Hi everyone! TK here. As many of you know, we're a small team creating this passion project, so we really appreciate all the playthroughs, wishlists, interest and questions that you have for our experimental game!
It's been a lot for just one person - me - to shoulder the business and financial risks, while working on the game and its marketing. As a result I've really come to value some time offline to stay grounded. As you may know, the Western game industry this year is facing financial difficulty the past 9 months with a lot of studios struggling to stay afloat. In this environment, I'm especially thankful for everyone who has shown interest or even just thought "hey, this looks nifty"!
The kind thoughts are encouraging and they help remind me of my passion: The desire to tell stories and to make art: starting from my subjective window of the world, but also suffused with narrative interviews with folks from different career paths and perspectives. I don't think I want to make a game for 'everyone', but I also don't need to. Studios, many with far larger budgets and established pipelines, already bring to life many universally appealing games, and I enjoy the heck out of them! But I did make this game for people who know what it feels like to be lonely in their queerness, or their immigrant and hyphenated identities, or their trauma, or want to learn more about what that's like. It's something I've wanted to do all my life. So I'm so glad it's out, and I am thankful that you're here!
Ah, who would I be if I didn't ramble after such a long time behind the scenes and not being very online?
Events! Sales?
Solace State is invited to the Access-Ability Steam event this year as an alumni of the 2023 showcase! Be sure to check out this year's showcase of 20 games here.
Here is the coverage from Access-Ability of Solace State last year:
As per Steam's sales rules, unfortunately we weren't able to line up a sale with Access-Ability, so soon after Solace State's LudoNarracon's May 9-16 2024 sale!
However, a sale will be coming soon later this month for Pride. If you wishlist the game, you'll get a notification about the sale!
Livestream!
Join Lady Arcaders online on Twitch this afternoon Sunday June 9th at 2pm ET! Zokubun from Lady Arcaders will be chatting with me while playing Solace State! Who knows, I might leak something about what I've been working on lately. I also have a massive amount of postmortem thoughts now!
Join the livestream here: https://twitch.tv/ladyarcaders
Thanks! See you then. Peace and love always.
Solace State at The Storyteller's Festival - Sales and Livestream!
Livestreams, sales, oh my!
We are very excited to be part of The Storyteller's Festival hosted by Two and a Half Studios! The showcase highlights many great visual novels and narrative-driven games by indies. Check it out here.
Solace State is discounted to 15% for the duration of the Festival until Feb 4th at 1pm ET! Please pick it up if you can to support us indies. :)
I (Tanya) haven't done a livestream in a while, but I'm excited to give a glimpse into our development now that the game's been out for a few months! And also tease a bit of what the next steps are in our development in 2024.
The livestream is today Monday Jan 29 at 6pm ET / 3pm PT! Just join me here on Solace State's Steam page! You can also ask questions in our discord channel here.
A great review rating from TheXboxHub!
Dave Ozzy of TheXboxHub writes: "We had a deep love for Solace State. It didn’t dumb itself down. It invited us into the inner circle of an activist group and expected us to sort through its many threads. Would we be violent, political or organise the masses? No choice is easy, no consequence is expected." 4.5/5
So much to look forward to! Hope to see you at today's livestream of Solace State!
Get 25% off Solace State! And here's our latest review!
Hi everyone!
It’s been just slightly over 3 months since Solace State’s been released, and it’s been a minute! In the recent past month, we’ve been taking a much-needed restful, healthful break, as well as looking towards potential new game content for Solace State. We’ve done so much worldbuilding for the big world of Solace State that we’re excited to explore more!
Some great news: Solace State is on sale! This sale is our game’s biggest sale yet: It’s at 25% off only about 3 months from release! Just a heads up, we’re not going to discount this deeply again for a while!
Other great news: Solace State has received a wonderful review from RPG Fan. Neal Chandran writes: “Allow me to add another game to that growing list of indie/art-house gems with sleeper hit potential: Vivid Foundry’s visual novel Solace State: Emotional Cyberpunk Stories.” 83/100. Read Neal’s review here!
In case you need a refresher about the game, here’s our protagonist Chloe’s updated character card!
The sale runs until January 4 at 10 AM PST (1 PM EST). If you like, pick up a game for yourself or as a gift! Happy Holidays! Thank you very much for all of your support this year!
Gamespot loves our game, plus this week's events!
Alright, I usually write pretty formally on here, but I'm just too excited!
