Frequently asked questions

Truespeak Studio is a desktop app for designing a game's rules and story apart from any graphics engine, with no programming, models or other art needed. Rules, characters and items, areas and the conversations, quests, locations and story live in one project, checked against formal rules the way a compiler checks code, so every mechanic and interaction is settled before the engine work starts. The result is a set of readable files that don't depend on any engine. The current version runs on Windows, and the app is built with other platforms in mind, so it can be ported if enough people are interested.

Because engines change and stories last. Graphics improve every year, and a game tied to one engine from the first day pays heavily if it has to switch partway through. Story-driven games now take six years or more to make; settling every mechanic and interaction up front, checked the way a compiler checks code, aims to take at least a year off that. And because the design doesn't depend on any engine, the engine work becomes a fraction of the job, and a remake on a newer engine starts from logic that's already verified.

Any game whose rules or story you want to design, from a visual novel to the deepest RPG. Each system in a project is optional, so a visual novel can leave the rules out entirely, while an RPG models its whole ruleset with turn-based, real-time or mixed combat. The sample rulesets show how far the rules model stretches.

No. Truespeak Studio is where you design your game's rules and story and check them; running the game is your engine's job. Your engine loads the design from the readable files Truespeak Studio saves.

Not the whole game. Design-time previews let you step through one conversation line by line, play one quest through as a character, or walk the story from chapter to chapter, all before any engine exists. Playing a scenario through on its own, from the first scene to an ending, is planned.

No. Rules are numbers, dice and formulas, the kind of math a tabletop game runs on, such as STR * 2 + 1d6 for damage or TRUST >= 10 for a condition. Every formula and condition field has built-in help, and hovering over an ID in one shows what it names.

Truespeak Studio is created by Evgeny Maksakov, an independent developer. He doesn't come from the gaming industry, but he has loved RPGs and complex board games all his life and has wanted to make games since he was a child. The About page tells how the idea started.

Whether each part of your design works with the rest. Over 1,500 documented diagnostics catch problems such as a value your rules change but nothing ever reads, a line of dialogue no path reaches, a quest step nothing completes or a chapter from which no ending can be reached. The most serious errors show up as you edit. A full check runs whenever you start it, in the background, so you can keep working. The Validation page walks through it all.

An error is always a mistake in the design, such as a line no path leads to, and it marks the project as not valid. An advisory is almost always a mistake, such as two item variants no rule tells apart, but now and then it's exactly what you meant. That's why every advisory gives the usual fix and, where it applies, says when it's fine to leave it as it is.

Most of them, a whole category at a time in the project's settings, or by recording your intent on the thing itself, such as marking a location as a dead end on purpose. A short list stays on, each for a stated reason, and a few stricter conversation checks stay off until you turn them on. Errors can never be hidden, whatever the settings say.

No. It finds specific traps inside one conversation, quest, story or map, such as a conversation with no guaranteed way out or a one-way path into a region with no way back. Whether a run can still be finished after a flag set in one quest closes a door in another depends on everything the player did before, and checking a scenario that way, from the first scene to every ending, is planned.

Not yet. Today the checks look at how your rules fit together, such as a formula that depends on itself or two variants no rule tells apart, not at how strong each option is. Combat and encounter simulation, economic model assessment, and probability and progression analysis are planned.

Not yet. Today your engine reads the project's JSON files, and the runtime contract built into the project marks what the engine must supply, such as events, distances and line of sight. Export to Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot and RPG Maker, and to generic JSON and XML, is planned, and will turn that contract into hooks and stubs in the exported project.

No. A project is a folder of readable JSON files, with each system in its own files and the ruleset split by kind of rule, so you can read them, compare versions and load them in your own tools. Every value is written out, defaults included, and settings picked from a list are stored by name, not by number.

Truespeak Studio is a single-user desktop app, and a team shares a project through version control such as Git. Each system lives in its own files, so a change to the rules shows up apart from a change to a conversation.

Yes. Dialogue, quest journals, chapters, place names and the glossary translate into as many languages as you need, each language in its own files, and the game falls back to the source language wherever a translation is missing. Character names spelled separately for each language, for other alphabets, are planned and due before release.

Yes. Each line of dialogue can name its voice files, a condition can pick between takes, and the files sit in a folder per character and, if you like, per language. A take counts as a placeholder until you sign it off, and an optional check lists the lines that still have no voice.

The current version runs on Windows, as a desktop app. Truespeak Studio was designed from the start with other platforms in mind, so it can be ported to Mac or Linux if enough people are interested.

It will be free for individual and hobby use. Commercial use will need a paid license, and its terms aren't set yet.

On Patreon. Supporters help set priorities: they vote on a shortlist of features the developer picks, and higher tiers get one extra vote.

There's no date yet. The app works today as a prototype, and its developer is turning it into a product you can install. Join the waitlist to hear when it's ready.