Sky-Burial

 

Currently, most of my time is spent as a freelance artist, lending pixels to help make other people's games, outside the alias of Carrion.

I would like nothing more than to finally make my own game featuring the same style, characters, and worlds that you see in my standalone art.

In my free time Ive been working on my own game called Sleepless Knights.


Sleepless Knights is a 2.5D procedurally generated hack n slash dungeon crawler set in the mental world.
In this game you become one of the Sleepless Knights, guardians of the unconscious realm tasked to venture through the dreamworld in search of the source of a mysterious plague of sleep.

The objective of the game is to rescue ailing minds from beneath the lids of their eyes by diving into the mental fabric of the mind and using a vast arsenal of weaponry specifically forged to cut out the contagious mental demons that grow there.

In Sleepless Knights you will be able to:

• Become one of the Sleepless Knights
• Explore the psyche/A massive variety of surreal worlds
• Slay inner demons, lightmares, and psychomancers with brutal weaponry
• Alter entire game environments using intense area of effect abilities
• Collect fragments of scattered memories and restore the Psychosphere
• Discover the source of the plague of sleep

^^^Art by Logan Phresh^^^

Additional to your bladed weaponry, you are equipped with an arsenal of neurochemicals capable of manipulating the state of the mind you are exploring in the form of area of effect attacks and even complete atmosphere/location alterations depending on the cocktail of chemical weaponry used.


As you dive through a mind, whether you are trying to recover it from a fever dream or digging for memories to harvest, the way you use your tools will engage a reaction within the level itself.

How you alter one room for a combat advantage using your area of effect attacks will directly influence the way the next room will be generated. This includes a varied mixture of settings, enemies, and scenarios.


Bulbs work similarly to neurochemicals but act as passive upgrades/abilities for your character, and are much less destructive to the game's environments. Bulbs are powerful and mysterious artifacts that can control cognition and can manipulate grey matter to its user's will.


Bulb Concepts:
-Turn the ground tiles in front of you into teeth that chew enemies apart.
-Branches grow from the ground creating a barricade that temporarily slows down hostiles.
-Freeze several blocks in front of you, allowing you to quickly slide across.
-Barbed wire emits from the ground, whipping enemies.
Player bulb ideas:
-Broken glass emits from the player’s arm, allowing them to blast glass shards at enemies.
-Generic projectile fire attack.
-Generic stunning electricity blast
-Coat the player in durable material increasing defense greatly.

The environments in Sleepless Knights are being made to mimic the dream-like look of impressionist paintings.

The game's dungeons consist of room to room arena based combat.
With each new room encounter, the doors lock behind you and you must slay all enemies before walking through the next door. The extreme difference between the colors, content, and atmosphere of each area that collectively resemble a character's mind will vary room to room to emulate a stream of consciousnesses.

Within each mind will also be information to collect in the forms of memories.
These memory fragments act as both currency and the main form of story telling in Sleepless Knights

I'm currently building an animation pipeline with great help from a wizard named Ross.

We are experimenting with Unity 3D and Blender to quickly animate 8 directional characters while still maintaining a nice pixel aesthetic.


The animation pipeline is the most important thing to tackle at the moment, animation is going to be the most taxing aspect of this game financially.

Thankfully the game is now at a point where if I had the hardware to run the particular programs I need, I'd be able to do most of the work myself.

With this new pipeline and the right hardware, I would be able to animate characters very easily and dynamically on my own without putting too much strain on the game's budget.



The next step in development involves me personally mapping character designs/equipment to models. This would require me to use a more powerful pc than I currently have, so we have hit a development wall.

The laptop I'm currently using is a potato from 2009 and because of hardware limitations, I don't have access to the tools I need in order to take the next step for this project.

(Software such as Photoshop, Unity, Blender, 3DS Max, etc.)

While I absolutely don't mind doing most of my work in MS Paint as I have for many years now, I'm at a point in development where it's not enough and is starting to holding the me back.




Additionally, I don't have the means to consistently produce art the way I would like to without it compromising my financial security. My poor health doesn't allow me to hold down a day job, so I've been overworking myself on underpaid freelance projects from home to make ends meet.

I would like to have the tools, time, and security to continue work on my game.

Currently the biggest wall I'm facing is the fact that my computer is too limited to run Unity, Blender, and Photoshop.

I've budgeted a new computer at $1000, as that will buy me something reasonable that can handle the software I need access to.

A new computer would also allow me to make a lot more content to share in return for your support as well. This includes streams and more video content such as tutorials and pixel art time-lapses.

What I can offer in return for your support:

• Exclusive development updates all of my projects.
• Playable demo releases of my game.
• A steady stream of new art/early access to new art.
• Access to my discord server and roles unique to patrons.
• Twitch streams.
• Youtube tutorials.
  
  Higher paying patrons will be sent original pen+paper concept art on a monthly basis. These special concept art packages also come packaged with all sorts of lore.
  

If you have read this far, then I owe you a massive thanks.

I truly do hope that you all want to see this game come to life as much as I do. I'm confident that with your support, we can make that happen.

This is quite literally and figuratively my dream game.

If you've followed me since the Newgrounds days, you may recognize a lot of these characters and concepts. This is the story I have always wanted to tell, and the sole reason I learned pixel art in the first place.



Any artist/programmers interested in helping out on the game can contact me at cutlaska@gmail.com

Oddspeed

Some new select prints are available through my online store right now!

Check them out here: 

corvidium.bigcartel.com/

www.patreon.com/cutlaksa

Yesterday I posted a bit of distress relating my art show and the support everyone showed was tremendous. It made me think of what we could do better, what we could do bigger, how this can happen more in the future, and what it means for Fresno and the people in it. I want to make things, and I want to make a living doing so without having to balance personal and professional work. I want to offer experiences and share my opportunities with other artists, musicians, and businesses.

You can basically buy prints, shirts, and coffee from my show in advance, and if you wont be able to make it this also allows you to treat your support as a direct purchase.

This isn't a cry for help, this isn't a crutch, it's an ascension of what I love and a tool.

Every dollar helps, every share helps, I love all of you.

LETS MAKE COOL SHIT HAPPEN

Carrion now ships world wide! 

I'll be updating the items in the store on a weekly basis. You can expect stickers, shirts, and brand new art in due time. Again, if there are any particular pieces you are interested in contact me and I'll see what I can do. Cheers!

corvidium.bigcartel.com/