americanmcgee
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Dark Wonderland
🕑 Added 2019-05-05 06:58:17 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
I hope everyone had a wonderful May Day Holiday - or at least a wonderful time in life while everyone in China was enjoying their May Day Holiday. We spent many of our days gardening, researching baby strollers, and catching up on all the latest developments in car seats. Now I understand why dogs get jealous of babies! Lulu's never had such cool toys!
We also spent a bit of time in the workshop playing around with ideas for original pieces of art based on The Dollmaker from Alice: Madness Returns.
These are physical art pieces inspired by the types of "creations" you saw populating the Dollhouse Area in A:MR. Assembled from doll parts, wood bits, skulls, string, and insect bits (yes, literal bits of insects!). We're crafting these by hand and will share our progress with you here and on my social media channels. I'm thinking we might auction some of these off at Mysterious.
And a few of them... we might figure out a way to mass produce them so they can be sold in larger quantities at lower prices. Who wants one?
Right now, Yan is painting a set of "Skull Boxes" (seen above) and I am assembling the shell and mechanism for the Baby Head Clock.
Which of these is your favorite? And what do you think about this effort in general?
Let us know in the comments below!
Art Release Calendar
I put together this handy reference guide for the art we're planning to release in the coming months. Where it's marked "TBD" means we've not yet decided - that will be an image from the pile currently in production.
For October, we'll do the same as we did last year - two art prints for everyone at the $75 Tier (one will be the Cheshire Head poster you see pictured - the other is TBD).
We'll include you all in the discussion around the TBD images.
As usual, if you missed any of these in the past, they are all made available over at Mysterious in the Art Print Section.
The OmriNorm Unicorn
Norm and Omri have recently teamed up on some really stunning designs - with Norm sketching the character art and Omri filling in the background and color. The results, like the Queen, Throne, and Throne Room images above - are why we're here. This sort of design work is GOLD - and is what gives me confidence that we've got the right team building the foundation for Asylum.
A little reminder that we wouldn't be here without YOU. Thank You!
Up next, Norm is working on character designs for the Unicorn. Looks like he'd give the Card Guard Executioner a challenge for the "most painful death in Wonderland" award.
This work in progress image shows Norm refining the design to make the Unicorn a little more surreal and Wonderland-y. I do prefer the wilder look.
Based on this design, I feel we'll need to craft a really memorable narrative, location, and encounter for Alice's meeting with The Unicorn.
What do you think?
Crowd Design
Speaking of having your say at the design table... I've just uploaded Crowd Design Episode #9 to YouTube. This was a special EU broadcast of the weekly design sessions where we continued working our way through gameplay suggestions.
Want to give it a listen? Hit THIS LINK.
A big shout out to our community and mods for getting up early (in the US) to record and manage this session. Asteria Visual, Magus, and Taylor - we couldn't do it without you! Well, we could but then there'd be no recording or air conditioning noises ;)
Pleading From Font Lord
Omri sends along the re-work of the Pleading Dress. He says (and I agree) that the previous designs were just too clean and neat. At this stage in the game, Alice should be really low in terms of mental state and confidence. Her clothes should reflect that fact. What do you think?
Going hand in hand with that... it's the start of a new month!
That means Font Lord has a massive task ahead to compile all the eligible Patrons and send out surveys for art prints and necklaces.
He pleads, "Give me some time to collect all the info and sort it. Then I'll send out surveys and we'll start shipping your stuff. Please?"
Poor Font Lord... Please do allow him a little time for the monthly sorting effort. Patreon's back-end does NOT make this an easy task. Sad.
That's it for now... it's actually Sunday afternoon here in China but it's been designated a "work day" so here we are!
More art and updates later this week along with a reminder for the Crowd Design Session and upcoming Livestream.
You are all very much loved and appreciated for the contributions and support you provide to us and our project(s). I hope you have a wonderful day! :)
From Shanghai with Skulls,
-American
Comments
That Dark Wonderland poster is insane! I NEED that! I can get it later with the 3 times $35 pledge, right?
I love it that you release older prints from Omri, they are GOLD! Also I really like the pleading dress, I agree that Alice should look worn out.
Oh I'm so glad there will be the Unicorn in the game! It would be awesome to see his design in my favorit version of Wonderland :) I also can't decide which Queen I like more... maybe this one could be an awesome Duchess?
The art print is gorgeous!! I love the skull boxes idea too (especially the "eyeball" , "mushroom skull" and "Blood beetle" !)
I love everything! It’s such a crazy world and all the stuff you guys pull and form from it is amazing. The Pleading dress really ties in well.
American McGee
Coming up. It's the "May Print" and you are charged for May at the start of June. So keep your pledge on for May until you are charged in early June and you'll be fine. It confuses me too, BTW.
American McGee
Me too! After I finished the draft edit, I scrolled through it and went, "Wow." We are creating some amazing stuff. Again, could not be doing this without the Insane Children. You all deserve a big round of applause for making possible this sort of creative output!
