Umbra Hatter's Domain

A fusion of all three Alices: Adult, Shadow, and Child. That way, the Adult remembers what it means to be a Child, the Child understands that they have to grow up, and the Shadow's darkness is balanced, keeping it from running rampant and destroying Wonderland.

Greyson Kehm

I definitely think Child Alice cannot defeat Shadow Alice without sacrificing herself. For both of them to win *and* lose, it would require a union between the two, which could represent a final acceptance of self and circumstances. "I am the Shadow. I am my own undoing. But I am also my own resilience and strength. " So I think Wonderland would still be dark, in some ways, but no longer a nightmare. I also want to address another concern. I fear relapse for our fictional Alice due to the fact that she really has no support group, and it doesn't seem like she's made any effort to find one. No family, no known friends, and no community to help her share the burden.

Richanne Matthews

I would like to have multiple endings, that when you take some decisions, the result can be seen differently 🤔 Or just two endings, if the normal alice wins, it leads to alice and alice Madness returns and if the Shadow alice wins, it leads to an alternative universe where a another game could be possible for the future 🤔

I like what Megan and Claire said. I like the “neither wins and merger” though, but I misinterpreted this the first time I read it. Though I also like the idea of multiple endings, but you can make one the preferred ending. I can’t say that my childhood had incidents as severe as PTSD, but my dad was sick with kidney disease for most of my younger years thru end of young adulthood. And seems to have shaped my personality in significant ways that I was only recently aware of via a different therapy approach (Rescuer trending archetype) from the past therapy I’ve had, and it seems I’ve overcompensated quite a bit in how I do things professionally and personally with what I think is a strange juxtaposition of narcissism and selflessness/compassion (I might just be ‘normal’ lol). I was pretty sad but a bit muted after my dad passed and when I went to live with my cousin for a while. My cousin’s son (first cousin once removed) at around 15yo was about 15 years younger than me. And had some insight or a few words for me after I expressed something of muted despair. Can’t remember what I said or what he said but it instantly calmed me down and made me feel so much better. I was thinking that even though there’s some innocence, the child has already experienced a gamut of emotions depending on age. And while my FCOR (no idea if Americans have another abbreviation for this lol) knew my dad somewhat limited (from what I saw, but I’m unsure, and his younger brother 8y younger didn’t nearly know my dad as well), he had still lived a bit of life and enough that he really mellowed out from being a rambunctious kid like his 8yo brother.

dv

Oooo cool!!!

ChocolatePyrusArt

I guess for the battle, after fighting Alice should realise shes fighting a part of herself, the more you fight yourself, the more you deny who you are and try to bury your past, acceptance is a step in grievance that helps you heal. Or it might be good to have multiple endings, allow for more replayability.

Perhaps, just as 3 scenarios exist, creat 3 endings? Depending if player loses or wins. Can't speak about stalemate ending for this rarely happens in videogames.

Speaking as a psychotherapist who deals with PTSD patients of all kind of traumas. One of the main topic about PTSD is the "dissociation" that can occur and that could be embodied by Shadow Alice (dissociation state) and young Alice would be the past Self. Usually, when people experience trauma, it's kind of a broken glass with some "parts" that are present in mind ; we need to make these parts connect to each other and to "talk" metaphorically. For exemple, you could have a part of the Self before the trauma, one part like a Protection, one part emboding the Trauma, etc... And we don't want to destroy those parts, we want to create a new narrative where every parts can be in peace and on the same level ; kind of like gluing the broken pieces of the mirror, you still see the cracks but at least it's together again, in one entity. So in the game it could be like young Alice tries to speak / be in touch with Shadow Alice and be reunited again in order to heal. As the caterpillar could say "We can lose ourselves, but there's many ways to discover yourself again"

Speaking as someone who has PTSD from serving in the military and currently going through therapy. I've noticed that as I get better I don't destroy the darkness of what happened to me. It happened I can't change that. What I can change is how I view myself and take that darkness and just accept it. When I did that and as I do it my child inside has changed into something. I still can be a bit of a child in both good and bad ways. But my child is smarter. Her fantasies a little darker. I think they should join together in the end and become something new. Something that changes the alive in the real world because you don't just win over mental trauma even after going through all the stages and therapy. You can still regress but you learn how to pick yourself up from it. You get stronger. Learn to be happy again. And you make connections in the real world who can see every part of you. (like she meets those in the real world that remind her of wonderland in a good way and might hint at them becoming her friends) just some thoughts on my perception of recovering from PTSD. Hope it helps.

It should end how one would wish it to end in every scenario, in every lifetime. Give the gratuitous end game (or near end) boss battle. Have it so the player has to use every single skill they've learned along the way. Have them (child and shadow) talk while they fight "please can we just stop we're on the same side" "if we were on the same side then why was I tossed in a cage in the furthest recesses of her mind?!" In the end when shadow is "defeated" have the battle end in a cutscene where all the illusions of wonderland are shattered, but the darkness doesn't go away. "I..I don't understand. You won. Why am I not gone. Why do I still feel connected with all that she is?" "Because, silly, you are. That's what I was trying to tell you. But you wouldn't listen. We are a part of her. (Alice) We always will be. Neither of us can destroy the other, and it only hurts her to do so." "So what do we do then? " "We do as she does... continue until we are able to rest."

Sarah Heist

I also suffer from PTSD and I honestly think this is the best explanation of it, The parts of the mind, age and personality all seem fragmented. This is such a brilliant conceptualisation of what 'child' Alice represents and how shadow Alice could actually help her.

Ghostie Simmer

Multiple. Endings. Good and bad endings.

I vote for neither! I have PTSD myself and for all the internal conflict, there never feels like a winner. To me, it seems this battle should be almost crushingly well matched and leave us with a sense of loss on both sides. Child Alice’s hope and innocence both inspires Shadow yet makes her lament of the differences between the two, whilst Shadow robs Child Alice of some of her naivety. It seems that they both have the potential to somewhat impact each other in opposing ways, bringing them into a somewhat solemn middle ground. It wouldn’t be a happy one, but one that brings them together and helps Alice to begin the difficult task of integrating the fragments of herself together again. PTSD recovery is often centred around acceptance of both trauma and of the self. It feels as though the two Alice’s balancing each other out and find equilibrium together could really embody that acceptance, and the two characters finally in harmony could play a large role in helping Adult Alice find herself again. All of these characters are so complex and interesting! So excited for production!!

Megan Thomas

Maybe they both lose and as a result they combine together and become one Alice. Maybe the combination makes adult Alice in some way? Maybe we could even go as far as to represent them as a dual weilding Alice. Together they fight a blade in each hand hacking away at the barrier separating them from Adult Alice. Unless we decide to make a final boss of some kind? But what boss would exist in Umbraland? Maybe it is a giant enigma and combination of all of Alices fears fears doubts. That takes the form of different versions of her friends and family?