Earlier this year, Fort Solis, a sci-fi thriller game from new developer Fallen Leaf, was announced at Summer Game Fest. Starring Troy Baker and Roger Clark, it certainly looks like it has the potential to be a dramatic story, but beyond the brief trailer, pretty much everything about Fort Solis is shrouded in mystery.
To find out more about this fascinating project, we spoke with James Tinsdale, Studio Director of Fallen Leaf. What that gigantic space station location and A-grade acting talent brings to the story.
But first let’s establish the basics. “Fort Solis is his third-person sci-fi thriller set in an isolated mining post on his Solis Planum on Mars,” he says.
A story-driven game, Fort Solis is inspired by leading studios creating interactive fiction. “We’ve seen a lot of great storytelling games that have come before us. [they] Confirming the names of developers Quantic Dream and Supermassive Games, Tinsdale said: “We wanted to see the narrative techniques actually used in these games and add some gameplay elements as well.”
At Summer Game Fest, Troy Baker said the project was described as “the moon meets dead space”. For Tinsdale, these are his two key touchpoints. “When we first discussed the project, we knew we wanted to create something in line with Duncan Jones’ lunar flow, meaning that the psychological aspects, the characters, the motivations, or the perception of reality itself would be challenged. “So I combined it with the detached industrial style of Dead Space.”
To create something that really capitalized on that sense of isolation, Fallen Leaf first considered creating a first-person game (Tinsdale notes how effective perspective was in Resident Evil 7). doing). Fort Solis, like movies like 1917 and Birdman, was driven by the team’s desire to make the game playable in one continuous shot.
“We’ve seen it in God of War, but I think more games have done it in the past,” says Tinsdale. “Throughout the game he wanted to keep one cut and not do any editing, which made the immersion level very immersive throughout the experience. So the third person is much more for that. I felt it was an excellent catalyst.”
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One shot takes you through the long, lonely corridors that make up Fort Solis’ labyrinthine facility. This remote mind post, if fully manned, is built to extract minerals from the depths of Mars. It is also home to the Frontier Better Tomorrow project, which involves growing plants. This creates a visual contrast between the station’s mining zone and plant zone.
Fallen Leaf believed that it was important for the player to properly explore the station, so instead of playing in movie-style scenes that dictate where characters should go like in many other narrative games. , you can freely explore Fort Solis. as you wish.
“[Fort Solis is] From the moment you arrive, the whole place is completely open,” explains Tinsdale. Of course, depending on the location, it may take a little effort to get in once you find it. “You must solve certain environmental puzzles, access certain buildings through certain actions, or get progress in various locations.”
The fort itself consists of nine sections, each with a basement or two floors. These sublevel locations are linked by a network of tunnels. “It can be unnerving to navigate,” says Tinsdale, and the game’s Dead is where the effects of space are most clearly felt.However, those who were taken aback by these dark corridors has another option. You can walk between sectors across the bright surface of Mars. But that open air presents its own challenges.
“On the surface, each chapter has a sandstorm that gets progressively worse,” Tinsdale explains. “And when you’re on the surface, your field of vision is reduced. Especially in the late game, you can lose sight of 3 feet ahead. [of you]”
“The game’s events primarily lead you through both [surface and tunnel navigation]You don’t have to participate in all of them, but it’s up to you whether you want a more terrifying, deeper experience or a little experience. With grace, they come to the surface.
Explore Fort Solis as Jack, an engineer who responds to alerts from the facility. Since Jack is not a soldier, he cannot use weapons. Instead, the most important piece of equipment in the game is Jack’s multi-tool.
“A multi-tool is essentially like a wrist device with all sorts of alerts to help you interact in-game,” says Tinsdale. “We wanted you to feel like an engineer instead of a super soldier, so your multi-tool has a lot of functionality. Your first port of call acts as a data bank for all your voice logs, message logs, and in-game video logs. So any content you find or find in the game is instantly accessible from your multi-tool.
“Beyond that, to run minigames like hacking doors, spiking locks, powering LTVs (Lunar Terrain Vehicles), going into the engines of LTVs and what part of the engine is basically being analyzed. It works as a tool for Broken, stuff like that. Different places have different uses, but we’re actively trying to make sure each place has multiple uses.”
