The Stairwell Experiments
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Descend SCP-087, complete three experimental tasks for the SCP Foundation, avoid and deter SCP-087-1, and uncover the mystery behind the crying child lost deep in the stairwell.
A crying child can be heard in the depths of the stairwell...
The stairwell, however, appears to grow infinitely deep.
Only recent experimental breakthroughs by The SCP Foundation have made reaching the bottom possible.
Descend...
Descend...
Descend...
Key Features
- Modern visuals
- Immersive sound design
- Diverse, random, stairwell design
- Interactive confrontation with SCP-087-1
The Story of How I Made This Game
Press Kit/Media Pack
I organized screenshots and other images, and I made some transparent pngs. I hope it helps save time if you need to make a video thumbnail. : )
Just follow the link and you should see a download icon near the top of the page:
Stairwell Experiments Media Pack
~ changelog ~
1.1.2 (03/23/2023)
- added system performance check on startup (low scores will probably have a hard time running the game)
- added "Special Thanks" section to credits
1.1.1 (03/22/2023)
- fixed level select dropdown randomly failing (I think)
- screen resolution correctly loaded on application launch
- fixed "intro skip popup" bug
- added Mac and Linux builds (untested!)
1.1.0 (02/20/2023)
- added pause menu, pressing esc now pauses the game
- tuned SCP-087-1 distances/timing for more intuitive experience (lol it still confuses people, oh well)
- reduced frequency of SCP-087-1 encounters in tasks 2 and 3
1.0.1 (02/18/2023)
- "play from" level selection on main menu now updates without requiring game restart
Non-gaming PC or laptop?
Try a lightweight version of the game!
Download
Install instructions
Windows:
- Download the game (zip file)
- Extract the zip file (right click, "Extract All...")
- Open the extracted, non-zip folder
- Double-click "TheStairwellExperiments.exe"!
- Note: if you see "Windows protected your PC", just click "More info" and "Run anyway"
Mac & Linux: Untested! Email support@derndeff.com with any Mac and Linux issues (and please email me if it DOES work, if you don't mind!)
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Let me say that this game is way more scarier than I thought. Was playing this game for research for the video, and i gotta say, props to you. anyways imma keep working on it.
Thanks! It's pretty crude gameplay wise but I found it scary when I was testing it haha
I can really tell that this was a Derndeff game as well by the looks of the Title menu and the gameplay itself. Personally i didn't play any SCP 087 games, but iId this is the scariest to me. really did some unique stuff here.
Hola buenos días , quise probar el juego , pero a la hora de ejecutar , no me deja entrar , siempre me vota el juego . tengo una core7 4790 con gtx1050ti y window 10
Hola, eso es extraño... ¿también tiene problemas si pruebas la versión "lightweight"? tu CPU y GPU deberían ser suficientes
Gracias , voy a probar la otra versión .
haha nice playthrough! you're not missing much by not going further to be honest, this game is definitely only finishable if you have a really high tedium tolerance lol
Hey uh are you creating an android version aswell?
Btw it's got amazing graphics
Just Played the game, and Had a blast! Loving the textures and all the hard work and time that went into this game. Cant wait to play other games by derndeff!
Ok I swear he random kills me during the last task. I know that you have to keep checking behind you and if he appears wait for him to leave himself or play the sound. But he has appeared around the corner and insta killed me. No chance whatsoever.
it works thanks
thanks
Hi e112! I spent some time today and ported this game to the lighter-weight rendering, and it's ready to download. Let me know if anything is broken!
hey derndeff I liked your nextbot graveyard game alot it crashed when i first tried to play it but with the lightweight version it works just fine i would like to try this game too you dont have to but i was wondering if you can create a LW version of this game too?
Heya e112, you were so helpful in tracking down the source of crashing (and leading me to create lightweight versions!) so I absolutely will create a lightweight build for you. I will set aside some time this weekend to port the game over and make sure it works!
