We caught up with Mathieu Girard, Creative Director and Founder of Tactical Adventures for the computer game Solasta at PAX Online. Here we uncover more about the dangerous and exciting world of Solasta.
Tell us about the Solasta computer game:
Hey there! Solasta is an upcoming Turn-Based Tactical RPG built upon the SRD 5.1 Ruleset. You get to create and customise a party of four adventurers to venture into the world of Solasta – a world rife with danger, but also opportunities!
Unlike most recent RPGs, there is no main character in Solasta. You play as the full party, and each dialogue will allow you to choose who answers – encouraging you not only to have each member focus on complementary skills… but also have varied backgrounds and personalities to make for a fun and dynamic adventure!
Solasta also shines in its combat encounters, where verticality and light will play a very important role in how you approach each fight. Spells like Spiderclimb or Fly allow you to bypass certain obstacles and position yourself for easy pickoffs. On the other hand, running out of torches and fighting in the dark will make you struggle for survival.
What motivated you to develop the game?
Mathieu, our CEO and Creative Director, has been wanting to create a Tactical RPG for the longest time. He’s been a fan of tabletop RPGs and computer RPGs since his teenage years, and finally decided after a long career in the video game industry to go for it!
Before that, Mathieu was the co-founder of Amplitude Studios and worked on plenty of great Turn-Based Strategy games such as Endless Space and Endless Legend. Of a whole other genre, his past at Ubisoft also included R.U.S.E.
Who do you think will play the game?
While our game is a love letter to the tabletop RPG it’s inspired from, we also want to make it accessible to players who may not be familiar with it. The SRD 5.1 Ruleset is, thankfully, fairly simple to pick up!
As such, we expect our game to be played by not only tabletop fans, but also RPGs and Tactical games players.
How did your Kickstarter campaign go?
Fantastic. Kickstarter was our leap of faith to see just how interested people were in our game. It was the first time we put the game in the hands of anyone who wanted to try it out by releasing a Steam Demo.
The result was great. It allowed us to add more content – from four classes to five, then six, then seven if we’re taking the free post-launch sorcerer DLC. A new ancestry, two new backgrounds, a legendary quest, and an orchestral soundtrack. All of that wouldn’t have been possible without Kickstarter, and we’re incredibly grateful for the support we’ve received.
Tell us about the team behind the Tactical Adventures studio?
Tactical Adventures is a team of passionate veterans from the video game industry – most of us have more than 10 years of experience and are fairly involved in Tabletop RPGs. We even have our very own tabletop campaign every week!
What inspired the different worlds in the Solasta game?
This is something that would be better answered by our writers, especially Antoine who came up with the setting: a high fantasy world with a post-apocalyptic touch. We’ve actually answered a lot of lore questions from our community in a video here:
Who are the main characters in the Solasta game?
Your party! And by that I mean, you get to create your main characters – all four of them. Will it be a group with a keen Elven Ranger, a wise Human Wizard, a grumpy Dwarven Fighter, and an innocent Halfling Rogue? Or will you just roll with four Half-Elf Paladins murdering everything in their path?
What platforms is the game available for:
As stated during our Kickstarter, we’re first and foremost aiming to release Solasta: Crown of the Magister on PC. We also promised a Mac port post-launch. As for other platforms, we are indeed looking at the possibility of releasing our game on consoles – but we can’t promise anything for now!
What’s the release date?
Early Access is coming to Steam on October 20th 2020. As for the final release of the game, it’s always a bit hard to say – especially when you take time to implement the suggestions from the community gathered during Early Access. That being said, we’re looking at 2021 for version 1.0 of Solasta: Crown of the Magister – ideally after 6 months of Early Access, but again take this information with a grain of salt!
About Solasta
Roll for initiative, take attacks of opportunity, and manage player location and the verticality of the battlefield in this upcoming Turn-Based Tactical RPG based on the SRD 5.1 Ruleset. In Solasta, you make the choices, dice decide your destiny. https://www.solasta-game.com/
About Tactical Adventures
The founder, Mathieu Girard, was the co-founder of Amplitude Studios. For Tactical Adventures, he has gathered a team of experienced industry veterans, all with experience from major publishers or indie studios. https://www.tactical-adventures.com/
