This seems like a weird bug I ran into.
I have a text object that’s part of a group (I use groups and link them across blend files to keep things modular and easy to work with, but this problem happens even when everything resides in the same blend file). I add the group to another scene that will be used as an overlay scene.
When I start the game and add the overlay scene containing the text object’s group, the text object seems to be duplicated in that it exists in both the overlay scene and the original scene. This is clearly demonstrated in the attached blend file.
I’m guessing this is a bug that should be reported.
text_parent.blend (444 KB)