Hello Everyone,

This might be a long post so I will conclude everything in short here itself:

1. DesktopMascotEngine project is not dead, however, this project turned more ambitious than I initially thought or planned for (I am a one man army, no team here) and unfortunately its early access sales itself couldn't cover much of our/my working costs.

2. By November 2018 end, I had fallen to pressure of our hype and feeling the need to ship large updates asap, succumbed to it and fall into months of procrastination. By December 2018 I started losing motivation to work on it and within a few months, I stopped game development all together. What followed up were a series of lazy months doing nothing.

3. A month or so back, started working on a small side-game for christmas to raise my motivation again and get back in form. I hope to resume development on DME after release of this game as I hope taking my mind off to something new will freshen me up and let me think anew.
I am themeing it for christmas with elements of RTS, IO, MMORPG, Necromancy. Not sure how it will be received by gamers, but I am enjoying working on it.

4. On resuming development on DME, I plan to either rebuild it from scratch again or do a more modular approach to everything and work on fixing existing issues rather than new features. I think if I focused on my initial vision from the very start instead of new features from community discussions, and instead worked on them one after another with stable client, we wouldn't be in this slump.

5. Contrary to my previous comments in various topics, WINDOWS 7/8/8.1 is not compatible with the new rendering system. Even if I make it work with old rendering system, it will not be able to make use of the AI assistant and more modern features of DME.
As such, from now on we will have 2 versions of DME (both included in same purchase/client), one will be Legacy version to just support the Mascot Engine on Windows 7/8/8.1 and the other will be the future/modern version for Windows 10+ which will include all other AI, assistant and modern features.

6. 2D will need to be removed for now, there are issues in it currently and clearly its not as good as what people wanted or expected from it. Once the 3D system is more stable and upto date, I will rebuild 2D from scratch too.
I am also exploring the option of rendering 3D models as more 2D/pixel arts instead. Worst case scenario, 2D will need to be a version of itself too. Currently the lack of artists or anyone expert in 2D field disables me on working and updating it right now.

7. 3D workshop and support for custom 3D models will be my #1 priority right away, thats also the reason for removing 2D support for now.

8. Unlike before, I will focus on small changes and updates regularly rather than big updates at once. I have setup a Trello board and discord channel so I can engage better with the community on fixing issues first, then small updates and then big features.

9. I am trying to setup livestreaming on steam/twitch so I can be more active and committed and have the fans see progress on what I am working on.
This way, I can enjoy my work more and get more feedback in realtime while working, and I think people who have been following this project since long would be able to see whats cooking.

10. Once back on track, I want to do a small Kickstarter campaign to raise some funds to hire more people and speed up the development.

^^Well, that wasn't really short but whatever.

If anyone wants to follow the progress of what I am working on and stuff, the best way right now is Discord or Twitch below. Trello board link will only be provided via discord to keep it private.

Discord - https://discord.gg/m3XkvFA
Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/gamerzdan
Twitter - https://twitter.com/GamerzDan
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/user/gamerzdancom

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Sorry that everyone had to wait so long and I couldn't fulfill a number of our promises related to updates. This project was so hyped up when released that I think the initial hype, its pressure and me thinking that I need to keep shipping big updates after updates got to me and I succumbed to it by end of November 2018.

This project turned more ambitious than I initially thought or planned for (I am a one man army, no team here) and unfortunately its early access sales itself couldn't cover much of our/my working costs.
As a result (that and some taxation issues causing us a huge penalty of money), I had to put this project on hold last year and start working as a Freelancer to cover my expenses and build up enough funds for myself to focus back on this project.

I even had plans to raise a kickstarter campaign to hire more developers last year, but plans remain plans.
Unfortunately, I am still not at a stage where I can resume work on this project, not just due to lack of money, but also motivation. I have not been able to make myself work on this or any of my other projects/prototypes ever since.

I am currently working on a small game slated for christmas, its both for some revenue and to get myself out of slump and procrastination.
I have had a list of plans and tasks scheduled for DME since December 2018, and I hope I can get back to working on it soon enough.

Please do know that I am a single/solo developer and sometimes working alone has its own disadvantages, mainly the pressure and lack of motivation.


I will update you right away on one technical aspect though, although the initial build of DME supported Windows 7, 8 and 10 and 32/64bit, it had huge CPU/GPU usage.
The new render system I created during mid-August updates fixed resource usage but was not compatible with Windows 7 or 32 bit.

