First look at Exploration Mode! 🕵️‍♀️ + Outpost and Laboratory Remake Part 1

Hello Wanderers! Today we will go together through the progress we made in development this week!

🕵️‍♀️Exploration Mode

We’ve started working on the first environment for Exploration Mode—a whole new way to experience the Backrooms, completely different from the main Story mode one! This mode focuses on the eerie, atmospheric "Walking Simulator" experience some of you love.

This is the first iteration of Level 37: "Poolrooms" environment part 1 (each level has 3 parts). What’s next? We’ll polish it further and replace placeholder models with custom, unique ones, that are currently in the work. 🛠️

💡 Full Release Plan for the Exploration game mode:

• Singleplayer + Multiplayer support.

• 6 levels with 18 unique environments.

• Free content updates post-launch! ✨

🏃 Player Character Overhaul

In the coming weeks, we’re giving the player character a big overhaul to make controlling it feel even more immersive!

🔄 What’s Changing:

• New character states: You’ll soon be able to crawl under low spaces and squeeze through tight gaps to access hidden areas. 🤫

• New animations: This week, we’ve started working on crawling animations and the systems to support them (we will showcase more in the upcoming weeks this month).

🎥 Sneak Peek:

Character Crawling Animation loop | The Gif might appear as an image on mobile devices

🏗️ Outpost & Laboratory Remake: First Look

This month, we’re focusing on the intro sequence of the game, including cutscenes, dialogues, and gameplay elements. To kick this off, we’ve started creating a blockout for the Outpost and Laboratory environments.

🛠️ What’s Happening:

• A blockout serves as a basic layout, letting our environmental artists, animators, and programmers work simultaneously.

• While the blockout sets the stage, the environments will undergo further polishing, including improved textures, unique props, and finalized details.

📐 Concepts and more sneak peeks:

 A top-down sketch of the Laboratory and Outpost

 No textures Laboratory Blockout

🎨 New 3D Models

Here’s what our art team cooked up:

• A bed model for the player's rooms in both the Outpost and Laboratory environments. 🛏️

• Additional props designed to enhance the atmosphere of Exploration Mode and Story Mode levels. 🪑

📸 Visual Highlights:

Some of the new 3d models/props we made this week

📝Other Notes

The features we share in these weekly posts will always appear in the next Alpha release, which drops at the end of each month—mark your calendars for January 31st! 🚀

In conclusion, these are the things we worked on this week and we'll continue to work on the next week, but we’re also working on several exciting features that aren’t quite ready to showcase yet, but we promise they’ll be worth the wait!

What Do You Think? 💬

We’d love to hear your thoughts on these updates—what are you most excited about? Let us know below! 🤍