A Reflection on the Nature of Shadows

So, Shadow Alice is essentially Alice's dark side, which has grown and strengthened as her life has progressed, finally manifesting as a dark version of Alice after killing Bumby? Cool. I like the whole thing with her coming out of the mirror. Maybe she becomes the tall, gruesome version with the burned face in the final encounter?

Greyson Kehm

she's the black swan to alice's white swan

Rolan Fox

I love the idea that she has total black eyes with a red iris, totaly suits a shadow alice. All versions are pretty nice, but the dress of the last version, i would draw it like dripping black oil? 🤔

That first one *chef kiss*

thed4rkestrose

I like either .. I love the creepier sunkin face.. but I wouldn’t mind either. Both awesome. I do like the idea of maybe the creepier version when she’s running out of health.

Sarah McKeegan

If she truly is the Alice we've known best throughout the past two games, I feel like she should be true to that personality: not overtly frightening, but sinister and clever and persistent. If you just make her into a monster, she loses so much depth. I feel like she would look much truer to herself (as shadow/past Alice) if she had her characteristic smirk instead of a grimace/scream. It's so much more intimidating if your enemy is self-assured and cunning instead of just a mindless monster.

Jahnavi Hurley

Most recognisable would be Alice in Harvest Dress. Although i agree with previous comments that all of the possible characters could be used. If this is a realistic outcome, of course.

The harvest dress version is the best in my opinion. It looks more like a shadow version of Alice I would recognize while playing.

Yup totally on board with this. She needs to be her own being. Fire is how she was born do she needs to carry those elements in her design. I think that the spooky Alice is okay?? But she isn't what I would choose for Shadow Alice as a whole. I much prefer some of the ones Joey has done. Tho i do think she needs to be aged up quite a bit to make her stand apart from the child.

Firstly HI Alex!!! Also I think that Shadow Alice should be a kind of shape shifter in the Eyes of Child Alice. But in every iteration of her appearance she is either burned. On fire. Or clothed in smoke and embers. The shadow being Borne of the fire and in se ways beinga Phoenix taking over the reigns of Alices life has always been my mindset for her. Her appearance has got to be inspired by the fire somehow. I Definitely agree with Greg that don't so much think she should be dressed like The ruin because it takes away from her being her own entity but I Definitely think Joey is on the right track. However one complaint I do have is that in these new variations Shadow Alice has got to look older then Child Alice. Because in alot of ways the Shadow is an older and darker more sardonic version of the Child. SO perhaps we dress that way. I think physically she needs to look older so that we Definitely see how different they truly are. Okay! That's all I have to say about that but I do enjoy these crowd design posts very alot :)

Hi everyone, just want to thank you all for your feedback and discussions here. Some very interesting stuff, and it seems we're on the same page in a lot of areas. I've literally just jumped off a call with American this morning, and we've covered a lot more ground and narrative structure in regards to the Shadow. I have a refined visual pass to complete for the Shadow Character Design now in my workflow, we'll share that when it's ready. One of the key initial targets we had in the brief for this task was definitely showing the Shadow in varying stages of "darkness/corruption" through the game. So expect to encounter multiple iterations of the Shadow in Asylum. Let's get spooky. Chat soon everyone, keep that feedback coming!

Alex Crowley

I love the design you have for Harvest Alice and Shadow Alice. This is such a good concept of them both. The boss Shadow Alice reminds me of the girl from The Grudge and the ring put together. Perfect and more than enough to fuel my nightmares lol. All three of these designs are Shadow Alice? Or Is the Harvest dress just a design for gameplay? If not why not use all of them in the game. You say we see glimpses of her throughout the game. Maybe seeing her in all three stages would be interesting to see all versions through playing. I think I lost what I was trying to suggest lol Nvm. Love all of these Alice's My favorite though is the Harvest dress version.

You know I actually never really cared for the harvest dress or the spooky face either. The harvest dress doesn't mean anything to me visually. It's just slick feathery bits and the only interesting Alice-y part of it is the skull/red design on the back of the dress. I definitely also never really like the spooky face. The mouth feels almost pasted on and generally gives me cursed monster high character vibes with the contour, gauntness and empty stare. Neither things look like Alice very meaningfully to me tbh. I think leaning into the burning embers or wood aesthetic with wisps /smoke/embers incorporated into the dress would be awesome.

RedBreloom

I most like the left-most version in Alex’s main image and the visual design of the“Ash Child” version by Joey. The concept of Shadow Alice as something aberrant to the Child and damaged by the fire comes in most strongly on those two. At least from the Child’s point of view, I think it’s important to capture how damaged our Adult Alice actually is visually. The Harvest dress designs have never really worked for me aesthetically as they all seem too connected to the visual language of the Ruin thereby not making Shadow Alice her own thing and something about her spooky face always seemed so goofy to me. As a suggestion if her design is being looked into again, perhaps look at embers or burned wood (as briefly noted on Joey’s 2nd stage drawing) or perhaps shattered glass.

I like a mix of I and IV for the whispiness and cracked skin. If she's the fighter then she's taken a lot of damage. And the psychological shadow self is a part that wants to be acknowledged and seen, it'd make sense she'd want the other her to see some of the pain she's endured. Especially since the outside world cannot or will not see it.

RedBreloom

harvest dress is best. looks prettiest. maybe the sunken face can be a mode of that dress such as when she's low on health (just an example). broken face alice also looks good, but i wouldn't want that instead of harvest dress--just in addition

Great design!

I like all of them. The first seems a bit extreme. Maybe that's what Shadoe Alice become without anything to balance her. The little girl version is really wicked looking too, but I think that last version with the white eyes is the winner. She's still Alice but more raw.

Stephanie Groth

I actually like the kind of smoky looking appearance of the left-most Alice in the main image. I think "goo" is too much like ruin, and the smoky darkness is much cooler. Almost kind of a Dementor vibe. Dark, scary, and ghostly.

Wendy Jaa

I am looking forward to seeing Shadow Alice when the game is done.

Death of Ink

Gotta admit I'm liking the floaty hair type shadow Alice. She's like a mixture of each image, not quite the child shadow or the top pic which resembles more like a zombie. The zombie like character I think is a bit OTT even for Alice and you've already established the child shadow isn't what we're looking for since shadow Alice is a fighter who's been through all of it and is a older version of herself. The artwork is amazing however!!! Kudos!!

Maybe Omri's Alice, but with a burnt scar on her face and white eyes? Or with her face in black shadows?

I think a combination of the first and last image would be amazing.

I would propose Shadow Alice takes multiple forms. The final image can be close to her “hero form”, but I think there should be encounters where she appears more monstrous and ugly, because we are seeing her through Child Alice’s eyes. I’d like her to look very monstrous at the beginning, and as Child Alice becomes more familiar and less scared of her, she starts to resemble her true self.

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

I love the second child-like image by Joey, but I reeeeally love the shadow effect that Alex has done, maybe a combination of those rather than the harvest dress? 🤔

The first an last images are both amazing, I think it would be nice to find a way to merge them since the first shows a lot more progression. The burnt Alice is also amazing aesthetically but maybe doesn’t fit the character

I love them all, but the variation on the harvest dress has my attention the most

I love this 🥺