This game is really good. But after flight 55 surviving is luck based and it feels like a bug -> is frustrating. (Depending on if you are supposed to reach the end or not)
ily
am I stupid or something? the dude does not run away till your close enough to you like you can stare him down until you get a few steps before the guy but he does the same thing when he stays but when u get close enough he attacks me and when he is running at me the audio thing does not work is there a way to tell if he is cowering or staying?
The exe file isn't working on my computer. After it says "Made with Unity" the game crashes and won't work.
Hi, could you post your PC specs or send them to support@derndeff.com? I tried adding a system check that starts before the game even loads, (your computer just renders a spinning duck), so maybe there's something else wrong?
I am sending an email.
I assume its impossible to get past 62 since no matter what he gets me? :P
Watched your video on YouTube, and I really enjoyed playing the game!
Thank you, that literally means the world to me!
I made a video on the game for my channel. This was very fun/scary!
Thanks for playing! This was entertaining to watch : )
Thank you for making an entertaining game! Btw, thanks for following me on Itch.io, I made sure to follow you back when I saw that :)
On mac, the game renders everything with glitched colors/symbols. Any solution, or is it a bug that I have found? Device: Macbook Air 2020, Dual Core 1.1ghz Intel core i3, 8GB Ram, 1.5GB Intel Iris Plus.
I'm looking into it now, thanks!
Hello! Thanks for posting specs.
My current theory is somehow there's something wrong with the build that should work with both Intel and Apple Silicon. Since your laptop is Intel, I've created an Intel ONLY build that you should try out. It's the second mac download listed.
Let me know if this changes anything or makes things worse!
By the way, with the new update, the performance score was 17 somehow.
Hmm, I would expect a bit higher from your graphics processor... the system check is just measuring the time taken to render out the 2048x2048 image of the duck. It's possible that unity's high definition rendering is just really cpu-bound. Were you able to load the game past the main menu? If so, how choppy was it?
My game keeps crashing every time I click play from beggining. can you help me??
Hi, could you send me an email to support@derndeff.com (or comment below if you want!) with your CPU and RAM specs? Go to Settings -> System -> About (scroll down) and then copy/paste what comes after "Processor" and "Installed RAM"
Please add macbook support if you can!
Just uploaded a Mac build, let me know if it works (I can't test it myself). : )
Hey Derndeff I'm having some issues with the game I'm on a window 11 laptop and the game keeps crashing every time I hit start on the menu can you please fix this if you can.
thanks
Hi e112, could you see if you can send me your log file so I can determine what's happening? It should tell me how it crashed. The file will contain your computer hardware info as well as the full directory you placed the game at (which might include your username on your PC)
If you can, and feel comfortable sending this info, please do this:
Play the game and trigger the crash. Go to the search bar (next to the windows icon on your taskbar) and type %appdata% and hit enter. Go up one directory, and you should be in C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData. Go to LocalLow -> Derndeff -> TheStairwellExperiments and you should see a file called "Player.log". Temporarily copy this file somewhere easy to access like your desktop. Email me at support@derndeff.com and attach that Player.log file in the email, and I should be able to figure out what's happening!
ok I sent it to you via Gmail.
Could you make a Mac version? I wanna play the game but I don't have windows.
I can make a Mac build but cannot test it myself. I'll upload a build tomorrow and reply to this comment chain when it's up, could you test it out for me?
Hello, I just posted a Mac build, let me know if it works for you : )
I'm sorry for not seeing this, I don't check here very often but I will make sure to check it out and let you know! :)
Make the save system work and it would be fun.
Sorry it's not working for you! All prior save issues should be patched, so this is a new problem. Could you describe what exactly is happening so I can try to fix it?
Whenever I try to start from a Task, it always starts me from the beginning, I'll click "play from task 2" but when I press play it would start me from very beginning, which is frustrating as it takes a while to get back to where I was, not to mention if I mess up somewhere.
That sounds super annoying, I'll see if I can figure out what's happening and try to include a fix in the next patch. I haven't been able to replicate any crashes or save issue bugs so far, so it's a bit of investigation and guessing on my end of how bugs are getting triggered on different computers!