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Jack may not be a soldier, but that doesn’t mean he won’t get into a little violent trouble. We designed it to be a step ahead of the action scenes in other interactive fiction games.
“Key sequences are important cinematic moments in the game, and we wanted them to be fully playable,” says Tinsdale. “Looking at the amazing set pieces for God of War and The Last of Us Part 2 inspired us a lot. But we also want them to be fully playable. I was thinking, I also wanted a different path within these key sequences, what if I don’t join or put the controller down? Was it? I really hoped it was a factor in these huge movie moments.”
A narrative-style game, Fort Solis doesn’t have the combat encounters of traditional shooters and action games. Tinsdale said: [punch]Again, this is listening to something like Supermassive.
“If you want to be aggressive in that moment, there’s an animation for that. And it might lead you down a very different path. The choice is still up to the player, and I wanted to force the player’s choice.I didn’t want them to do a QTE where the outcome was mostly stylized.”
These “key sequences” are reserved for the most adrenaline-pumping segments of the story. As a thriller, however, Fort Solis is naturally (hopefully) filled with dramatic high points delivered through its characters. But since the facility itself was abandoned, Fallen Leaf had to use classic video game methods to add characters to the story that weren’t actually there.
“We were thinking, ‘How do we tell the story of a crew member with so few crew members?’ ‘” Tinsdale recalls. “Vlogs can be very expressive and sometimes very haunting.”
Key to the story of Fort Solis, however, are the performances of its three central actors: Roger Clark, Julia Brown, and Troy Baker.
Clarke will play lead character Jack Leary, an engineer whom Tinsdale describes as “extremely vulnerable”. Fallen Leaf needed Clark based on his incredible performance as Arthur in Red Dead Redemption 2, a showcase of his motion capture his skills.
At the beginning of the story, Jack answered an alarm call from Fort Solis. “He thinks it’s a system malfunction,” he says Tinsdale. “He has to go and see if the system is okay. [a malfunction]”
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Joining Clark is Julia Brown, who plays Jessica. “We wanted to fill that void, not just have the characters walk around quietly,” he says. “And Jessica [Jack’s] fellow. she is always with him. ”
“Jess’s personality is the exact opposite of Jack’s. She’s younger and definitely smarter,” says Tinsdale. “We are trying to show through her what the Martian culture will look like in 2080. She is much more into different things than Jack. I’m trying to use her to offset the tone.
Jessica and Jack’s dynamic is partly inspired by Campo Santo’s Firewatch’s central pairing of Henry and Delilah. But unlike her Delilah in Firewatch, Jessica has a more direct presence in the game. “We have a chat system between the two of us […] Then later in the game, she becomes playable in certain segments,” Tinsdale reveals.
Finally, we have Fort Solis’ third and final headlining act, Troy Baker. “The character of Troy, Wyatt Taylor, is probably the most complex character in the game, possibly the biggest,” Tinsdale explains. “He goes to quite a few vulnerable states. [at Fort Solis]”
“Jack is so loose, Jess is so smart, Taylor is so strict, it’s in the books,” he adds. The events of Solis. And when it’s all over and the dust has settled, you can decide which one you think was right. In terms of what their thoughts are, away from the screen when you put your pad down. who do they agree with?
Tinsdale likens this approach to that of John Carpenter’s The Thing, in which the surviving Childs and McCready sit around a campfire to conclude, leaving the audience unsure if either is infected. The viewer is left to make up his mind as to what the truth of the situation is and empathize with the duo’s futility.
“I really like it,” Tinsdale says. “That’s the style we adopted for the ending. It depends on which one you get.”
Yes, Fort Solis, much like the genre tradition, has multiple endings based on branching paths. “Every pivotal moment has to change the character in some way and affect it in some way. thought it was cool.
“The final scene could go in many different ways,” promises Tinsdale. So I’m very interested in seeing what people think, and I’m also fascinated by what people want. ”
Many of Tinsdale’s remarks are especially encouraging to fans of narrative games. Fort Solis has the star power it needs to truly sell the emotions of its characters, and the open environment hopefully adds a sense of freedom often lacking in games like Telltale or Quantic Dream. Of course, this is all the work of a small studio and expectations should be kept in check. Fort He hopes it won’t be long before he finally sees Solis in full uncut action and discovers what this tiny studio in Liverpool, England, is capable of.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
