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Tentacles Are a Thing's Best Friend
🕑 Added 2020-07-03 00:07:37 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
Have I told you lately how much I love Tentacles? It should come as little surprise that when I opened the latest Tentacle Chaos Monster concept image from Omri - I laughed out loud and was smiling ear to ear. Seriously.
I LOVE this concept. And I tweeted that we need to make Alice: Asylum for literally no other reason than to see this madness in action.
We hosted a Live Stream over on Twitch yesterday and discussed these Tentacles and how they might behave in-game. We also talked at length about Alice's design - translating the 2D concept images of her into a hi-res 3D model which we can then insert into an Unreal Engine scene. Lots of great topics covered and tons of your comments and suggestions read and explored.
The stream was recorded and uploaded to YouTube so you can WATCH IT HERE.
The Moon and Manipulators
Meanwhile, the team continues to design the interior of The Moon and work on design notes for a boss encounter at the end of that scene.
When Alice reaches the Control Room she'll be confronted with... The Mock Turtle?! He was last seen in her "cell" in The Denial Realm - gently urging her to give up her dreams of running away from the circus. He's like that terrible friend who, when you tell him you're going to stop drinking, offers you a bottle of whiskey. Misery loves company after all.
Well, turns out that The Mock Turtle - and everything in The Denial Realm - is an illusion. All created by creatures we're calling "Manipulators." These beasties can alter Alice's perception of time, space, light, and more...
But I want to be clear about something: Just because Omri included a note about "player losing control" as a result of an attack from one of these things: WE WILL NOT TAKE CONTROL AWAY FROM THE PLAYER. I hate that kind of thing and if you've ever watched me playing games during a live stream, you'll have heard me state that fact several times.
Anyway, Omri did up a concept where Turtle sits upon a turtle-themed throne at the start of his boss fight... I think this is kinda fun but I had further thoughts on how to design this Boss Fight:
One thing to think about is that under the "skin" or disguise of the Mock Turtle, this thing is actually a Manipulator. So... I don't know if it makes sense to have the whole scene modeled after The Turtle. He's just a prop.
The "scene" should be The Control Room of The Moon but since we're fighting a master manipulator - we should go completely crazy with the Boss Manipulator (and his minions) "flipping reality" through all the sorts of things they think might get Alice to change her mind and go back to Denial.
It would be like being in a Holodeck (Star Trek) gone haywire - first, Alice's happy home and family, then The Circus, then floating on clouds in the sky (either meant to terrify or to lull Alice to sleep), a dreamy meadow, a giant Doll House, etc, etc... And in each scene Alice needs to find the "eye" and hit it with an attack. This would briefly reset back to real-reality (The Control Room of The Moon) as the Manipulators reset and then throw up a new False Reality.
The Control Room of The Moon was not built with The Turtle in mind. He's just a puppet used to control Alice. No one ever imagined that Alice would make her way to the Control Room. So... it's just a utilitarian control room space.
I would like to ask: Please stop trying to make the interior of The Moon into something it's not. It does not need elements from Denial or inspired by Turtle, etc. It's a Hatter Industry's MACHINE. Nothing more, nothing less.
So let us know in the Comments below... what do you think?
Are you as excited for a Chaos Tentacle Enemy as I am?
Do you feel better now that I said we WON'T be taking control away from the player?
And what do you think about that outline for a Manipulator Boss Fight?
From Shanghai with Toads,
-American
Comments
Okay from scrolling through the posts here this is like the 5th or so with mention or depiction of tentacles on enemies and such. Will we be seeing or having any types of Lovecraftian elements? Because I’m so down to have some Lovecraft mixing in
Sarah McKeegan
Like the toad!
I really hope the title is a Play on words from a Powerwolf song! 😍🥺 If not that’s awesome as well! I love the design concept here!
Regarding tentacles, will we see different color schemes or design patterns, either on a per-realm basis or just to differentiate from the design language the Queen of Hearts has had in the past? Perhaps blue and white to hint at their relation to the Classic Alice? Either way, creepy tentacle disease monsters sound fun!
Thank you SO MUCH for not wanting control to be taken away from the player, that's one of my least favorite gameplay mechanics to ever exist 💖😭🙌
Still loving everything, especially the Chaos Tentacle Card Guards. I really like the Mock Turtle turning out to be a Manipulator but having his own room would be too much. A few Manipulator ideas: If the Manipulators can put Alice in an illusion, I think it would be cool if there was a surprise moment for both Alice and the player that these things have been the cause of her untimely dreams. Then she could wonder if she would’ve had any pleasant dreams without their influence. But she’s filled with anger after finding out that they’ve been the cause of some of her nightmares. They could be hidden throughout Denial, waiting for Alice to tread too far. Then, without Alice seeing the Manipulator, she unknowingly drifts into a dream until waking up back in her cell. But once she knows what they’ve been doing, the eye appears in their illusions, allowing her to escape. Also, they could be what’s inside The Moon’s mouth when it eats Alice. I think it makes sense, and it could give you an easy excuse to show the Manipulator’s influence without making the player go back to their cell every time they go too far. Lastly, I think it could be cool if a/the Manipulator that messes with hearing/sound plays the lullaby that The Moon sings. I guess it could get louder and louder, drowning out any other noise? And a cool lore fact could be that The Hatter hates the lullaby, so it would never work on him.
Anna Lepper
everything described in this update sounds great! I saw a trailer for a game which plays with the sense of scale which reminded me of the non-Euclidian geometry you talked about before, maybe you've seen it too? If not, here you go: https://www.polygon.com/2020/2/27/21155835/maquette-puzzle-game-release-date-annapurna-interactive
Tentacles are always a win. Given the chance to smack down Turtle is a dream come true, even if it isn't really him. When I read how it's merely a facade of the manipulator, I imagined a sort of... hollow robotic shell, but also Mimikyu from the Pokemon franchise.
Since the Manipulators manipulate reality, then the turtle themed throne makes sense, if this illusion defeats her she will bear hatred against The Turtle, not The Queen, The Hatter or the manipulators and creates the opportunity to introduce a new false ally to keep on misleading her. The Turtle Throne could be one more of those reality shifts that they throw at Alice.
I agree with losing control.... though madness, itself, is an ultimate example of losing control.
I love the tentacles! Its such an awesome concept! Perhaps Alice's chaos dress should have tentacles..i also love the concept of Alice fighting through illusions to kill the manipulator!
Death of Ink
The tentacles representing the growth of Alice's insanity has always been one of the many elements I loved about the game!
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
I’m glad we will be avoiding mechanics that take control away from the player. That sort of thing is always frustrating. Good call.