I did some testing, and at least for me, by closing and reopening the game, I was able to fix the issue, I redownloaded the game a few times to test it and it works consistently.
Thanks a bunch, I'll do some digging and get that fixed!
I think there was some physics funkiness going on (super weird) that somehow caused this bug. I was able to super rarely replicate the issue. The change I made seems to have fixed the issue on my machine. Thank you!
Holy crap mate your gonna make me scared of the dark
really really excellent Job please keep making games :D
you're*
A very good remake of the first 087 game i've played. Hope to see more of these in the future! :D
Thanks for playing and leaving a rating! I'm glad you enjoyed it : )
Thank you to everyone who has left a rating so far!
If you are downloading this game and end up enjoying it, please come back and leave a rating (top right of screen) with a description on what you enjoyed and what can be improved upon.
This helps me out a TON, and will help me make future games even better. : )
쉽고 간단한 게임 하지만 난 포기했다.
Thank you so much for checking it out! I love your voice and personality. : ) I hope to add translations to future projects as I become better at game development and time management!
MY BOYS WE IS PLAYINIG 20 RANDOM HORROR GAMES THIS GAMEPLAY IS 5 HOURS LONG I HOPE YOU ENJOY. THE RANDOM SCARY GAMES ARE FREAKING AWESOME THANKS CREATORS FOR MAKING THESE EPIC GAMES!!!!!! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK WE NEED MORE PEOPLE LIKE THIS IN THE WORLD MAKING AWESOME GAMES LIKE THESE I LOVE YOU ALL AND BE SAFE AND PLEASE PRAY FOR ME THINK I MIGHT BE SICK HAVE NOT BEEN FEELING GOOD LATELY AND LIKE THE VIDEO IF YOU ENJOYED IF NOT I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND I KNOW I'M NOT REALLY A GOOD YOUTUBER BU T I REALLY TRY LIKE EVERYONE ELSE ON THE ITCH.IO/YOUTUBE PLATFORM BUT IF YOU HAVE ANY GOOD TIPS FOR ME ON MAKING MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS BETTER PLEASE TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS IMMEDIATELY YOU WILL REALLY BE A GREAT HELP TO ME OTHER THAN THAT HOPE YOU ENJOY THE VIDEO AND SEE YOU LATER IN THE NEXT VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for playing, next game will definitely be more intuitive!
I will be playing this live tomorrow 2/20 around 7:00 PM EST =D.
Twitch.tv/twallsx4
Hi Twalls! I should have an updated version of the game out tomorrow morning with some quality-of-life improvements, so be sure to grab the newer download before your start your stream if you have time!
Ok thanks just downloaded it =)
This was a really creepy game. I just kept getting slaughtered by the platforming lol. Keep up the great work!
Hiya! I am currently recording a playthtough (or at least trying to) for my YT, but I do have slight criticism as I may not be able to complete the game. Ive been stuck on task 2 for a good half hour, and it's due to some sort of bug or poor coding. I'm not a game developer myself, however I do enjoy playing and reviewing them. I'll explain the best I can with layman's terms, and I'm sure you'll be able to figure out what I'm saying.
Okay, so the issue that keeps forcing me to restart is that the audio deterrence doesn't work leading the entity to permanently sit in the stairwell. Through the last half hour I've realized that the entity has a proximity sensor of some sort, however it's proximity for the audio deterrence is shorter than the visual cue proximity. This leads a player to be able to see the entity, but the audio does not cause it to leave. Through lightly tapping w on my keyboard, I can very slightly inch up and play the audio prompt again, and it typically will force the entity to leave. If I continue to stand in the same spot, it will remain even if I play the audio several times. Now, although this fix works most of the time, there are still problems with it.
Sometimes when awkwardly inching closer to get within the audio proximity necessary, I accidentally get close enough to trigger being killed. This restarts me all the way back to the second task which gets very tiring.
I'm not sure as to *exactly* how this game was coded, but I definitely recommend extending the proximity at which the audio device works! I'm going to keep trying to make it through the game, but I'm definitely battling some inner demons right now. I'm not sure if other people are experiencing the same problem, as there aren't many comments and I haven't watched anyone else's video.
