TIGSource Forums

---

Description Browsed all of the carts about a billion times and kept going back to this one because the characters would be fun to model.  Not 100% sure on the gameplay but I'm leaning towards a 3D platformer with some puzzle elements.  Maybe the scientists enlist the monkey in catching the escaped lab animals in each level and let him use gizmos/robots/weapons powered by the monkey's helmet.  I'll figure something out. ;D I'll probably use Unity for this since there's some stuff I want to do that my XNA engine can't support yet.  I'd rather spend time on the gameplay than adding features since I have a bit of travel in July as well.		Inspired by (http://famicase.com/08/softs/11.jpg) (http://famicase.com/08/softs/11.jpg)

---

Download
Windows (http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/monkey-freak/download/3153/)
Mac (http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/monkey-freak/files/monkey-freak-mac/download/3153/4239/)
Web (http://gamejolt.com/online/games/platformer/monkey-freak-web/3154/)

How to play
TBD

DO THE CONCEPT IN YOUR DESCRIPTION

Make it Ape Escape style!

You have no idea how big an Ape Escape fan I am, maybe that's why I kept going back to this cover haha.

the monkey can attach various pieces of hardware to his brain-helmet and use them as powerups such as a laser gun or radar

From the case, bananas seem to be the "coin" of this game.

Haha that monkey's expression is priceless. Good luck with this, Chris!

Alternating between working on the main character and getting the basic platforming up and running.  I'll post screenshots up eventually.

Can't wait to see some of those delicious screens.

Hey guys, it's the monkey freak pre-texture/rig/animation:

(http://roachpuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/monkeyfreak.jpg)

Had some time to work on this, the monkey is all done!

(http://roachpuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sneakymonkey.jpg)

Nice looking monkey!  Are you putting more detail into your models than this?  Because i like the N64 vibe you got going on.

Perhaps outlining and cel-shading would make it look more interesting. Right now the model is good, but a bit bland.

Also that's a WICKED chin.

Thanks!  I decided to make it a sidescroller with multiple labs you go back and forth to as you get new items so the camera will be much further away than this screenshot.  Since that's the case, it probably wont get more detailed than this since the polys are wasted at the distance I've been testing it at.


Appreciate the crit, do you mean poly- or texture-wise?  I'm still considering adding more detail to the texture in the fur, metal, and brain, depending on how this model mixes with the environment I'm thinking of.  As for cel shading, I was thinking of doing it but the Unity Indie cel shading is just so ugly.  If I had made this on my engine then maybe since its more crisp and uniform, and also my last TIGS game (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=5249.0) was cel shaded  :) Oh and he actually doesnt have a chin per se, just a big mouth.  Maybe I can make that more readable.

Perhaps a view from the front would make his face seem less like he has a massive chin.

And yeah, the textures are bland.

Basic platforming done along with a lot of behind the scenes stuff thats not apparent from whats playable now.

Platforming test (http://roachpuppy.com/MonkeyFreak): arrow keys to move, Z to jump

(http://roachpuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/platforming.jpg)

Oh wow, looks good. Nice smooth camera and controls.  :handthumbsupL: :)

very nice, but coz you made cool monkey model maybe it will be better to make it bigger on the screen?

I like what you have so far. Works silky-smooth here, with one or two hiccups, though I blame Unity's web player for those.

Hope you release a standalone version with the completed game.

Thanks, yea I plan on having a Windows and Mac build for that reason.  I doubt the web player can handle high quality once the game has more than a few test boxes.

Sorry for the lack of updates, just dont have anything radically different to show off since a lot of the art is placeholder minus a couple of models.  The good news is that most of the programming/gameplay is done, it's just a matter of level design (of which one is completely blocked out) and asset creation now.  I'll post some updates soon!

Oooh, nice, I was wondering where this went.

It feels like the camera's max panning speed should be slightly faster than the monkey's movement so that you can see farther ahead when you're running long distances...  Other than that the controls feel good, and everything seems to be working.

Glad to see one of my most anticipated games making good progress!

WIP screenshot... still missing art as you can see by the grey checkpoint box, blue background and grey level floor  ;D

I'll show off the gameplay this weekend hopefully.

(http://roachpuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/lab1.jpg)

This is lookin good! :D

Got a lot of work done this weekend, thank goodness for the extension.  Here are some screens from the first lab:

(http://roachpuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/mf1.jpg)
This is one of the game mechanics, you can discharge either red or blue energy that will get you through barriers of that respective color.  


(http://roachpuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/mf2.jpg)
Can't tell from a single screenshot, but these are Mega Man style vanishing platforms.


