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americanmcgee
americanmcgee

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No Redress for the Red Queen

Dear Insane Children, 

Whew! Finally back in Shanghai after a whirlwind of travel to Thailand. During my time there I caught up with Liz and Jamie of Followtheboat - who are slowly making their way around the world aboard a boat with a cat. If you like posh British accents, boats, cats, or just the simple schadenfreude that comes from seeing people stuck in a marina for ages on end (that's why I follow them)... check out their Patreon page! Lots of great writing, photos, and video of their challenges and adventures. 

Meanwhile back in the Land of Wonder work continues on our pre-production of Alice: Asylum. 

Joey continues her work on the Tarot Card ideas and has sent along a spreadsheet (attached to this post) containing some ideas for character associations with various cards. She's asking for YOUR feedback on these ideas - so if you are a tarot expert and have thoughts to share, please do so in the comments below. 

NEW RULE: For future livestreams we're putting in place a rule to help with reading and responding to your comments. In the background we'll continue reading all your comments and collecting your ideas as they come in. But for future livestreams we will not read every single comment live - we simply do not have time. If you have a question please make it clear by using a "?" and calling out: "QUESTION: ..." Do try to keep your questions limited to those things you cannot easily find via Google. 

We will still read out and discuss comments and suggestions which are particularly interesting - or those design ideas you put forth which feel like the sort which might end up in the game. 

You can leave your thoughts on this in the comments below! :P

Jennifer is working on a new set of embroidered patches. This is the latest for the White Rabbit. I wrote back to her with this feedback: 

I think the cravat is confusing the concept. It took me a minute to figure out where the rabbit is in there!
I think #1 is in the right direction but the rabbit's silhouette needs help. Don't be afraid to render it as a realistic (ie non-Wonderland) rabbit... it's meant to be a calling card that those of us "in the club" to display in the real world. To normies it should look normal and maybe a bit cryptic. It shouldn't come off as too fantastical or magical (though the symbols might lead someone to believe there's a religious / magik feel to it?). 
I was thinking... it's like the sign marking the entrance to a speakeasy or those "hobo glyphs"
Perhaps I am overthinking this... but I want to get it right because the final symbol is something we could carry forward into the game, merch, etc.  

And of course there's the fantastic new dress from Omri (the main image for this post). There's something about Alice's face and hair style in this one which distinctly reminds me of Rachel from "Blade Runner" - appropriate I guess since they were both a sort of mechanical doll? 

Omri is working on a new set of dresses based on the Jabberwock... those will be interesting I bet! 

Alright... have at it in the comments below. We'll cover your QUESTIONS and (interesting) comments in this week's live stream. A reminder for that will be sent out in the next Patreon post of this week. 

I'm off to dig out from all the work piled up in my absence. And Lulu needs a pet. 

From Shanghai with Love, 

-American





Question for live stream must be posed as a question in the comments below.

No Redress for the Red Queen

Comments

I know this is an older update but I love this design, super classical dress. It suits Alice surprisingly well!

I just became a Patreon today because I'm in love with all your Alice's design but this one, this one is my all time favourite alice design. As soon as I saw it I knew i needed to do it for real <3 I have planned to make this for Katsucon 2019 I'm in love <3

SUGGESTION: Blood Dress: Passive - Float / Flutter prototype moves. Maybe even upward motion too, for platforming. Active - Faster healing, weakens poison, increases speed. Drawbacks - No combat boost, perhaps increased aggression (Alice automatically approaches / attacks enemies) due to increased adrenaline.

A little late but I am in love with this dress. Its perfect in every way. The bows, the colors of red and turquoise put together with her porcelain face...its one of the most beautiful dresses I have seen so far! I am hoping at the bottom of my heart that you kept this idea

THIS is beauty &lt;3

Wanderyen Erin

This is LOVELY! 😊👍

The doll look is amazing and fits the relation Alice had with the Red Queen : controlling or mastering.

As far as the patch goes I would render the hat in as more realistic. With the hat in there like that it is very confusing to read as a rabbit

This one is very pretty, I also prefer the ball jointed doll-look - since I'm collecting them :D Buut this actually reminds me more of Oz than Alice.

So far this is my favorite dress design!!

Creepycutiepie

I love love live the the red dress ahh!! The doll like appearance is gorgeous.

Holy crap this is beautiful, I can't wait to see more. I'm so excited and obsessed

I think the dress and hairstyle are really beautiful, I think my favorites so far, as they say is not very "alice" but I think that in a transition process you can allow more "risky" variations in their dresses. As with the suit.

