Truth Scrapper News

[p][/p][p]I am writing this in bed after dying at the gym. please clap[/p][p][/p][p]In case you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I am the creator of timeloop RPG In Stars and Time, and now am working on my next game, memory visual novel Truth Scrapper. It’s gonna be a good one.[/p][p]This month, I worked on the demo for Truth Scrapper!![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The demo for Truth Scrapper is DONE!!! (but you know I still need to get some people to playtest it and do some QA and we also need to translate it so really it’s not done but you know)[/p][p][/p][p]To celebrate, I thought I would go in a bit more detail about what a demo is, what it’s for, and how I go around making one.[/p][p]
[/p][h2]📚 WHAT'S A DEMO[/h2][p][/p][p]So, for the uninitiated, a “demo” is a little slice of the game, that is supposed to encapsulate the gameplay and story and stuff. It’s usually showcased in events like conventions (PAX, Gamescom…), and online (Steam events, especially Steam Next Fest). The goal of a demo is to GET THOSE SWEET SWEET WISHLISTS BABYYYYY[/p][p]
[/p][h2]📚 LEARNING FROM PAST MISTAKES[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p]When it comes to the demo for In Stars and Time (my previous game), I think it did a great job showcasing both gameplay (through battles) and story (through events and dialogue). I ended up taking the first floor of the main dungeon, and fixing it up a bit so that the time loop starting was the Cool Thing at the end of the demo, and Loop’s appearance was the Cliffhanger. Oh yeah your demo needs a cliffhanger so people go “oh my god i gotta know what happens next let me wishlist this.” So yes, I think I succeeded in that regard.[/p][p][/p][p]However, one big issue it had was the LENGTH. The demo was EASILY AN HOUR LONG, which is fine-ish when it comes to online demos (players have some time) and streamers (yay they get to play a game), but not great when it comes to conventions.[/p][p][/p][p]We only showcased the demo at the Tokyo Game Show, and I think in 3 days, only a handful of people played it from beginning to end. We ended up making a save skipping the first cutscene, and asking people if they wanted to see the story, or start from the gameplay, which is… Not great![/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p]So for the Truth Scrapper demo, my goal was to make it LESS THAN THIRTY MINUTES LONG. But also a piece of personal lore is that I am terrible at knowing how long a game I made is, so we’ll see if I succeed.[/p][p]
In positive things though, the ISAT demo allowed me to find some cute ways to make the full game more interesting, like tutorial fairy Loop being the one to tutorialize you at the start of the game! Originally, Loop just talked to you after your first loop, so they kind of came out of nowhere. Having a tutorial at the very start of the demo, then having that tutorial tell you to come to the tree was an idea I had for the demo, and it was so good I ended up adding it to the game! So hopefully, making the TS demo will also help me figure out some things…[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]📚 MAKING THE DEMO[/h2][p][/p][p]Ok so the one problem I had from the start was that in the full game, Day 1 is Amour’s day, and Day 2 is Betz’s. So obviously, I couldn’t just take either of those days as a base for the demo, since I wanted to showcase both characters immediately. Whole new day it is. DAY… X!!!!!!!!!!! (not canon to the full game.)[/p][p] [/p][p][/p][p]All days in TS usually follow this structure:[/p][p]Wake up -> Explore the town -> Explore the Dwell -> Point and Click investigation -> Dress-Up-type minigame -> End of the day.[/p][p]So I figured I would follow this for the demo, but, uh, immediately realized that would be a two hour demo. So I simplified it to this:[/p][p]Wake up (longest scene, needs to establish characters and setting) -> explore the Dwell (quickly) -> very quick Point and Click (“yahoo there’s gameplay”) -> Dress-Up-type minigame (it’s short and cute) -> End of the day (and cliffhanger).[/p][p]So most scenes are way quicker, and hopefully this will be a 30mn demo (GOD PLEASE I HOPE I’M RIGHT)[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The demo also showcases the memory gameplay, where Sosotte gets to choose memories that give her specific “perks”. I originally had it just like the full game, where you can change those memories whenever, but I decided to make those permanent (you pick them at the start and they don’t change), which should allow for a certain level of replayability. And demo achievements. IF I CAN GET THEM TO WORK.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Truth Scrapper has a lot of funny words and lore that would take longer than a demo to explain, so I also simplified the story there to make it more understandable. If some players want more details, there’s always the option for them to scour the Glossary. This is honestly the biggest reason for playtesting, I really want to make sure I didn’t make the story too complex for the demo… We’ll find out…[/p][p] [/p][p]What else. Oh yeah. Since the demo is based on the latest Truth Scrapper build, I made sure to delete all mentions of stuff that happens later in the story. Yes including songs. Yes including sound effects. YOU WON’T GET ME THIS TIME, CODE DIGGERS!!!!!!!![/p][p][/p][p]Uuuh yes that’s all. I know I said all of this and you don’t have the demo so you’re like “ok cool I guess that sounds great” so uh I hope you’ll play the demo when it comes out. Probably. Early 2026 or something.[/p][p][/p][h2]📚 HOLD UP HERES SOME ART[/h2][p][/p][p]Oh yeah... I also drew some art based on this music video. You should really follow me on Bluesky or Tumblr or even Instagram.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p] ok thats it byyyyye[/p][p][/p][p]DON'T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THATS THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!![/p][p][/p][p]Links!
