Others Dark Dimensions: A Spiritual Successor [v0.07-8-13-25-Update_1] [Stray Dream Games]

4.70 star(s) 6 Votes

Epadder

Programmer
Game Developer
Oct 25, 2016
583
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edit: Oh it didn't quote because I deleted all the text in there, huh.

Where is that background from and who is it, sir.
V-tuber: Lucy Pyre





just1more - From the command prompt can you launch the game `c:\path_to_game\dark_dimensions.exe --log-file c:\path_to_game\log.txt` replace 'c:\path_to_game' with the actual path.

Then when it crashes, upload the log.txt here.
 

Morah SDG

Development Consultant & Revision's Supervisor
Game Developer
Feb 10, 2018
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This doesn't run on Linux for me. It's actually 438 lines worth of errors too, if I launch it via terminal to see what's going on. Should I like DM you my error log or just post it here?

That being said I can run the Windows version via Wine, but it lags pretty bad, and insofar I can't help but wonder why not just use Renpy? Nothing that's happened yet couldn't be easily done in Renpy, and it'd be a cakewalk to have a Linux port going instead of fixing so many errors.
Join our Discord, linked on the main post, go to our #bug-reports-and-tech-support channel and then to the thread “General Tech Support”. Logs should be posted there, and they’ll be a great help!
 

just1more

Newbie
Aug 8, 2016
49
38
270
V-tuber: Lucy Pyre





just1more - From the command prompt can you launch the game `c:\path_to_game\dark_dimensions.exe --log-file c:\path_to_game\log.txt` replace 'c:\path_to_game' with the actual path.

Then when it crashes, upload the log.txt here.
I tried but unfortunately, the log file is empty. I assume because the game makes my pc crash and I have to reboot.

This seems really interesting, so too bad I can't play it
 

Shakyjed

Newbie
Jan 15, 2019
31
17
90
Anyone know where to find sam's bottoms? I found the tshirt in the trash but no clue where the bottoms are
 

Epadder

Programmer
Game Developer
Oct 25, 2016
583
1,106
302
will the sprites have more expressions than just the stoned face in the future?
Yes, when the game first launch Danny was the only one who had some his expressions available. I tried a section with just having him be reactive, but it felt off so I decided to not include them yet.

Our new animator (Shroedinbug) has completed Danny and Jazz so far, and is currently working on Maddie. He's been hard at work, it just took a bit to get him settled and get a workflow established to turn Psymind's art into an animated character.

My plan is for the next update, when all characters in a scene have their expressions available they will be used. In scenes where a character isn't completed, then the expressions will not be used.
 
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papel

Active Member
Game Developer
Sep 2, 2018
584
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Epadder Some UI/UX improvements that need to be done:

* The game started as a borderless window, for some reason. I managed to resize it, which also showed the top bar
* What an overly long warning+created by+first intro screens. Let players skip those
* I really don't want to be forced to wait 20 fucking seconds just for the fucking main menu to appear because I can't skip Danny's muscles intro
* The screen "behind" the Settings menu doesn't make text boxes darker - my recommendation is to add a node, at the top of the "menu" you're using, that is just a ColorRect, to make anything "behind" unclickable and darker
1755281580169.png
1755281688410.png
* There's also the textbox going on top of certain menu items.
* There is no indication of which settings/menu tab you're currently in
* The quick menu besides the textbox doesn't have tooltips, people have no way to know what each button does until they click it.
* Right now, what I suppose is the "back" dialogue button doesn't work. Nor does the rectangle (phone view?) button.
* Save and load buttons of the quick menu don't work either
* There is no apparent "hold to skip" key, you have to click the >> button and then click it a second time to stop the skipping. Ideally, it should be a "hold to skip", not a toggle
* Side menu hides on every scene change (fade to black)
* Clicking to load a game right after saving immediately crashed
* I would personally move the "Title" and "Quit" buttons to the bottom row of the screen, maybe on a row all for their own. Should avoid accidental clicks
* During dialogue, Right Click and ESC will bring up the save menu. While you're just navigating rooms, neither does anything. They also won't close the menu if it's open during the navigation


