“Hey there,

I heard you were eyeing the goods I sent over to John. Figured you might enjoy a pair of your own. New and improved, and all that. Sorry about the packaging. Mom is still sick. Fingers crossed USPS didn’t totally destroy the thing. Those goggles were expensive!

Hope you enjoy,
██████ ███████████”

SCP-1344 has arrived and is ready for players to experience! This ‘eye-catching’ new item grants players the ability to see other players through walls — once its needles have embedded themselves into the optic nerve, of course. In this dev log, we’ll walk you through the journey of designing and implementing SCP-1344, as well as an in-depth glance at our sound design team here at Northwood.


You might be wondering, “why choose SCP-1344?”

Cross Conception, Lead Game Designer, put it best: “With every SCP item we make, we try to be exploratory and fulfill a niche the game doesn't have any mechanics for. SCP-1344 is intended to fulfill the role of environmental awareness – being able to see threats and avoid them in advance, or take advantage of the knowledge of their location to pull off interesting plays.” SCP-1344 provides players with a unique edge, not only enhancing their gunplay by allowing them to see others through walls, but also increasing their awareness of nearby SCPs within a certain range.

SCP-1344 redefines how players approach both offensive and defensive play, allowing for more dynamic and engaging encounters and encouraging players to think outside the box to develop creative strategies. This feature also encourages more teamwork, as players with the SCP equipped can warn their team of incoming enemies.

The new item also adds an element of horror we wanted to explore a bit more in the game, with Cross having this to say: “I also really wanted to see players’ horrified reactions to seeing their eyes stabbed out, because body horror like that is the sort of thing I think adds to the game. You feel like you’re making a sort of deal with the devil when using these items, and in a sense, you are.”

Similar to proposals like SCP-2176 and SCP-1853, the concept of SCP-1344 originated from a suggestion made by a member of the community. Mikel shared that this idea in particular caught his attention, and although none of the original mechanics were used directly, it inspired the idea of ‘wallhack goggles’ as a starting point for development.

“The game design team doesn't really have any bias towards or against ideas originating from the community compared to ideas developed entirely in-house. I'm just a fan of looking for ideas from the community to use as a starting point. Oftentimes, the final GD document is very far removed from the original suggestion, either due to issues with the original idea or just due to the iterative feedback-and-revision loop that all GD docs go through. Whether a document is accepted for implementation is up to the Game Design supervisors and manager. I am forever at their mercy. At any moment, they might strike down a document I've written, damning it to the depths of my Google Drive.”
- Mikel, Art Manager

SCP-1344 presented a unique challenge. Typically, when designing a new SCP for the game, we closely follow the original article, incorporating any provided references or images. However, SCP-1344 offered five different design options, each with its own quirks. For our version, we chose to base it on SCP-1344-03, a pair of welding goggles. The decision to go with this specific design was inspired by the distinct flipping mechanic of welding goggles, which we thought would create the coolest player experience. After all, no one wants to walk around in ‘Swedish-style’ swim goggles!

In fact, this was a point of pride for our designers. When asked what Mikel was most proud of in the design, he said, “[The Art Team is] a big fan of how the goggles look when you put them on, before the lenses flip down. I love freaking out my fellow devs, and a lot of them compared it to a Saw trap.”

Jesusqc, the programmer in charge of getting SCP-1344 into the game, echoes this sentiment, saying that he aimed for an eerie, unsettling vibe that he thought aligned with what the artists were going for.


While the concept for SCP-1344 was straightforward, transforming it from a design document into an interactive part of the game was another story. Jesusqc led the charge on bringing SCP-1344 to life in-game.

“I was responsible for fully integrating 1344 into the game. This included creating its entire logic, combining animations and sounds, and coding it into the game world. While the integration was a complex task due to the numerous statuses and new mechanics SCP 1344 introduced, the process was made smoother thanks to the amazing group of artists at Northwood. Their work on the visuals, sound effects, and modelling was incredible, and it really brought everything together.” Implementing a new SCP into the game is no small task. It needs a team who is willing to work and test it until it's perfect.

1st Prototype

Newer versions

The first prototype did not have any of the effects you see in the later gif. Balancing the encounters players would have with SCP-1344 users was one of the biggest changes. Originally there was no audio cue to let players know that an SCP-1344 user had spotted them, but this was added after testing to make the encounters less one-sided.

QA (Quality Assurance) also plays a crucial role in unifying the efforts of programmers, artists, and sound designers to ensure every new feature aligns with the team's original vision, essentially suggesting the finishing touches to each new implementation. QA tested each element — from gameplay mechanics and visual design to sound effects — working closely with each department to refine and polish every detail. According to our QA Manager Multiverse Uncle, SCP-1344 by far had the hardest time in testing compared to other 14.0 features.

During the first part of QA (Quality Assurance) testing, SCP-1344 was actually given to the team with no sound effects, as they still weren’t done, for a part of its testing.

“Complicated issues were occurring left and right, and when it was thought that everything was fixed and it would be a final test, QA would find new issues, from small things such as the item being too small to pick up, or the player crashing an entire server with the item. We had multiple tests thought to be ‘final’, only to later realise they were far from final, causing the SCP item to be stuck in QA for a long time and having its fate uncertain. Eventually, we got rid of all important issues with SCP-1344 and it finally passed QA!”
- Multiverse Uncle, QA Manager

Despite the complexities, SCP-1344 is a project that everyone who contributed to feels genuinely proud of. The QA team’s dedication and collaborative spirit helped bring the item to its fullest potential, ensuring that it’s not only functional, but also immersive and true to our creative vision. We’re thrilled to announce SCP-1344 has passed all final checks, received the team’s stamp of approval, and is officially ready for release.