Not just that, but for the plans I have develop DME into an AI/assistant, it will not be possible for Windows 7/8.1 (only Windows 10 provides inbuilt speech recognition and optimized rendering).

As such, whenever I update DME, there will be 2 versions.
A legacy version with just the Mascot/Character system for all Windows version (7/8.1/10 and x32/x64 bit)
and
A stable version, with the AI and assistant kit, which will be updated and continued development on in future, but will only work with Windows 10 (or newer).

Hey fellas,
We were supposed to release a content update around/before Christmas but due to family commitments and being ill since New Year delayed a lot of stuff.
Since then, I have been committed to diagnose, research and fix DME' backward compatibility with Windows 7 and Windows 8 as my priority issue.

I am happy to confirm that I have finally found a way to make DME work for Windows 7 and 8 again, like our very early builds. The compatibility broke due to how our newer render engine works, and to make it work on Windows 7 and 8, we had to compromise a bit and find a middle ground between older and newer render engine. It took time and effort, but it finally worked without much performance sacrifice.

Due to this new change, we will need to add some more extra settings to allow users to manually fine-tune their performance usage, mascot resolution and its play area (which affects performance).

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Furthermore, we are now taking requests for Utility and Productivity features to be added to DME. Let us know here or in Community Discussions what features you would like to see.
Our next major priority would be loading user/custom 3D models as mascots.

Also, since Early Access games do not make large sales, they do not turn good or regular revenue as well. As such, we will be side-working on a small, new game project to release as well. We need that to cover our living and day to day expense so we can continue working on Desktop Mascot Engine without rushing it or having to make it a part time project.
We are also thinking to start streaming our development/programming sessions to allow users to see behind the scenes, how we work, what we work on and learn, if its worth anything.

I think were half a week late from the promised release of Demi AI update. Last week we had a critical bug so we had to delay the patch release till now.

This new build includes DEMI, a conversational AI powered by Neural Networks (Machine Learning). Currently it is available for use for all users on Windows 10* and only requires a mic. Its free to use.
We trained our data using 3rd party conversations and reddit**.
Due to the nature of dynamic conversations and a self-thinking AI, DEMI might sometimes reply rudely or might even abuse (thx reddit), so please use it with self-discretion.

We will be improving it more and more in coming days and adding support for older Windows versions too. We are also expecting to release a patch update to fix broken support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 before this month's end.

This patch also includes the following small fixes:
-Fixed layout problems for smaller resolution displays, Ultra Wide Displays and other resolutions
-Now uses Dynamic Layout for the Interface Menu and its positioning
-Fixed a bug with the character-mouse interaction where click-dragging a character would sometimes make it jump/move randomly.

Last but not the least, we have added a new trailer video for Desktop Mascot Engine to the store page, please do give it a look and let us know if you like it.

Also, we know we havn't released new 3D characters as much as we wanted to since start, but fret not, we will do a batch release of characters before Christmas.

PS: We are always listening to your feedback and suggestions, so please let us know whatever you think good or bad about the state of DME and what we can do to improve it further.

*Currently only Windows 10 has and supports inbuilt speech recognition (for free). Older versions of Windows will need to use speech recognition using 3rd party services, for which we will add various providers.

**Due to the nature of reddit and its conversations, sometimes the Demi AI's response can be bad, not bad as in bad reply, but a bad person. Don't let it bully you and don't mind or feel bad from its responses. AI are self-thinking, self-learning and unpredictable.
Please do not take any of its reply against us.




There is also a requirement to enable Speech Recognition permissions for Windows 10 users, without it you will get a error saying " Speech/Phrases Recognition is not supported on this machine ".

• Go to System Settings (Control Panel) -> Privacy and select on the left panel the option "Speech, inking & typing".
  
• Change the policy option to enable the speech feature. (TURN IT ON / ALLOW)
  
• Restart DME (the program/.exe) to allow changes to take effect
  
• The "Not Supported" error should be gone now (?)

DEMI AI Support is available here - https://steamcommunity.com/app/821060/discussions/0/1743353798892162045/

We are finally reaching that stage of hype folks.

This should be a good chance to show off one of our biggest features we had planned since DME's concept stage.
Its a AI Conversation bot, right on your desktop and interfaced using your voice (and replies back using gibberish/actual voice of its own).
This is not a static or pre-defined chatbot but a full fledged Neural Network trained AI (Machine Learning).







We had been training this since last 2 months 24x7 using Reddit's corpus and comments data and are quite pleased with its conversational skills and context at present.

