The Dink Network

UPDATE 02.OCT.2021:
The private demo for Dink3D is NOW AVAILABLE. It can be found HERE with the password: Dinosaur. This is primarily to help identify any issues or problems with the game running on other people's machines, and so I would ask any of you who find the time to try it out to please fill out their answers to the questions on the game-page after playing. Thanks, love you all xoxo

UPDATE 06.FEB.2020:
Here's a short video showing some early footage of Dink3D in action. Most of the systems are in place now, apart from combat and UI. I also intend to add proper camera movement to properly frame cutscenes and smooth out the movement.

ORIGINAL POST:
As someone who knows a bit about Unity and originally found their love for coding from Dink, my hobby project the past couple of weeks has been to rebuild Dink in Unity. It's still early days, so keep expectations in check.
Here's an early peek at Stonebrook to give you an idea of the visuals.
With regards to a release date, I have no plans. Is the "tomorrow" joke still a thing?

Any and all feedback is welcomed

Certainly the most intruiging news in a while. Depending on the level of talent you're looking for, I can help with several artistic aspects, if you want.

The prototype is most impressive!

Hiya Bluedy! My own art skills are almost non-existent, which was one of the motivations behind this hahaha. Nothing like writing a game when most the graphics are already done! If you know your way around Blender (or have a licensed copy (not student) of Maya etc.) and would like to help, I've not modeled anything for that large tile of rocks yet, or if you're feeling brave the save machine still needs doing! I've avoided that one so far

Thanks SlipDink!

As a more general question to anyone reading, does anybody know which font the original game used for dialogue? I'm using default Arial at the moment which looks close, but I can't tell.

@JugglingDink:
As a more general question to anyone reading, does anybody know which font the original game used for dialogue? I'm using default Arial at the moment which looks close, but I can't tell.

When I start dfarc from a Linux Shell, I get this error from dfarc when it starts up before it defaults to some other font instead. Maybe this will help.

[ERROR] get_fontconfig_path: no matching font for tahoma
[ERROR] initfont: cannot find 'tahoma'

I've worked with and learned Blender as a hobby in the past. I can show you some of the stuff I made if you want. Hit me up.

If this.. ahem... port allows us to script a dmod in a sane language with more than just ints as data type (plus the occasional line skips I've had in DinkC on busy screen), it would be a quantum leap for possibilities, even though the general vibe for the game has dwindled significantly after these 1/5 of a century.

Keep it up

Cheers SlipDink, I'll take a look. Sent you a message Bluedy

It's definitely not going to be as simple as DinkC and WinDinkEdit were, although with a little determination I'm sure those who are interested will be able to make use of it. As a little example, the choice menus I've got at the moment currently work surface-level like this.

        dinkBrain.Freeze();
        selfBrain.Freeze();
        string[] choices = new string[6];
        choices[0] = "Ask about pig feeding";
        choices[1] = "Ask about your father";
        choices[2] = "Get info about the village";
        choices[3] = "Get angry for no reason";
        if(GLOBAL.Game.pigStory == 2) choices[4] = "Tell her you fed the pigs";
        choices[5] = "Leave";
        dink.Choice = -1;

        while (dink.Choice != 5)
        {
            yield return StartCoroutine(dink.ChoiceMenu("What do you want to say?", choices));
            if (dink.Choice == 0)
            {
                //Ask about pig feeding
            }
            //All choices except Leave go inside the while loop
        }

        dinkBrain.Unfreeze();
        selfBrain.Unfreeze();

So, can you give us an idea of how far along you are in completing these aspects of your effort?

a) whatever replaces the DinkC "engine"
b) whatever replaces windinkeditplus2
c) whatever replaces the standard sprite library
d) any other parts you care to point out to us

Sure thing Although I'd just like to quickly say, I don't see this as a replacement for the original Dink and DinkC at all. This is a fan project that can happily coexist

a) My main priority at the moment is recreating the opening segments of the main game, rather than the engine as a whole, so it's difficult to gauge exactly how far I am in terms of a full engine. Conversations are fully in place (I've written a script called SpeechHandler, it can be attached to any 3D Object or Sprite and allows for Dink style conversations and use of Say/SayStop commands, choice menus, etc.). I'm currently working on the inventory, after which I want to get the main UI working, and I'll then take a look at combat. It's all written in C# with Unity's libraries.

