Sleep Is Death News

Version 16 Released

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 13:21:42 EST

This update contains several minor improvements, including in-game explanations about why a resource cannot be deleted and auto-cleanup of broken resource database entries that seem to be left behind by third-party editing tools.

Upgrading is recommended but not mandatory, since v16 is fully compatible with v15. Here is the full list of changes:

--Improved responsiveness of mouse and keyboard controls.

--More accurate frame timing for true 30 frames-per-second when possible.

--Enabled GL swap control to minimize visual tearing.

--Added auto-removal of bad search database entries when they are encountered.

--Changed to ignore duplicate search database entries.

--Added "used in" tool tip for resources that cannot be deleted due to usage.

Also: my new game is almost done, more information soon.

Version 15b Released

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:51:16 EDT

This minor update fixes two issues with input of accents on non-English keyboards.

Windows users should now be able to type ` followed by a to get � (and other accented vowels). This "key composition" behavior was working correctly in v15 on Mac and Linux, but not Windows. On all platforms, v15 had � and � reversed---that has been fixed as well.

If you were not affected by either of these issues, you can safely skip this update.

Version 15 Released

Fri, 28 May 2010 19:43:25 EDT

After a week of testing the candidate builds, v15 has been released as the official stable version of Sleep Is Death. You can grab it from the download area.

In addition to all the changes present in the release candidate (see previous news post), the following additional changes were made:

--Fixed a bug that caused control key to stick when opening editor with
keyboard shortcuts.

--Ctrl-A to add a new sprite layer to an object at current mouse location
(great for adding many of the same sprite, like tree leaves).

--Ctrl-A to add a new object to a scene at current mouse location
(great for adding many of the same objects, like flowers).

--Improved object editor mouse input so that only dragging moves a layer
(clicking on an empty spot no longer moves a layer).

--Added buttons for moving a sprite layer up and down in the Object Editor.

Version 15 Release Candidate

Fri, 21 May 2010 18:34:06 EDT

A release candidate for v15 has been posted in the download area. As soon as I get confirmation that it is working properly for everyone, it will replace v14 as the current public version.

v15 contains a bunch of minor changes and fixes, plus a few important new features, including:

Extended ASCII for support of non-US characters (like �)
Color palettes are now first-class resources with their own picker
A button for "holding" certain objects over across scene changes

The Extended ASCII font that's included is ISO 8859-1 (Latin 1), which covers characters used by Western-European languages. Type on your German or French keyboard---your character now speaks with the proper accent. For other character sets (such as Cyrillic), the font image file can be modified with the necessary characters.

The full list of changes is pasted below:

--Fixed crash when getting local address on certain platforms with certain
network setups (VPN).

--Fixed crash when scale reduced to zero tones.

--Added missing tool tip for Scene deletion.

--Improved build time by making dependency tracking modular.

--Added usage tracking to prevent accidental deletion of resources that are
being used by other resources (such as objects still used in some scenes).

--Fixed a Controller freeze triggered by a Player that previously ran in
Controller mode in the same session.

--Improved Unix source build scripts (thanks to Andy Sommerville).

--Window close button now functions properly in windowed mode (thanks to
Andy Sommerville).

--Fixed freeze on Player end when Controller sends a Song referencing parts
that have been deleted.

--Added Extended ASCII support for non-US accents and characters. Most
western-European languages should be supported by the included font image
(ISO/8859-1, Latin-1). Other languages (such as those that use Cyrillic)
can be used by modifying the font image.

--Added Color Palettes as first-class resources with their own Picker.

--Fixed many compile warnings thrown by certain versions of GCC.

--Fixed bug in rubber stamp tool when dealing with transparent areas.

--Improved appearance of grid in Room Editor.

--Improved grid lines in various pixel editors to reduce color distortions.

--Added a note about ESC key to menu screen.

--Can now use mouse, in addition to arrow keys, on menu screen.

--Shows port number on manual connection screen.

--New object position hints in room editor (helpful when placing wall flags
around objects).

--Added IP (and IP:port) command-line argument to auto-join a hosted game.

--Added memory of last set speech bubble position for each object, alleviating
the need to manually set speech bubble positions most of the time.

--Added tool tips for each tile in Room Editor grid.

--Added check for resouceCache write permissions.

--Added a button for holding certain objects across scene changes.

--Added a button for colorizing all pixels of a sprite or tile.