📚 Official Website
📚 Join the Discord
📚 Sign up for my mailing list
📚 Follow Truth Scrapper on Bluesky
📚 Follow ME on Bluesky[/p]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][h2]Let's spend a day with ROYAL the SUPERVILLAIN as he does nothing evil. There are a lot of things to do.[/h2][p][/p][p]The developer of Truth Scrapper's tiny visual novel, "this game will end in 205 clicks." is AVAILABLE NOW![/p][p][/p][p]Please welcome "this game will end in 205 clicks." 👑😈✨[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[p][/p][p]Hope everyone is once again staying cool in this dreadful summer.[/p][p][/p][p]In case you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I am the creator of timeloop RPG In Stars and Time, and now am working on my next game, memory visual novel Truth Scrapper. It’s gonna be a good one.[/p][p]
[/p][p]DAY 4 (out of 11-ish) IS FINALLY DONE AND IMPLEMENTED. This is the moment in the game where the story and character development picks up in a new way. And the Romance Sections are starting to get somewhere… It was so fun to get all this in the game![/p][p]
[/p][p]So… What does it mean to say that a day is “done and implemented”? Take my hand. I will explain.[/p][p]
[/p][h3]WRITING:[/h3][p]
First is writing the damn day. The first step of this first step is writing down bullet points of what happens during that day! What will happen? How does this further the mystery? How do the characters develop, and how does their relationship develop? Depending on what the player makes Sosotte remembers, will Sosotte be more attracted to Amour or Betz? In what way? Etc etc.[/p][p][/p][p]Once I have those bullet points written down, it’s time to actually write the scenes! Thankfully, I am getting to the Fun Parts of the game, so some of those Day 4+ scenes have been written down for a while. As I write, too, I usually realize I didn’t foreshadow some parts well enough, so I tend to rewrite some old scenes from previous days too. Day 1 has changed a lot since I first wrote it…[/p][p][/p][p](Part of my script. As you can tell, this has no caps because it's easier for me to write without thinking about it too much at this stage. I will regret it later)[/p][p][/p][p]This part takes me maybe… 3 weeks, a month? Longest part for sure.[/p][p]
[/p][h3]ART:[/h3][p]Now that I have all those scenes written out, I need to do ART!!! Thankfully, the artstyle for this game is pretty simple for me to do, and having the backgrounds be collages of stock pictures make the background work a breeze. Day 4 in particular was VERY HEAVY with art, so that one took some time. (20+ backgrounds, 2 new characters and their myriad of expressions, 20+ illustrations and all their variations…!!!)[/p][p](This sweet thang is from Day 4)[/p][p][/p][p]This part takes me around 2 weeks![/p][p]
[/p][h3]IMPLEMENTATION:[/h3][p]Now that all the text is written, and the art has been done… WE GOTTA ADD ALL THAT INTO THE GAME!!![/p][p][/p][p]I divide this work into a few parts:[/p][p][/p][p]-Add all the text and dialogue in the game, which means copy/paste, but also adding all those pesky quotes so the software can recognize this as text. I also add the character tags (here, “a” and “s”) to let Ren’py know who’s talking, as well as {w} to tell Ren’py “hey I want the player to have to press a button before the rest of the sentence appears”.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]-Add all the damn code. Which means: adding when a point and click section appears and how it works, adding any “if AmourPoints>BetzPoints then do this”, etc. [/p][p][/p][p]-Add all the expression changes.[/p][p][/p][p]So for the above, the white text can be translated as “Character Amour, side pose, eyes “hm”, mouth “eh”. Here’s Amour’s “callsaul” pose, named after a certain guy.[/p][p][/p][p]During the implementation stage, adding expressions is the part that takes the longest amount of time by far.[/p][p][/p][p]-Add all the glossary/case entries. Truth Scrapper has many words and Sosotte needs to remember them all, and so the game has a glossary full of the many words, which needs to update as you find the new words.[/p][p][/p][p]-And finally, add all the music and sound effects. PHEW[/p][p][/p][p]This took a week this time because I exhausted myself doing it, but this usually takes me more like 2.[/p][p][/p][h3]EDITING:[/h3][p]
And then I usually spend a week or two playing through the ENTIRE game to make sure it’s good. I usually make a lot of edits, and so I have to play it through a second time, and a third time…[/p][p][/p][p]AND THEN WE’RE DONE. PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is how I go about things.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Anyway I finished Day 4 so I’m taking a break for a couple weeks. Heehee DON'T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THATS THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!![/p][p][/p][p]Links!
📚 Official Website
📚 Join the Discord
📚 Sign up for my mailing list
📚 Follow Truth Scrapper on Bluesky
📚 Follow ME on Bluesky[/p][p]






