Chapter 02 Progress - New Environments, Enemies, & Mechanics!

Hey everyone!

Since the last update, we have been hard at work creating the new environments, characters, and enemies that will be making their way into Chapter 02. Things have been going awesome, so let's get into the new content!

The Overseers' and Secretary's Office:

Locked away deep within the main area of the Central Hub lies the heavily brutalist Overseer's Office, nestled away behind the contrastingly mundane Secretary's Office. These are two critical locations you will explore after an extremely unique sequence. The information you'll uncover in these areas is not only extremely important to the story, but you will also gain access to one of the most useful tools in the entire game!

The Camp Gate:

Sealing off the rest of the Residential Zone from the main interior of Aquaponics lies the Camp Gate. This is one of the few remaining entrances used to access the MTF Camp, which is led by Amanda, whom we saw in a previous update. The gate is heavily guarded by automated security systems, so stealth and timing are paramount in this area.

Interrogation Room:

A frigid meat freezer located in a dark, desolate place serves as the perfect spot to "coerce" information out of would-be spies, traitors, and anybody else deemed a threat by what remains of the Foundation personnel left in Site-113.

Residential Zone West Wing:

With most of the main architecture of the West Wing completed, we decided now would be a good time to experiment with what an external look at the inside of Site-113 would be like. This has culminated in a beautiful skybox that allows players to see every single zone within Site-113 from the inside of the Residential Zone, which is canonically located in the middle of the interior dome.

There still needs to be lighting adjustments made, but the current lights from the skybox are accurate to the zone they represent and cast a very ominous but soft glow onto most of the external areas of the level. These will, however, be toned down and ultimately blended in a future update.

The Museum:

The Museum is now finished architecturally and is awaiting a decoration and lighting pass to be made to it later on. This area is going to be filled with lore, puzzles, and some interesting items that will be quite useful if you find them. You'll also be able to see an interesting timeline of Site-113's history, which will help contextualize some of the core events that led to its creation as well as those of the SCP Foundation as a whole.

Central Zone + Elevator [Heavily WIP]:

In the center of the Residential Zone lies the Central Hub, which is a massive multi-story area featuring multiple rooms, unique puzzles, and plenty of enemies to keep you on your toes. This area is still heavily WIP and will need to have a lighting overhaul as well as a large decoration pass to fill up all of the side rooms and other areas that will make this place quite the set piece to explore in Chapter 02.

One of the special pieces in here is the new elevator, which is still WIP but is going to have a special sequence involving it that we are extremely excited for players to experience when they are playing through the level. This sequence will feature a very well-known SCP, too, and it should be quite interesting to solve.

Ventilation Hall 02 [WIP]:

We have been designing several new areas like this ventilation area that will help players learn an upcoming mechanic with the Wrist Device. These areas feature a lot of verticality and openness to support the teleportation mechanic that will be the main focus here, helping players learn its usefulness in solving puzzles and generally traversing the map.

Upcoming Area — The Plaza [Heavy WIP]:

One of the next areas we will be working on is the North Wing Plaza. This area is very open relative to the ones preceding it and will feature multiple paths, changing level structure, and plenty of interesting bits of lore and other things that should make this place very memorable, not to mention the stunning views of the Military Zone that dominate its skyline.

New Museum Props [SCP-093 and SCP-148]:

Something we have been working on recently has been a couple of special props for the museum and other areas around the map. One of these special props is related to a critical event in The SCP Foundation's history and marks the cornerstone of something that fundamentally shaped where they would go.

The keen-eyed among you will also notice that we have officially created two new SCPs, with SCP-148 and SCP-093 now having physical models in the game. While we don't want to spoil what they will be used for later on, we think a lot of people will really enjoy the current plans we have for them!

New Enemies [Security Turrets]:

We've officially finished the model for the new Security Turrets, which will be featured around the game, and are extremely happy with how they have turned out. The logic for these new enemies is already done, and we will simply need to create some animations for them and link them up to the system to be ready to cause problems for players that get a little too adventurous.