The AI interface is activated using the keyword "Demi" (configurable), after which it waits for your input/conversation and replies back (almost instantly).

The AI is also capable of doing and replying to some small tasks we have tried our hands on (stories, jokes, maths homework, song requests, movie requests, etc.).






Currently the demo is running on a $600/month GPU server rig for faster inference (1-2 secs max) and on normal CPU server(s) it takes 6-8 seconds ($100-200/month servers).

We will be doing a small Livestream/broadcast to showcase the AI in realtime and allow our viewers/users to interact with the AI via chat and converse with it. Keep a lookout on our Steam Page and social networks (twitter and FB link given at bottom) to join it.

During concept stage, we had planned to have the mascot character itself reply back, but later on decided to separate mascot character and "Demi" (the AI) to allow more flexibility to users (disable mascot and just use the AI or vice versa).

What do you think ? Would replying back via the mascot make more sense (and some aesthetic feel with lip syncing) ?

Howdy folks. This large content update was supposed to be released during Halloween, but was delayed more and more due to small little things we kept adding and felt to release it as one big update.

This change log includes changes from our recent update released on 8th November 2018 too (which was a partial update of v11.19.2018)

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We have added 2 new 3D characters (Mana Witch and Akasha Succubus), along with quite a lot of user submissions in 2D Workshop.






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Long awaited 2D characters can now be used from the Workshop. Just subscribe to a 2D character in workshop and you can start using it in DME as soon as it finishes downloading (in steam).



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Some might have noticed this already, but the old clunky Menu is gone. Instead, now we have a much more minimalist and simpler Menu UI, accessible by clicking the little DME icon/button on bottom right of your screen.

We will be adding more and more settings and options to configure and customize DME.




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The nature of our program earlier did not let us make use of Steam's Screenshot feature and as such, our users could not share screenshots directly to the Steam Community.
With this update, we have created our own Screenshot pipeline and users can capture, save and share screenshots to Steam (or else where) by using the F12 key (DME must be in focus, just left click the chara or menu once)


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-Added new characters - Mana (Witch) and Akasha (Succubus)
-2D Character Engine, cross compatible with shimeji charas/animations
-Redesigned and new Menu UI
-SteamWorkshop2D Sync, copies all subscribed and downloaded workshop items from Steam Directory to local Directory
-New Settings system, should save and persist changed settings
-Fixed random crashing and minimizing when running DME
-Fixed Transparency bug
-Spawn last used character by default, if not available, random it
-Root motion now uses settings value when spawning new character
-Change MenuToggle button color automatically on hover
-Menu renders above mascots
-Changed Workshop Tool to use 70% screen resolution
-Added 2D character size/scale change using mouse scroll when hovering
-Added Menu Toggle button size change using mouse scroll when hovering
-Added 2D character sprite flip using right click when hovering
-Added detection for running processes and to detect if any other Steam game or particular application is running (VLC) to allow for auto disable/hide DME **
-Right Click Menu Button to hide/show mascots (both 2D/3D)
-Improved Textures for Akasuki/Akane and Akasha/Hara
-Added Character2D card to download more characters in 2d chara selection
-Replaced MenuToggle icon image with glass area filled to allow better clickability
-MenuToggle can be mouse-dragged
-Added TakeScreenshot functionality and to upload to Steam Library (F12 key)
-Other QOL changes and smaller problems reported past few months


** Right now, we have added functionality to detect other running Steam Games and Apps, but are not auto-disabling or hiding mascots (yet). We are still testing this feature and hope to complete it and add it by next update. We are also trying to allow a custom selection/list by user to choose programs/games which should be detected to hide/disable DME to preserve resources (while gaming or watching movie, etc.)

As you might have already noticed we recently updated Desktop Mascot Engine and you can now load the 2D workshop contents that you are subscribed to.
Also, some of you might be confused with where are the settings or the interface.
Unless you've noticed we've added a small toggle button for showing and hiding the interface at the bottom right of the screen.



We redesigned the interface inspired by Sword Art Online's UI. The settings are pretty much self-explanatory, you can select a character you want to load either 3D or 2D (3D one at a time, 2D you can click and load multiple at once), open up the Workshop tool, alter settings, head to discussions board for Help or Exit.


