- Pride month updates with Solace State - 9 June 2024
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…
- Solace State at The Storyteller's Festival - Sales and Livestream! - 29 January 2024
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.…
- Get 25% off Solace State! And here's our latest review! - 21 December 2023
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…
- Gamespot loves our game, plus this week's events! - 3 November 2023
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." I couldn't help but…
- Patch notes for 2023-Oct-10 - 10 October 2023
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 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 interact…
- Solace State: Gayming Live and upcoming livestreams! - 3 October 2023
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 Sunday Oct 8 at 1:30PM ET! Join the Vivid Foundry livestream on Twitch.tv! Previously at Game Devs of Color Expo 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 Fanta…
- First post-launch updates - 25 September 2023
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 o…
- Solace State is available today! - 14 September 2023
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 - 12 September 2023
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 p…
- A team interview with Seamus Ly - Generalist Developer on Solace State! - 30 August 2023
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, bu…
- Tuesday, March 28: Solace State Storytelling Stream! Storytellers Festival 2023 - 23 March 2023
What is the Storytellers Festival? We're thrilled to announce that we'll be participating in the Storytellers Festival on Steam, an amazing event celebrating the art of narrative game and visual novel developers! From March 25th to April 1st, join us in exploring the wonderful world of storytelling in gaming! During the festival, our updated demo (maybe one of our last ones before we launch!) will be available for free download, so be sure to check it out while you can. Our livestream: Additionally, we'll be hosting a live stream on Steam on Tuesday, March 28 at 7pm ET (4pm PT) to delve deeper into our game's characters, plot, and unique storytelling style. Join us then to talk with our devs live! This will be a dev-packed event because 5 Solace State devs will be in attendance and talking about many aspects of narrative design, game writing, and character development! Bring your questi…
- Feb 2023's ~mysterious~ Solace State updates! Our press coverage & more! - 20 February 2023
You haven’t heard from us in a while (because we’ve been super heads-down on finishing up our game!) but this is indie game Solace State, a cyberpunk visual novel about friendship, civic duty, and the biotech revolution. We are SO excited to announce that our game will be released on Xbox and Steam later this year! Here’s our latest trailer to get you as pumped as we are: Dev Progress We’ve added lots of polish in our artwork, including even more character art and environment art for our thriving metropolis! Did you know that the game now has 31 fully illustrated characters? Chloe, our main character, has 58 poses and counting! Extra polish also means improved accessibility by using OpenDyslexic font and character highlights to show who's talking, 50 save slots (wooow!), and getting everything ready to port over to Xbox! Four-tunate Press! We’re so honoured that Solace State has been fe…
- Thursday Oct 20: Solace State Stream - 9 October 2022
It’s the Autumn season already in Canada! Looking into the future, we’re at Dreamhack Beyond Indie Showcase from Oct 14-23 on Steam! Click here for the page starting Oct 14th at 12:01AM ET (if you click on the link before this time, it’ll show the last Dreamhack show)! Our demo will be free to download and play until Sat Oct 29 at 11:59PM ET. After that, it disappears from your Steam library, so go get it while you can! Our Let's Play! Unfortunately, due to illness, Tanya will have to cancel tomorrow evening's livestream. Apologies for the change in plans and we'll make sure to update you with more content later! Our store page will now be playing a recording of our previous best moments in our recent team stream let's play at the scheduled 7pm ET time slot on Thursday Oct 20 for you to enjoy. Thank you very much for being understanding! Want to chat with us more, during and after the s…
- Hack the police in this stylish cyberpunk visual novel - 25 September 2022
Call me old fashioned, but I'm happiest with cyberpunk as a genre when it's about a diverse crew of marginalized people fighting back from under the oppressive boot of an authoritarian corporate regime. You know, when it's both cyber and punk... Read more.
