A disposal facility that refuses to destroy something because it still works is a particular kind of problem. Its logic is perfectly understandable. It is simply no use to the people standing at the controls.
That idea sits near the center of Fathom's current demo planning. It also captures something I like about worldbuilding: a place becomes interesting when its behavior tells you what it values.
You don't need its entire history to start forming an opinion of it.
Let tHe place reveal its priorities
An institution can say a great deal through what it protects, what it ignores, and what it considers a successful outcome. Put those priorities into machinery and routines, and the player can encounter them directly.
The facility being developed for the demo gives us a way to explore that. Its procedures can be helpful, inconvenient, and faintly absurd. An announcement might reveal that the building is keeping score of something nobody in the party cares about.
The writing is still being worked out. The aim is a recognizable institutional voice with enough personality to entertain, including announcements that simply play into the space. The party doesn't need to respond to every line. Sometimes hearing it and carrying on is the better moment.
Give tHe party more tHan information to share
Worldbuilding also happens between people. What someone finds unpleasant, what they make a joke about, or what they want to do when the errand is over can tell you more than a formal introduction.
For the party, I'm exploring short conversations that can happen while the player moves. They need enough context to make sense when they start, and enough personality to be worth hearing. A conversation can reveal affection or friction without resolving either one.
The challenge is allowing those exchanges to be about the characters. If every remark exists to explain the objective or introduce a piece of lore, their company starts to feel like another interface.