Hello, Facility Personnel!
After we left you with exciting news a month ago, we’ve refined our approach to organizing the development of SCP: Echoes. Since July, we’ve made significant progress on the game: the Light Containment Zone has received a near-complete facelift, and a gritty new design for Heavy Containment Zone is underway. We’ve also introduced a wealth of new props along with many general game improvements regarding core gameplay and sound design.
Map Changes and Additions
Out with the old, in with the new! Light Containment has received some love from our very dedicated level designer and artist, Bunglow. She’s been working hard, keeping LCZ consistently scary, gritty and more detailed. In these rooms, you’ll find tight hiding spots, and a plethora of new props to play with thanks to talented modeller and artist Shahir Zaman, as well as a new ‘vertical sliding door’ seen in many rooms. Namely, the new LCZ checkpoints, created by Seernix.
Alongside the changes to Light Containment, the other zones have received some work as well. Heavy Containment now also sports a revitalized design and a few new rooms. Grimey yellow trimmings and industrial concrete line the walls of the most dangerous zone now, giving it the weight it deserves thanks to Pop_pop_icard. Entrance Zone has also seen a few changes with rooms now being properly set-dressed and a lighting overhaul that adds to the Zone’s more dark and ‘sterile’ nature. We also have a new work in progress Intercom room, that serves as an important set piece for a new core gameplay mechanic…
Gameplay Changes
In a step to move away from games that have inspired Echoes, we now have a new way to win over the desolate site from enemy forces- Zone Nodes. Zone Nodes are objective points within specific rooms, needing to be captured by either team that help towards the ultimate goal of capturing The Facility. The first team that clears and captures two zones wins the round.
Our intention with this gameplay change was to not only differentiate ourselves from similar games, but to remove the idea that all players of a certain alignment need to die before a round can end. With indicators that help pinpoint the general location of players, camping has much less impact on a round and the overall game design can shift away from constantly moving the player forward artificially. This change allows for us to be more flexible with the pacing and horror Echoes has to offer.
Keycard ranks have also been revamped, with a plentiful amount being able to be found within LCZ. The new rank names will be sure to immerse you as you pocket them desperately for survival- from Research Supervisor to Facility Officer, there's a keycard for everyone.
Audio Changes
With the hundreds of new physics props added, impact sounds have been given to many of them as well as new door and gunfire sound effects, all done by Audio Designer Skevandcodiene. The prop sounds were done using real life foley recordings, giving them that sense of weight and realism. So now you can really feel the impact of the box you threw as it bounces off of a very angry SCP-049.
Speaking of being chased by an SCP, many new chase themes and stingers have been added to the game, designed to put you on edge as you run through the halls of the facility from whatever might’ve found you. Alongside those is a new track for Surface Zone, which have all been done by our talented Audio Designer Adlai130s.
With the chase themes and stingers, some other misc audio updates have been done by RoyalMintz, such as some crunchy new SCP-173 neck snapping sounds!
Miscellaneous Changes
With SCP-173's new room in Light Containment also comes the introduction of a new horrifying model for the attention seeking statue, created by Bunglow- who I shook information out of on how and why they designed the iconic ‘peanut’ the way they did.
“When designing SCP-173 I knew I wanted to do something unique, but still distinctly SCP-173. I wanted to keep a similar silhouette to the original design, with a rounder head and a thin body with the ridges on its upper torso- sort of mimicking the arms that the previous design had. For the legs, the tripod design gives it a more balanced look rather than just two little nubs. Then, I decided to make it look like SCP-173 had sustained some heavy damage, exposing its innards made of rebar. The rebar snakes in and out of it, like its own living organism, and I think it uniquely sets it apart from most interpretations of the sculpture.”
As for our last major change, the main menu. Instead of the copy-paste one from before, we now have our own unique menu screen. Through the POV of your average Foundation worker, you sit at your desk and work away… or draw on the whiteboard for the rest of your shift. Ambient, moody and a good way to immerse yourself before heading into a game.
That’s all for our August post! We hope you enjoy the changes when you get your hands on them. If you want a more in-depth look at changes and other information, join our Discord Community. Have a good day, and we’ll see you next month!