b) I'm currently using a Unity plugin called SabreCSG for world building as it allows for simple modelling/adjustments/texturing within Unity using brushes. This allows everything from map editing, houses, sprite placing, script attaching etc. to be done directly inside Unity. Generally speaking, if you understand the Unity environment, you're good.

c) Thanks to Redink1s lovely checkerboard-removing tool, converting the original dink sprites into something I can use for Unity is easy peasy now. The sprite library exists as a series of folders inside Unity organised the same way as the original Dink folders. There is also a new folder with reusable 3D models. Things like fencing and wells.

d) Not too much else left to say I think I chose this as I was looking for a hobby I could work on for the foreseeable future, so it won't be a quick project. It will probably be slow and steady progress instead of a mad dash to completion.

This was my dream
For someone to make 3D dink
!!
Yay

Also, I think we all agree that we like things completed, not just released.
Take all your time.
I will be waiting...

@JugglingDink:

b) I'm currently using a Unity plugin called SabreCSG for world building as it allows for simple modelling/adjustments/texturing within Unity using brushes. This allows everything from map editing, houses, sprite placing, script attaching etc. to be done directly inside Unity. Generally speaking, if you understand the Unity environment, you're good.

I know that there are Linux IDEs for .net/C# applications. Is there a SabreCSG-like tool (or any Unity compatible world building tool at all) for Linux(*)?

(*)primarily Ubuntu

windinkedit 3D when?

dinkc+ when?

sour gummy worms 2 when?

pokemon bible version 2 when?

@SlipDink
That's not something I've looked into so I couldn't say. It may even be that SabreCSG supports Linux already, I'm not sure. On the upside, the project is by no means locked into using this and it can be changed fairly hassle free if necessary.

when windinkedit 3d and dinkc+ are out, of course.

I was wondering if you needed programmming/unity usage help, but holy cow this project seems pretty nice so far, I doubt I'll be of much use

If you want to though, I could try helping you make some stuff though. Maybe do simpler (but important) things or something like that?

Good stuff, looks great so far!

I've tried editing this message like 3 times already to make it okay-ish, seems to be impossible for my small brain though. I hope this makes at least a bit of sense...

This is super exciting tbh. Looks great so far. Best of luck!

Thanks for the support everyone! I've updated the main post with a link to a short video showing the project in action. I know the ducks don't have blood yet, but that's coming at a later date The lovely save machine you'll see has been generously created by Bluedy. And there's also some footage of the Classic Camera at the end as well.

Not sure what else I may need help with yet, but I'll make sure to let people know when things come up. Although if anyone happens to know, is there a list somewhere of which .midis from the original are free to use and which had copyright issues?

This is quite excellent , JugglingDink , so i hope you focus on sort of making a demo first like just the first part before dink leavs for tetris so that we all can test and polish. As for the music, i think freedink has the ones that are free to use

Cheers Liquid. Yeah a demo will definitely come out somewhere down the line, I wouldn't wanna put a date on it just yet tho. Development should hopefully (knock on wood) speed up a bit once I've got the core gameplay in place, as it'll let me focus more on just building the world and scripting the NPC's etc. Thanks for the music tip, I'll take a look

Is this still a thing?

Hoping for a update on this , i have given up on anything else great happening with dink after all this years of trying...

Hopefully covid has not wrecked this...

right? i really hope the meme virus that kept scared people indoors didn't cause a project that can be entirely done alone and indoors to be cancelled. man, software development is just impossible when you're stuck sitting at a desk. jugglingdink, are you ok? have you gotten a basic flu from your computer yet? i knew dink should've been banned.

😂🤣😝

jokes aside i really hope hes alright , after that last post there has been zero activity from him does he post on elsewhere?

most likely lost interest so hard that it wasn't even worth coming here to announce that, much like the majority of members here.

