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!