Sound design plays a vital role in bringing items to life, giving them that final, immersive touch. AudioDread, Interim Manager of our Sound Design team, shared his experience crafting the sounds for SCP-1344, offering insight into the creative world of sound design.

For SCP-1344, the team relied heavily on foley, or sound reproduction, by creatively destroying vegetables to achieve the gritty, visceral effects needed.
“I love working with body horror and for me, the sheer amount of gore in the form of vegetable destruction was by far the most fun and rewarding part of the design,” AudioDread explained. “There came a point where the foley was so disgusting I found it mildly disturbing to hear it played back despite knowing it was nothing but various fruits and vegetables I had pulverised. Fun stuff.”

Sometimes, the team’s dedication towards creating immersive soundscapes can exceed standard expectations. Once, a team member workshopping 106’s audio was tasked with making everything, including its breathing, ‘wet.’ Taking this far too seriously, the team member even tried obstructing his own airway with water to produce choking sounds. Nearly choking yourself isn’t something we’d want nor expect from our staff members, but it certainly shows the passion these designers have for their craft. And while unorthodox, their passion is what enables us to transmit unsettling, yet captivating experiences to our players.

One time, someone synthesised speech out of a synthesiser called Delay Llama — a purpose it was not built for — for the Jailbird.

Here is an example of how the synthesiser is supposed to sound like.

Horrible.

There is an end goal in audio. You can always make a bog-standard sound that fits the brief, but we always like to add our own flairs and personality to elevate the experience that much further. Going outside of your comfort zone, trying something new, or experimenting, always has a payoff with the correct amount of application.

“In the case of SCP-1344, it consisted of a large amount of foley recording. This meant buying a large quantity of fruits and vegetables, waiting until the house was quiet, and recording highly detailed destruction of said fruits and vegetables. For other projects, this phase may be replaced by downloading samples or fully synthesizing base sounds.

Regardless of how the raw audio is obtained, what comes next is to clean up the raw audio, removing background noise, and sorting through the samples to find the best quality ones that will be most useful. Next comes layering the audio together, a practice where the Sound Designer will take many samples and play them together at different levels to create one cohesive sound. One grape being stabbed with a toothpick doesn't sound much like an eye being stabbed, but several grapes along with a mango, an onion, and a grapefruit being peeled all layered together will form a cohesive sound that's more believable than its individual parts.

Along with this phase is timing the sounds to the animations, a process that's fortunately made easier by the fact that most workstations come with a built-in video player. Next, equalisation, compression, and other effects are added to increase the overall quality of the audio and make it better fit the visual, and finally, the entire effect is mastered, adding any final touches to make sure it sounds the best it can in the final mix.”
- AudioDread

Our team uses various programs and plugins to create the effects they do. AudioDread, for example, says he uses Reaper as his primary audio workstation. This, along with FL Studio, is commonly used throughout the team. Plugins made by iZotope and OTT are also often used. When asked about plugins and programs, Sixxy, another sound designer, said “We use a variety of programs such as FL Studio and Reaper. The rest are weird, but we make good use of what we have, as every program is customisable to the user, and most plugins are universal to every program.” Creating an exhaustive list of all the tools each team member uses would be nearly impossible and still wouldn’t cover everything. Each designer’s toolkit is highly personalised, with tools chosen based on individual preferences and creative needs.

”I came across Sound Design by accident. I started making a horror game in 2017 and started designing ambiance using the free audio editor Audacity. The longer I went, the more I started just wanting to make sounds and not do the other aspects of game development. I started doing sound design as a hobby using Audacity and other free software. In 2020, when the quarantine hit, I got laid off from my job and created a YouTube channel where I downloaded random sounds and attempted to turn them into horror ambiances. I later started pursuing Sound Design as a career, doing several volunteer projects before getting hired by Northwood in 2021. I have since transitioned to working full-time in the gaming industry, and though I've branched into doing programming as my primary source of income, I still find Sound Design to be the most rewarding and creative work I have the privilege of doing.”
- AudioDread, Interim Audio Manager

Consider two fight scenes: one with sound design and one without. People consistently find the scene with sound design more impactful, as it amplifies the experience in a way visuals alone cannot. For anyone interested in sound design, AudioDread recommends starting by downloading a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) of your choice and diving in. There are no rules, just create! You can get started for a relatively low cost, but it’s worth keeping in mind that building a sustainable career in sound design can take time. It often takes 6-8 years to reach a point where you can fully support yourself with sound work alone, and even then it doesn’t pay as well as other fields. He suggests approaching it as a hobby first. This way, you can discover if it’s something you truly enjoy and find fulfilling before committing to it as a career path.

AudioDread ends with this, “The greatest compliment a Sound Designer can receive is people not noticing the work because that means the sound design was felt instead of heard. Most people won't notice good Sound Design, they'll simply have a better impression of the game as a whole.”
Bringing SCP-1344 from a simple suggestion to a fully playable item takes the collaboration of a diverse and talented team. From the artists who design it, to the programmers who bring it to life, and the QA testers who ensure it's ready for release, every step relies on specialised skills. We’re excited to see SCP-1344 add a new layer of intrigue to gameplay, especially alongside everything else in the upcoming 14.0 update.

This item, like so many others, draws inspiration directly from our community. If you’ve got an idea that would make a good addition to the game, don’t hesitate to pitch it here or on our official Discord. Who knows? It might just appear in a future dev log!

For more on what’s coming in update 14.0, check out our Patreon! Our Patreon-exclusive 14.0 Beta is running until November 26th, so now is a great time to take a peek!

Thank you for reading, and we can’t wait to share what’s next!

See you in the dark.
- Northwood Studios