Jordan Ramée, Gamespot Editor, says this:
"Though also visually stunning, Solace State's beauty lies in its story-- a compelling adventure about queer people of color being drawn into a conspiracy that threatens to plunge an entire country into a dystopian nightmare. It's a game that is both thoughtful and complex, encouraging you to stop and weigh the cost of rebellion against the risk of corporate hegemony, and it's also one of my favorite games of 2023." You can read Jordan's article here!
That's such high praise! I can't believe it!
Seher from Fandomentals teases this in her preview:
"I spend a LOT of time with the YouthsTM and thus simultaneously found Chloe very realistic and also kind of naïve. Now that’s not a bad thing! I think that Kan’s writing is very true to someone like Chloe."
Solace State is part of the incredibly artistic hybrid show of PLAY23 in Hamburg showcasing creative games! Look at this gorgeous online show environment they've set up:
I, Tanya Kan, be here Fri Nov 3 at 11:00am ET / 4:00pm GMT+1 doing a Q&A!
Just join here: http://topia.io/playvalley - it's free to join!
Solace State will also be part of Indiecade Anywhere and Everywhere because I did a talk with them back in 2016...! That's really showing how long of a passion project this has been for me!
Thanks for checking out all the talk of events and our coverage!
Patch notes for 2023-Oct-10
Version 1.57.1010
This is the first post-launch patch that’s mostly comprised of small fixes. Because I will be taking a much needed vacation soon, I want to get this out to everyone sooner than later! Thanks! :)
UI
Save Menu missing OpenDyslexic font for “Save to Empty Slot” fixed
Adjusted buttons on main menu
Other small UI fixes
Animations on hack buttons now active
Narrative and images
Chloe’s role in the Codex has been updated
Fixed the transparent back of Torrent’s head in one of the sprites
Typos in 1.1 has been fixed
Clarified when flashbacks end in 1.1 and adjusted the film grain post-processing
Sueli is now more pleased with Chloe if she converts [redacted] to the cause in 2.3
Frederick expression changes in 2.8
Multiple characters’ expression changes in 3.3
Fixed distortion of crowd characters in 4.2
Hakim expression changes in 4.5
Controls
Continue game button can no longer be interacted with while it’s offscreen when returning to main menu from game (thank you PollyPlushie for finding this bug!)
Known issues
Holo projector fx is not applying to Niallis in 2.2, nor in 2.9 and 4.5
Audio issue of some sounds fading out or ambience sounding quieter when they’re not supposed to
Exiting Chloe's Thoughts UI via B button while it is animating and reopening duplicates Chloe's thoughts. This does not crash the game nor soft locks it, and is just a UI visual error.
Rare bug: Truck in 4.5b goes missing in one node if you make a save in a particular spot in the game.
Rare bug: Car in 4.7 duplicates if you make a save in a particular spot in the game.
Very Rare bug: In less than 1/30 chances, controller LB + RB simultaneous button press during some hacks may cause tooltips to open rather than allow player to select a hack choice.
Solace State: Gayming Live and upcoming livestreams!
Solace State is at Gayming Live!
Solace State is part of the Gayming LIVE Indie Showcase from NOW until Oct 14th!
Director Tanya Kan will be running her own livestream about the dev process
We just enjoyed an amazing Game Devs of Color Expo the past week! Seamus Ly (Generalist Developer of Solace State) and I (Tanya Kan, Director and Executive Producer) did a talk entitled "Queer Advocacy in Indie Game Design: A Solace State Retrospective" where we talked about how our narrative design around choice building social trust is structured, and what political science research inspired the game.
I also organized another Game Devs of Color talk with Nana Moon (Keylocker, Virgo Versus The Zodiac) and Sherveen Uduwana (Midautumn) called “Transformative Roles and Culture in Queer Fantasy and Sci-Fi Games”. We talked about authenticity as well as change, for both our game characters and for ourselves as devs!
Because these are ticketed events, we'll let you know when the recordings become available - likely sometime next year!
VODs on Youtube
Solace State's team has had lots of livestreams and recordings over the years. Tanya will be gradually uploading both new and old content over the next months. Click here to follow our Youtube channel!
Review: A cyberpunk story closer to home
After a full playthrough of Solace State, Frank Sanchez called the game "a can't-miss topical thought exercise and more, given current news and events in 2023". Read his full game review here!
The rest of the year in development
We’re delighted by how stable the game is on launch! The biggest bug to fix is sound-related but do not impact the game's stability.
