President Studio, the developer behind Crime Scene Cleaner, extends a warm invitation to EVERYONE for an exciting round of open playtests! Join us as we kick off the playtests on September 28th, 2023, which will last until all the necessary data from the player’s feedback is collected. Just as promised, these playtests are entirely accessible to everyone, without any restrictions and for free. To sign up for playtests, go to Crime Scene Cleaner’s Steam store page and hit the “Request Access” button… and that’s it. Once the playtests are open, you may enjoy the game!
But that’s not all. Prepare for a chance to win an exclusive free Steam key for our full game. All you need to do is engage in our playtests and share your valuable feedback by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/hVqn7gUjYNk4GLYm9. Among the responses received, we'll draw some lucky participants to receive the game key. So, are you ready to dive in?
Feel free to stream our game without worrying about the soundtrack’s copyrights. There’s also no embargo on Crime Scene Cleaner’s streams, so you can start streaming right away, without waiting for its official release.
See ya! The Devs
Devblog #22 - Beast's adjustments
Sup Cleaners! You’ve been introduced to this beast once, but since then some things have changed. The one and only power washer is there to shine again among all the other cleaning tools. Remember that overpowered character from your favorite cartoon? Yeah, that’s him… kinda. And just a friendly reminder: this machine will be crucial in cleaning outdoor spaces, but is way too strong for indoor use. One can never be too careful!
POWER WASHER MODES
Changing nozzles will let you adjust the flow of the water stream in a way that will suit you better at the moment, based on the shape of bloodstains you are about to clean. There are two ways to go – vertical and horizontal. If washing gets uncomfortable or inefficient, try out the other mode as it might turn out to be a real help. You can switch in between these two options at any time!
You should be aware of the devastating power this machine holds. Some items may be found too fragile to withstand it! Then, instead of fulfilling your cleaning duty, you will be making even more mess. And sometimes… there’s no time for such mistakes.
For the power washer to not be too overpowered, its power was limited to a specific range. After placing the machine, there is a limit to how far away you can walk away with the nozzle. UI elements will tell you once you get too far from it. And if you ever wondered about this ugly popup we’ve presented to you before – fear not, dear cleaners. It wasn’t the final product, as the captions look way better now. See for yourself.
Psst… we’ve also fixed a typo! And maybe have added some new ones… Let’s see if you can find them. As you can see for yourself, we are constantly improving the game's features, even those already implemented. Let us know in the comments or on our discord server, if you’ve got any ideas what other things the power washer should be able to do!
See ya! The Devs
Devblog #21 - Mission report
Howdy Cleaners! Sometimes it might seem as if the cleaning never ends, but there’s got to be at least a moment of peace, right? Hear the police coming? After all that effort, exhaustion, and stress, you’re rushing to your car to complete the mission. Did you do a good job or fail miserably? – thoughts are running through your head, filling your guts with anxiety. As you turn the keys and see your car running smoothly, you just know that’s the final moment of truth.
MISSION REPORT
What awaits you after every mission is a mission report – a summary and the results of your actions. It combines each aspect of your job altogether, bombarding you with pure facts mixed with numbers. So without further ado… let’s dive into the details!
What’s taken into account:
Mission’s final result – in the end, you result in completing or failing the mission. So better play it carefully, as sometimes you might be forced to do the whole cleaning all over again!
Cleaning score – the combined value of the cleaning done, which includes washing the bloodstains, adjusting the furniture, disposing of garbage, and so on.
Bodies found – the most important evidence of the crime. Leaving a body behind is a huge error, leading you quickly into the police’s embrace.
Evidence – proof of one’s guilt, which existence is better off hidden.
Money gain – income made from all the mission’s activities. The big bad boss pays you, but so do the victim’s belongings.
Stolen items – stolen objects and the amount of extra money gained by stealing them
Suspicion – it’s about how much you stole and everything you left unattended (bodies, bloodstains, pieces of evidence). If the value of the suspicion passes the limit set, you will fail the mission, which also results in a cash penalty.
And what do you think? How many errors can you afford yet stay victorious? Are you able to resist greed and go for the perfect score, or do you prefer to balance on the edge of being detected by the police? Let us know your gameplay style in the comments or share your thoughts in general on our discord.
See ya! The Devs
Devblog #20 - Challenge Accepted!
Welcome Cleaners! After a distressed phone from your clientele, it is time to truly begin your preparations. They will ramble and very often will be angry, but this will always boil down to a short message to you.
To accept your mission you must enter the deepest cavities of the deep web. On a very secret email address, you will get some of the details as well as pictures of what will be awaiting you. The mission descriptions will vary from giving you important information to rambling of panicked idiots. But to some extent, they will help you assess what you need to take with you. Once you accept the mission you can head to your car.
On your way to the car, don't forget the pet your dog for good luck! He may not be able to join you on-site, but rest assured that he will be patiently waiting for your return. Maybe you can play some catch later on?