New Enemy [A-34 WIP Animations]:

We're now in the process of animating the special robotic soldier that will be featured around Site-113. This is going to be, among other things, the newest enemy type that you'll be able to face in Chapter 02 and beyond. These units will be extremely hard to kill, but through careful upgrades, stealth, and some luck, taking one down will be highly rewarding.

Once we get to the playtesting phase, feedback on the difficulty of these hostiles will be critical, and we are very excited to actually implement them into the level.

New Friend? [Assistant Android WIP]:

Keeping with the robotic theme, we decided to create a special type of robot called the Assistant Android. These units will be featured around the map in various circumstances, and we are planning on designing a special puzzle around them that will be quite rewarding if you manage to complete it during your time in Chapter 02. We'll be sharing more about these units once their model is completed in the next update for those curious.

Crafting Bench WIP:

A new mechanic upcoming in Chapter 02 will be these crafting benches, which will let you craft more complex upgrades and items, and even perform necessary repairs to your gear. These benches will use the same recipes that can be found in Chapter 01.

Sometimes, it will actually be beneficial to craft an item you can craft in your inventory at the bench instead, due to it being more efficient and using fewer resources for the same item, so be sure to watch out for them and use them to keep yourself stocked up as efficiently as possible.

We still need to make the VFX for printing weapons and items with these, but we will be working on those shortly and have some cool ideas that we think will make these stand out as a great new component to the overall experience.

Skill Tree WIP:

One of the newest core mechanical features to be added to the game is this new skill tree, which will be introduced to give players a choice in which new environmental mechanics they'd like to pursue. Some of the unlockable mechanics will allow for breaking certain glass, hacking certain larger objects, and even moving large objects out of the way to allow for different paths to be unlocked.

This system is being designed to reward players for investing in certain skills and will allow some puzzles to be interacted with in different ways, potentially making them much easier as a reward for choosing a decisive path through the skill tree and for exploring the environment to find the items required to unlock new skills. The UI and associated skills are still heavily WIP, but you can expect to see them iterated on and updated as we go through the development cycle for Chapter 02.

Reality Wave and Reality Shard VFX:

Since reality is quite literally breaking down within Site-113, we wanted to create some new VFX that would help encapsulate this feeling. Two new ones we have made are the Reality Waves with their signature HUD distortion effect, and these new Reality Shards, which are effectively breaks in reality that have been occurring all across the facility as a result of something you will start to uncover as you progress through the game.

We are also planning on doing some other effects to showcase reality destabilizing, and will have much more to show on that front as we continue. However, these effects should make the environments feel much more lively and thematically consistent with the notion that reality is breaking down.

Want ongoing early playtest access?

Want to join our playtesting team and get access to builds that never expire? Backers at the $50+ tier on Kickstarter or PledgeManager receive permanent access to all test builds, including the upcoming Chapter 02.

Grab your playtesting access here: https://hst-studios.pledgemanager.com/projects/scp-fragmented-minds/participate/

What's Next?

For the rest of this month and leading up to our next update, our focus will be on several key areas: completing the new robot models, rigorously testing the Wrist Device, and putting together more of the architecture that will fully encapsulate Chapter 02. Alongside this, we'll be actively testing all these new mechanics, plus creating a ton more animations and VFX as we start piecing together the exciting sequential events planned for this new chapter.

We will also be showcasing a WIP system for the newest SCP enemy to be featured in the game! This upcoming one will be one of the several new SCP enemies that will be a core focus of Chapter 02 and in future chapters, so be sure to check the next announcement!

Chapter 02 is currently shaping up to be a really exciting installment, packed with many new features and elements suggested by your valuable feedback! It will introduce a significant amount of new SCP lore, new horror elements, and provide much deeper background details on the overarching story of the SCP Foundation and the mysteries of Site-113.

We genuinely can't wait for everyone to get their hands on it for playtesting and to hear your feedback. We'll have a formal date announcement for that playtesting phase in the coming months, so please be on the lookout!

As always,

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!

PS: Don't forget to grab your playtesting access here to get in on Chapter 02 early!

https://hst-studios.pledgemanager.com/projects/scp-fragmented-minds/participate/