I bought Duskers on Gog and the keyboard doesn't work either on my Dell Desktop PC or my HP Laptop.

Currently working with the developer to find out what;s wrong.

I will post the email conversations later.

DEV: Sorry to hear that! It's odd that two different computers would exhibit the same issue. A couple thoughts come to mind: 1) do you by chance use a non-US keyboard layout (or even a non-WASD keyboard)? 2) Could you send me a screenshot of the main menu (so I can make sure the menu is rendering correctly, and it's not actually frozen).

Also, when you say the keyboard doesn't work, I assume neither arrows nor shortcut keys work.

Thanks!

JP

DEV: Ha - I meant non-QWERTY keyboard ;)

ME: Thanks for the reply.

1) I use a QWERTY keyboard.

2) Screenshot attached.

I also tried configuring the mouse buttons as secondary input. I can scroll the menu options up and down with it but not select an option, just makes a sound.

Arrows or shortcut keys don't work either.

DEV: Thanks :) And your keyboard is configured as US layout/region (in Windows settings)?

Do the keys make sounds, just not work? Or is it like the game doesn't receive them at all? I am puzzled and can't think of another case I've heard like this!

When the game starts (and you see the "boot" screen before the boot menu in the screenshot), does ENTER or ESC skip through it (AKA - do the keys work THERE)? Also, is there a difference running in windowed vs. full screen? Any unusual/non-standard software on BOTH computers that is designed to manage/handle/capture keyboard input?

I must admit I'm scratching my head here :)

You could also start, press ENTER on the first item, and then send me your log file to see if an error is being recorded (though I'm doubtful). Here's info on where that file can be found: Game Log Locations

DEV: Oh, I also just remembered you said you bought on Gog. Are you running from their launcher, or directly in Windows? If through their launcher, can you try outside of it to see if that makes a difference?
ME: I was running from their launcher, but now just tried it from it's installation path. No difference.

> Thanks :) And your keyboard is configured as US layout/region (in Windows settings)?

I live in the UK so it's a UK keyboard layout and region selected same as keyboard.

> Do the keys make sounds, just not work? Or is it like the game doesn't receive them at all? I am puzzled and can't think of another case I've heard like this!

No sounds, although clicking the mouse button I've assigned to ' submit ' makes a sound, bit like the computers in Alien.

> When the game starts (and you see the "boot" screen before the boot menu in the screenshot), does ENTER or ESC skip through it (AKA - do the keys work THERE)?

No difference.

> Also, is there a difference running in windowed vs. full screen? Any unusual/non-standard software on BOTH computers that is designed to manage/handle/capture keyboard input?

I had run it in both full screen and windowed with no success, leaving it in Windowed whilst we diagnose. There is a Logitek app for a bluetooth keyboard I have for emergencies and I exited that when I first started to have problems. That's only on my desktop and not my laptop.
> I must admit I'm scratching my head here :)

It is weird isn't it, anyway there is another post here on your steam forums by a guy with the same issue that I found last night:

* can't post link - use google *

> You could also start, press ENTER on the first item, and then send me your log file to see if an error is being recorded (though I'm doubtful). Here's info on where that file can be found: Game Log Locations

Have given that a try, but no log is created in the directory it should be in.

DEV: NO log? The log writes a bunch of stuff (not just errors) and there should always be a log :) Because you are using Gog, it won't be the same location as the one for Steam (I likely mislead you with that link). Assuming Windows, look in the folder where the Duskers.exe is located. There should be a sub-folder called \Duskers_Data\ and in there the output_log.txt file.

Me: No output_log.txt in the game exe location either. There's only a goglog config settings file there.

DEV: Is there not even a \Duskers_Data\ folder next to the Duskers.exe file? If not, we must be in the wrong folder, because that's all the assets for the game (and it wouldn't even start w/o that!) :) Do you by chance have some files hidden your system? Would you mind sending a screenshot? I feel like maybe I pointed you at the wrong location, or something :)

More to come...

ME: Sorry, yes I also meant to say looked in /duskers _data/ too and no log there either. Also had a peek in other folders. I'll do a search on the file name too as well as get you that screen shot.

I also made sure show all hidden files is enabled. Be back soon

DEV: No log. That's interesting. Yeah, let me know what the search turns up. I don't think I need the screenshot now. I thought maybe you were looking at a shortcut instead of the actual file because you hadn't mentioned \Duskers_Data\ :)

There should be a log file even if you only get the Unity launcher before the game starts. One thing that will prevent it (I just double checked) is if you don't have write access to the folder. I'm wondering now if there's something with your permissions. Generally when people have Windows permission issues it shows up a little differently (ex: * can't post link. However, if you really don't have that file, that might at least hint in that direction. Let's also check that your data files are being created. See this thread for where those are located (should be the same for Gog): * can't post link

If you could zip what you have and send I can also see if there's something odd, there.

Finally, given the hint of a possible permissions issue, could you check your Windows Event Logs (the "Application" folder in particular, but glance at the others) to see if there are any logged errors when launching the game.

