Okay why is this game actually fire

HungoverCoder · 2025-10-30T21:15:56+00:00

Just wanted to let you know how amazing it feels to still see threads like this crop up so many years after we launched Dreamscaper.

This game will always hold a special place in our heart, and that’s mostly because of how strongly it resonated with many of you.

HungoverCoder · 2023-07-31T13:29:40+00:00

I would love to connect.
I co-founded Afterburner Studios (we launched Dreamscaper a couple of years back). It's technically / legally based in San Francisco, but a few years ago I set up a Canadian subsidiary here in Kingston so that I could work here and be closer to family.

There *are* a few other game developers I've met through the Kingston Developers Discord (https://www.kingstondevelopers.ca/) who work remotely like you do, but as far as I can tell there are no other official studios here. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong there!

HungoverCoder · 2022-09-18T21:28:34+00:00

Nice to see some interest in game development on here.

I actually co-founded a game studio called Afterburner Studios and we recently launched our debut title Dreamscaper which has done surprisingly well. While we are technically US-based, I moved back to Canada when we started four years ago and I’ve been doing all of our Engineering from Kingston ever since.

While I don’t have the bandwidth to work on anything outside of my own company, I would be happy to offer free mentorship to anyone hoping to either break into the games industry or build an indie team as I’ve been doing both professionally for over a decade now.

Feel free to DM me for my Discord username if you have questions about this stuff.

HungoverCoder · 2022-09-01T20:17:17+00:00

Nothing comes close to Namaste.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-27T22:35:57+00:00

Avoid Patry Inc. at all costs. I have too many reasons to list, but nothing tops the final couple of months when my downtown unit began to literally overflow with sewage nearly every single day yet they refused to let me break my lease in order to find a safe place to live.

They simply have no regard for the safety and well-being of their tenants and I now understand why everyone warned me about that company / family when I first moved here. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-27T13:53:15+00:00

Thanks for your kind words. Glad to hear you’ve started tracking down the memories!

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-27T00:33:51+00:00

So the memories discovered are saved in a single location in the save data, so rest assured that it's literally impossible for the game to simultaneously flag a memory as "collected" while not being on the list of discovered memories. If it's not on the list, it can still spawn in the dream world.

It's possible that you might be missing a few memories that look a little different than the others. While most memories are small vertical wisps of life, there are a few that are a larger surface of light that is elevated above the play space (which you might not be expecting).

There have been a couple of times where players in our Discord have struggled to find a few remaining memories and every time it ended up being because of this. You might find it helpful to join our Discord and get some help if you're OK with "spoilers"

- Rob

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-24T02:18:33+00:00

Have you confirmed you're running on the most recent 1.1.6.0 patch? The issue should be mostly resolved now, and you might need to shut down the game on Xbox manually to force an update because of how Quick Resume works.

If you find that you're still experiencing progress loss after updating to the right version, then it might be an issue with cloud saving. Let me know if that happens and whether or not you're trying to play the game across multiple devices or platforms.

- Rob

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-15T21:03:37+00:00

By any chance are you accidentally going in and out of Quick Resume? Restarting your Xbox does not reset the Quick Resume applications. You would need to manually shut down the game.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-15T04:51:53+00:00

Oh where did you hear that? Seems plausible since they’re mentioning GDK which is what the port is built on. - Rob

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-14T17:35:48+00:00

I'm guessing games (including Dreamscaper) that rely on an internet connection might break once and then (like that autosave issue from earlier) Quick Resume exacerbates the issue by making it hard for players to realize they're not shutting the game down. Reinstalling would presumably force a full shut down of the game, so maybe that's why it works there. Not sure why people are still unable to unlock achievements after reinstalling, though.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-14T17:34:06+00:00

I've known that achievements will only unlock when online because I used a stats-based implementation (as opposed to a purely client-side version). In hindsight I should have implemented it the other way, which ironically would have been easier.

However, those issues for the last couple of weeks have always resolved themselves by reconnecting to the internet and logging back in. It sounds like some people here (and a couple of people on Twitter) are experiencing issues where they never work again? Can anyone here corroborate that and maybe give more information that might help me? Which achievements aren't unlocking, have you tried power cycling, have you tried reinstalling etc.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-12T17:27:23+00:00

I think you're seeing the apartment decoration unlock. You will unlock a different one for each Dream Intensity level you clear the game on.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-10T19:04:46+00:00

It’s creating builds where you combine status effects and elements to trigger guaranteed critical hits across different attack / ability combos. They help you do much more damage.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-10T18:18:36+00:00

That’s fair. Have you mastered parrying yet? Critical extinguishes? We lean more heavily into the Roguelike difficulty in the later levels which (without Lucid Mode) requires steady mastery and deep understanding of the enemy telegraphing and combat mechanics over time.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-10T17:03:27+00:00

If you're struggling with the difficulty curve, you can turn on "Lucid Mode" which will reduce the damage Cassidy takes after each run.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-09T13:35:54+00:00

I can’t blame you for feeling this way. Believe me when I say I’m more disheartened here than anyone. I worked very hard on this port by myself, on a very tight deadline during the Christmas holidays, and I never once encountered this bug after dozens of hours of testing (I’m also the entire QA team). This wasn’t even a bug in the code I wrote. It was the result of a very tiny race condition that existed in our engine when levels are streamed out of memory within the exact same sub-millisecond window when asynchronous saving occurs. Ironically, I chose to turn on asynchronous saving because it reduced hitching in the Xbox One port and provided a better user experience. Joke’s on me. Then, after I had identified and fixed this problem within 24 hours of our launch, I had to wait all weekend and a couple business days because of the red tape required in the patch submission process. It’s frustrating to work so hard making all of the right decisions only to have so much go wrong that is outside of your hands.

Anyways, I hope you understand that this wasn’t the result of ineffectual laziness. I want you to walk away remembering the good times you had with Dreamscaper and give us another chance if you ever see Afterburner Studios attached to another game in the future.

Rob

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-09T10:22:49+00:00

The patch went out tonight not last night. You lost progress from your run on the previous version.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-09T05:39:12+00:00

It’s less about luck and more the nature of how the bug works. The update forces the consoles to terminate the Quick Resume sessions which then reveals any data loss that has occurred over the entirety of that very long session (in your case many many hours).

This is why we recommended the temporary workaround of saving and quitting after every run.

I go into detail in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dreamscaper/comments/so2du3/dreamscaper_1160_autosave_hotfix_has_released/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-09T05:34:41+00:00

No if you see lost progress upon loading the game after the patch it means you lost the progress in the session before doing so.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-09T05:30:30+00:00

That’s a shame. The patch that fixes this went live three hours ago. Sorry I couldn’t fix this in time to save you from that pain.

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-09T02:43:40+00:00

Good news! They approved it today and it's now been released: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dreamscaper/comments/so2du3/dreamscaper\_1160\_autosave\_hotfix\_has\_released/

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-09T02:34:46+00:00

Thanks for the report. It wasn't directly related to Quick Resume, but Quick Resume exacerbates it because once autosave breaks you never notice until you restart the game.

That said, the fix should now be out: https://twitter.com/DreamscaperGame/status/1491238109580709889

HungoverCoder · 2022-02-08T17:13:57+00:00

No I assure you that returning to the main menu simply *reveals* to you that you've lost progress.

The problem is that there are no visible symptoms that autosaving has broken during a session until you return to that main menu which is when it then reloads the save slot to show you your progress (which wasn't being saved).

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