In a little over 2 years I developed SCP: Observer as my first ever project in game development and programming in general. Originally, the game was not planned to be an SCP game, instead I wanted to make a Five Nights at Freddy's fan game. In the end, I'm very happy with how the game turned out, and none of this would have been possible without the help of the many beta testers.
Future plans
SCP: Observer is a mostly finished product and I don't have any big plans for future updates. There probably won't be any new zones or main SCPs, instead I want to focus on fixing possible bugs and implementing new small features like new events. The future of this game strongly depends on the player feedback and what the players want.
Personally, I will focus on new projects, some of which are even in the SCP universe.
There is nothing more to say other than enjoy the game.
SCP: Observer Release Date
Greetings, fellow researchers, I am pleased to announce that SCP: Observer will be released on April 25.
Official Trailer below!
Second Public Beta in March
Sign up now!
You can now sign up for the second Public Beta on the store page of SCP: Observer. By signing up you will automatically have access to the beta during this time period. Just like before, I encourage every player to give me feedback and tell me their thoughts about the game. Specifically I would like to improve the Heavy Containment Zone a lot more.
Public Beta Q&A
Let's start with a little public beta Q&A to answer some general questions.
What is the goal of the public beta?
The main goal of the public beta is to fix potential bugs and improve the game, before fully releasing it.
When can I play the public beta?
You can play the beta from March 24, 2023, 1pm CET, until March 27, 2023, 8am CET. During this time, you can download the SCP: Observer Public Beta from your Steam library just like you could with the first beta.
How will the public beta differ from the original game?
There will be no differences in gameplay between the public beta and the original game. The only difference is that the original game has Steam Achievements, which is not the case with the public beta. In addition, the progress made is not carried over into the real game.
How to report bugs?
The best way to give feedback or report bugs is to join the official Discord server and use the channels inside the SCP: Observer category. If you want to do it directly in Steam you can create a new discussion on the Discussion Board.
What plans do you have for SCP: Observer after the beta?
SCP: Observer is almost finished, but I plan to polish it more and add fix more bugs. I am also aiming for getting the game verified on the Steamdeck.
Development News 14/03/2023
Hello everyone, I have some exciting news to share with you.
Major changes
Added a new Security Room for Light and Heavy Containment
Revised SCP-079 monitor mechanic
In addition to the new Security Room, I have revised the SCP-079 monitor mechanics. SCP-079 can take over a wall of monitors, but at least it leaves the security monitors alone now.
Added an event with SCP-096
SCP-096 has been in the game for quite some time, more precisely since the beta, but has served no purpose. That changes now.
Added NPCs that move around the facility
Minor changes
Many sound improvements
Added many more sound effects
Improved visuals
Added more easter eggs
Added an option to hide the Tutorials in the Intro
Improved the SCP security room behavior
All sounds can now be paused
Added a lot more animations
Camera UI now displays the room you are currently watching
Countless bugfixes
Most of the news covered has already been published in the SCP: Observer changelog on my Discord server. More news will follow tomorrow.
Development News 18/02/2023
Hello everyone, I'm excited to announce some great new additions to the game, and I hope you're just as excited. You can also join the official Discord server to get news earlier.
Audio Rework
Let's start with the new audio revision. In previous versions, and even during the beta, you could only hear the audio from your security room. This made it impossible to hear sounds from a distance, such as the security doors in the SCP-914 containment chamber. The new system aims to change this by letting you hear the audio from the camera you are currently watching. This makes using the cameras much more fun.
New Input System
The next big thing I did was switch to Unity's "new" input system. That was a lot of trial and error, but it was worth the effort because now you can play with a gamepad and also rebind keys when you play on PC. Another opportunity presented by this change was to review the game for the Steam deck.
Other changes
- Added an event with SCP-106 - A cancel sound now plays when the Warhead event ends - The camera in SCP-895's now shows hallucinations when watching - Added more sounds to the radio - Added breach survivors you can see on the cameras - Added a ventilation sound that plays all the time (no not a fan) - A sound cue now plays when SCP-079 takes over a monitor - Added cheat codes - Added a SCP database (essentially a collection of information about featured SCPs)
What now?
The game has improved a lot in that time and I'm even more excited for what's to come. Next I will add an event with SCP-096, polish and optimize the game even more and create a trailer with a release date. Remember, you can always check with the roadmap of what I'm currently doing.
Thank you for reading!
Join the official Discord server
I started a Discord server for discussing SCP: Observer, my other itch.io games, memes and general stuff. If that sounds interesting, you can join it here: https://discord.gg/Wg8jvxJB4u
What happens now that the public beta is over?
Before I begin, a big thank you to everyone who participated in the beta. Without you, the game would not be where it is today.
Changes made during the beta
The first thing that has changed a lot during the beta are the tutorials. They are an important part for new players and I tried very hard to create good tutorials and at the same time not make them overloaded with information and keybindings.
