Phobia Interactive is a small development team of three based in Poland. After abandoning their first project because it was too ambitious for such a small team, they’ve moved on to a much more reasonable project, A Short Tale of Solitude.
This title tackles an era and themes not often seen in the video game medium. Set in northern France during World War I, players are thrust into the role of Sebasten, a 10-year old boy living in an abandoned orphanage. Inspired in part by literary works such as Lord of the Flies, the orphanage’s power structure has given way from adults to warring groups of children. Sebasten, lonely and distraught, must find his place amongst the adolescent society as the story takes an otherworldly turn. Adventure, survival horror, and some slasher movie tropes are combined with a black and white presentation to present an eerie, lonely world.
A Short Tale of Solitude is a 3D game that emphasizes exploration as items must be collected and new places discovered to progress the story. At the same time, there’s a stealth element to the game as Sebasten must hide to avoid enemies both known and unknown. Along the way, your decisions on the main quest can have long-lasting impacts on the rest of the game. The game engine also offers some variability in that it’s random whether certain characters appear or situations occur meaning the game can play out in multiple ways.
Deciding when to explore and when to hide is an integral part of ASTOS
Phobia Interactive hasn’t solidified plans yet for the release, but they are targeting it for the end of this year. PC is the platform of choice with Desura being the likely distribution method. There are no plans at this time for fundraising through Kickstarter or other similar services, so these developers are doing it all on their own. You can stay on top of game announcements and show your support by liking their Facebook page, by following them on Twitter, and of course by tuning in here at The Indie Mine for continued coverage.
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This looks really interesting and quite creepy, the big thing missing from survival horror type games these days is generally any horror or fear of any kind so will be good to see how this turns out.
The character design leaves me scratching my head a bit, but the setting and literary basis definitely have me intrigued.
The character design is definitely very different, I don’t think we’ll know whether it works or not until we’re actually playing and experiencing the game.
For the first time in a while I’m really looking forward to the release of a game, If I had the time and skill this is exactly the kind of game I’d make.