As the temperatures drop, we will be looking at bringing the game to itch.io and improving Steam Deck performance!
If you like our game, please consider leaving us a review! Your support keeps our independent, experimental, provocatively diverse studio alive. Thank you!
First post-launch updates
Wow, what a busy last 10 days it’s been since launch! Here’s some updates!
Articles and coverage
Director Tanya Kan has been part of some lovely interviews talking about the unique approach to cyberpunk with Katelyn Kivel from Game Rant. You can read an article about our spin on the cyberpunk genre here, specifically about Solace State's coming-of-age tale here, and the full interview transcript here!
Additionally, we received this lovely full game review from The Pixel Post that deep-dives into the art and politics in video games. Writer Fanny Dufour says: “The story of friendship and camaraderie told by Vivid Foundry is both a more interesting and more daring choice than what is offered by the majority of titles that define themselves as cyberpunk. And, in the midst of the almost permanent anguish, the way Solace State manages to tell the tragedy while showing compassion is a breath of fresh air, a little parenthesis where, for a few hours, we also manage to believe that another way of doing things is possible.” (Google translated from French.) You can read the full article here!
We appreciate that The Pixel Post called our game “optimistic hackivism” and wish that we had the foresight for that kind of descriptiveness in our marketing line, haha!
Edwin from Rock Paper Shotgun gave us a shout-out about what he’s playing this weekend, here!
Game Devs of Color Expo sale and talks
Delighted that we’re part of Game Devs of Color Expo again this year! For the happy occasion, Solace State has been extended on sale until Sept 28. (Unfortunately we can only extend the sale until Sept 28 because the max number of days for a sale is 2 weeks from launch.)
The expo itself runs until Sept 30 and you can find the full schedule of talks and special events by developers of color here!
Director Tanya Kan and Generalist Developer Seamus Ly will be doing a talk entitled “Queer Advocacy in Indie Game Design: A Solace State Retrospective” on Wed Sept 27 at 4:30pm ET / 1:30pm PT (link here).
Director Tanya Kan and Nana Moon (Keylocker, Virgo Versus The Zodiac) and Sherveen Uduwana (Midautumn) will be doing a talk called “Transformative Roles and Culture in Queer Fantasy and Sci-Fi Games” on Sat Sept 30 at 12:25pm ET / 9:25pm PT (link here).
A personal message about launch from Director Tanya Kan
Can't believe this game that's 8 years in the making is out in the world! However, it might have gotten absolutely buried in the games news cycle of the week of Sept 14. So here's some things about the game that I haven't talked about yet that I'm really proud of:
One thing we should highlight more is that an activist's coming-of-age tale set in a near-future, cyberpunk world! It mixes literature with scifi with realism. It reads like a novel. It's political but it's also hopeful. It's got a diverse cast to show that sustained movements requires unity with many backgrounds.
This is an incredibly personal project to me, Tanya Kan. I befriended activists, filmmakers, lawyers, scholars, and more who make it their life's work to fight against oppression. It's through this fictional, poetic game that I pay homage to their stories.
I'm really proud of writing the majority of it. I've drafted scenes over and over until the game reflects the core messages of healing through advocacy and care, of witnessing atrocities and coming out the other side with something to fight for, and people to share hope with.
I'm delighted that I stayed true to myself with a poetic, literary tone. It's a meaningful way for me to convey the intense heartbreak from being dismantled from a birthplace and wanting to find friendship and community. It's drawn from my personal story of loss and alienation.
I went against convention on a lot. This includes a deconstructivist take on cyberpunk: Not just cause it's cool, but that marginalized folks striving for change is at the core of "punk". The architectural density is not about fear of the unknown but is just how people live: Sometimes hurting others, sometimes uplifting others and healing unevenly.
There are so few games - so few entertainment media - that dare portray an East Asian woman protagonist as a frontline activist in a sustained movement. This was a deliberate choice, with overtly Asian & AAPI traumas. We're not your model minority. We're not your cyberpunk doll.
Solace State went against visual novel convention, too. I experimented so much! What I landed on is a visual novel powered by movements that feels like camera drones... which are used IRL by both the establishment & by protesters. So this is a protest game through and through.
I'm so thankful many folks really got what we're going for. In 2018, Austin Walker (Waypoint) perceived Solace State as the struggle against hegemony. Katherine Cross (Verge) wrote about how the game reflects rebellion and its psychological costs. We are really onto something special.