Hello!💀🔪

beautiful 💀🔪❤

Wow fashion queen red 💀🔪❤

Awesome very💀🔪😍

Wow! The Red Dress looks amazing! The doll-ish legs do bug me a bit. I wonder why did Omri choose to go with that design. As for the Secret Garden Maze, is the area going to rotate and adjust as Alice walks on different parts of it? Because that is going to give the game an interesting feeling that is maybe more like Wonderland. Joey should do a mirror world puzzle concept, where the controls are mirrored. So moving the joystick left will make Alice move right and vice versa. We obviously don't want this place to be too big or it will cause a lot of frustration. So for this area, it will look like a mirrored version of another place just like how Alice's house looks mirrored after walking through the mirror in "Through the Looking Glass".

I'm not really an expert on tarot cards, but i can see some similarities between certain characters and the meanings of cards - The Lovers could represent Alice's family, and the choice on her part to either acknowledge or deny their deaths. I feel the Caterpillar would be better represented by the Hierophant, being a stable and wise part of Alice's mind. The Duchess has appeared neither wise of mentally stable in either game so far. The Hanged Man could embody the White King, who can personify sacrifice, punishment, and endurance. Alice had to sacrifice him on her journey in AMR. Dr. Wilson could be The Magician, since he comunicates with Alice, helping her deal with knowledge and information.

LOVE this dress

Kate Tildes

RED IT ALL! Ill keep this short. The dress IS elegant and amazing (sadly it makes me feel as if its not alice..) Bit i do love risks, The patch is nice (i like No.1).

Saleh Abu-Rashid

The Red Dress is well designed, but I don't feel like it matches Alice. I think there was a reason the dresses in A:MR that physically changed Alice's body into something else were DLC (Late but Lucky, Hattress, Cheshire). As fun as it is, that concept is out of place with the rest of the dresses and feels like it should be more of a post-playthrough bonus thing or extra content. The wide skirt and huge shoulder puffs also change her silhouette in a significant way that I'm sure would be jarring and erode the visual identity the player should have of Alice. Against my point, however, I suppose changes like this fit in with the chaos theme and explore a bit of the identity crises a young woman in Alice's situation might be struggling with, to some degree. I think there are more elegant ways to display the theme and character though.

Jay Olsen

I think the design is so beautiful but I want to be honest and say it does not feel anything like Alice!! It feels like a fashion doll or runway art but, I feel like it misses the mark when it comes to your thoughts and story of Alice. The two are not mixing.

the dress is great by itself, but I don't like it on Alice. she looks like a meat cake to me ¯ \ _ (ツ) _ / ¯

Can't open the Tarot.xlsx file to view :(

Christine Phillips

I think the only thing abiut that is The Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen are two different characters so I'm wondering ig they will exist in the same region

I am so happy that the presentation has been well received so far! I also love the new dress!!! So pretty! I'm wondering how your going to differentiate the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts tho? Also will the dresses be different? And the secret garden is my favorite wonderland image so far!Alice's burned nightgown from the night of the fire would be great for the bargaining stage I feel because that was all she had of the fire besides her rabbit. I'm excited about the tarrot cArds and the prospect of financiers!

Oh yes yes YES to the dress!!! Love the colors and LOVE the doll concept! Also in love with the "Secret Garden" design. Would love to see a level design like this in the game. I am NEVER disappointed with these updates!

OH MY GOD, I’m obsessed with this dress design.

I love, love, love this design! I was wondering about a red dress for the Queen of Hearts area. I had noticed on the balance dress it had a Queen of hearts area on the location and I had already commented about making it have splashes of red somehow to represent the queen's signature color. I also love the doll/articulated looking legs! I know her arms are covered but, would this also be on her arms and could this also be applied to her neck to make her look more doll like? I love the laurel leaves as the head piece but, I was thinking since it's Queen dress maybe the middle of the laurel leaves, in the back, could have a small QoH's crown? I'm a huge fan of the Queen. I made her dress for a convention two years ago (the dress from Alice Madness) and I've loved her since. Such complex characters, I remember thinking after the first game that all the elements in Alice's mind/Wonderland were "evil" but, it's more complex than this. It's a warring mind, how you can hate yourself as much as love yourself. Have guilt and have love and hate and happiness. I think the Queen is as much crucial as Alice herself. Kind of two sides, Alice could be herself or end up like the queen/lizzie. Broken or healed.

Tarot - I'm excited for this! As others mentioned, the meanings are little different and Death especially is generally misunderstood. A few suggestions from my own knowledge/experience: The Fool - Alice; Death - The Caterpillar (the card itself is about transformation, letting go, moving on, just as the Caterpillar transforms); the Train for the Chariot, as it is something that Alice learns to control herself; the Cheshire possibly as the Hierophant, dispensing knowledge and someone who Alice can learn from, the Tweedles might be good for Temperance, balance; Pawns and chessmen as the Hanged man/sacrifice, and Hatter for Wheel of Fortune? (running his world in game 1, being run over in Madness). I love Bumby as the Devil and Jabberwocky for the Tower.

