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Further Manipulation
🕑 Added 2020-06-29 23:46:30 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
As you know from my last design post, we're working on concepts for a selection of Enemies who are designed to manipulate Alice's senses - Manipulators. In the last round of comments, I asked Omri to explore ideas around insect/machines that would fit in these roles. He's delivered!
Here are our comments on what's presented today. Omri says:
I'm thinking about what you said, i don't like the idea of holograms because it's too modern. Yes there were plays with mirrors and stuff but that was more 1920. it's still too modern. but i do like the idea of illusions or hallucinations. we can go towards two directions,
1. we can have the illusions / hallucinations horrible like a nightmare
2. we can have the illusions / hallucinations Pleasant and block out the gameplay, like the more she is "injected/sprayed" she sees more flowers and gardens and her home in spring and what not. i think for this area it's overkill right now, we need to reserve that idea for a boss. i would love to fight a boss that when i'm losing seeing the world more beautifully.
for now these two designs i think look practical for the moon AND look like enemies. i'll design some more of these, but i think they make sense and still keep with the Nature theme.
Omri goes on to add a few more concepts and continues his comments:
I'm adding to the manipulators "Lobster" I think he can fix the "floors" and the lower areas. he can melee Alice and he can electrify floor areas where the player is standing. i want the enemies to "make sense" like you can imagine that an electricity based animal can fix circuits. a Welder animal can fix holes and bumps and a flying animal can kill off fungus and whatnot.
I'm adding a very odd idea that i had that i have no idea if it works- feedback on this. I thought that if we want something that will look like it's "fake" then materials to fix the moon, copper, mercury, gold- even oil and water if we want, they can be animated into stars that will jump at Alice and explode on her. they should come in batches. just an odd thought.
To all of this I replied:
All of this stuff is FANTASTIC. And, yeah, I should have been more careful in my choice of words. Anything hinting at advanced technology - simulator, holograms, etc - would suggest things that are very much out of place in Alice's mind. You're on the correct path with hallucinations and mechanical beasties that implement physical changes that alter Alice's perception of reality. It's more "smoke and mirrors" than "lasers and holograms."
The Gnat and Spider designs are great. Even though I hate flying enemies - I like the idea of these things forming a "cloud" that messes with Alice's vision. For the Spiders I like the idea that they could weave webs of deception - imagine a wall of web onto which a hallucination is projected. Alice can destroy the web and the illusion with it.
For the Fungai... The general concept and presentation is good. An element we can place in the environment to create toxic zones. Spores from it can cause hallucinations and disorientation. With regards to your comment about bringing "color to the moon" - this part I don't get. Why? The Moon interior is separate from Denial. It has a style - Hatter Industries, mechanical, etc. Please leave it at that.
Lastly, The Lobster is fun. Regarding the idea of them all serving different functions - I would suggest we focus on The Senses and assign each of these characters control over (the ability to manipulate) specific senses. Hearing, sight, etc.
That last idea... I have no idea. 🤷♂️
Let us know in the Comments below your thoughts on The Manipulators. What do you think of their function and their artistic design? We'll discuss your feedback during this week's live stream (more on that later in this post).
Tea Time Wildlife
Jen sends along further exploration of the types of surreal creatures we might find floating around Wonderland.
I have ... er, thoughts, about that teabag design... from having watched too many CS matches. Thankfully no 12-year-old kids will have control of these enemies in-game... or will they? (Note to self: Disaster Marketing idea #342,423 - how can we give 12-year-old kids control of the Tea Bag Enemies every time Alice dies in-game?)
She also submitted this pig... which...
(Note to self: Check how much of our budget goes to supplying hallucinogenics to our artists - reduce if necessary).
Live Stream on Twitch
We will host a Live Stream on Twitch this week - the usual time. That's 7PM PST on Wednesday.
And we'll discuss all the latest art, design, and business development on Alice: Asylum. Plus...
Yan and I finally took a trip to the YiWu International Trade Market to source various products for Mysterious and Patreon. Among our main goals - to find a Snow Globe (or a suitable alternative). So, we'll discuss the fruits of that search.