[/p]

[p][/p][p]Already a month since the announcement?! Time passes by so fast. I hope everyone is staying cool in this dreadful weather.[/p][p][/p][p]In case you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I am the creator of timeloop RPG In Stars and Time, and now am working on my next game, memory visual novel Truth Scrapper. It’s gonna be a good one.[/p][p][/p][p]This month, I took a trip to Paris, and reworked the memory gameplay a bit![/p][p] [/p][p]So, as you perhaps can tell, TS’s backgrounds are collages of photographs. I’ve been using royalty free images from websites like Pexels, and it’s been going relatively well. Unless I was looking for pictures of Paris that weren’t taken by tourists, or looking for pics of stairs taken from the top of the stairs for some reason.[/p][p][/p][p]In light of that, I decided to go on a trip to Paris for a couple weeks to take reference pictures [/p][p]Ok it might look like I only took pictures of food BUT IT’S RESEARCH OK IT’S RESEARCH OK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/p][p]
(Not an actual screenshot– this is how my illustration template is structured!)[/p][p][/p][p]The rest of the month was taken by rewrites and replays. Unlike with ISAT (my previous game) where I worked chronologically with minimal backtracking during development, I feel like for TS I keep going back to previous days to add things, change a scene, remove a bit of foreshadowing that was too obvious… It’s not a bad way of working, but it’s so different from what I’m used to that it stresses me out anyway!!! [/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p](Old screenshot. The hardboiled eggs aren’t here anymore)[/p][p][/p][p]I also reworked the memory gameplay. The only way to impact the story in TS is not through choices, but with which memories Sosotte decides to remember day-to-day. I originally had some memories be dud memories, or memories that are just here as flavor, but playtesters seemed to keep them anyway… So now, I’m making sure all memories will give you a little something something![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This is how the memories for the prologue look now. Note the icons! [/p][p]
[/p][p]So, if you pick that “funny cloud” memory, you will gain the “sight” perk, which allows Sosotte to, uh, remember to use her eyes. Yippee![/p][p][/p][p]In July, I will finally finish that goshdang script for Day 4, and get it implemented. [/p][p][/p][p]kthnxbye[/p][p] [/p][p]DON'T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THATS THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!![/p][p][/p][p]Links! 📚 Official Website 📚 Join the Discord 📚 Sign up for my mailing list 📚 Follow Truth Scrapper on Bluesky 📚 Follow ME on Bluesky[/p]

It's been a week, and upcoming visual novel Truth Scrapper has already passed ✨ 10,000 wishlists ✨! Thank you for your support! 🤯🥰💖

I got a picture from Sosotte to celebrate the occasion, and here you can see Betz, Sosotte and Amour posing. They are making "10,000" with their hands. I think this is very cute and you definitely can tell they're making numbers and not just looking silly

- Truth Scrapper Intern