American McGee
Despite what you may have heard, China's labor laws are actually more strict and pro-worker than many countries in the world. I've heard it said China is more pro-worker than even France. Certainly, the laws on the books are quite clear regarding work hours, days, overtime, pay minimums, etc. And in my experience, at least in the first tier cities, the majority of people enjoy a healthy work-life balance and benefit from those laws. There are, of course, exceptions - and we often read of those in the news (this is true for countries outside of China as well). Working on Sunday... well, we had 4 weekdays in a row off, and are then asked to work two Sundays on either side. The ultimate result is 2 days of paid vacation wrapped into some repositioned weekend days for a full 4-day holiday. Works for me. Works for everyone I know here. Anyway, not trying to rant, but am concerned about misconceptions people might have about China (or Thailand, etc) when coming from outside. My experience in this region is that people are, by and large, happy and healthy. Different flavors of government and culture, to be sure, but everyone shares the same common goal of keeping the cattle fat and happy ;)
I was literally woowing on this post! This artprint is amazing. I can really imagine Alice looking like this in-game, and I don't care if she has to be a child. This is Alice to me! :D Just imagine the model from the print looking like this in-game. :O Amazing stuff, everything!
Amy Gauna
My favorite piece of merchandise will be the wall piece with the shifting eye with the flapping butterflies, I think. I always loved the butterfly dodge effect in A:MR!
Amy Gauna
Hopefully labor laws in China will improve a bit more.. it does really stink that they give you those days in exchange for the Sundays... is that a choice or mandated? Personally, I would rather not have any 6-day work weeks.
Incredible art, as always. I think the eyeball, amongst the butterflies, could be REALLY creepy with movement. And I imagine the skull screaming as tentacles grip and tether its face, that would be something...of nightmares, hahaha.
OMG I'm so excited about the content in this update! I'm totally want that art print! The pleading dress revision makes Alice look so absolutely distraught and devastated.... As for the boxes, I'm jumping aboard on the hype train. Choo choo!
SUGGESTION: So for the unicorns story my idea is that Alice makes her way to looking glass land but she must make her way though the chess graveyard and thst is where the uncorn lives as king. He and his semi human subjects take apart the land with long war (because in the book they are always fighting for the crown) and defeat the lion and steal the throne. Alice finds the corpses of the chess villagers within the graveyard. Alice must find the lion locked away in a gold cage because he is a world eater and will eat all but gold.(according to alchemy) Alice hops on his back snd the quickly return where they fight the unicorn and his minions. The lion consumes the unicorn (taking the form of a fireball with a black hole for a mouth) and takes the crown back allowing Alice to pass through the gates to looking glass land to save the Red Queen.
Jen
I love the new pleading dress!!
Such a beautiful post. Lots of exciting things in the works. I'm loving that giant eyeball with the butterflies. It's gorgeous. I would definitley buy a lot of these given I have the funds and the space at that time. The poster calendar is helpful. Unicorn is looking awesome. Love the more roughed up and sinister looking one. The pleading dress...hmmm. I do love her hair and the dirtiness of her. Is it supposed to look like a vegetable with roots? Almost like she got plucked out of the garden for being rotten? Good luck and Godspeed to you Sir Font Lord! xo
I love May’s art print! 😍 Is that print the one patrons would have been charged for a few days ago (at the $75 level), or coming up in about a month’s time? Sorry, I get confused with the timing on the art prints sometimes, haha.
Anna Lepper
Pleading Dress v4 does look pretty cool, but does it match the imagery we want? Honestly it looks to me like she was dressed in a more woman-like outfit in the asylum and managed to dig her way out to escape. The last version seemed more child-like.
I am really digging the skull and tentacle mirror combo thing. If that ever got made into a convincingly surreal physical item I would HAVE to have it. Dress looks great and I definitely am digging the shaggy wild unicorn design. It’s something different and dynamic.
Lulu will totally grow to love the baby over time X3 just have to get used to not being the only baby. Really enjoy the stuff you and Yan have showed us in terms of the physical works. I think my favorite of the sketches is the skull with the mushrooms and wonderland plant life coming out of its eye. Love all Norman's contributions since has been back! I think the only part of the dress I'm not a fan of is the skirt as it kind of resembles a trash bag, but maybe that is a subconscious thing I'm supposed to feel considering her mental state at that point. I definitely get why it would look more dirty and disheveled as the bargaining dress.
Wendy Jaa
I love the physical stuff you're working on! I'd buy all of it! I'm loving this collaboration of Omri and Norm. They're a great artistic team and I'm grateful to have them working with us! I'm super excited to see that you're considering "Alice Come Back" as a print, though I'm not sure if the realistic Alice with Cheshire would make a good art print. I'm loving the new pleading dress as it fits very well thematically, but perhaps it should be more dress-like. It kinda looks like she's wearing a curtain. 😬