If you want to see the trip to and from YiWu, I uploaded a travel vlog of it to my YouTube Channel. Hit THIS LINK if you want to watch that now.
And hit THIS LINK if you want to head over to my Twitch Page and follow or register or whatever it is you do there.
From Shanghai with Eeeee-wooooo,
-American
Comments
I am praying the spider will find it’s way into the game. I love spiders so much. I also think the gnat is great, considering the fact that there was a gnat in I think two of the Alice books
Definitely hold on to that “pleasant-illusion-weaving boss” idea, it chilled me to my core and would love a subversion like that in the game. And mirrors for the denial realm showing Alice distorted realities sounds amazing! Maybe an entire arena could be dedicated to it, would make for quite an experience trying to find your way around different versions of a particular situation, perhaps. Finally the losing control of Alice sounds a tad irritating for gameplay for now.
Sarah McKeegan
Love the nat and spider!
Ocemyt
I like the idea of losing control of Alice but not as something repetitive, maybe just one big moment in the game where it happens could surprise the player. I'm thinking of that moment in Arkham asylum when the game pretends to have crashed and restarted
Anna Lepper
I like the designs for the spider, gnat and lobster enemies. I also don't really get the concept for the various metal patches... I think having an enemy make the player lose control will have to be very carefully tweaked because it can quickly become frustrating.
how about, instead of the spiders making alice lose control, you just play she’s lost control again by joy division. every time. pretty sure joy division was around in the 1800s. yep yep
Catheryn Alice North
I am a little concerned over the phrasing "make the player loose control of the character" with regards to the spiders. QUESTION: did they have tea bags then or was it all loose leaf in tea pots?
Even if you hate flying things i hope these stay ingame. About the fungi, why would it be strange if it is present? Despite not belonging in this stage, the mind never has 100% control about itself, so it shouldn't be a surprise to see odd elements, though in minority.
A snow globe would be magnificent
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
Hallucinogens and Wonderland have, in pop culture at least, long been linked. It’s an aspect of the property that I don’t think has been directly tackled in the games.
Taking control away from the player sucks. Nobody likes being cc'ed. If you insist, at least have diminishing returns so that the player can't constantly be cc'ed (diminishing returns like in mmo). Having the player hallucinate and giving imaginary enemies to attack accomplishes a similar thing to being controlled without actually taking control from the player. I'm all for that. As for the spiders, remember the spiders from AMA? Those were creepy!
I really like the new Manipulator concepts and ideas. The Gnat looks like it could be disguised as a timer or clock, so maybe it could slow down Alice’s perception of time instead? Also the illusion/hallucination ideas are very cool. I especially like the idea of the spiders weaving “webs of deception.” (Side rant for Gnat and Spider gameplay) I get really frustrated whenever a game takes control away from the player during gameplay, especially during a fight. So my main suggestion would be to not do that, but if you do then I’d suggest giving players a way to counter it. Perhaps a specific ability or activating rage/hysteria mode? I think the Moon Fungai could be cool. Using them to create toxic zones or used as explosives could be fine, but I’m stuck on why it would be there in the first place. Perhaps it could be created as an offset from putting the symbols on the live materials/elements? For the Surreal Creatures, I’m not so sure about the Teabag and Pig, but I like the other two. They look very “Alice.” This post was awesome and full of creativity, I love it!
Mirror enemies that showed different versions of Alice would be interesting.
V--R
I think the concept of using mirrors could be a lot of fun. Maybe a part of the denial could be a maze of mirrors showing fake versions of reality at the end of the half before instead she crashes into a mirror. Maybe even the end of the denial could be a massive mirror shattering to reveal the truth.
Hallucinogens? What kind? Seriously, I may need some myself. Lol jk, I imagine enough things without the help of hallucinogens XD I love reading your updates
Why does everyone always go for spiders? 😫 I’m extremely arachnophobic so hoping they aren’t everywhere in the game! Everything else looks amazing though! The fungi is beautiful and the little lobster is a unique idea that I’m excited to see.
Abelwyn Connelly
Ohmygawd the pig is cute lol. Also the fungi looks INCREDIBLE. I really hope we see this in game.