LOVE these designs and appreciate you sharing and receiving info.

Absolutely LOVE The dress and everything about it! I wouldn't change a thing on this one! &lt;3

Christine Phillips

Joey’s art is spectacular as usual! I quite like the concept for the red dress, though I agree with the others who said the sleeves seem a bit too puffy (and I’d like to see the skirt part less wide). My first QUESTION relates to design consistency: in AMR all the dresses had very similar silhouettes (same dress/sleeve/bow shape, roughly same hair) which Asylum seems to be stepping away from, is that an intentional design choice to create more variety in the form of the dresses? While its creating a bunch of interesting designs, I worry that at a certain point more casual fans may no longer see the video game version of Alice in these dresses without consistent design elements to anchor her. But that might just be me… QUESTION 2: Is Omri going to do redesigns of Hysteria and Rage? I’d like to suggest Hysteria doesn’t have her bleeding chest wound until after Alice defeats/masters her. QUESTION 3: As nearly every dress design has stepped away from the classic boots, is the intent to make the “classic” dress the final obtained dress? A visual representation of her in-game progress and maturing?

QUESTION: Will there be any fights as hard as the final Jabberwocky battle from the first Alice? Honestly, I'm REALLY hoping not. I even changed my game to Easy mode and he STILL 2 shot killed me (on the PS3). I havent been able to beat that game yet.... Also, if you end up remastering the first Alice, would it be possible to make the Jabberwocky fight easier atleast on Easy mode? Sorry if it sounds silly to ask such things, it just really makes me sad I couldn't finish such an amazing game and I worry it will happen in a future release as well.

Destiny Jenson

The dress is absolutely beautiful, though I agree with some of the other comments that the sleeves look just a little too long and are throwing me off slightly. Perhaps if the sleeves ended just above the elbow at the puff with her bare arms showing another doll joint at the elbows and wrists? That way you can take the doll body concept even further? The colors and the hairstyle are wonderful and the design is so detailed, it really shows how talented Omri is!

Consider Cheshire Cat for Magician and maybe the Vorpal Blade/Hysteria Alice for Judgment?

I love the look if the red dress and how her body has the mechanics of a doll. I believe patch 1 would do great BUT QUESTION 1..Do you think it may be better to keep the rabbit blank and white but put more detail into the hat? Maybe add or change color to the eye? My attention always went to his eyes QUESTION 2... do you think that the red dress would look neat if you took I form of the crown and put it on alice but have blood on it? Not massively drenched? Ot would give a dont mess with me vibe since the skull on the back of her dress is the queen.

Kristina Shelton

I am beyond excited for the tarot deck. I'm going to brainstorm for a good Magician idea!! Love the turquoise accent in the dress as well. Yayayayayayayayay thank you for sharing!!!

I really love the dress from Omri! Definitely looks like she dressed herself, because she looks like a ballerina toy doll. Players view of the Secret Garden is really amazing! I love the Escher idea, but feared it would look terribly confusing when implemented, but in this image it looks great and manageable! QUESTION: I spoke to AsteriaVisual and we had similar ideas to a power up mode like Hysteria, and I was curios about your thoughts on it: In short, sometimes you can get so depressed, that you tell yourself that how you feel doesn't matter at all. When you convince yourself of this and repress how you feel, you can suddenly do things that you normally otherwise wouldn't be able to. For example, Alice is surrounded by enemies, she breaks down and cries. Time stops/slowdown (like when you enter Hysteria), a Dark Alice appears and ends up convincing Alice to ignore that she's scared and exhausted and provokes an anger in Alice that makes her get up and fight with super-human strength. In the end, maybe this is the "real" enemy Alice has to fight? The physical manifestation of her guilt and insecurity, in order to gain the strength and confidence she has in AMA and AMR. So, what are your thoughts on this? I hope I explained it properly.

The dress is great! However the legs don't really fit here, dolls were Bumby's thing so I'm not sure why its being put with the Queen. The maze idea is good and it could work well with one of the stages of grief. Showing how lost Alice is. In my opinion the rabbit patch looks too complicated and when it becomes an actual patch the symbols might be hard to see. That's all from me See you at stream

Love love love the dress. i am so in love with all the costumes! i also really like the patch ideas. i like the rune background on #1. Not sure what could be done to improve the silhouette, i'm rubbish at that kind of thing.

That dress is gorgeous! Nothing else to say. Joeys level art is so lovely, can’t wait to see the night version!

Oh my god! I was thinking that there are can’t be better dress than blackening. This dress is REALLY the best of all, I can’t say anything else, I just have no words. And also I’m so happy that EA’s answer is positive, this post just made my day! Gonna get 10$ tier soon! QUESTION: What about making sleeves like half of heart shape? So together sleeves make a shape of full heart Also I don't understand why does many people saying that this is not looking like Alice. Every dress and hair are unique, unlike the dresses from AMR Great work!

