I've introduced a whole variety of friends to SCP:CB and have a few notes to share on their experiences:
- Everybody dies to SCP-173 once he's activated in the intro on their first time, and often the next 5 times following. This serves to desensitize players to SCP-173 by the time they leave the starting room.
- The initial "oh shit oh shi-" moment seems to be more confusing than scary, at least in the cases where I've seen other people play it. Nothing about the current intro suggests that standing ground and staring at SCP-173 might be remotely decent idea.
Overall, I think the opening sequence with SCP-173 is confusing because of it's pace. This would be a good place to introduce the blink mechanic through a blinking game of some sort, where the player has to coordinate with another class D. Perhaps one of the other Ds has step to the back of the room to clean up, when the lights fade, and SCP-173 attacks? Either way, I think SCP-173 should first attack something in the immediate view of the player rather on their peripheral, as I believe that a lot of players die right off the start because they aren't prepared to swerve left when SCP-173 starts teleporting around.
I would say in order to be effective, the intro needs to satisfy these criteria:
- Introduce panic to the player at a slower pace so they don't toss their keyboard and die for it (as is figuratively what seems to be happening).
- Reeeally stress that looking away will kill the player again and again, so that the player is equipped well enough with an understanding of SCP-173 to not die right away.
- Convince the player that SCP-173 is dangerous and that their life is valuable rather than desensitized the player and instead introduce them to multiple respawns.