Though I'm the only one working full-time on this - on direction, art, design, admin, funding, writing, marketing - Solace State could not have happened without many very talented folks who have done their absolute damn best to bring this game to life. I’m so thankful to everyone who shared their expertise and gave good faith to bring this all together.
I think we’ve got such an awesome game, even if Solace State takes time to sit down with and reflect on. And we think we haven't found our audience yet.
This is where want to ask you to support us if you're excited about our message about a radical journey of optimistic advocacy.
If you know streamers and Youtubers and journalists who're excited by magical realism meets intersectional hackivism or cover politics and art, we'd love to get connected! If you like the game, please review it! If you don't have money to buy the game, no problem! We still welcome you to share in our excitement! Please share this widely with your friends who're into this too! We want to share the joy and curiosity of this game with more folks!
Solace State is available today!
Unite the people and ignite the revolution. As a hacker, make your mark in hundreds of moral choices. 3D Visual Novel Solace State is available today!
Remember, you'll get to meet Torrent! Here's his new (!!) social profile if you need to jog your memory of him:
Additionally, we will be doing a livestream later today!
We’ll be streaming live on our Twitch channel at 3PM EST today with Solace State devs for Q&A, sharing behind-the-scenes info, and chatting about the journey to launch! Join us at: https://www.twitch.tv/vividfoundry
The revolutionary tide's here! Solace State is launching Sept 14
Have you heard? Solace State's dropping *this week*! The game will be available for purchase on Sept 14 2023.
In case you haven't seen it yet, here's not just one, but two trailers to herald the event! Our Announcement Trailer highlights Vanille Velasquez (Valorant, League of Legends) as the voice of Chloe, which dropped earlier during ID@Xbox in July.
Additionally, Trailer Editor Gary J. Kings had found so much good footage that he created another snippet to announce the date on our social media. And of course, a new trailer will be dropping on launch day!
Thank you to everyone who helped us get to Popular Upcoming! This is all you who have wishlisted the game, talked about the game, gave us supportive messages, and told us to keep going! You help the game get out to more friends who may find joy and a memorable game experience. It means a lot!
Finally, if you want a deepdive into QA process, as well as some juicy and hilarious screenshots of bugs, check out our newsletter! We'll be consistently writing more of these even after launch, so be sure to check out the site!
Here's a little snippet from our QA tester Kas Millard: "But Solace State is a visual novel that doesn’t look like a visual novel, and it also doesn’t have routes that completely branch off from the overarching city-wide conflicts and story arcs. With that came unique problems that required equally unique solutions."
Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for information on our launch day livestream on Thursday Sept 14 2023!
We're so excited, the game's finally coming this week!!
A team interview with Seamus Ly - Generalist Developer on Solace State!
As Solace State gears up for our game release next month, we will be sharing with you developer interviews, blog posts, and more sneak peeks of our game!
Let's jump into an interview with Seamus Ly
He's been working on Solace State since late summer 2021, and he's deep-dived into everything from level design with some really tight camera work, to programming post-processing systems, audio systems, and input systems with controllers!
Tanya Kan (Director): Welcome, Seamus! What are some of the things that you've been working on this year? No spoilers, of course.
Seamus Ly (Generalist Developer): During the spring, I was doing VFX and animation in some more intense scenes. There's level design to do, art for UI and *other stuff*. During both spring and summer, there's a lot of bug-fixing as well, usually code and level-related. There's a lot of different facets of development I work on, but I enjoy it!
TK: What's something that you have done on this game that you have never done in your previous work before? What is something you would tell a beginner programmer about learning something challenging, especially when working with other folks on the team?
SL: I didn't do a lot of tools programming until working on Solace State. I've created tools for audio and VFX implementation. In other places, I've adapted what was already there, done by a previous dev. Something that's really important when you know other people are going to look at your work to is *comment your code*.
I think a lot of beginner devs who are used to being solo programmers tend to fall into the pitfall of not properly documenting or commenting code. There's this feeling of "I made it, I'll always know how it works." But the you who exists a few months from when you close that task, and your co-worker who might have to fix something associated with it will absolutely thank you. Definitely something you want to get into the habit of doing.
TK: What's your favorite part of Solace State development?
SL: Being a generalist has been an incredible learning experience. I started off doing UI layouts and working on shaders, which I had virtually no experience with at the time. I moved to level design and programming later, and I think they've become my easily favourite part of dev.
