Truants

Truants is a mystery-puzzle computer simulator about Scott Bowers, an adjunct professor at Scrum University. Weeks before classes begin, one of his top students is expelled and his teaching assistant goes missing. Scott is also contacted online by a young girl who says she has been forcibly committed to a “torture boot camp” for “video game addiction.”

Investigate online

Using several applications, Scott browses web pages and social media profiles, contacts people of interest and downloads files from hacked computers. You review emails, files and articles for clues to the teaching assistant’s disappearance, and explore social media sites and general reference sources to learn about internet addiction camps. GoodPoints, a drag-and-drop note-taking app, lets you record suspicious names and phrases in one place.

Contact and hack

You communicate with people of interest through different apps and websites, and can liaise with or interrogate them. With a government-grade hacking tool, Scott crosses legal and ethical lines as he tries to save the children trapped in the behavioral center and uncover why the forces running it are targeting him.

The story

Inspired by true events, Truants explores internet addiction rehabilitation centers in Eastern Asia and the harm their boot camps inflict on their victims.