VN Dark Dimensions: A Spiritual Successor - Game Discussion

Morah SDG

Development Consultant & Revision's Supervisor
Game Developer
Feb 10, 2018
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That's for patreons, right? When will the public release happen, again?
Public release should be scheduled for Saturday, 28 June. And I have to talk to Epadder, but I’m curious to know if we should make the 28th, also the day we would then release the end of the month update as well, as opposed to waiting until Monday the 30th. Just cause it would be the weekend as well, instead of the start of the week.

And remember, the amount of early access days you receive is based on how many dollars your tier consist of. So if you pledge to the five dollar tier, you would get early access to the new content five days earlier than public. We just thought that would be a fair system to do it that way! So obviously, the highest tier member would be the $15 tier, and that would get you the earliest access on the 13th, as opposed to the public release on the 28th. Hope that makes sense!
 

Morah SDG

Development Consultant & Revision's Supervisor
Game Developer
Feb 10, 2018
2,331
7,007
747
Monday Newsletter (June 11th, 2025)

You know, I do gotta say... it's a *little* embarrassing to realize it's been over 11 months since my last one of these (Shit fuck balls, and I'm two days behind on that, welcome to Wedneday Monday Newsletter, folks!) I know I tend to give you guys a good amount of info to dive into and digest (for the most part) on the regular anyway, but I think this is a good form of communication and clarity! So, let's look back on the weeks events!

First of all, FOR GODS SAKE, double, triple, quadruple check who it is you're talking to on DM messages anywhere. I suffered a terrifying issue that could have been EASILY verified by asking some questions and putting some actual thought into things. Hackers aren't master manipulators, they just use general social engineering and threatening tactics. Don't Fall For It. Make sure your passwords are different, use 2FA whenever possible, and always trust your gut. Even when WE ASK you guys to test out our game... be wary lol

So, some big stuff has happened even since this post was supposed to go out, so I'll just talk about it here. The SDG team and our animator, FraMe, have parted ways. It was clear to all parties involved that we were not all suited to working with each other in sync, and we want people to be comfortable here while they do work. This job should be fun and not a headache, so for all parties involved, we have chosen to separate. FraMe is a remarkably skilled talent, and we are exceptionally grateful for the work they've provided us over the course of the past year. You can check out his free to play game Love Re:set over on its right now. Go show some love and support.

Some of you might be concerned about this change, but fret not, we have another really cool talent by the name of Shroe joining us, as he's available. He's worked with Lostraven a lot, and is graciously sharing his schedule with us. We'll have to work on animating a lot of stuff, based on some technical issues and work flow problems we created. But he's already shown he's capable of producing some quick results that are within our desired wheelhouse. I've attached his first little quick attempt at a Dash Baxter idle expression.

Beyond that, we've been taking time to finalize some segments of the Dino intro, our first inhouse playtest version came out on Sunday, and we've provided a bit of notes to Epadder regarding that. A new version was meant to come out today in order to playtest again, but E is still working on *new* things for people to test rather than more of the same.

We are planning on things still coming out on Friday evening, so be aware of that. I have another big post coming either tonight or tomorrow morning, outlining what you can expect out of the Launch Update itself. That one will be very important to read, as it may save you time to understand what that first build will consist of. Check it out when it comes!

Peace, love, happy Hump Day.

-Morah & the SDG Team
 

Morah SDG

Development Consultant & Revision's Supervisor
Game Developer
Feb 10, 2018
2,331
7,007
747
So to supporters..did the game come out today? If so how's the game so far without spoiling it, I'm a broke boy who has to wait until the 28th.
I woke up at 5:00 PM Central, and read that around an hour earlier, our grand code monkey called it and said he'd have to delay it for one more day. So no, not out yet!
 

Morah SDG

Development Consultant & Revision's Supervisor
Game Developer
Feb 10, 2018
2,331
7,007
747
1.) Epadders computer is literally shitting the bed in the worst case scenario "of all days why today" type deal. 2.) Epadder added more to the dino scene, and unfortunately forgot to end a "Stop Shake" command that ended up causing a never ending "earth quake" that affected all of the town of Amity Park. 3.) To prevent the textbox from being affected by the shaking, Epadder raised the Z level of it, which pushes it past the pause menu, which renders the pause menu powerless during dialogue, so... all in all, we've got a leaky build right now, and we're trying to fix all these issues.
 

XxANBU42xX

Formerly 'xXANBU42Xx'
Donor
Jun 23, 2019
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Release Day! It's here!!