Hey all, nice to see people remembered this, I'm still around and kicking!

Development on this had been on hold for quite a while, although it was more to do with my living situation and worklife than anything Covid related. Coincidentally though that's actually changed recently (in a nice way!) and I've been able to give a lot more attention to this recently. I still plan on releasing a demo covering up until Dink crosses the bridge towards Goodheart, which hopefully shouldn't be tooo far away now. Pretty sure I said the same thing about a year ago though so maybe nobody should listen to me hahaha

Either way, project still exists and is still being worked on!

Love you all!

@JugglingDink:
Either way, project still exists and is still being worked on!

That's great to hear! While I cannot say that I am certain about exactly what is involved in this project, you might get some help with it if you split the work into:

a) code changes in the Dink engine/DinkC
b) generation of various 3d sprites
c) testing of both

This is just a suggestion of course, and I realize that it may not make sense for you to think of the project in these terms OR may not be practical at this stage of the project, etc.

On the other hand, you could perhaps engage others to do some of the work while you do other parts.

Anyway, good luck with your new "living situation and worklife" and this project.

Love you all!

The feeling is mutual. You've been a substantial contributor to our cause for more than a decade!

I mean in terms of the code I've pretty much just written everything from the ground up to play like the original Dink does. There's none of the original code, and nearly all of the tricky stuff is already done by now. And thanks to Redink's shadow-removing tool he made for me along with a batch command to format images properly, the graphics side of things is pretty much automated and zero hassle at this point.

The majority of the work is physically building the map and storyline content and polishing stuff, to be honest. Not to make it sound like it's anywhere near being done because it definitely isn't, but it's in a much better shape than it was in those screenshots/videos I shared originally. I'll definitely need help with bug testing and feedback though. That's actually the idea behind releasing a demo before getting too much further into the project, as I'm sure there's a ton of bugs hiding in plain sight. It'll be more like an alpha/beta/whatever than a polished demo I guess

Good to hear everything is going well nice

I'd certainly like to help test, though I want to finish the bulk of my current project "Periculo Island" first.

Of course, I am assuming that your work will be based on freedink and therefore be available on Linux as well as Windoze.

So, you'll know when "Periculo Island" is in (at least beta) release, because I will of course announce it in the forum.

Please keep us informed of your progress.

It's not really based on any particular version of Dink. It's just a 3D recreation of the original game's map/graphics along with all the necessary Unity scripting to get the game to function similar to original Dink.

Unity is able to export games to run in a browser, which is likely what I'll do for the rough demo. Then later on whenever the project gets finished I'm thinking I'll release a completed browser version along with some desktop versions built for Windows, Linux and Mac

As for a progress update, I finally have a definitive list of things to fix/polish etc. before the demo is ready to release, which is always a good sign. Still hesitant to put a date on it in case something turns into more of a headache than I'm assuming, but progress seems to be pretty good so far

you know if you release a demo, that's gonna be it and there will never be a finished version. such is the curse of the network.

True. But there's still the risk if I don't release the demo that I never finish it either, at least this way there'll be something tangible to show

but releasing a demo is always the deciding factor. you have no control after that - the curse is potent and it has always played out the same way. its like the curse on the dada position. hire a new professor, they're affected. release a demo, the author goes to do something else and drops it.

If enough documentation, source code, and the like is released with the demo, and it is declared that development on the project is over as far as JugglingDink is concerned, maybe someone else will carry on where JugglingDink left off.

Yeah, just like someone carries on with FreeDink.

@RangerLord:
Yeah, just like someone carries on with FreeDink.

Or like someone completed the unfinished Sabretrout's "Valhalla" making it into "Crowns of Stone".

Haha, that's actually a good point.

Good news everyone!

Today marks the completion of the demo for Dink3D. It features everything in the game up until paying the bridge man to let you head towards Terris. I still need to do some rounds of testing, but after that it will be ready for you guys to try out (probably just before the month's end).

