of that person would definitely factor into how their Otherland and their mental self would be portrayed.
Right. When the concept of Otherlands was introduced I was always under the impression that Alice herself would be the foreign enemy in the minds of others. SO tbh I think it makes alot more sense to make it that he doesn't view himself as thos monster. He sees Alice as the monster and so she takes that form maybe. WE play the shadow at that moment. Then we essentially Duke it out!
Wendy Jaa
You have a good point. Alice might be a boss fight to Radcliffe. All of this is something to take into consideration. We're in his world, not Alice's.
So now I'm like maybe we should take a step back and maybe rework the end boss fight a bit? Make it more like your in his wonderland and his ideal self is more on Alices level rather than making him a giant boss to fight it is an equally matched playing field. But Alice has had more experience.
I was wondering that as well...perhaps he seed her as the shadow self rather than Alice seeing herself in the blue dress? Imagine if instead of him being a giant boss him and Alice are the same size and they each have a weapon of choice to battle things out arena style like in an Roman coliseum! Oooh I actually like that idea alot. And tbh it would make more sense if he projected and ideal self vs what Alice perceives. He's and evil bastard but it's HIS wonderland.
Wendy Jaa
Comments: I love the pen fingers, very cool! That image of how Radcliffe sees himself is honestly beautiful. I love the idea of Radcliffe not attacking directly. Him drawing or writing enemies with his fingers would be a super cool nod to the ink wasps in the Mysterious East, and that world was inspired by the decor in his office. I love the overall level design and the neat details, and can't wait to play this part. QUESTIONS: How would it look if Alice sees Radcliffe differently than he sees himself, like how would that be animated? Would Alice appear differently as well, since she's in the mind of another person? Why would Radcliffe be a boss in his own world when Alice is not a boss in hers? Is that related to him being more "psychologically stable?"
Karma Chameleon
I love the finger/pen tip idea and the inky words\visual representation he writes attacking Alice. I also think something cool would be grandiose things, vases, paintings, sculptures, etc looking grand and pristine at first but then (later or if Radcliffe activates them) we see them ruined and attacking or aiding Radcliffe somehow.
Sarah McKeegan
Love the pen fingers and the gold teeth and the gold mask!
