A deep dive into the early lore and concepts of SCP: Sigil

Hello everyone and welcome to our first Patreon blog of 2022. This is to give you a deep dive into what we’ve been working on for SCP: Sigil in terms of lore and concepts and the rational behind them.

These walls do not harbor the world safely

SCP: Sigil is going to be based entirely around the Abandoned Federal Penitentiary, SCP-450. With this in mind, we had to decide which style of prison would fit our game and the SCP most. The original article used an image that was taken down some time ago which depicted a dark corridor within the Eastern State Penitentiary, a closed prison that operates today as a museum. Enter the Morrisburg Federal Penitentiary, a fictional prison located in Pennsylvania.

As this game will serve as an “origin story” of sorts for SCP-450, the first focus of course had to be the prison itself and its supernatural prospects. The Morrisburg Federal Penitentiary was first built in the late 1800s before being shut down sometime in the mid-1900s following (as of yet) unnamed freak event. Over its years of operation, it was subtly updated and modernized. This leaves the deeper parts of the prison feeling older and more archaic the further from the entrance the player gets.

The anomalous properties of SCP-450 have been allowed to fester and remain unchecked for decades prior to the Foundations retrieval. This means the Death Row is not simply where the SCP is dangerous, merely its epicenter. The rules are different. The area of effect is much larger. With more area to cover, the entities are less concentrated. This will allow us the qualities we need to ensure a healthy and productive gameplay loop.

The ghost in the chair

With a good setting, the hallways would be empty without the stars of the show, the spectral entities of SCP-450. We intend to put a very strong focus on the spectres. We want these beings to serve as one of the pillars of the game, along with sound and the Sigil itself.

The goal is to put a strong focus on the “personality” of the entities. This will not be merely another stealth-horror game where you must avoid detection from one or two entities. Our goal is to make the player feel obvious and surrounded. With this in mind, we want to develop these entities to respond to the player, to attempt to get a reaction out of you, to get you to make a mistake. The feeling of these entities should shift between aggressive, mocking, and curious. After all, this building does not contain just one soul but dozens.

Replicating that will be key to getting the right feeling for Sigil. We also want to look into how to keep the rules of the entities fresh to prevent the player from feeling too comfortable. These entities will not operate solely on randomness, they will have predictable behaviors and rules. But this means it will be the player’s responsibility to understand what works and what does not. And this may not be always obvious. This is going to be a tight balance between having a “cause and effect” style gameplay without being wholly predictable; between the horror-factor and fairness. Life and success is in the player’s hands after all and we do not want them to feel cheated.

The prison is the children’s place

As stated in our first public blog for 2022, the story and the main character between the demo and full release of SCP: Sigl will be entirely different. What this means is the demo will be a prelude to the final version of the game.

The demo will start with a group who became interested in the location. The player will be a member of this group. After an unfortunate turn of events, they will be the sole survivor. This group borrows from one of the more popular groups of interest within the SCP universe and has been given the name “Children of the First Mother.” While they had an original plan in mind for the entities of SCP-450, they have quickly realized their mistake. Now focused on sealing this threat away from the world, it is your job to find out how to accomplish this task. The Children of the First Mother are the original creators of the Sigil, which the Foundation merely adopted. In the demo, you will be responsible for laying this groundwork using the limited resources at your disposal. Your survival depends on it.

After the events of the demo, the activities of the Children of the First Mother caught the attention of an amateur radio operator and early internet journalist who focuses on “cult activities” and believers of the paranormal. Drawn to practices of the occult, the Children of the First Mother immediately interests this journalist. This is during the Satanic Panic of the 1990s and shortly after the Waco siege of 1993. After receiving cryptographic messages pertaining to the Morrisburg Federal Penitentiary, the journalist makes his way there, believing it to simply be a meeting place for this “cult”. There, the journalist will find himself neck deep in a situation he could not even begin to understand. There, he must continue where the Children left off and complete the seal.

A game of survival, a game of willpower...

To finish things off, here is a look into the various gameplay concepts we will explore in future posts. We have a few principles we want to stick to in order to provide a fun experience. Our intention is to restrict our scope to these mechanics to keep the plan realistic, but to refine them and ensure they work together.

Jumping at shadows

Earlier in this post, it was mentioned how we want the entities to feel when interacting with them. This makes them as well as their AI one of the pillars we want to focus our gameplay around. We do not want the spectres to simply exist in the world and have the player avoid them. The player and the ghosts will interact on several levels to provide a different gameplay experience depending on how the game is played. For example, we would like to develop the AI to learn certain gameplay behaviours over time in order to react to the player. Say if an entity knows the player got hit and knows where the player goes to heal the injury, the entity could linger in that area a bit longer in hopes of catching the player off guard.

Similarly, its not a single entity that is roaming. A collection of entities could “haunt” the player, hoping to get a reaction. Each entity could in theory have its own personality, giving the player clues as to which version of the specter is around. It could perhaps be one that merely wants to watch you or could have more aggressive intentions. Regardless, we hope to develop a complex AI director system that will play with our other mechanics, such as audio.

Look like you heard a ghost

As sound is a key aspect of the article of SCP-450, audio is another major important aspect of the game we have in mind. This project will put a heavy focus on sound systems to compliment the AI and provide feedback and fear for the player. The goal is to allow the sound to shape the experience the player has and the interactions the player will have with the AI. The two systems will work together to balance what needs to happen. From the player’s actions drawing unwanted attention or ominous sounds letting the player know something is nearby. We want a series of high moments and low moments set by the ambiance, keeping the player on edge in stressful moments and lulling them during the low moments. A plethora of audio content that will blow SCP Unity out of the water will combine with new technical aspects including more accurate spatial representation of sounds to create a truly immersive experience. Expect to hear more about how we will accomplish this in further blogs.

Life is a puzzle

Lastly, we want to talk about the Sigil itself. This will be the core mechanic of the game. In a way, it will be a sort of puzzle. In short, this symbol drawn by paint will set the rules of the prison. The way you start the Sigil is by locating a source of human blood. This is the ink you need for your canvas. Once you have blood, you can begin devising a seal to restrict the capabilities of the entities and change the way you navigate the building. The symbol itself is not for show, it has purpose and power.

In summary

The core design of SCP: Sigil is as follows: You explore the areas of the prison to locate clues and bodies that will help you complete the Sigil, learning what each symbol is capable of and choosing the appropriate seal. You must navigate the hallways safely and recognize what you can get away with depending on the behaviour of the entities around you. Should you find yourself under attack, you must escape and survive by any means necessary. Hide or evade detection until the threat passes. Find your way back the the execution chamber to complete the Sigil as much as possible. This will unlock further paths to explore and continue the cycle.

Thanks for reading!

We hope you enjoyed this deep drive into what we have worked on so far. Please stay tuned for future posts that will elaborate our goals and describe how we will achieve what we have discussed today.