The Ubisoft Indie Series presented by National Bank helps support independent game studios in Ontario through mentorships, cash prizes and tools to drive leadership within the video game industry. Let’s take a look at the Grand Prize Winner of 2020, Vivid Foundry, to see where they are now and get a glimpse of what they’re working on.
Founded by Tanya Kan, Vivid Foundry is a Toronto-based digital games and media development studio, creating original content that explores humanitarian issues and civic engagement through artistic experimentation, character, and environmental storytelling.
The passion and commitment led to the studio winning the Grand Prize during the 2020 Indie Series in Ontario. Since then, the studio has recently released Solace State, a cyberpunk visual novel that touches on friendship, civil rights, and the biotech revolution.
When we spoke to Tanya, she shared her story on how her studio came to be, the inspiration behind Solace State, insights for incoming game developers, and what we can expect from Vivid Foundry in the future!
Can you tell us a bit about your background and journey into game development and how Vivid Foundry came to be?
Hi, I’m Tanya Kan, Director of Vivid Foundry. My journey is a bit unusual! In university, I studied political science and cinema studies, and the likeliest pathways from that werelaw, government, filmmaking, and journalism. But I knew my heart was in art and would spend much of time on it, sometimes at the detriment of my school grades. Radically, one of my favorite profs let me write a thesis paper on EVE Online. That led to a brief stint in games journalism.
After that, I studied 3D game arts and helped two studios build an interactive pipeline with Unreal Engine from the ground up. Those were such wild days because I was a junior put on experimental projects, and I was the person on the supervising team most familiar with the engine. That was 2012. And from that moment onwards, I wanted to know every aspect of what it would be like to build a game studio that reflects stories that I want to tell.
What inspires you to make games?
Games let us explore so much of our psychology and philosophies and the stories we can tell each other. This is true whether we enjoy conversations about games with our friends, or enjoy a game livestream to thousands of viewers. I’m inspired by how stories can reveal itself over time as players take time to explore, make choices, and feel embedded into the vibrant world of the game because they’re fully participatory.
I learn so much about myself when I see game testers and fans interact with my game. For every route actualized in a game design, there’s an endless number of other ideas that never made it, or got cut. So, seeing someone play the game is a realization of the paths taken, and feeling the awe that game-making is an endless playground to tinker in!
Solace State is a psychological-political, cyberpunk game – what is the inspiration behind it and why is the game important to you?
Solace State is a 3D visual novel where you play as Chloe, a hacker who radically forms an activist group to help her friends and her community against a corporate biotech conspiracy. Every scene in Solace State is about the journey of working with your friends as you advocate for human and civil rights. Solace State asks: What can propel us to fight for our lives and identities and chase away despair in a deeply fractured society?
The game shows that the process to redress abusive power structures and hegemony is a collective and ongoing effort. Almost all the player choices have to do with trust, whether it is building trust among friends or building social trust with the people. As players take on the perspective of the protagonist Chloe, her journey also sees her gradually building up self-trust and addressing her past traumas.
This game is an incredibly personal story to me in years researching and then travelling to get to know activists abroad fighting for their basic human rights. Ever since I was young, I wondered why some people care deeply for causes and others are apathetic. I want to give a voice to those who feel left behind just because they care “too much”.
Through this game, I strive to present more human portraits of activists, since these stories are really vibrant with the feeling of finding meaning, love, and healing in our lives.
As the Ubisoft Indie Series Grand Prize winner in 2020, how has this supported your studio and the game’s development?
We are so thankful for Ubisoft Indie Series’ support! Our game narrative length expanded to 200,000 words from what was initially half of that! That’s the equivalent of four novels.
I was able to bring on board more team members who are all from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. This includes more cultural consultation so that our game story resonates with different communities! And we also increased our character art by at least a third !
I am also very thankful for the opportunity that the competition opened. From consultations with industry mentors on topics such as narrative design and workplace accessibility to being able to showcase our work at Gamescom!
What advice do you have for aspiring female game developers?
Stay true to yourself. Trust in the interactive, artistic experience that only you can make. Although one part of game development is about being productive and meeting milestones, another part of it is being wise about yourself holistically. It is never time wasted to reflect on your daily balance of health and energy, your values, your communication skills, your interpersonal effectiveness, and see what things are working for you.
If you want to embark on a major challenge, for example, to self-fund and to take loans to form an indie studio, ask yourself why this route is meaningful to you. What kind of values are you sustaining, and what kind of satisfaction can the work itself give you? These are the day-to-day functions, not dependent on high profit or luck. What are your needs that you are looking after, and how can you also accommodate those who have different needs than you?
What’s next for Vivid Foundry, and what can players expect in the future?
I have been slowly working on a draft of a more cynical take from a sassy, older Chloe. It’ll be a standalone sequel. Since Solace State was so recently released, we are still taking a look at our next steps and what’s financially feasible. But we are confident of the worldbuilding in Solace State and there’s so much more that we can expand on!
We are also definitely looking for more press and influencers to check out our game!
Solace State is currently available on PC (Steam) and on Xbox.
Learn more about how the Ubisoft Indie Series supports independent game development studios in Ontario with cash prizes, mentorship and the creative and financial tools to help their games reach new heights.