There are a few chapters of the game that I worked on the level design and animations of that I'm very fond of. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I enjoyed working on them! 😉 ✨
TK: Ooh, I'm especially excited about that fast-paced scene you've level design featuring speed hacker Torrent! You also worked on downtime scenes which players can get to know some characters, romantically if they wish! Can't wait for launch so that players can experience them!
Yeah, wow, what a breadth of development work that you've covered since summer 2021! You've been working on UI, shaders, and camera effects a lot more lately! How did you find stepping up to the challenge?
SL: I needed a lot of help at first, and I did a lot of research. It helped that I was able to ask for support on some things from other team members. Another important lesson for junior devs is that it is absolutely okay for you to not have all the answers to a task at first.
Be confident in your skills but be honest when you're uncertain about something. Your co-workers will absolutely be there to help when you need it. That's how I started almost 2 years ago now on Solace State. So, keep working at it!
I have since made the hack ID shaders that Chloe uses when she's iconohacking, and worked on overhauling menus, so I have gotten a lot more confident in my abilities over the years! You don't have to be perfect starting out and you'll make it to where you want to be with time!
TK: Yes! Love that good advice. You're great at communicating complex design & programming, and that's super nice on a gamedev team!
Here's the cool hack ID shader you made that Chloe's applied onto Torrent while they're intervening in a violent situation.
TK: You have experience in working on both video games and tabletop games, including PC dating visual novel ValiDate and tabletop games with Monte Cook Games. How do tabletop games help you with designing video games?
SL: I find that writing for TTRPGs means taking all the different avenues of player choice into account. In a TTRPG, players can do basically anything. I've definitely been blindsided as a GM by decisions players have made in the past.
So, when I write stories for games or design mechanics, I tend to think of what options do I think a player would want here. Should there be a direct route to problem-solving? Should there be something more roundabout for people who want to be clever about their solutions?
Also, I'm always considering space and how best to convey how much space players have in an environment, because that can be crucial to some decisions. Of course, you can't always offer *every* avenue to your players in a video game, but it's interesting to consider when you're making choice-based, non-linear games.
TK: I love that there's different ways to funnel expectations and choices in both types of games; They're fun design challenges!
Who is your favorite Solace State character? Or characters, if you've got multiple favorites!
SL: It's so hard to choose, honestly! I'm a big Torrent fan. I really connect with him, and he's just got a lot of charming little traits that make him a well-rounded character.
And this character hasn't been discussed much on socials yet, but Raylene is also a favourite of mine as I've been working through chapters that feature her more as of late. All I'll say is, she's got a lot of complexity that I missed my first few times playing the game myself.
TK: Oooh, even I didn't know you're excited about Raylene, haha. She's such a delightful character for me to write! I'm glad you like her.
What's one part of Solace State development, design, or programming which is much more complex than it may appear to most players?
SL: Definitely the design. Aside from the complexity of how we handle narrative implementation (of which Technical Narrative Designer Sunny does a great job), the moving parts of VFX, animation, and character and camera placements are all things you have to consider when setting up a scene.
It's wonderful when it all comes together though! 💪
TK: Right? Because we went with a 3D world and a custom camera system, everything has to be handcrafted! And thank you to Sunny for being so patient with so many branching story paths!
What's one story arc that really resonates with you in Solace State?
SL: I'm bringing up the boy again, but Torrent's story is one of my favourites. Without spoiling much, and as seen in past demos, Torrent's got a complex family dynamic. That's something I think a lot of people can relate to, regardless of where the conflicts may come from.
I can't talk about it, but I personally was satisfied with how it ended up turning out. I'm glad that the game's narrative is one that allows Torrent the time to navigate those issues. And I like how optimistic he is through everything without being naive. He's very mature!
TK: Thanks so much Seamus! You're such an amazing person to work with! We can't wait for the game to come out so that everyone can see your hard work!
What else have we been working on?
A lot of playtesting and bug fixes since the start of the year (1000+ bug fixes tracked!)
Progress in reaching cert for Xbox!
Adding accessibility functionality, including applying OpenDyslexic font to everything in-game
Narrative fixes for those 200,000+ words and making sure that all the choices get tracked
Partaking in events like Steam Visual Novel Festival, LudoNarraCon, Access-Ability Summer Showcase, and more!
If you missed it, here's our announcement trailer from last month:
By the way, we're already working on our launch trailer! We're so excited! Stay tuned for more announcements! You can get updates and chat with us on Discord!
