Released / Insular Insomnia by Todd Lee & Mama Bear

It’s a disease…once you catch it you’re lost!

Insular Insomnia: An amusement park on the Island of Insomnia. After years of hard work, during which period parts of the island were closed for the public due to construction, the Park is now nearing completion!


From Pirates Nest to Amusement Park in little over 300 years......


The island with surroundings when it all started in 1700:


And nowadays:


1 = location of the entrance area
2 = location the city Insomnular (not shown on map)
3 = location of the palace
4 = location of the old village
5 = volcanic island
6 = location of the very first settlement
7 = beach, location of hotel, racers, zoo
8 = docking quay for large ships
9 = old entrance to the inner sea with nowadays a lighthouse
10 = old entrance to the inner sea in 1700
11 = where nowadays the docking quay is located
12 = where nowadays the city is located

The dotted line gives approximately what is shown on the actually park map (we made an exact miniature of the island on a 80x80 map to show you the surroundings: A circle of rocky islets. The actual map is 150x150).

History of the Island

Once upon a time, somewhere near the end the 16th, beginning of the 17th century, there was a small kingdom, one of many in those days. This kingdom was ruled by the Insomnia family. (Rumor has it that the name of the disease derives from them!)
They were an energetic lot with, but an unsavory sort. “If I can take it, it’s mine” seemed to have been their motto and that was how their kingdom came to pass.
The Kingdom was located at the coast, in the midst of an active seafaring nation. Sailing is of course an excellent way to land quickly, take what you want, then vanish as quick as you came!
Now, the ruling king at that time had 4 sons. Although the entire family was rather a nasty lot, his eldest son really made a mess of it.
When he actually tried to murder his father to get the throne, the king took it personal and banned his son with his compatriots to any island his faithful captain could find “as long as it was well out off the way.” They were to be left there with few supplies and NO ship! After some days at sea the prince and his friends managed to free themselves. They took the ship and killed all men loyal to the king and sailed on in search for a good, isolated spot to live.
On a sunny day they reached the island. It was known to all seafarers as one of the most dangerous spots in the entire ocean. The island is encircled by rocks and rocky islets like the teeth of a shark and the waters close to the circle are very dangerous indeed. One does not attempt to land unless one is tired of living!
Purely by accident, or luck they found the one place where the circle could be entered. To their surprise they found that the waters within the circle were, although shallow in places, well sailable and they carefully circled the island and finally landed close to the waterfalls. Here they built their first settlement……….

Here you see a few impressions, made by a painter who visited the island some months ago, of part of that area. The old settlement is painstakingly reproduced using old manuscripts as a guide.

One of the two waterfalls:



The very first building of the settlement:



Later expansions in the area:




To be continued………….

Enjoy!

Todd Lee & Mama Bear

i cant give feedback when i cant even see what i am looking at. good storyline though.

The screens are maybe a little too blurry. I really like the massive overviews, they look very nice.

Overviews look nice and I like the story but I can't see anything in the other screens besides a green inverted coaster.

I love those overviews. And this way of advertising really makes me curious.

I want so see screens. The overviews are fab! But I want to see the island not a painting of it. It makes me excited LOVE it

even though the screens are blurry i can still see a nice, dense jungle atmosphere. if you can pull this concept off right, this will be an awesome park. those overviews are great as well.

Yes, the "oil paintings" are blurry....but back away from your monitor a few feet and look again......Also, the next set will show slightly more. The ones shown now are from the oldest part of the island with lots of wood and situated in, indeed, dense jungle. All those browns and greens tend to blurr more....
When the history of the island is told, illustrated with "paintings", we'll get to showing "photos" when we're telling you more about the park as it is today......

We hope you'll enjoy this way of presenting the park to you!

Mama Bear

Thanks for the replies!

Answers are soon to come.

Edited by Todd Lee, 14 April 2006 - 08:06 PM.

It’s a disease…once you catch it you’re lost!