I'm planning to upload the demo privately for you guys on Itch.io, but this will most likely only be available in browsers for a brief period so that I can gather feedback and collect bug reports. I'll then be removing the demo and keeping my head down to focus on finishing the main game, which will release much later as its own standalone.

Great News , i cant wait to test out the demo , been pumped since diablo 2 remake also came out today.

Well, I'm open for testing. I'm a bit sick, and there's university work, but I'm sure I'll have time.

I'll be open for testing... eventually. I want to finish "Periculo Island" first though.

I'll check back here in a few weeks to see how to participate.

waiting for the demo *refreshes page

Had a few issues getting the game to run smoothly in WebGL, looking likely that I'll have to release the demo as a standalone. Will be up before the end of the day however!

The private demo is now LIVE. You can access it here: Dink3D Private Demo with the password: Dinosaur

I've only been able to test it so far on a few high-end Windows machines, so I'm particularly interested in people's experiences with lower-spec machines and the other operating systems. I have not been able to test this game yet on Mac or Linux, so there may be issues and problems unknown to me.

If anyone who tries out the demo could please send me their answers to the questions on the page, it would be super helpful.

Love you all and awaiting your feedback with anticipation <333

Just finished the demo. Dude, that was amazing. I turned in my survey but for anyone reading this, absolutely try it out. Walking out into 3D Stonebrook for the first time was crazy. JugglingDink and anyone who's been helping him have done a great job letting us see the game we love with a brand new perspective.

That was amazing. Much cooler than I expected, as I'm not usually a big 3D guy. But being able to see into the distance adds surprisingly much into the game. Especially the fact the duck I beheaded kept spraying blood in the background, haha.

SunCool pond has never looked so lustrous.

Haha that does remind me, you may want to hide Chelsea in the scene with the house burning down. Having her walking around in the back with her basket going “la la la” while my mothers corpse turns to ash was pretty funny

Thanks so much for the feedback guys, it means a lot. Stoked you both enjoyed it!

In terms of things needing attention, so far I have:
-Hitboxes on NPCs and enemies feeling off
-NPC movement can be jittery
-Unable to hit pillbugs with a fireball
-Doors not playing opening animations
-Doing something about Chelsea during the fire scene

Unfortunately the rest of the feedback can't be accessed without paying a $15 subscription fee (!!), so if there's anything else missing from the list you guys mentioned so far I'm super sorry but I'm not able to see it. This is what I get for trusting a free survey site I guess lmao

I've replaced the form with a list of questions on the game page, so for any future Dinkers playing this, it'd be wicked if you could fill it out and email me it or leave it here or something. Details are on the itch.io page. Cheers again

I think a lot of those were mine, and the only things I remember mentioning were:

* When Dink leaves certain houses it feels like he's too close to the door sometimes. This was most noticeable for me in Ethel's house, where I would leave to go outside, try walking left and immediately hit the door again

* The reflections in the water are super cool, but my preference would be that the text boxes do not show up in the reflection (visible at the beach area south of Martridge's house, where you can step into the water a little bit and press spacebar).

And to clarify I'm just trying to be as thorough as possible with my feedback, but these didn't really subtract from the experience in any way and I love what you have so far.

EDIT: Oh and whenever I needed to set up a survey at school or work we always used SurveyMonkey. Never had to pay for anything and it supported questions and text boxes.

This was a great demo, i loved it almost felt like i was playing dink version of 3d dot game heros.

I was running the demo on a old i5 4th gen cpu / intel hd 4400 laptop and it ran ok i am not sure if it was smooth.

I was able to complete the demo, faced no major issues , i am not sure why after killing monsters no xp was awarded , The water effects looked awesome. I am not sure if the spell casting is as accurate as the original a lot of the fireballs just seems to go nowhere.

Very cool! I tried it on my Mac Mini running Mojave and it worked well enough. I think the draw distance is too far though and a setting to change it might be nice for getting a few more FPS out.

its also generally a good idea not to use a mac if you want higher fps.

@JugglingDink any chance the unity demo might run on android phones?