- This Friday: Solace State Diversity & Narrative chat! ✊🏼✊🏾✊🏿 - 14 September 2022
We just wrapped Ontario Steam Sale and are in the last days of Gayming Live, now we’re coming at you hot with Game Devs of Color Expo from Sept 15 to Sept 19 at 1:00PM ET! Our demo will be free to download until Sept 24 at 11:59PM ET, so go get it while you can! Also, be sure to check out Game Devs of Colour Direct on Sept 15 at 12pm ET (UTC-4) to see NEW Solace State footage and announcements from other amazing POC-lead game studios! Watch here! Another new steam livestream! We’ll also be streaming at 8pm ET on Friday, September 16th to talk about the importance of cultural consultation in our storytelling! How do we make the game feel “sociological” in scope? If you have indie dev questions, now’s your chance to get them answered by real-life devs live. ✨How to watch and chat✨ Lots of people aren’t used to live streams on Steam! Just go to our store page at the designated time, and ou…
- This Tuesday: Canadian Indie Livestream🍁 Solace State Director Doodle! - 13 September 2022
In addition to Gayming LIVE, we’re also being featured as part of the Games from Ontario Steam Sale from Sept 7-14th, 2022! Our demo will be free to download during this time, so go get it while you can! In the second-last day of Games from Ontario, Tanya will drop by for an hour-long doodle stream, and laugh with you over some of the questions that you have! ✨How to watch and chat✨ Lots of people aren’t used to live streams on Steam! Just go to our store page at the designated time, and our live broadcast should pop up! Click “Show chat” to participate :) Wishlist some world-class games from Ontario, Canada studios today! Check them out here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42151261/sale/gamesfromontario2022 Don’t forget to play our limited-time demo during the event via our store page. It’s totally free to download and play until Saturday Sept 24 at 11:59PM ET! Want to chat wit…
- This Sunday: Canadian Indie Livestream🍁 Solace State Dev Q&A! - 10 September 2022
In addition to Gayming LIVE, we’re also being featured as part of the Ontario Steam Sale from Sept 7-14th, 2022! Our demo will be free to download during this time, so go get it while you can! We’ll also be streaming at 4pm ET on Sunday, September 11th to talk game dev, what it’s like to develop an indie game in Canada, and to answer any questions about our game or game development! If you have indie dev questions, now’s your chance to get them answered by real-life devs live. This topic means a lot to us, so we’re really excited for this livestream! ✨How to watch and chat✨ Lots of people aren’t used to live streams on Steam! Just go to our store page at the designated time, and our live broadcast should pop up! Click “Show chat” to participate :) Wishlist some world-class games from Ontario, Canada studios today! Check them out here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42151261/sale…
- Solace State Devs: Queer-Themed Q&A this Saturday! Gayming LIVE 2022 - 10 September 2022
We are absolutely pumped to be a part of Gayming LIVE Indie Festival this year, from September 2-16! This Steam event does an important job of highlighting indies with LGTBQ+ representation.🌈 Our demo will be free to download during this time, so go get it while you can! We’ll also be streaming at 4pm ET (1pm PT) on Saturday, September 10 to talk about Solace State's characters, relationships, LGTBQ+ representation in games, and the queerness of cyberpunk. This topic means a lot to us, so we’re really excited for this livestream! ✨How to watch and chat✨ Lots of people aren’t used to live streams on Steam! Just go to our store page at the designated time, and our live broadcast should pop up! Click “Show chat” to participate :) Go support others too! You can find other games live during the festival here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42506208/sale/GaymingLIVE2022 Don’t forget…
- Dev art: City & Character livestream! - 10 June 2022
We’re so excited to announce that Solace State is attending another Steam-hosted event this week: Steam Next Fest, a celebration of upcoming games! This means… you guessed it, our demo will be free to download from June 13-25th 10AM PT / 1PM ET, and we’ll be doing more Steam livestreams!! WEDNESDAY, June 15, 3-5 pm ET Sunny and Tanya return once more, along with team members Reilly and Lauren, Solace State’s very own 2D and 3D artists. Join us for a deep dive into the design choices of the environmental and character art that you never even thought to question! ːLIS_butterflyː We will have another Stream livestream on Monday as well, take a look at that event here! Don’t forget to download our limited-time demo during the event via our store page (June 13-25th). It’s totally free to try out and experience for yourself if you can’t make it for our streams! Want to chat with us more, duri…
- Dev Demo and Narrative Livestream! - 10 June 2022
We’re so excited to announce that Solace State is attending another Steam-hosted event this week: Steam Next Fest, a celebration of upcoming games! This means… you guessed it, our demo will be free to download from June 13-25th 10AM PT / 1PM ET, and we’ll be doing more Steam livestreams!! MONDAY, June 13, 7-10 pm ET Tanya, Julia, and Sunny. A game director, a community manager, and a narrative content integrator. What’s the punchline? Tune in to find out. Play the demo with us and ask us narrative questions!! We may have more LGBTQ+ content in store for you! ːLIS_pixel_heartː We will have another Stream livestream on Wednesday as well, take a look at that event here! Don’t forget to download our limited-time demo during the event via our store page (June 13-25th). It’s totally free to try out and experience for yourself if you can’t make it for our streams! Want to chat with us more, du…