History of the Island of Insomnia: part 2

………………….. Since they had a fast and well equipped ship, they took up piracy. Within 2 decades the prince was filthy rich and feared throughout the 7 seas. His success had drawn many other pirates to the island and now he had a complete fleet and hundreds of followers and the community on the island prospered. They had moved to the west part of the island and built a village there and the prince began to build a great palace.
By this time the prince had been joined by his 3 brothers. There had been a revolution in his fathers kingdom. The princes 3 brothers barely escaped with their lives on a ship just before the harbor was closed. They went in search for their brother and he forgave them not standing up for him when he was banned and let them in. However, obviously he didn’t trust them entirely for at that same time the majority of his wealth mysteriously vanished……Nobody knew where it had gone,, and the prince died refusing to say anything about it. In later years it was looked upon as a myth…..
There was enough left though and for another 20 years the fortune multiplied.
In all those years, although there were many attempts by nations worldwide, no one was ever able to approach the island with a fleet large enough to end the family’s piracy practices.
Yet the family began to have second thoughts. They feared that one day someone would manage to breach the islands defenses, and would destroy everything that was established. Many of the island inhabitants were tired of living in constant fear for reprisals and in 1790 this accumulated into an uproar on the island. Part of the palace was destroyed and the Insomnia family was forced to give in. They took their riches, and paid many countries unspeakable amounts of money in order to gain amnesty. When this was granted they became traders and sailed the seas to buy and sell goods. Next to that they exported several of the products the island provided for. The tropical climate and rich, fertile soil on the island enabled them to grow agricultural products and it also turned out that the island had rich iron and silver deposits so they went into mining as well. And of course seafood and pearls!……………….

Here are a few impressions, by the same painter, of the village and the palace.

The center of the village (circa 1750), now completely restored:


Part of the palace complex(completed in 1760): The square at the back of the palace with what used to be the chapel but now is a music hall and part of the fortifications surrounding the palace. In the center of the square you see a monument for the first Insomnia:


The palace prison (now houses a shop and apartments):


To be continued…….

Enjoy!
Todd Lee & Mama Bear

Edited by Mama Bear, 16 April 2006 - 04:09 PM.

The archy actually looks pretty neat from the blurred screens, even if a bit simple. Its quite a fresh style by the looks of it. I can make out some sort of pirate ship in the first one lol. I think you need a better camera.

-X-

They're supposed to be oul paintings^

Its really worthless advertising when we cant even see anything. What i can see is very simple blocky buildings

They're supposed to be oul paintings^

Umm...didn't you see the wink?

As for these screens, I can see stuff better but I still can't judge. What I can see is a bunch of pirate roofs and no flat roofs. You should get some in there.

Actually i didnt see the wink, infact i read it as somthing completly different..

Edited by Richie, 16 April 2006 - 04:21 PM.

These posts are more about the story.. The actual photos of the park are coming soon.

Thanksf for the comments and input!

Some of the first photo's by our photographer Albert Von Buieren who just returned from a visit to the island.


part of the city: Insomnular


part of the palace complex.

In both you see one of the biggest coasters in the park.
When the recent living Insomnia visited Japan some years back, he was mightly impressed by the Thunder Dolphin in LaQua in Tokyo. He contacted the manufacturers and designers to build him a simular coaster in the city: The Insane Insomnular. The track is longer than the Thunder Dolphin and the max speed is slightly higher. Same as the Dolphin, Insane Insomnular finds its way through, over and around the buildings of the city!

Enjoy!
Todd Lee & Mama Bear

Edited by Mama Bear, 19 April 2006 - 12:59 PM.

Looks great! Although I think one support column would be just fine, I think 4 support columns are a bit too much.

-Ryan

I really like the colours of the coaster, and the architecture is nice.

I don't like the bench in the first screen, it doesn't really fit with the path, in my opinion. However, they're really good teaser screens, if that's the biggest thing I can pick out...

It all looks lovely apart from those weird horror fences stacked up as a kind of border on the building in the second screen. What's up with that?

Ryan - Normally I would agree with 4 supports being overkill, but in this instance it just seems to fit in. (that may be because I've been seeing them for so long) Once a larger screen is shown of this area, I'd be interested to know if they haven't grown on you.
Turtle - Thanks.. and the bench looks much better when viewed with the surrounding area as a whole.
Mantis - The fences do kind of stand out. That is part of the "old palace", the prince just didn't have much to work with back then...


FYI, this park was started 1-2 years ago. Mama probably remembers better than I do.

Thanks for the feedback guys.