Your truck will be your command center, as it is not only your way of reaching the work site but also the collection site and transport for all the garbage later on. It makes sense then that you will begin and end your adventures by jumping behind the wheel.
The beginning of every mission will differ, as different people will ask you to clean the grossest of places, but you will be able to prepare and relax at your house as you accept various missions. We’re still looking for the dog’s name, so if you have some propositions let us know! We’re waiting for your idea in our discord and social media! The Devs
Devblog #19 - Cleaner’s Sense
Hello Cleaners! Criminals are rarely original; you have seen it all at this point. After many years on the job, you have managed to develop your own type of intuition. Understanding crime scenes is a massive aspect of preparing for the job and making sure that nothing is left behind. To do that, you can use yet another skill at your disposal: Cleaner’s Sense.
Every now and then you will be able to activate a special type of vision, which will highlight every element of the crime scene. Additionally, to help you clean up the most efficiently, everything is color coded. Currently, bodies and miscellaneous trash will glow orange, while blood is pink.
This extends to furniture, which has two different highlights depending on the necessary actions. Some pieces of furniture need to be moved into their designated spaces, while some pieces need to be slightly fixed up, they will highlight in blue and white respectively.
This highlight effect is temporary, but you can still use your tools to show off blood, so you can see it more easily. A UV lamp is especially useful when it comes to exposing hidden and small drops of blood. Thanks to lamps that you can place in multiple parts of the crime scene, uncleaned areas will shine bright like Christmas trees.
Cleaning Sense is only a part of your set of skills, you can treat it like one of the tools under your belt. It will be useful whenever you need to find the final piece of evidence or you want to scope out the size of the overall mess. All the color code is still a work in progress, we want all highlighted elements to be as clear as possible, so you can plan your cleaning routes accordingly. If you have any propositions on how we can distinguish some elements better, let us know! We’re awaiting your suggestions and opinions! The Devs
Devblog #18 - Step up and Mop it up!
Hello Cleaners! We’ve been putting a lot of effort into making sure that every aspect of cleaning brings you satisfaction. Removing blood stains from various surfaces is the bread and butter of almost every mission you are sent to. So we’re pleased that we are finally ready to show off a blood-removing system that feels satisfying and thorough, without being dull.
Follow the stains
Simply whacking your mop at a puddle of blood is not an efficient way of working. Of course, you can still choose to swing your mop in every possible direction and clean with the chaotic evil energy. However, if you desire satisfaction and a smooth sail toward the end of the mission, check out this simple trick:
Whenever you approach a large blood stain, follow its shape to remove the blood quickly and more efficiently. Unlike the powerwasher, the blood is removed in larger and less precise chunks as the fibers of the mop suck up the liquid. Both the mop and the powerwasher are powerful tools that will be essential for finishing your jobs. And they both have their strong and weak sides.
A huge advantage of the mop over the powerwasher is that it can be used inside. The risk of destroying objects with a mop is relatively low under the condition you limit yourself to cleaning. We don’t take responsibility if you decide to demolish the place with your mop. You only make your job more difficult. You can however move the trash around to make picking them up easier. It’s better for your back and soul, as once the trash is bundled together you don’t have to bend as much.
Rinse and repeat
Be careful about how dirty your mop gets, one moment it’s cleaning and then suddenly it’s making more mess. So rinsing the mop once it gets dirty will save you a lot of work and speed up the process. We already talked about various buffs they will introduce to your cleaning routine. They allow you to penetrate the stains even more effectively and if you combine them with the not-so-secret technique of following the shape of the puddle, you will be able to clean large surfaces in no time!
You can choose between a variety of effects. As your mop can have multiple effects on it at once, make sure you use the correct detergents to create the perfect cleaning blend, which will allow you to clean even the dirtiest floors.
A mop is only as good as the hand that yields it, so the versatility only depends on your creativity and cleaning prowess. So before you even start a mission think about all the equipment you need beforehand. What do you think you will need on the bloodiest of missions? Let us know! We’re waiting for your opinions and ideas! The Devs
Devblog #17 - Yoink and Run
Welcome Cleaners! Do you sometimes clean around and find something you think would be worth a lot? Unfortunately on your missions you will be mostly dealing with other people’s stuff. It would be amazing to get richer with less effort, after all, cleaning is hard physical labour. We’d like to let you in on a little secret… you can. Let us introduce a bit of thievery.
During many back-breaking jobs, you may notice that some items have an additional and very tempting prompt. Steal or not to steal! This is the moment when you can choose to go down a questionable path. Some of the items may get you a nice cash bonus because let’s be honest mobsters and criminals pay well, but not THAT well. Unfortunately, you are not an expert and you will have to judge what is worth stealing and what isn’t. Sometimes, it may not pay enough, but you will only find out once you already put it in your pocket.