ME: Ok I'll look in to that tomorrow as I'm about to head off out, but for now here's the screen shot anyway.

I've performed the search and I'm not seeing a ' output_log.txt ' for duskers but for other games in cortana. Whilst I was busy I set off a full search on Drive C for the file but no results when I came back. Something must've gone wrong as there are files with the same name as the log you want but for other games in their folders.

Thanks for looking in to this for me, I'll reply as soon as I have what you need.

ME: Ok, here is what I have so far:

1. I have ran duskers.exe as an administrator, with no change.
2. I have right clicked on the ' Duskers ' game folder and ' Attributes ' are on ' Read-Only ' in the ' General ' tab. So I unchecked ' Read-Only ' and clicked apply to all files, subfolders and files. That didn't take the folders off read-only, so I did it again and clicked OK instead of apply which still didn't remove the read-only check.
3. Then I followed the instructions in that second link you gave by getting the 'properties' dialogue up on the 'Duskers' folder as in 2 above. Then selecting 'security' tab, selecting my user name and allowed all permission for it when clicking the 'Edit' button. I made sure that the Duskers_Data folder had the permissions applied and it does. Ran the game again and it still won't work or create the log.
4. Looked in ' Documents/My Games ' in my user folder and no ' Duskers ' folder is present although other folders for other games are in there so it looked like the Duskers data folder isn't being created either.
5. Should I send the files in ' Sending Your Data for Review ' provided in the second link you sent ? Not sure what I means by ' loose files in the main director ' and I can't find a ' \data\udata\ ' directory within ' Duskers ' main directory either.
6. Will have to look at the ' Windows Event Logs ' later as going out.

DEV: Ok, thanks for the updates. I would suggest elevating your permissions on /My Games/ and seeing if that helps. Usually running as Administrator works (and, btw, generally a permission issue doesn't allow the program to run as well as yours), but it really sounds like it's a permission thing (specifically not being able to write files). The missing files in /Duskers/ are automatically generated at run time (so they aren't part of the install). Not being there tells me it either can't find the /My Games/ folder (have you remapped /My Documents/ to another drive?) or else it doesn't have permission. Hopefully the Windows log will provide some insight.

BTW: as for the "loose files" and \data\udata\, those exist in /My Games/Duskers/ folder. Since you don't have that folder, you won't have those files/other folders :)

ME: I have looked in to the permissions for /My Games/ and they already have all permissions for both my user and administrators allowed. They appear greyed out so I can't change them in the Edit screen. The special permissions check box isn't selected though for this directory but it is selected for /Duskers/ main directory, but greyed out there.
2. I decided to roll back my version in GOG settings for Duskers, to version 1.00, 1.02, 1.03 then back to 1.04 and all of those versions have the same problem.
3. The Event Viewer is something I've used on rare occasions, only wish it had a search function to find logs for Duskers but I've had a look in to each category of logs and haven't found anything Duskers related. I will keep looking but it looks like nothing obvious for now.
4. /My Documents/ has not been remapped to another drive, it is in the default location and has all permissions allowed except special permissions as in 1 above.

Awaiting next answer from DEV...

ISSUE FIXED !

ME: I’ve got the keyboard to work in Duskers now, I solved the problem by running Iobit Advanced System Care free and it found a number of registry errors and a few other problems that needed fixing. I restarted the computer and tried to run Duskers again hoping that the problem had cleared. Before the launcher came up Comodo Internet Security brought up a dialogue asking for Duskers to be allowed access to the keyboard amongst a few other system files. Once I’d allowed all of them and the game started I could start using the keyboard right away.

I can confirm that the output.log file is there where you indicate it should be and a duskers folder is now created in documents/my games/

My guess is that it’s a registry issue and I know that running software like Advanced System Care and System Mechanic can get games to work again if there are problems, although this doesn’t happen very often.

Thanks for your time, I’ll post my answer to that steam forum post my gog forum post.

Just for anyone coming across this: I work in IT, and strongly discourage the usage of reg "cleaners".

Think of it as rolling a d20 dice each time you use one of these,
1-3 = found something serious, speed increases (+5%)!
4-12 = found something with no immediate impact. (possibly adds long term instability)
13-17 = removes something that worsens system condition noticably (-10%)
18-20 = removes vital stuff that your system needs to function. (Re-install windows!)

Wanna roll the dice? Your choice.

Statistically, it's much more likely that it removes stuff that either doesn't do anything one way or the other (at all), or hits something that should not have been removed. Modern OS are managing their registry automatically, and the biggest part of the registry is just a bunch of drawers with settings stored in them that are looked up directly, rather than scanned for. As such, leftover drawers after uninstalling a program just will be ignored and other programs still know exactly where to look for their stuff, regardless of percieved "clutter". Removing that clutter only pleases human OCD, at the constant risk of rolling a 20 or even "just" a 15.

As such, reg cleaners nowadays are mostly snake oil, making matters worse if they're not required to take care of very specific problems, just like you only do a chemo therapy to treat a specific issue with your body when you absolutely need to.