Thank you for posting these tutorials rinkuhero (I also read the design Doc). I often do not look beyond the next coding challenge or art requirement. Getting exposed to the good design principles like this is both fun to read and enlightening. Please keep them coming.

I am also going with that "dares not sleep" prompt for my game. It realy apeals to the late night basement game dev in me. I like the art style. Are you going to try and contrast cutesy images with disturbing subject mater? Not enough games do this.

New upload with some of the new graphics. I think the dark green pants don't contrast too well with the background, but if his pants get any brighter he will look like the rideler's cousin.



Download at http://www.monkeydev.com/insomnia/ as usual.

I have imported your background and am working on puting your colors on the running guy. I have decided against suspenders and am keeping your green tie as is. I will upload a new build when I am done with the running and jumping frames.

Mir@k, I like your background. I will defiantly include that in the finished version. Your platforms are a good start but they don't have to be so uniform. We can use yours as a base and add little bits of decay here and there.

If you don't mind I would like to keep my stairs instead of your girder.

As for the player's avatar I like yours but I want to give him suspenders and a bit of shading on the shirt. I will not alter him until you say it is ok.

Going forward I would like to get a copy of your background without anything in the foreground. Just post it here. Also please tell me how you want your name to appear in the credits. As stated in my earlier posts I am willing to take what you have given me and run with it. However if you want to contribute more I would welcome it. Here are the art tasks that I envision will need to be completed before final release:

Color in existing platform sprites
? Make more platform sprites and associated masks ?
Make ground level sprite
Make lighthouse top sprite
Color in existing player animation.
Make individual animations for each power up
? Make more power ups and animation ?
Make still image for Sad ending
Make still image for Happy ending
Make still image for Main Menu
? Make still image for Intro Screen (run on game start prior to Main Menu)?
? Make some Lovecraft style back story to justify why player is running around in a lighthouse taking drugs. To be displayed in the intro screen and possibly happy ending. ?

To prevent duplication of effort tell me which if any of these tasks you want to do. Also I am taking off the "Artist Needed" form the subject line, but I will still accept art submitted from anyone if it looks better than what we already have.

Doesn't flash do this kind of thing? I work more on ths sction script side of things so I wouldn't say I am a flash expert. However if you are just tring to make a FK puppet show, flash has a lot of tools to rotate and move sprites using keyframes and interpolation.

Happy Halloween everyone.

I thank those of you who have offered to help me with the art. I hope you have not gone off the deep end and attempted to re-skin the entire thing yourself. I keep ranting about a quick mockup and I figure I should provide an example. This took me about 45 min with the GIMP:



I know there are people who frequent these forums that can put this image to shame. I ask you to do so. Once we have a decent mix of colors it is a lot of ink drop and pencil tool actions to duplicate it through out the entire game. I am happy to do some or all of that sprite work.

If you are feeling creative you can come up with new platform sections. I can change my code to include more types of platforms and it will give the game a more diverse random level layout.

As for the ladder issue, I know about it but will be unable to fix it without removing the ability to climb down ladder. You will just have to learn to walk sideways at the top of the ladder, or fall to your doom

very cool game, so much atmosphere. loving the "halo of consciousness" and the music. and is that a Hubert Farnsworth yawn?=D

EDIT: it crashed a little too hard when I tried to quit. (that's what happens to the ones who try to bail out on the ancient ones. or drugs. ) and it's persistent. actually it pulled the sound mixer with it into the depth. but, it could be a Bootcamp XP specific issue.

Sounds are made by Anthony Curry, I don't ask too many questions about where he got them. As for crashing on Bootcamp XP, I haven't had that experience yet. I am not cleaning up my mrmory when the program quits. That might have something to do with it. I will try and fix it in the next build.

I have had too many bad experiance with incompatable art files to not be very specific. Event then it doesn't always work.

Perhaps I am being an oger about this. I admit my past attempts at internet colaboration have gone miserably. For those of you who have suceeded at internet colaboration between artist and code monkey, what do you advise?

I make a living coding other people's ideas. It is not very indie but it is secure and comfotable. For those of you who try and live the dream I salute you 

[quick mockup]

have you ever worked with anyone, ever??