We also added the tab to load 2D characters. You need to subscribe to some 2D characters from the workshop in order for them to show up in the menu. You can load any number of characters by simply clicking the character you want in. In order to remove a character, just drag a character to any corner of your screen and drop.
We'll be improving the 2D characters features over time. You'll be able to flip the sprites in case they are not properly oriented and also resize the character according to your need.
In the meantime, we welcome users to submit characters to the workshop, as that improves our scope for ruling necessary settings.

The current application is tried and tested on displays with 16:10, 16:9 and 4:3 ratio screens and seems to be more fluent and stable considering the previous shortcomings.

We're currently working on more features that'll allow users to engage with the application better. We're always open to new ideas and features. We're always reading any bug report or discussion thread to improve. Feel free to reach out to us with any query or even general chit-chat. ;)

Halloween is approaching and were hard at work preparing a big content update for Halloween.
2D Character System, New Settings Storage (with steam cloud), New Main Interface (UI) Design and our new preview DLC of Living Environments, which will be our hand-created and curated set of "Living and Interactive Wallpapers".

Well we call them wallpapers here to make it easier to understand, but what we have envisioned and tried our hands at, we plan to create and release highly interactive "environments" which will replace your wallpapers.
That, at a nickle of performance cost.

The above preview is one of the "environments" we are creating for Halloween. We are trying to release a batch of multiple environments for halloween theme. We understand some of these might be too spooky for some of our users, as such, we would be happy to hear your ideas on halloween themed environments (interactive or otherwise).



Disclaimer: The above performance shown is on a Ryzen 2700X and GTX 1070. The environment being previewed is set to detect mouse position each frame at 120 fps (its in debug mode) and still uses only 20% GPU on a 1070, with barely any CPU usage.
When used with proper settings (mouse detection every second or once every 30 frames, the GPU usage is around 5% or even less.

Nothing much, don't trust reviews and critics. The movie is fun and enjoyable. Not endorsements or affiliations with them, just excited and wanted to say that.
Also, found the movie's logo transition a perfect test for our "Living Environments".
- Loops
- Has transparency (currently 95%) so your original wallpaper is also see through
- Supports Sound effects/click interaction

Thinking to perhaps release it as well along with the Halloween demo/special we are trying to finish in time.

A new build update has just been pushed to Steam which includes the 2D Workshop Submission tool.

The workshop tool can be accessed by clicking the "Workshop" button in the Main Interface or by accessing the "WorkshopTool/workshop.exe" build file in DME's steam folder.





Eff has also published a basic guide on how to use the Workshop tool here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1529777138


Currently, the workshop tool only includes Submission for 2D characters. Our 2D Character Engine is also ready and will be released in 2 days time, we are testing the "Subscribe/Download" part of the workshop with it.
Its built keeping Shimeji's in mind (which most of the users requested) and as such, supports all of the Shimeji's (sprites/animations).

To start with, we have kept support for the following Animations- Idle, Walk, Climb, Fall.
We will add support for more animation types and custom actions in upcoming days, as we develop the 2D character engine more.


For the time being, you can start submitting your 2D characters/shimejis to the workshop and start subscribing to what you like, once the 2D Engine update is released in next 2 days, you can start using them.

The workshop tool also needs some improvements but we feel its stable and functional enough to be released as a version 1.

Feedback is most welcomed, for suggestions and requests please use the community discussions.

Hey everyone



It has been quite a while since we last did a announcement or update, I believe almost 2 months ?
Sorry about that, we had a situation at hand. My other-half of the team (eff) met a small accident and was on rest for initial 2 weeks. We actually had the Workshop's UI completed around June end.
While he was recovering, I tried to work alone on DME but couldn't focus properly, which led to almost a month's procrastination. That and the new Ryzen machine we build just in July itself to train the AI's conversation system (Machine Learning), ended up crashing. Whole HDD crashed.
I won't lie, but these 2 incidents back to back almost made me lose focus and passion to keep working on DME. I just couldn't put my mind to do it alone.

By the time eff recovered, we had a little talk that maybe we were trying to go too fast all alone and pushing ourself too much since initial launch. As such, both of us decided to talk a small break during August and perhaps prototype some new ideas, we actually ended up creating 3 new game ideas and some cool stuff for DME itself (Living Environments).

Come September, we had resumed the work on DME, wrapping up Steam Workshop's backend integration, which actually is way more complicated than you might think. Lots of trial and errors, crashes and small problems.
But finally, we finished the Workshop integration today morning (you can actually see some test workshop submissions we did).

