Coping mechanisms need closure too.
JNColossus
A big thank you goes to Heck_Tech and dddaker, his crit and advice have been fundemental.
Item#: 9331
Level1
Containment Class:
safe
Secondary Class:
none
Disruption Class:
dark
Risk Class:
notice
Special Containment Procedures: No nonanomalous copy of SCP-9331 is to circulate or be available to the public. Maynard.aic is to track and prevent all attempts of piracy and/or debugging involving SCP-9331. Online rumors regarding SCP-9331's features have been deemed a negligible loss.
Description: SCP-9331 is a single-player 64-bit roleplaying videogame titled “I Believe in the End of the Tunnel”, solely developed by Hannah Ullman under the online pseudonym “punkrockqueen”. SCP-9331 is currently downloadable on online independent videogame hosting platform itch.io for free, although it was priced at 2 USD up until October 2014; attempts to remove SCP-9331 from the store have resulted in devices overheating and crashing, invariably. When downloaded regularly, SCP-9331 will showcase a consistent series of bugs, all of which possess no discernible cause upon inspecting its source code. Pirated copies of SCP-9331, despite being identical in programming, will function normally and won’t experience any bug during playtime.
SCP-9331 displays a turns-based combat system, a medieval-inspired aesthetic and follows a roughly linear structure composed of minute town environments and dungeon sections. The story follows a presumably female character whose name is chosen by the player, questing to retrieve an unknown object hidden within the underground castle section composing SCP-9331's final stage. Other characters are under the player's control and will aid SCP-9331's protagonist through enemy encounters as well as dialogues of encouraging nature. After one last dialogue heavy portion, the player is supposed to fight SCP-9331's final boss to unlock the ending. Upon completion, SCP-9331 is programmed to restart from its beginning whereas the player's character's sprite is modified to display more feminine features. These last events are unobtainable in an anomalous copy of SCP-9331.
The bugs affecting SCP-9331 will manifest as follows:
SCP-9331's starting menu.
- The soundtrack playing at the starting menu won’t loop upon ending.
- Despite the presence of a “Save” button within the pause menu, this is not functioning, preventing players from saving progress and completing SCP-9331 in more than one sitting.
- Character name select is locked upon “Hannah”.
- The in-game day and night cycle is deactivated.
- A number of indoor environments the player will have access to appear as identical copies of SCP-9331's starting area, the protagonist's house.
- Numerous nonplayer characters’ sprites won’t appear on screen, although they can still be interacted with.
- Although limited, various nonplayer character’s dialogue options are unresponsive. This leads the aforementioned characters to repeat their first-encounter dialogue throughout SCP-9331.
- Party members will not accept healing items in any point of gameplay.
- Enemies often have their sprites replaced with other sprites present in the game, including the player’s character’s.
- Blood sprites will generate thrice as many times as they’re supposedly programmed to appear.
- Combat sequences lack any soundtrack.
- The last stage’s background is glitched out, appearing as static.
- Party members won’t respond to any input during the last stage.
- No dialogue will appear on screen during the “Self Acceptance” scene preceding the final boss fight.
- All text from the final boss’s dialogue is replaced with the astrological symbols for Mars and Venus.
- SCP-9331 will crash upon defeating the final boss, only to reboot shortly after. After rebooting, the starting menu will lack any and all text or user interface option. Only the background image, a view of sunlight coming from the end of a cave, will appear, only to fade to black. This event will repeat at each attempt to restart SCP-9331.
Analyzing online discussion surrounding SCP-9331, it is estimated it first displayed anomalous behavior somewhat around early 2014. Patch notes spread through the source code indicate constant updates of SCP-9331 were planned by its programmer but were never applied after launch.
Discovery: SCP-9331 first came to Foundation attention on 12/07/2016, when Researcher Ruggiero of Site-77 privately downloaded the executable to later encounter the bugs described above. When inspecting SCP-9331’s source she failed to locate any coding errors, prompting her to research forums and discover SCP-9331’s oddities to have been relatively well known to the public since 2014. Official investigation into SCP-9331 properties was initially dismissed until Researcher Ruggiero damaged a Foundation issue office computer in an unauthorized attempt to remove SCP-9331 from its digital platform. Site-15 was officially tasked with researching the anomaly and enforce preemptive information control.
Addendum-9331-1: Interview with Hannah Ullman.
Online research allowed assigned personnel to track down Hannah Ullman in her apartment in Montréal, Québec. Researcher Kazumi Oshima first approached her through email under the guise of an interviewer for videogame journalism outlet Polygon. Later, on July the 2nd, Researcher Kazumi was able to schedule a meeting with Ms. Ullman in her habitation.
Interview begins
The two are seated on the opposing ends of a round wooden table. Ullman rests her hands on her lap, whereas Kazumi is gripping his graphite pen and notebook.
Rs. Kazumi: I don't really have a say in how much of this interview will actually make it on the page. We'll be lucky if the article gets published in the first place.
Ullman: Got it.
Rs. Kazumi: Just so you don't keep on refreshing our website looking for this interview. I think I explained that a little bit in the email already.
Ullman: T'was crystal clear.
Rs. Kazumi: (Clears his voice.) If I'm here in the first place it's because we value your perspective on this. You began your career in programming from an early age through independent development and now you're a programmer for a big software house. How do you look back on your earliest pieces? Frogrock, CaterPrimia and Bone Digger to name a few. Not excluding your most ambitious project, I Believe in the End of the Tunnel.
Ullman: (Chuckles.) That piece of garbage?