For a paying job yes, but I have never worked on an amature project with another artist. I have done commisioned art for other people before. What usualy works best is a quick sketch followed by a few revisions suggested by the client. This helps sync the artist's vision with the client's before attempting the final piece. What I am asking for is the quick sketch before we proceed with redoing all the sprites. Is there any better way of going about this?

Ok I take back the "I may not choose to incorporate the art you submit". If you go through all the trouble of redoing all my graphics I will accept and publish your graphics. but what I am asking for is a quick mockup to get an idea of what colors would be most appropriate before diving into redrawing my sprites.

@agj: Thanks for submitting but I was kind of hoping to move away from the solid color look. Still with the small graphics maybe it would be better to stay with solid colors. I was going for an old 1900's light house for the setting. Creeky rotting wood and all.

Go ahead an post it here. I look forward to seeing it.

That doesn't seem like a very good way to ask for help...

Yeah I guess not. I am probably being overly protective of the project. I have had some bad experiances with artists at my job. If nobody helps I can still probably out put something decent but I would prefer to spend my time coding in new features. Besides a lot of the pixel art I have seen here outshines my modest attempts at the medium, so I figure It couldn't hurt to ask.

Got the good ending placeholder 

It's getting even better, I like these stress inducing games(I got a 'need full wake' jump near the end). Now, maybe you could add decreaser items (pillows, pills..) and traps on harder levels.

I never thaught of puttin anit powerups int this game, but now that you bring it up I guess I could try to add them. I am getting a lot of mixed responses about difficulty. Should I be making this easier or harder?

Ok I ahve uploaded a new build to: http://www.monkeydev.com/insomnia/

The new build features sounds effects and music made by Anthony Curry

It also has place holder victory and defeat screens.

It fixes the "Low Gravity" problem by doubling the Gravity and increasing the initial Jump speed.

If this is too easy let me know. I can decrease jump speed, increse the rate at which sleepyness catches up with you, decrease the ammount of druggs that fall from the sky, or chainge the length of the game by makeing the tower taller.

@Mr. Trianglehead and any one else who wants to do art: I will remove "Artist Needed" from the header when I have the art resouces I need. I may not choose to incorporate the art you submit but I will be greatful for it none the less.

I'd like to know what material you want the plaforms made of, wood? Metal? Mosaic? Concrete?

I want this to take place in a 1900's light house in the midle of the night. So probably brick work for the background and Wooden beams and boards to make up the platforms. Perhaps iron work railings and loose chords of rope would also be appropriate for the time and atmosphere.

What I usualy have trouble with is picking colors that go together and yet contrast enough so that the active game objects are distinguisable from the background.

If you want just take a screen shot and do a photoshop mockup of the color pallete you think the game should have. I can copy and paste the colors from the mockup into the final sprites. Keep in mind I am using "Magic Pink" for my alpha layer so I will not be able to do the nice blending effects.

I have changed the post tag to say "Artist Needed" because I realize I Suck at choosing colors. I am not asking for some one to do all the sprite work for this project. As you will notice much of the existing sprite work is serviceable if bland.

What I need is for some one to pick a color scheme. I am more than happy coloring in all the one color sprites with something more aesthetically pleasing. So if you want to lend a hand, download the project and rummage around the sprites in the “Data” folder. Don't touch anything with the word "Mask" on it, since that is vital to the game's logic. Just do a mock up of some of the sprites of the character, background and platforms. If I like your color choices I will be more than happy to redraw the project in your color scheme.

All I can offer is a name in the credits and my gratitude.

I have uploaded a new build, it features:
* Slightly different movement physics allowing for more precise movement.
* Narrowing of the play space to induce claustrophobia and give the impression of climbing a light house.
* A bottom and a top to the light house.
* Play balancing fixes.

Download at: http://www.monkeydev.com/insomnia/

Does Ctrl or Alt conflict with arrows? I was going to include game pad support but that coded is faulty right now.

@ N
I am going to try and work in a win condition (ie reaching the top of the tower). The sleepier you get the less effectivly you can jump, so that wall hook manuver probably didn't work for you because you were too tired. I appoligise for the low jump thing the levels are randomly generated so some times the game will stick you in an impossible situation. But hey it is Lovecraft. What did you expect?

Any way thanks for playing.

The skipping animation looks great. Were you planning on persistant corpses for this game, or will we get to see Dooror get gibbed?