Unregistered Scene

About the Game

Story

“We don’t control. We don’t contain. We don’t protect.” At least, that’s the official line.

“We’re just an insurance company under an anomaly response agency. We survey sites and assess the damage.” At least, that’s what we tell the public.

“Do not touch the anomaly. Do not touch the anomaly. Do not touch the anomaly.” Yes, yes, understood. But—uh-oh…

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After an “unauthorized procedure,” you—Venn, an insurance adjuster—are assigned to a dangerous sector as punishment.

Before you go, you must pass through a simulation area and prove you can survive it.

By simulating the anomalies’ magnetic fields, the lab recreates their abilities: concealing information at a site and rewriting its rules.

The organization has thoughtfully assigned you a new partner. He never shows himself. Instead, he works with you through a mobile terminal—though he insists he’s right there at the scene.

It’s strange, but you let it go. In a place like this, who doesn’t have a secret?

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Gradually, you begin to suspect that something is wrong with this “assessment.”

A fluorescent light flickers strangely when you touch it.

A device hidden beneath the floor of every room—one you never noticed before—can transport you to another room at any time.

In one room, mirrors hold the reflections of countless objects. Yet the reflections don’t quite match…

Just when you think it might all be over, you throw open a door expecting one final test. Instead, you find a scene of impossible calm: a Japanese dry garden, warm sunlight (aren’t you indoors?), and a tree…

You’re close to losing your mind. There is much more to this place than an assessment.

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But the seemingly endless assessment goes on.

Your new partner, Milo, is young and reserved—just the sort of person you’d expect to find in this organization.

He has a remarkable gift: he can perceive the rules governing each scene. Making sense of those rules, and solving the anomalies’ fiendish puzzles, is up to you.

You can do this, Venn! Get through it all, whatever the organization is hiding.

Treat it like a game. Enjoy the moment. When it’s over, maybe they’ll even reward you. (Will they?)

How to Play

At heart, this is a Minesweeper game.

Left-click to explore a cell. Right-click to cycle its marker between anomaly, safe, and unmarked.

To complete a room, mark every anomaly, explore every safe cell, and submit your findings. A safe marker alone does not count as exploring a cell.

Every puzzle has a unique solution. The clues let you reason your way through without guessing.

Inspiration

Someone on our team made a game based on Sudoku. That led me to discover Murdoku, a logic puzzle that combines Sudoku with deduction, and I found it fascinating.

I’m not much of a Sudoku player myself. I prefer Minesweeper: each move gives you quicker feedback, and the reasoning tends to unfold in shorter steps. That’s more my speed.

So I started with a question: could I make a deduction game built around Minesweeper? I fell down that rabbit hole and kept going. While working out why every object’s position had to follow specific rules, I realized the idea fit the unsettling atmosphere of rules-based horror stories and the SCP Foundation. The notion that each room has its own set of laws also has a touch of the Backrooms. Those inspirations shaped the game into what it is today.

The more I work on this game, the more I realize how much there is to level design. I know what the demo currently offers still has plenty of room for improvement. I’ll keep refining it as best I can, improving the level structure and smoothing out the difficulty curve.

The levels in the demo are only the tip of the iceberg of what’s possible within the current set of mechanics.

I hope you enjoy it.

— Onovich