Well, not a lot to talk about what happened and time which is lost. We wish we had a few more folks in our team, as a 2-man team, both of us are more or less programming side. Having a round about team is always better.
We also incorporated a company in US around June (that costed quite some $$$) to do a Kickstarter campaign but decided to postpone it till a few core features we want to add to DME before that. We hope we can do a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise some funds to increase our team size.

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Now, coming to actual technical stuff about DME, its state and future.


- New rendering system improved performance and resource usage but broke support for Windows 7/8
- Windows 32/x86 bit compatibility (we will do it when we get on fixing the Windows 8 support)
- 3D Workshop Support (we clarified this in some posts in community topics, but whats holding this back currently is having a bullet proof way to do sanity check of various aspects of the 3D model submitted to make sure it can work with DME as easy as plug and play. We do not want users to do extra work to make 3D models from workshop work.
- 2D Workshop Support is completed as of today, after a few more tests, we hope to push out its update by tonight/tomorrow
- Intrusiveness/Cannot click on desktop/icons, we believe this issue is isolated to Windows 7/8 users
- Hide Taskbar Icon broken again, this and the system tray are causing quite some issues and random crashes. We are trying to make this work but we might have to ditch System tray icon for a Desktop based overlay icon instead (docked to bottom right)
- Dual Screen/4k, we believe we had fixed all issues related to this but one or two users recently reported it. We will check it again.
- Game Mode, we know many users want a auto-disable feature when playing game to preserve their resources. We are working on it.
- Remembering Settings



-2D Workshop/Shimeji Support (September 2018)
Workshop integration is done and so far its working perfect (both upload and download). We have created whole 2D system support using Shimeji as a model, since many users asked for it and wanted compatibility with Shimejis.
We are happy to confirm that you would be able to use Shimeji's with our 2D Mascot System.
Full functionality and animation types are not available yet but we will be improving it with your feedback. Once we have confirmed the workshop integration is working flawless, we will continue updating and improving the 2D Mascot System instead (animations, interactions, sounds, physics, etc.)

-AI Conversation (Voice based chatbot) (October-November 2018)
We are re-training all our conversation data (Machine Learning) so this might take as much as 1-2months to be complete again, but would be worth the wait.
You would be able to have small-talks (conversations) with your mascot using voice (chat). It will be a fun companion and something which we will extend to full voice-based AI-assistant.
A small preview can be seen here, please do know that the video was for promotion and reference purpose only and that the actual Conversation Bot may or may not be as intelligent xD
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1433471501

-3D Workshop (TBA)
Its more or less done with some technical hiccups, however, it will not be released till our sanity check and model checking algorithms are satisfactory. We want the workshop to be read-to-use, instantly and freely available and for that, the sanity checks are necessary to make the models work right out of the box once you download them. We do not want a curated workshop model where users submit, vote and then we manually add models.

-Utilities, Services and API Integration (October-December 2018)
We will be starting work on actual productivity and utility features of DME, including integrating service providers like Twitch, Soundcloud, etc. and utility features. Again, development for this will more or less go hand-in-hand with the AI-Assistant feature



These will be hand-made (not literally) and curated desktop backgrounds. But unlike normal backgrounds/wallpapers, these will be living (in a sense) and interactive. It will be something like what wallpaper engine does, except in a more advanced and modern sense.
We are still discussing on whether to keep this feature as free or a separate DLC as adding it within DME might over complicate DME and make it more hard to understand/use for many users.
Keeping it as a separate DLC would allow us to pivot it from DME and create it as a standalone system, based on and integrated in DME.
We have quite some ideas for Living Environments, from highly interactive and living backgrounds to living stories where you can actually go to your desktop, interact with objects in your background/wallpaper and a story unfolds. Interactive Stories meet backgrounds.
These Environments will take time and effort to make as each one of them will be like a game itself.
We want to keep its development properly going and regular new content added, we are thinking to make this a paid DLC (with free environments available to have a feel what its about).
We are still talking with a few artists to see if we can price the whole feature as a one time DLC ($4.99) rather than selling the environments via micro transactions ($0.49-0.99).

We currently cannot show you a exact preview of the actual feature as we are working hard to release the feature in time for Halloween and release our first environment as a seasonal environment (Halloween theme).
But here is a prototype we did during our resting period.





Just think of it this way, while DME's mascots live on top of every other window like a overlay, the Environments will live below every other window, just like your wallpaper.


We would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, problems and suggestions on Halloween themed environment.

Here is discussion topic for Living Environments:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/821060/discussions/0/3220528325729672163/