For real this time!

Not gonna stall much, just gonna paste here the Changelog, and then after that, the LINK to the actual Download Link Post.

REMEMBER, THIS IS A BUGGY CRAPPY PIECE OF JUNK SO REPORT ALL FINDINGS IN THE DISCORT #report-a-bug CHANNEL IN THE APPROPRIATE THREAD!!

v0.06.6-15-25 Launch Update
Built using Godot (Redot fork), will move back to Godot within a version or two, and a heavily modified / extended version of Dialogic.
Content
-Explorable Locations:
Fenton Works
Casper High
-CG / Cutscenes:
A very bombastic intro with many pieces of art for you to enjoy.
Two ‘lewd’ scenes, although the background are still works in progress.
Game Engine / Dialogic Features:
History
Features non-animated portraits of characters, some currently missing, but allows you to review the dialogue of ‘scenarios’ you’ve experienced.
Keybinds
H: Hide textbox
F1: Show FPS / Performance Statistics
X: Advance dialogue
Rollback
Was not natively implemented into Dialogic, so a custom solution had to be coded. It is not as advanced as Ren’py’s version, but during a ‘scenario’ (when a dialogue box is present) it will allow you to hop back in conversation up to 60 lines.
Currently to prevent bugs, when an ‘event’ (internal record of various story points) threshold is crossed that ‘event’ will restart and clear the current rollback saves.
It is also disabled during more ‘cinematic / cg’ scenarios, because of animation glitches currently.
Save / Load
Saving / Loading is available at all times, but in the middle of an ‘event’ on load you will restart that event.
Saves are nameable, and contain other information about the current status of the game that is displayed on the UI.
Saves are also ‘prefixed’ with the current date, then time, and then version under which they were originally created.
This allows them to be organized, at the bottom of the save / load page you will see the ‘prefix’ currently selected, clicking on that will bring up a drop down menu showing you all saves sharing that ‘prefix’.
To preserve compatibility between versions and to fix bugged saves, the loaded data is processed beforehand to examine and fix logic bugs.
Settings
There are a wide range of UI customizations available. Including changing the background color / text color / outline color, the font used for dialogue, the font used for some UI pieces, and then a third font option used in other parts of the game.
Display settings are limited but will be expanded.
Gameplay options available are only for the battle preview mode, accessed on the title screen.
Also are sliders to control the overall volume, sound effect volume, ambient volume, music volume, and a special type of ‘music’ referred to as songs. Songs are used to provide more fine control of the music to us as creators.
Animated Characters
Spine, a mesh based animation tool, rigged character portraits are currently in the game, although currently their feature set is extremely limited.
2.5D world
Godot allows us to have the characters position themselves along the z axis (depth) along with the traditional y (up/down) and x (left/right). This gives us a lot of creative freedom.
Prototype 3D map
A prototype version of the intended city map has been made in 3D, and will continue to be updated with customized assets in the future. This semi-isometric map currently only covers a small part of the city, but more will be added in the future.
Prototype Battle System
From the title screen, a preview of the current direction for the Battle System is available to be tested. It is not completely representative of the desired balance, community feedback will help drive its advancement so it will help fulfill your fantasy of fighting as Danny.
There will not be direct leveling, but as the main scenario progresses further there will be a natural strengthening of Danny’s abilities.
Consumable Item Crafting will be part of the game and a way to even the odds in challenging battles.
Prototype Phone
Unlocked in the game, but currently not very useful, the phone will be your hub to interact with the game world and also have bonus content.
Custom Event System
Flexible event system that should lead to easy debugging of any logic errors, and keeps code related to it isolated from the dialogue of the game.
For player’s it will be completely invisible, but will open the doors to having a smooth experience while exploring the Dark Dimensions world.
Custom Navigation System
Our navigation system allows the smooth integration of characters / pickable items into the various locations of the game. They will only show up when the conditions in the game are correct, usually by time / quest / main scenario progress.

And here is the link to the DOWNLOAD LINKS

Enjoy, you deserve it, send us your feedback!

-Morah & the SDG Team



IM NOT A SUB TO THE SUBSCRIBESTAR PAGE SO DONT ASK
 

Karnewarrior

Engaged Member
Oct 28, 2017
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Can't wait for screencaps, even though all they'll probably do is make me want to play it more.

I'm getting to hype for this one, I'm gonna disappoint myself Spore-style, I can feel it.
 
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