(http://roachpuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/mf3.jpg)

(http://roachpuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/mf4.jpg)

(http://roachpuppy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/mf5.jpg)
Here (and in other shots) you can see one of the many lab rats in this level that you need to rescue.  I also changed the color scheme to match the aesthetic on the cart.

wow, that looks fantastic. can't wait to get my hands on it  :handjoystick:

Phew, done!

Download it below, I'll update the first post as well:
Windows (http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/monkey-freak/download/3153/)
Mac (http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/monkey-freak/files/monkey-freak-mac/download/3153/4239/)
Web (http://gamejolt.com/online/games/platformer/monkey-freak-web/3154/)

That's definitely ambitious to adapt a Famicase in 3D !
The result looks stunning, even if it crashes on my PC (but so does each Unity entry of this contest, so I guess my pc is misbehaving :(

I would have personnaly tried to imitate the original cellshade design, as seen on the cartridge, but I admit it's not that obvious to tweak in realtime 3D.

And maybe you wanted to do smthing else, visually :)

Aww, thanks for trying to play anyway.  Does the web player crash as well?

I did want to go cel shaded originally, but like I said the Unity toon shader looks ugly to me  :droop:  I am using the free version, and I'm wondering if Pro uses a post process technique for edge detection rather than attempting it earlier in the pipeline.

Yup, any Unity game I'm trying with the Web plugin does crash as well, so I'm assuming something is wrong with my PC.

Ok, for the CellShader issue, sorry. Considering the famicase, maybe only Celledge would have been necessary.

Are you familiar with the "Push + Flip normal" technique ?
http://www.moddb.com/tutorials/fake-cell-shading1
http://cokane.com/lines_tutorial.html

Very cool, I can see where that would be useful on platforms where doing the edge detection in real time would be costly (phone, etc.).  And yea, that looks like it would have better results than Unity's shader.

Yup, it usually doubles the polygon budget, and you have to exclude the "edge mesh" from casting shadows, but it's very controlable, and it looks fat & dirty like in "Jet Set Radio" on Dreamcast.

One bug: In the first lab it is possible to jump over the top-right boundary if you jump from the step with the checkpoint. This leads to an infinite free-fall. Either kill the player when they fall below the map, or make it impossible to jump over that barrier to solve the bug!

The rest is great! Graphically the game is gorgeous, and I love how the obstacles are all beakers and Bunsen burners to give it a lab-like feel. The music and dance when you rescue a rat is fantastic and always hilarious. It's a little difficult, but not too much. I finished with all rats and bananas in about half an hour or so. I would eagerly play more levels, either with new obstacles or with new scenery but the same basic mechanics. You could easily adapt the color-change mechanic to other puzzles, like switches that are activated by certain colors, or foes that react differently to your different fields. It is good, simple game design!

I dislike the places where a banana is hidden just past a rat in a dead-end. That makes the player replay segments if they didn't know to look (Or accidentally danced with the rat instead of jumping over it) or makes getting the banana the same as collecting the rat. I'd prefer to see more bananas in difficult to reach places, like on not-so obvious ledges, or between deadly obstacles when you should be focused on dodging and not item collection.

The field-generating mechanic feels a little too short-lived to me. Not only do you need to hit the right color, but you need to time it carefully to last through the barrier. If you hit it too early it wears off halfway through and you die. The segments where you free-fall through several different color barriers or jump through barriers onto moving/disappearing platforms feel like they would be difficult enough without this restriction. Any thought on making the generating mechanic last until you release the button or land?

Congrats on creating what feels like a complete game! Avoiding the feeling of a Demo is difficult in these compos, and you have successfully overcome that hurdle, in my opinion.

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for all the great feedback!  :beer:


Haha yea, my friend found that one as well and posted the screenshot of him standing on the post before jumping on my Facebook.  I was so meticulous about finding all those spots and adding pit triggers in every level except for the one I had done early >_< Thanks, I'll fix that.


That was me being evil, I'll consider moving some of those next update.  Particularly a couple after difficult rats to get to.


This is a tough one... One of my goals was to make timing of the button press critical, and it was actually a lot more strict before.  With the old length of the effect, some of the jumps across vertical beams were near impossible since I didnt add those til the later levels I created so I made the length a little bit longer.  I'll play around with keeping the delay between being able to switch colors and have the effect last longer, currently the two times are tied together and separating them might alleviate some of the difficulty.  


Thanks!

An interesting game you got here. The platforming feels pretty responsive. But I'm gonna have to be honest with you, those rat and monkey models creep the fuck out of me. When they started dancing it felt like I was watching something out of the twilight zone. :wtf:

Other than that it was fairly enjoyable, if a bit bland in places. Good job on getting it finished.

I could only get one rat on the first level, and I couldn't get past the flashing blocks on the second level, in fact it took me ages just to get past the first bunsen on the second level. The music's great though, and I loved the models/animation. Good work.