Overactive Imagination Games

April 2025 Release

Added 2025-04-30 19:56:58 +0000 UTC

https://o-i-games.itch.io/dark-temptations

https://mega.nz/file/VnFi0LZa#L9i5zKp5jSLAdHPa2dJ1l2BomrPHwIRwEFumy54og8Q

This month has been so busy and it's so exciting to movie forward from the first Tech Demo release! With solid feedback from the first people to play that demo, there are a lot of things to update and add in terms of UI. Only some of that backlog can be addressed while still adding new content, so this month has a mix of bug-fixing, UI changes, propping up a new unlockable location, and new scenes.

UI Changes

The UI received some updates. The main UI is smaller, more standardized, and the elements have been converted to images to reduce visual clutter. None of this is final but changes will be as inspiration comes and feedback from gameplay suggests better implementations.

There is a new screen for inventory. For now, the only things you can carry are drinks from the coffee shop. They will automatically become tepid after you move the clock forward (or it moves for you by encountering a scene that pushes time forward). Tepid drinks go bad and get thrown out in the same way. This mechanic is roughed in for now and will need further change once the inventory matters more.

There is a new screen for objectives. This is mostly just a better place for them than expanding the main UI. Lots of work left to go to display and update objectives, sort, filter, etc. The tech demo objectives have not changed for now but will be subject to revision and removal in favor of proper game objectives once there is more... game there to objectify. I stand by that phrasing.

The way music is controlled has been overhauled in a way that should make it much easier to set the music by which location you're in, start a different track/playlist when certain scenes start, and stop music or switch music automatically when scenes end or locations change. This helps keep things from being so silent right now and paves the way for all locations and scenes to have a proper soundtrack.

New music: IDM has a chirpy little tech song in the background now
New music: Cuppa Joe's has soft jazz music in the background
New sound: Cuppa Joe's has a door jingle when you enter and leave

Locations

Every hub in the city has 3 planned locations, so there is a target rich environment for these until they are all available. Some work went into making several of these, but for April only one reached the finish line and is being added.

Cuppa Joe's Coffee Shop is the final location in the Business District, with several characters working throughout the week. One, Megan, is destined to be a main character later, but for now she's just a cute plus-sized barista.

The menu options for Cuppa Joe's are... probably needlessly detailed. But this is for a purpose, and in time there will be favorite drinks for many characters and situations where knowing what someone likes or dislikes, or even what someone might happen to be allergic to, can greatly impact the outcome of scenes.

Characters

Megan - barista at Cuppa Joe's, future main character
Delilah - barista at Cuppa Joe's, side character
Kivan - barista at Cuppa Joe's, extra
Handsome Tom - homeless man near Cuppa Joe's, extra
Rusted Hulk - The band was not present in the concert scene previously and has been added

Scenes

New scenes in Cuppa Joe's Coffee Shop:

Cuppa Cuppa Joe - Monday Morning scene where Tom comes into the café
Handsome Tom - Wednesday Afternoon brief scene with Delilah once you've helped Tom out
Sick Tom - Friday Evening/Night/Saturday Morning scene involving Tom's health
Delilah's Gratitude - Saturday Evening XXX scene once you've navigated Sick Tom

Scene updates:

Allan Gets NSFW - (Mon Morn, IDM IT room) this scene can be curtailed by bringing Allan a coffee drink, initiating a sudden bathroom trip. Why? Just one more variation on the week for now, hooks into other content later.
Misc - updates to Monday morning chat with Charlotte and Allan in the IDM IT room based around the presence of the coffee shop.
Misc - more types of conversation with Charlotte in the IT room throughout the week as feedback/post mortem for various scenes that have happened, and improving connective tissue for objectives (easier to see what the impact of your actions are).

Bugs Fixed

There were bugs in the initial release that needed addressing. Some minor, some that blocked up gameplay a little.

Crowd chatter from Happy Hour did not stop on one of the endings of that scene.
Cell phone responses were sometimes missing for Charlotte's Work Thanks Visit scene, preventing it from being triggered properly
Helping Charlotte 5/5 times only worked once and future weeks did not trigger her text message
Facilities to the Rescue had a bad label
A couple broken images for Allan
Allan Takes His Medicine had a bad label

There was a feature in the Tech Demo to save screenshots throughout the week to be displayed while rewinding back to the start of Sunday. It was very pretty and fun, but also turned out to be problematic for many players; Ren'py doesn't like storing tens of megabytes of image data and it REALLY doesn't like using the scrollwheel to undo actions while there are more than 2-3 screenshots captured in memory. This feature has been disabled and replaced with a slightly more generic rewind blur effect. It may return if there is a memory-efficient way to accomplish it.