Ok, some impressions. I haven't left Stonebrook yet, this is just my first glimpse opinion.

- character movement is a bit weird (Mother animation is way too fast for her walking speed)
- camera position. Top down view fits this game better

I'll update my post when I'm done with the demo. They are actually forcing me to do something while I'm on the job

This is all great feedback to have, thanks again everyone. I'll definitely be looking at all this stuff going forward. And on the topic of the whole hitboxes-in-combat thing, getting it to feel natural has actually been such a pain, it's like the bane of my life right now lmao

@Pillbug
Thanks for the feedback, don't worry about being thorough, it's helpful! Doors and text-reflections will be addressed in the next build<3

@liquid141
So the monsters don't award any XP in the original until leaving across the bridge, I think it's to stop the player being able to enter the bonca cave before Martridge's strength potion. Some one-time stuff in the demo still awards XP, like the knights and the farm Pillbug, but not enough to level up yet. With regards to Android phones, I'm not sure how well it would work in its current state without making some large changes. Maybe in the future I can look at a mobile build, but I wouldn't want to promise anything yet

@yeoldetoast
Good shout. I'm planning to introduce some graphics settings at some point, stuff like reducing/disabling shadows and reflections, and I'll include some draw distance stuff in there as well. Glad it worked okay on your Mac, I was curious to hear how it ran as I've no way of testing on one!

@toof
Just to clarify, when you say you'd prefer it with a top-down camera, do you mean 2D-Isometric like in the original, or do you mean you'd want a higher angle with the current system? If you meant the former, that's actually in the works, it's disabled in the demo-build as it's not polished but you can already see it with the interiors and it's definitely a planned feature

"So the monsters don't award any XP in the original until leaving across the bridge"

I think this is incorrect. They do indeed grant xp before crossing the bridge. I just checked my original let's play. And also tested it just now as well - 5 exp per pillbug on the way to collecting alktree nuts.

i did get 8 exp from probably the slime on the east shore of suncool, but other than that, yeah. no exp from anything else which is gigafabulous.

I believe that originally the bugs on SmileStein's farm refused to give exp except for the one that talks, but that this was changed for 1.08.

Oh for real

My bad then guys, I just looked at the editor when I built the demo and it looked like they all had zero, but just saw it's in their scripts instead. Will also fix this then

Also btw, I'm like 99% sure Chelsea is legit intended to be Chealse. The name is spelled like that too many times for it to be a typo.

looking forward for the next version

@JugglingDink

I meant the former (higher camera angle but with the current system).
Finished the demo, nothing else from my side.

Keep it up

Seth should consider supporting this project.

i did message @Seth that this release was out, maybe hes tried it out .

make sure to let seth know that the 3d remake would be even better with the original models.

Yeah I'm thinking I'll probably try contacting Seth once I've got an improved build of the demo out, just to check he's okay with the project and whatnot before taking it any further.

Next build will include an expanded map (Goodheart Castle and Herb Boots area), Draw Distance settings, camera zoom/tilt controls, and the Classic Camera. As well as general improvements to a bunch of stuff. Once it's out, that'll probably be it until the game's done (assuming Seth is cool with it)

Yeah I'm thinking I'll probably try contacting Seth once I've got an improved build of the demo out, just to check he's okay with the project and whatnot before taking it any further.

If you actually Dink 3D'd the whole game, that could be ducking huge, and you might single-handedly save Dink Smallwood from obscurity and heat death.

...as long as it makes it to steam/gog and people give a shit.

don't bother with seth, by the way.

Wow, cool project and I'd be more than happy to give it a shoutout when you're ready!

Very cool thanks for the checking out the project Seth, i must say we are seeing some activity now lol

Hi Seth, that would be amazing if you can, thank you! I'll DM you in a few weeks wherever's most convenient (Twitter?) when the public demo is ready

ya done?

would be nice to have a update for 2022

seth/justin should work with juggling dink to make the game truly 3d.

with the new 3d models things could change....

thats what i'm thinking. wonder if jugglingdink will go for it once the models are made ready to use easily