Other than that, the game seems great! I'll update again if/when I get a video out :)
Oh, also while I'm giving critiques. I don't like how pressing escape takes you to the main menu instantly :( from a gamer perspective I instinctively press esc to pause my game, and there is no confirmation screen to stop me so I end up losing all progress. This only happened once, but it's just another little comment I have for the future! Just add some sort of are you sure prompt, and it may save players a ton of frustration.
Gotcha on the escape needing a confirmation to return to main menu, should be a quick thing to add that should improve the experience for future players.
It shouldn't take much time, so I can also see about tuning the entity's distance to be a bit more intuitive to avoid the frustration you and likely other players have experienced but haven't voiced.
I'll dedicate some time tomorrow morning to address these things, thanks for the very detailed feedback!
of course! I love supporting small/new indie games and devs. I know how critical feedback can be, so I try my best to give constructive criticism as well as praise when I feel it's deserving. Regardless, I'd love to give it another go if you mess around with the entity distance a bit! As for now it's just a bit too frustrating to me haha. Other than that, game looks pretty good for a first try!
As someone, who has no clue about the SCP-087-1, I enjoyed the game for what it was, yet I did feel the lack of atmosphere after a while.
The game is well made. The execution, levels of detail, ambience, the sound design - superb on every single gold level. I enjoyed the movement and the flashlight as well as the design of the stairwell. After I've played the game (did not complete it)I did watch the short video about how the game was made and to be frank that entertained me more than the actual game.
I've seen SCP-087-1 games, a lot. Again, never played them, but from what I gathered some of the "clones" are pretty much repetitive and this game, unfortunately falls under that category. After a while, I felt the lack of eeriness, the atmosphere felt underwhelming and the scare of the "face" did not affect me at all.
In the end, there is a huge space for improvements. I think the game has a huge potential of making more in depth dive into SCP-087-1 and I am all here to support it. Great job developer/developers. Best of luck to you and your future projects. Cheers!
Hey, thanks for the feedback! I will definitely be improving core gameplay and pacing of my next game project after the opinions I've received and the letsplays I've watched. : ) I'm glad you enjoyed the ambience and sound design!
How do you respond to the criticisms about this game on the FreeGamePlanet page for it, and the ones by GoopyApple? Would you consider making an enhanced version, given the opportunity?
Great question... completing a project and publishing something is a big milestone for me, and one big hurdle I had to overcome was the idea that I needed to put something out there that was flawless and couldn't be criticized. I actually completely agree with the opinions I'm seeing on my project, and I'm very happy with it!
As for making an enhanced version (getting it closer to perfect), it's unlikely, since I want to focus on a new project that applies what I've learned by completing this one. Plus, I'm making videos on my creation process, so I need new and interesting game development challenges. : )
All right then, thanks for the reply :)
So i really thought this was fantastic the graphics were brilliant , the sound and atmosphere were brilliant, i had major issues trying to figure out the entity, and it took me near on two hours to complete lol, and there is a little bit of a bug with the checkpoint system you have to restart the game for them to show up, so i spent ALOT restarting from the beginning, but i finally got there in the end lol, regardless i raged alot but i was really glad i finished it because it was very well made, great work!
Thanks for the feedback! That's an unacceptable bug on my part, I'm going to do some testing and get a bugfix out tonight, I had no clue that was an issue. Sorry you had to go through the extra trouble, super awesome you completed it tho, mad respect. : )
Thanks again for the bug report, it should be fixed now thanks to your help! Thanks again for checking out my game, it means a lot.
im happy to help! all in all i can appreciate the fantastic work you have done here honestly! and despite my "rage", it made a great little video in my opinion so im definitely looking forward to what you got next!
This was not a bad SCP 087 Clone. Graphics are good and the sounds are great. Made a video on it.
3rd Objective is Bit Hard but overall this is a great game. 4/5
cool game thank you
thank you for playing!
Very good game