Stuffing your pockets with other people’s things is not as easy and unproblematic as it may seem. Every item, no matter how small or big, will increase the suspicion meter and influence the final score of the mission. In your inventory, you can see how much money you will make from every stolen item and how much more suspicious you become. Just remember that once you hit the upper limit of maximum suspicion, you can’t really steal anything else.
On every mission, you have a limited amount of errors you can make which will increase how suspicious the police are of you. Those mistakes and missed evidence or blood are combined with every item you stole. You must learn how to assess the suspicion you can let go of before the end of a mission. Once you become too suspicious, there will be a penalty.
So now you can steal almost all valuable or not-so-valuable items. What kind of items do you think will be the most valuable? Which ones are you going to steal? Let us know! We can’t wait to see how much richer you will become!
See you soon! The Devs
Devblog #16 - Just Sit, Relax and Wait
Hello Cleaners! Sometimes even the most prepared gamers have to step away from their PC and leave the game running. Sudden emergencies happen. This is when our game begins to live life on its own. We've put a lot of time and effort into creating these idle animations to entertain you even when you don't actively play the game.
Your adventures are filled with a large amount of blood and shattered glass. This may be a bit overwhelming for even the strongest of minds and will. It may even seem like it's you and the sponge against the world. You need those little moments of joy when you just stand there, take a deep breath and play around with the item you happen to hold in your hand. Take a deep breath, step away and enjoy fiddling with a mop or a sponge. Little moments of relaxation will help you appreciate the hard work you've done or prepare mentally for everything you've got to clean.
We want you to enjoy the game on your own terms, but there is always a bit of encouragement to check out all the hard work that went into all aspects of the game. With tools being a huge focus on the game, our animator created fun little idle animations for each of them. Your skill as a cleaner is highly dependent on your proficiency with the mop, sponge and power washer. Even a quick shake of a bottle to check how much detergent there's left in the bottle can be a sign of cleaning prowess.
Let us know how often you leave the game running just to see the idle animations. We'd also love to know your ideas for more fun interactions with objects and items. With the large number of items to interact with, the more ideas the better! We'll be waiting for you on our social media and in our discord server! See you there! The Devs
Devblog #15 - The "Interior Designer" Update
Hello Cleaners! It’s renovation time! Proper cleanup does not only mean collecting trash or washing up floors and walls. Once the mayhem of a crime happens, there will be some furniture you must move around. These could be a sign of struggle or victims’ attempts to hide.
At the beginning of some missions, you may receive photos which will guide you in cleaning up misplaced furniture. Miscellaneous things should be returned to their spots, so no one can even suspect that anything has happened before. Sometimes you will have to use your own imagination and cleaning sense to make sure everything is in the right spot.
Luckily, you don’t have to worry about perfectly recreating the pictures, coherent look is key. If you find random chairs in the middle of the room, make sure to find which table has an unfinished set. The same goes for other larger objects such as drawers or wardrobes. Every cabinet has to have a full set of drawers and stand in roughly the same place. So before you move on to another room, make sure everything is neat and as clean as possible.
Unfortunately, not every piece of furniture can be simply picked up and placed in its rightful spot. There are those which are too big to simply throw away, in that case, you will be forced to dismantle them into smaller pieces, so they can fit in your van more easily. Luckily you have your powerful fists! Break the old furniture to make space for potentially new! The house owner will thank you later! If they are still alive that is...
These small renovations may be some of the final things you do on the crime scene, so check every corner carefully before you leave. It would be unprofessional to leave the house you just spent time cleaning and renovating in a state of disarray. Hopefully, you enjoy a bit of house decor and macabre renovations. Let us know what you think about this element of cleaning up. We’re awaiting your feedback here in the comments, on our social media and in our discord.
See you next time!
Devblog #14 - Secrets of Your Pockets
Hello Cleaners! Your pockets have just got better! We overhauled the inventory system and made it much more intuitive and faster. All this is thanks to new categorisation and toolwheel. We have also prepared a slight visual upgrade, which will make everything much clearer.
The inventory was a bit of a mess before all items were stored together and had to fit into a small space. Now every item has a separate category, so it is easy to find where everything is, especially when using the toolwheel. If you know that the stain remover you want to use is carefully stored in the detergent group on your toolwheel, you can quickly find it. This way, you don’t have to open your inventory and dig through it. Simply open the toolwheel, enter a category and choose the item you need!
Do you want to focus on penetrating stains? Would you like to carry more buckets? Or maybe one sponge is not enough? As you progress through the game will be able to use the experience you garner for packing more things into your inventory. It’s up to you which slots you upgrade, this way you can create your own cleaning style.
This change makes the gameplay much smoother, as you can choose all your tools on the fly. You don’t have to worry about constantly rummaging through your pockets to find that one sponge you previously might have buried at the bottom of the inventory.
We’re still working on some elements of this system and would like to know what quality-of-life changes you think we should implement! Let us know on our social media or discord!