The second point is that I have made many quality of life changes. This ranges from adding more options to the options menu to improving the display of current usage. They really made the game much better.
Now let's get to the important stuff. I have slightly reworked the energy drain to make it easier for the player. I also added a generator to the safe room that allows the player to recover a small amount of energy when holding down the interaction button.
To compensate for this, I added a new SCP-079 mechanic. Previously, SCP-079 was only responsible for opening doors that you had closed, like the one in SCP-914. Now SCP-079 can appear on the security monitor, consuming power. The player needs to deactivate to save power. I'm also thinking about introducing penalties for not deactivating him.
These were the most important changes I made during the beta phase, besides countless bug fixes.
What now?
Now I'm going back to closed development. That means I'll continue to add new features, fix bugs, and so on, while writing a new Steam development news post from time to time. You can follow the development process at any time by viewing the official Trello roadmap.
I can't say yet when SCP: Observer will be fully released on Steam. I estimate that this will be the case in about 2-3 months. Until then I will keep everyone updated.
I would like to thank everyone for the massive feedback I received in the last week.
Development News 02/01/2023
Happy New Year
Today the waiting is finally over. The beta for SCP: Observer will be released today at 3pm CET. As the first Development News post of the new year and the last post before the start of the beta, I would like to make some more announcements.
Announcements
I have a lot of major changes I want to cover in this post. First of all, I have disabled Early Access for SCP: Observer. The reason for this is that I want to release a fully playable and largely bug-free game. After the official game is released I don't plan on adding any new main SCPs or zones, just quality of life changes, new events or other small things and I don't need Early Access for that. This has no downside for you as a player, since you will be getting a fully playable game at release.
The next big change I want to announce is that I have removed SCP-966 from the game. The reason for this is that SCP-966 was a particularly difficult SCP to balance in the game. In my opinion, his mechanics with the infrared vision cameras were not suitable and destroyed some important game mechanics. That doesn't mean I won't add him back in the future, but he won't be a main SCP.
While trying to balance the Heavy Containment Zone and removing SCP-966 I realized that the old map was really unbalanced and too big. Therefore, I have revised the entire map Heavy Containment. The image below shows the new map. The dark red color indicates the room you are watching.
I also added a camera action to start a camera scan. The camera scan shows the position of all detected SCPs on the camera map, by letting the corresponding rooms blinking in the same dark red color. After activating the scan, the output might look like the following image.
Last but not least, I added the icons for usage, blink and stamina bars, as well as the icons for interaction and crouching.
These are all the major things I wanted to cover. For more technical changes you can read the devlogs I regularly post on my website.
Public Beta starting in January
Public Beta soon available
You can now sign up for the Public Beta on the store page of SCP: Observer. The beta will take place from January 2, 2023 3pm CET to January 8, 2023 3pm CET. By signing up you will automatically have access to the beta during this time period. I encourage every player to give me feedback and tell me their thoughts about the game.
The main goal of the Public Beta is to fix potential bugs and improve the game, before fully releasing it. In case everything goes smoothly, I will release the game shortly after the Beta
How will the Public Beta be different from the original game
Some experimental features will be disabled, because I haven't tested them enough yet. The Beta will also not have any achievements unlike the original game.
How to give feedback or report bugs
The best way to give feedback or report bugs is to create a new discussion on the Discussion Board. You can also join me and my girlfriend's Discord server where you can message me directly or use one of the channels dedicated to SCP: Observer.
More announcements
The system requirements for SCP: Observer are now available and can be viewed on the store page. Most of you will definitely be able to play it.
Here are more screenshots to get you excited for the game.
Development News 29/11/2022
Version 0.10.0
Major changes since version 0.5.0
This post sums up all major changes since the last Development News post. Additional changes and information can be found in yesterdays devlog on my website. I will now post devlogs more regularly on my website. Devlogs contain more minor changes, which makes them unsuitable for a full Steam post.
- Added new Light Containment Security Room
- Added new Light Containment Map layout
Note that the new Light Containment Zone Security Room only features 2 doors, unlike all the previous versions with 3 entrances. I had to change this because of difficulty issues.
- Added front security cameras
- Added an early version of a intro scene - Added new events - Added new camera on watch events that get triggered after opening the camera - Added an early version of the Tesla Gate
Screenshots
- Main Menu
- SCP-173 in Security Room
- SCP-173 in SCP Storage Hallway
Thank you for reading this short update post. That was all concerning SCP: Observer, everything that follows is a very personal matter involving my dog Aika.
Support my dog Aika
The picture above shows my dog Aika. Aika is a 7 year old female Bolonka Zwetna. Yesterday she got diagnosed with lymphoma, also known as lymph node cancer. Without any therapy, Aika will probably only have a few weeks to live. Since I'm 18 and I'm living alone I'm unable to finance the treatment for Aika on my own. If anyone has a few dollars to spare I will be incredibly thankful if you donate to Aika's gofundme campaign.
