americanmcgee
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Annual Inmate Report - 2019
🕑 Added 2019-10-07 01:16:35 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
Golden Week 2019 is coming to an end here in Shanghai. While China celebrated "70 Years of Communism in the PRC" we hid out at home and played with the baby. Lucky did give us an excuse to venture outside during the holiday - he had a one-month checkup with the doctor. They weighed and measured him, recorded his movements, and gave him a stamp of approval. He's growing FAST. Good boy!
Another Year!
We also hit another milestone in recent days. This time of year roughly marks the start of my focused efforts in using Patreon to fund and promote efforts towards getting Alice: Asylum into development.
Through the support of our Insane Children, we've built a team of artists, designers, and support staff to enable the creation of concept artwork, story, design, and physical rewards which we've leveraged towards getting a new game made.
Alex created an "Art & Design Team" overview (shared above) to provide a clear picture of the team our Insane Children have made possible.
And let's not forget the Insane Children themselves! You can see here our growth in terms of Insane Children since October 2017.
This puts our Patreon Community at 8th in the "Games" section on Patreon and in the Top 100 overall for most months.
The result of all this is a breathtaking collection of artwork, narrative, and design which you can view over on the Asylum Wiki. Just a quick sample of images through the months. Remember these milestones?
Early on we talked a lot about the design of 13-year-old Alice's face...
And we had our first peek into Wonderland...
We've explored a variety of dress designs...
And cat designs...
We've talked about puzzles...
And enemies...
And we've produced and shipped a ton of physical goodies...
It's been a wonderful process - one that I can easily say is the most engaging and rewarding that I've ever had the pleasure of taking part in.
Are We There Yet?
We're still on the road! I wish I could say, "We're almost there!" but the reality is that only EA can answer this question.
And where are we with EA?
As you know, I am bound by multiple NDAs to not reveal the contents of my ongoing discussions with them... but I'll recap with those bits you already know.
- Late 2017 there was a request for an overview in terms of design, plans, etc -for a new Alice game.
- Early 2018 we delivered the License Proposal Book.
- Months of discussions. A basic outline of the license deal is achieved.
- Early 2019 we're assigned a new Biz Dev guy.
- Months of discussions. A "final" outline fo the deal is achieved.
- Mid-2019 we delivered the "Ashen Rabbit" Studio/Project Proposal Book.
- Discussions take a meaningful turn.
- Late 2019 we delivered an updated pitch based on a new request.
If you've not seen the latest pitch, you can find it in a Patreon post back on August 7th called "Madness Bacons" - mmmm bacon.
We are now waiting on a response to that latest pitch - something we crafted in Crowd Design with our Insane Children.
What Comes Next?
We keep creating! Our team is currently detailing the narrative and design for the Realm of the Queen of Hearts - an area that represents Alice's anger.
Ater Anger we're heading into Bargaining - a realm where we'll encounter the Mad Hatter and learn of his involvement with the current state of affairs in Wonderland.
This process of mapping out the locations, characters, and story will continue through Bargaining, Depression, Testing, and Acceptance. Along the way, we'll loop back to previously visited areas to improve on and incorporate the ideas we've established there.
We can then start writing dialog, building level layouts, storyboarding cinematic sequences... and more!
These tasks are usually handled by teams of dozens of artists, designers, and writers but where we do not have a massive team - we do have loads of time!
When we're finished we'll have a lovingly crafted Design Bible which our development team can follow through the production of the game.
Slow but steady wins the race.
Questions and Comments?
Your feedback in this process is critical. "Crowd Design" is what makes our efforts here different. It's pre-production funded and guided by the fans - the Insane Children! I believe that makes it pretty unique - especially in terms of the size and scope of the product we plan to make.
Let us know in the comments below how we're doing!
What more would you like to see from the project, from the team, and from me?
We'll address your feedback during the live stream this week (another post coming on that later today).
Thank You!
As always, THANK YOU! We could not do this without you. The Asylum pre-production team is 100% powered by the fans. All of the art, story, and design we're creating are a direct result of your trust, patience, and contributions.
From Shanghai with Love,
-American
Comments
I’m so impressed how everything is coming along, & I’m immensely excited that I actually get to kind of be part of it & the the behind-the scenes action. I’m an official Insane Child after all. Lol I love that. The crew you guys have are amazingly talented & I just can’t wait to watch this all unfold....and to play the game, of course!!!🔪🖤✌🏼
Love the rundown 👍🏼🖤
Dewi Sri
The only thing I am immensely sad about is that its EA handling this. I've made it a point not to buy from EA after screwing me over one too many times. On the other hand, I understand you have one foot in the door with this project, and any legitimate progress is still progress. The Alice games speak to me on an emotional level so to see this continued in any form is amazing to me.
Thank you American and all his talented team for everything you do ! I really look forward to the release of the game and the latest news regarding the development process ! I wish you great success and good luck ! I met the first part of the game back in 2004 and immediately fell in love with it ! After the classic work of Lewis Carroll, the game seemed to me like some absolutely incredible psychedelic madness ! And it was wonderful !!! In 2011, when the second part was released on the day of the release, I opened champagne for it was a real celebration of soul and heart ! And then I find out that the third part is getting ready and I just can’t stand aside from this and would like to support my beloved developer ! A series of games about Alice is not just games for me, but real works of art, and this is poorly said ! Separately, I want to highlight the work of artists and designers, guys, what you do is beautiful and magical ! With your own hands you create a real fairy tale for adults and not only ! I use the art book "Alice: Madness Returns" as inspiration to learn at least a miserable likeness of your art masterpieces !!! P.S. Please forgive me for the large number of letters, but I just wanted to express my admiration and wish you great success in life and work for a very long time ! I know for sure that you will not fail all your insane followers !
Wendy Jaa
You'll put the design bible up on Mysterious when the time comes, right? 🤤
Two years already? Man, time flyes! So many good ideas and wonderful concepts, I can't wait to see the final Game on motion!
I'm happy to be apart of this incredible team! It's like having a big family x) I'm happy to have an in depth look at how the games are being designed and to actually help craft a chapter in Alice's story ❤❤❤ love you guys
THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HARD WORK!! <3