Less important stuff
* When you click to choose an option, the select box uses the Godot default - check on the Text -> Font Options -> Primary for an example
* On the dialogue history, still on the intro (few years ago), I noticed this -
1755281921848.png
Pretty sure he was still supposed to talk as Phantom
* I saved shortly after Danny left the birthday celebration. Closed the game, loaded in, even with the screen not showing his sprite or the text, GPU usage was at 99% (GTX 1070). Oh yeah, Danny's sprite didn't load/show up for some reason.
1755282805482.png

* This inconsistence in textbox/quick menu size out of nowhere
1755282909904.png
* I don't get why, when sprites are supposed to turn around, they disappear for half a second - shouldn't that be just a negative X scaling? Going from 1 to -1 and vice versa. It looks like it unloads then reloads the sprite. This seems to be the case when applying several effects.

Something regarding the absurd GPU usage that might be useful to look into and maybe get an idea of what's going on: the usage spikes whenever a big sprite is on screen. When seeing Jazz taking a bath, Danny's head didn't affect GPU usage, but once he went downstairs, his head *did* affect GPU usage, spiking to 99% again - which again didn't affect GPU during the scene with Tiffany Snow morning news.
 

Jnx

Active Member
Jun 6, 2017
810
4,186
489
Just.
Use.
Renpy.

And none of this "Well this uses GDScript and it'd be hard to switch to python." it's literally based off python and python is easier because it's dynamically typed. The only two things I can think of that this game "needs" is hovering tooltips and color pickers. One, I wrote a performant tooltip displayable that just needs you to parse the data you need. And two, one of the admins from the renpy discord made a color picker for renpy. Everything else in this game can be imagemaps and mouse images. And the fact everything is plastered with "WIP" signs, just get rid of all of that. The fact the whole game pauses for 10 seconds for a sprite to flip over is infuriating, that should happen without stopping the flow of the game.

This game is a slog to get through the opening. Unskippable everything. Transitions that take forever. Sometimes you can click anywhere but sometimes you have to click the dialogue box no reason given, and SOMETIMES you actively CAN'T click while over the textbox. As soon as you're given control, you have no good indication of what to do. The screen transitions too slow and you're able to click on the navigation buttons before you can see them. The English is not great. "Quickly through clothes on." How do you use the wrong "threw?" And there's the fact this is a continuation of the story (sort of) but somehow nothing has changed outside of Danny's 18th birthday? The first thing that happens is Danny goes to school and have to find clothes for Sam, and somehow turning incorporeal and invisible wasn't the solution? And just because the dialogues says "no lets not do that" doesn't make it less annoying.

Even full characters are WIP? At first I was gonna bitch and moan that "you had time to make a glitch shader to put over characters with no sprites" but then I remembered the day and age we live in and know you just went to godot shaders and hit CTRL + C/V. So I can't even be properly mad just disappointed.

It's also embarrassing to have the dev chime in to say "This was season whatever episode something, true believers" You're not stan lee, stop.

I get most of this site literally only care about visuals, and there's no denying this has good art. But playing the game makes me want to stop playing the game because it feels so bad to play. UX needs a complete overhaul or just switch to the engine that perfected UX in visual novels and things like this: linear sandboxes with the tired turn-based fights sprinkled in.
 

Morah SDG

Development Consultant & Revision's Supervisor
Game Developer
Feb 10, 2018
2,332
7,009
747
I'm having it be known now that the Stray interjections are going to continue, absolutely, and it's *supposed* to be Stan Lee inspired, and we're literally gonna dress him up like 70's Stan. His original name for those sections is Stray Lee, we just don't have the art yet. But I'm glad you picked up on that little inspiration Jnx Lmao
 

DoubleWeird

New Member
Mar 23, 2020
8
29
197
Join our Discord, linked on the main post, go to our #bug-reports-and-tech-support channel and then to the thread “General Tech Support”. Logs should be posted there, and they’ll be a great help!
Here, I'm just gonna post the error log here and you can do whatever you want with it. I don't have a Discord, like I said.


You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

I'm on Bazzite in case that matters.
 
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4.70 star(s) 6 Votes