Researcher Kazumi reports being startled.
Ullman: Did that come out too harsh? I'm sorry, so deep in French I'm losing my English language filter. I look back at those works with fondness, minus Tunnel. I've grown to find it embarrassing.
Rs. Kazumi: Why so?
Ullman: It just screams amateur through each pixel. To be frank, all of my early portfolio does and I'd never be so judgmental to programmers who are just starting out. But Tunnel, I feel like it deserves to be held to a different standard, it was my most ambitious game after all.
Rs. Kazumi: Are there any aspects you'd like to pick out?
Ullman: Uhm, sure. Starting from most obvious, the music. I sucked and still suck at composing, good thing my husband's a musician. (Pause.) Am I getting off track? Ok, semi-catchy 16-bit music was the best I could achieve, still I pushed myself to make a whole soundtrack just to put my name on it. Quite literally.
Rs. Kazumi: By this you mean?
Ullman: You've seen the credits, right? Beyond the guy who shot the CC photo for the menu it's all just me, all over the place. I had just picked up Hannah and really wanted to parade it around.
Rs. Kazumi: Any more nitpicks?
Ullman: I'd be here all day. Plot was generic. Dialogue was corny. The protagonist was visibly drawn in my image but it doesn't stop at that, everyone, from partymates to enemies was a real person's sona. That's something a professional could never pull. On top of this, as much as I was a hardcore player myself, I didn't have a strong sense of what made a game challenging at the time, so all encounters played out the same and final boss was a damage sponge.
Rs. Kazumi That's quite the list.
Ullman: Guess I was multitasking everything but quality control.
Both laugh.
Ullman: Ok, jokes aside. There is one issue I noticed from early on. No replay factor.
Rs. Kazumi: That is something I experienced myself. The player's character's sprite acquires major visual upgrades in new game +, but there are no other meaningful changes. Was this unfinished game content?
Ullman: Kinda. When I made the game I wasn't really going outside that often, it definitly gave me a huge boost in productivity but I discovered I had a breaking point too. Most of the game was finished and I decided to leave that in, a snippet of sort. I was confident I'd get to add more content in the future. That never came to happen.
Rs. Kazumi: I figure you'd be more willing to discuss other aspects of your career rather than this one. Can we clutch a few more questions before moving on to better subjects?
Ullman: Sure. Hit me up.
Rs. Kazumi: Given your previous experience solely consisted of platformers and gimmick games. What has pushed you to take on such a task?
Ullman is visibly uncomfortable.
Ullman: I wasn't going out much, I've told you already.
Rs. Kazumi: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—
Ullman: It's ok. If you want an answer that might look good in an article, I'll say this.
Ullman is now visibly more relaxed.
Ullman: I was always an RPG nerd, and when I thought, stress on thought, I was experienced enough to make my own, I carried through it with this "kid me would've loved this" mindset. What's ironic is that kid me would have never asked for money but I put so much effort in the thing that compensation felt earned. Overall, it might've been what motivated me to do the jump to professional game development. There's a solid chance I wouldn't be here right now without it. So that's something adult me loves about it, I guess.
Rs. Kazumi: Didn't think I'd hear you say that. Not after all the complaints.
Ullman: That makes two of us.
Rs. Kazumi: To wrap things up before moving on. How do you relate to I Believe in the End of the Tunnel's internet fame?
Ullman: It's famous?
Rs. Kazumi: Mostly for being a bugged mess.
Ullman: (Suppresses a giggle.) Should've seen that coming.
Rs. Kazumi: So you never look back at the game. Never tried to add new features or the like?
Ullman: I returned a few years ago, actually. Switched it to free download. I've seen quite a bunch of angry reviews on the way but nothing concerning bugs.
Rs. Kazumi: That was a question I decided to gloss over. But now that we're at it, could you explain this choice?
Ullman: I'd maybe say it's because I didn't need the money anymore. I considered deleting it altogether, but I thought that maybe there's someone out there who'll enjoy it even if I don't anymore.
Rs. Kazumi: All this talk of sentimentalism and you still resent the game?
Ullman: Resent is a strong word, it's not that. It's something else… How can I phrase it?
Ullman starts looking around in her chair. She grabs an object on a shelf behind her and places it in front of Researcher Kazumi.
Rs. Kazumi: It's a toddler's chewing toy, a very worn out one at that.
Ullman: It's my son's. You used one of these?
Rs. Kazumi: I don't have children.
Ullman: What I meant is, you used one yourself at some point in life?
Rs. Kazumi: Of course I did.
Ullman: Why aren't you sporting it like a medal then?
Rs. Kazumi: 'Cause it's a toy, I don't need it anymore.
Ullman: Didn't it help you grow teeth? Why are you so ungrateful to your old toy?
Rs. Kazumi: No. Like, I take care of my teeth regularly. Isn't that enough gratitude already? Just because it played a huge role, it's not like I have to remind myself what I've went through every day.
Ullman: Those are the words I was looking for.
Rs. Kazumi: Huh. Before moving on to the next topic. What do you think is the ultimate reason you never returned to update I Believe in the End of the Tunnel?
Ullman: I think the answer to that is right in the title.
The remainder of the interview has been cut.
Following this interview, researchers discovered SCP-9331's anomalous properties to have severely diminished. Currently, all bugs not relating to the end of game reboot no longer manifest, rendering SCP-9331 near indistinguishable from nonanomalous copies. The sole remaining bug has experienced a slight variation: upon reloading after reboot, the menu screen won't fade to black, getting increasingly brighter instead.