I love the fleshy look of the dress, it’s very inkeeping with the red queen’s aesthetic. I agree with other comments that the poofy sleeves seem to be a bit too long. I’m not very knowledgable about tarot cards but based on the description, would the carpenter work for the star?

YAASS QUEEN. Omri absolutely outdid himself on this dress, I can definitely see this as a fan favorite. I know I would love to have a figure of this next to my AMR ones. I can't decide what cosplay I want to make first!

American has mentioned Dodgeson in previous livestreams and he absolutely does not want him in the game

I like the idea of a speakeasy like 'secret symbol' patch! Yes to being more obscure, maybe have a silhouette of the rabbit with glowing eyes face on with him glaring up from the rim of the hat? As for the tarots the meanings look good, maybe incorporate the reverse meanings too if you like. You can find tarot info here &amp; on their app that teaches you how to read them etc. <a href="https://labyrinthos.co/blogs/tarot-card-meanings-list" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://labyrinthos.co/blogs/tarot-card-meanings-list</a>

nopedia

The new dress is gorgeous, I love it! The doll legs are such a nice touch, although the hairstyle might be my favourite part of it.

Jelle

I absolutely love this dress. Well done Omri!

Love the Queen outfit (just the joints are kinda off *lol* it wouldn't really work with joints like this XD \BJD \Doll person talking). Love the concept of the floating garden but will it be possible to jump from your place to the stairs\path down of yours\ next? Just some things i would be trying out XD. Have a great day

Jessi St.

I’m excited for the Jabberwocky inspired dresses! I love the red dress above. It’s a stunning design and the details are beautifully done.

Tori

I envisage the lovers as tweedle dee and dum as they are consistantly at odds with themselves as entagled with each other. And Alice us the The Fool. The Fool is one journeys a new path and new ideals but may not see the pitfalls ahead. They take the journey to gain wisdom and gain understanding of new perspectives. This would fit with chaos ying and yang concept of alice. I like the red queen as the priestess an inner wisdom beyond her years. The magician however i see as cheshire cat based on your 2nd game dynamic. He was instrumental in helping guide alice through the damage done to find the lost secrets in her mind. He is quite a powerful mystery that helps shape her. As for the devil carpenter and the walrus fit best slaves to their own desires. Trying to escape themselves and yet submitting to their base desires.

Love the doll look of this new dress and the inclusion of Blue to look like veins. It's got that nice combination of beautiful and creepy Alice is known for. This may be one of my favorite dresses so far for Asylum. Hair looks great, happy to see her usual part in the middle X3. The floating garden castle is beautiful, Joey steals my heart with every piece. I remember some scribbles for various theoretical outfits for Alice Otherlands when it was being decided if it would go a mobile game route and jabberwocky was one of them. It should be interesting to see what this one will look like.

There are some meanings in the Tarot that are not quite right. For example the Tower is sudden change and is considered destructive. Death is always misinterupted and taken by literal meaning. However it is the end percieved self and renewal of new self very much like caterpillar himself. It is a card of change but more constructive than the tower.

Tarot: there is, in fact, a wonderland themed deck of tarot cards already existing. I am in possession of one. I actually find it easier to read based on the characters associated as I know wonderland better than I know tarot. Additionally, I think it quite accurate in terms of characters chosen... Maybe it could be of some use? Question: Has it been discussed to involve Charles Dodgeson as a character in the game? Love the red queen's doll. Red shoes remind be of the ballet/story of the red shoes, do you know it?

Sarah Heist

Love the dress, especially love the crown being incorporated and the veins! Only thing is maybe the off the shoulder is a bit too old for her, considering her age?

Lots of new stuff coming up I'm so excited. I love the new dress.

Lucas Severin

Absolutely in LOVE with this dress ! The contrast between the red and turquoise color in the bow is awesome, and all the veins coming from the skulls eyes is really cool. All the attention to detail in these designs is truly amazing, and makes me even more excited for this game !

I looove the dress! Maybe make the puffy shoulders smaller and not so elongated? The skirt looks somewhat stiff. Otherwise, everything is perfect!

The dress is beautiful, the fact that she looks like a doll could be related to the expectations that society had on girls in that time.

I'm not a fan of the sleeves, they look like weird, veiny kidneys.

Tequila JoJo

I love the dress design it's so pretty! Just wish it was a little less puffy in the skirt part? But her hair and the colors of her dress are so beautiful!!

I love the hair and dress for the queen of hearts. The sleeves look like kidneys or lungs, which works so well with the theme. I feel like the sleeves are too long though. What if it ended in the puff, keep it looking even more like a ballerina. PLUS that garden maze level is going to be amazing. So much fun to play with gravity.


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