--CTRL-q can be used to quit (in addition to ESC).

Shannon's Second Tutorial

Mon, 10 May 2010 15:14:08 EDT

Shannon Galvin has posted a second tutorial on advanced room building:

http://sleepisdeath.net/galvinTutorial2/

He also posted a resource pack here:

http://www.feverdream.org/galvin2.pak

Shannon Galvin's Tutorial

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:20:48 EDT

He explains how he achieved the look that he used in the Are We Home story in an entertaining tutorial that was made using Sleep Is Death itself (with a clear nod to McCloud's Understanding Comics):

Bugfix release 14b

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:51:33 EDT

v14b was just posted. This release fixes several bugs and glitches that were discovered after the release of v14. If you had some trouble importing your v13 resourceCache, please try v14b. You can also now export Songs into resource packs. A full list of changes is posted below:

--Fixed import cache hang when a referenced resource does not exist.

--Fixed line endings in stringDatabase.txt on windows.

--Fixed long loading times when importing resource packs.

--Improved loading times when importing an old resource cache.

--Added a loading screen.

--Fixed a glitch where Waiting message not shown after joining a second game as Player.

--Reduced audio buffer size to improve latency (was increased during v14 debugging).

--Added missing "add to pack" button for Songs, removed for Phrases.

--Removed wayward "edit timbre" button from Phrase Editor.

--Added Ctrl-E to edit selected object or selected sprite layer.

Lots of great new stuff

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:44:28 EDT

First of all, v14 came out as planned earlier this evening, complete with a brand new music editor. A full list of changes is below. PLEASE read the included Upgrading.txt file if you are upgrading from v13.

Next, Shannon Galvin has been working hard on some very cool stuff for the game. Get the the details here:

http://sleepisdeath.net/galvin.php

Finally, three great user-submitted stories have been selected and posted here:

http://sleepisdeath.net/stories.php

Shannon's work and the material used in these stories is all available as resource packs in the download area.

Changes in v14:

--Fixed memory allocation bug in unique IDs.

--Fixed code to be 64-bit clean.

--Fixed bug in adding resources to a picker stack when that stack is visible.

--Fixed crash when undoing back to default object in Object editor.

--Fixed flip book sizing and distortion issues when screen is not 640x480

--Overhauled music editor, making it much more powerful.

--Fixed bug in selection of previously colored but erased sprite areas.

--Improved transparency toggle tool tip in Object editor.

--Added Ctrl-W to close editors.

--Added Alt-Enter to leave fullscreen mode (as work-around for lack of working
alt-tab behavior on the Mac).

--Added an import directory to make upgrading easier.

--Made UPNP messages more clear.

--Cleared external address if going back to hosting a local game.

--Added per-layer additive blend mode (for glowing objects).

--Search results with same name are now shown in newest-first order.

--Intel-specific build on the Mac.

The Story of v14

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 01:16:02 EDT

I was really hoping to have v14 done before this weekend. But after staying up until 4:45am last night and then getting up at 7:30am this morning and working all day... well, I need to rest.

I can blame the wise guy (literally) who suggested that I overhaul the music editor. I'm glad that I listened, because it's turning into a really cool music editor. Here's a peek:

It allows you to do almost anything you'd want to do, but in a modular, layered fashion that matches the rest of the game's design. Build phrases out of notes, then lay them out into parts and assign timbres to them. Tweak the scale used by the whole piece, adjust speed. Phrases, timbres, scales, and whole songs are first-class, searchable objects with their own pickers. Much more powerful than the original music editor, but still retaining the property that you can throw almost anything in there and still have it sound pretty good.

Also, your music from v13 is not lost---what used to be a whole song now becomes a phrase in the new system, so you can build with your old melodies. In other words, the tone matrix lives on, but as a small part of a larger system.

The bottom line is that I'm extending my personal deadline until Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 8pm New York Time. v14 will be in your hands by then for sure.

And that wouldn't be fair if I didn't extend your deadline too. You now have until Midnight on Monday to create and submit an amazing story. For the heroic people who submitted before the first deadline, thank you! Your entries will still be counted, and you're welcome to submit more stories with the extra time if you want.

http://sleepisdeath.net/amazingStories.php

Amazing story challenge

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:19:18 EDT

Got an amazing story? Want $200? It's a contest! And you've got 34 hours:

http://sleepisdeath.net/amazingStories.php