Hearts in the Shadows is an adult RPG made by ScavengerDev with Ren'Py, using 3DCG visuals in a school setting. You play as Trevor, a final-year psychology student, or choose your own name. After failing to process a deep loss, his wish to help others becomes a need to keep people safe by guiding them, influencing them, and quietly shaping decisions without their awareness. The story follows connections that reveal both care and control, tension, desire, and moral ambiguity.
The current v0.3 release came out on May 15, 2026 for Windows, Linux, and Mac in English, with no censorship. Development remains ongoing, and this update requires a new save file. It reworks character introductions and several opening events, adds branching content for Amelia and Maxine, plus repeatable interactions for Amelia. It includes two new Amelia animations, one for each path with three camera angles, and smoother transition scenes. Notebook hints, event flow, character progression, sound effects, and scene transitions were improved, while bugs and typos were fixed. Game size was compressed from almost 3GB to under 1GB.
Developer's description
Trevor (or whatever name you choose) is a final-year psychology student who never managed to process his deepest loss. What began as a genuine desire to help others has slowly twisted into a need to keep people “safe”… even if that means guiding them, influencing them, or quietly shaping their decisions without them noticing.
Hearts in the Shadows
is a journey of tension, desire, and moral ambiguity, where every connection brings out the best —and the worst— in Trevor.
v0.3
Due to variable modifications, a new save file is required (sorry about that). With the changes I made, I hope this will be the last time a restart is necessary.
Reworked character introductions.
Reworked multiple intro events.
Added new branching events for Amelia.
Added new branching events for Maxine.
Added new repeatable interactions for Amelia.
Added 2 new Amelia animations (1 per path, 3 camera angles each).
Added additional transition scenes for smoother progression.
Improved notebook hints and progression guidance.
Improved character progression and event flow.
Improved sound effects and scene transitions.
Added new sound effects.
Fixed bugs and corrected typos.
Game compression. From nearly 3GB to less than 1GB.
v0.025
General Improvements
Overall sandbox structure polished for better stability.
Adjustments to daily activity flow and time-based events.
General performance improvements for scene transitions.
A large number of old renders were remade with the new visual standard.
Scenes & Characters
Implemented the rotating daily event system.
New dining room, bathroom, and bedroom dressing routines across Morning, Afternoon and Evening.
Dialogue adjustments to make conversations feel more natural and character-accurate.
I added some NPCs to make the university environment feel more alive, getting rid of those ugly monochrome NPCs.
New characters introduced:
Max — Trevor’s best friend, who will play an important role in the main story — as well as brief appearances from
Autumn
and
Savannah
.
Visuals
Better lighting, textures, and facial expressions.
New renders created with the updated visual standard.
Visual foundation reinforced for future updates.
Bug Fixes
Fixed missing scenes (including the nighttime kitchen scene).
Corrected broken labels and event triggers.
Adjusted duplicated or misaligned variables.
General code cleanup.
v0.02
This update includes story progression, gameplay improvements, more life added to previously empty environments, the implementation of a hint system, relationship points and stat systems, two spicy scenes, and much more—adding roughly 1.5 to 2 extra hours of gameplay.
Please keep in mind:
you'll need to start a new game, as I've changed some variables, remade a few early renders, and due to the new choice system, old saves might not work properly.
v0.01 Demo
Initial Release
For 0.3 you'll need to start a new game
