Welcome to the very first devlog regarding our fan game! As I promised last time, I want to have a deep dive into this game's mechanics - namely, the mechanics surrounding the night guard's gameplay. Keep in mind that, due to the alpha nature of the game, specific details about gameplay might change over time, but this should paint a good picture of how the game's final state will play.

As the night guard, your mission is pretty clear: just like in any regular FNaF fan game, you must survive the night. The explicit victory condition for each map depends on the map's mechanics, but the most common one is waiting until a certain number of turns passes - the equivalent of waiting until 6:00 AM. However, in other maps, you might find different requirements, such as completing a certain amount of tasks a la Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator. As the maps are fully customisable in most regards, you're encouraged to tinker with each map's victory condition to create new gameplay experiences, though remember to keep it balanced so that neither the night guard or the animatronics have it too easy.

Surviving the night might sound simple in theory, but there's a team of animatronics out there whose mission is getting rid of you in any way they're able. How do you keep them at bay? Simple: all maps have a set of information-based tools to disrupt and deter the animatronics. The most familiar of these tools should be the camera system: when looking through a camera, each animatronic must pass a stealth check (rolled much like in any board or tabletop game) as, if they don't pass it, their location will be revealed to you, and you'll cause them to move slower in the next turn. However, using the camera system draws energy from the building, and keeping a stable energy pool is vital to your survival, so don't misuse it! Your cameras also come equipped with a scanner: its main advantages are not requiring a stealth check of any kind (meaning animatronics can't hide from it) and being considerably cheaper on the energy side than the camera system, but it won't reveal the exact position of each animatronic nor the number of them that are in the scanner's area. Use both tools wisely to keep yourself updated on the animatronics' whereabouts! Here's how detecting an animatronic through the camera system looks like:

Meanwhile, using the scanner and successfully finding an animatronic looks like this:

As you can see, you can't really get the number of animatronics detected or their exact locations by using the scanner... But it's also cheaper, so it has its own upsides.

Finally, two key parts of the night guard's gameplay are doors and lures. Lures behave like you'd expect: you set up a lure in a camera's area and each animatronic in the surrounding area will lose a bit of persistence (in a similar way to health points in an RPG). If they lose all of them, they'll get sent to the location the lure was playing, effectively making them lose time and precious energy (which they will need in order to attack). As per doors, their functionality will get properly explained in the animatronic devlog, but all you need to know is that shutting them while an animatronic is trying to get into the office will send the animatronic back to square one. Use lures and doors to actively keep animatronics away from you!

That's all for today's devlog. I'd love to make more gameplay devlogs like these in the future, including one regarding the animatronics' mechanics (since not all of them behave the same!), so keep an eye on this game's page. On the meantime, that's everything for today, so thanks for sticking by!