Solis is a hand-drawn adventure all about technology and deception, shrouded in a city at night. During a company trip, you explore the city of Solis, meeting a diverse cast of inhabitants and, of course, fellow colleagues. Not all is as it seems in Solis, as players forge their own beliefs and uncover various secrets that will influence the game’s personalised endings.
When I first came across Solis, the art style and premise instantly drew me in and I just had to find out more. We were lucky enough to speak with Bram Boomgaardt from Gibberish Studio who is hard at work on Solis. Through our interview, players can find out more about the origins of Solis, from its characters, music, and building the desired atmosphere. Additionally, Bram shared with us early sketches that inspired the development of Solis.
Welcome to Solis!
GameScout: Tell us more about Gibberish Studio!
Gibberish Studio: Gibberish Studio is essentially just me, a one man studio with its first game; Solis.
When the covid period hit, I started doodling cartoons with 2 friends and we kind of came up with this cast of characters. It was just a way to lift our spirits I guess. After a month or two the informal collaboration ceased again, but I kind of wanted to do something with these characters. That inspired me to make a video game and some of the designs in the game are still from that time. However, the world and characters evolved way beyond those initial designs.
For the first year and a half I worked on the game, on and off, by myself. Then I applied for a dutch subsidy, called the Stimuleringsfonds, they granted me something called a Start Subsidy. I used this money to hire 3 people to help on different aspects of Solis for a couple of months. One of them is a dutch artist named Gijs Milius, who made sculptures that appear in the game inside a museum that you can visit.
Trever Mock of Shaped by Rain Studios also helped with coding the game. One of the things he did was make all the metro stations connect via a map. He also solved a bunch of small bugs that gave me trouble which was a huge help because I never programmed anything before embarking on this project. (Trever himself is working on Path of Ren which you can check out on Steam.)
Erni Dwi Wahyuni helped with communication and made the website, among other things. So even though Gibberish Studio is just me, I did get some help along the way!
Bram’s passion for story driven games dates back to the Dreamcast days, a love that is mirrored in Solis due to how much thought and detail has gone into creating the narrative in that world.
Gibberish Studio: I think the wish to make a game really came out of playing Kentucky Route Zero. I played the first episode way back in 2013 and I was awestruck. The visuals, writing and music were all just so incredibly singular, personal, and devoid of tropes. The whole thing almost didn’t feel like a video game, but also couldn’t have existed as anything else.
I have been playing games much longer, though. Looking back, I think I always had a soft spot for narrative driven games. Shenmue 1 and 2 made a big impact on me in the Dreamcast era and I absolutely loved the first Broken Sword game.
Recently, I’ve been looking at games that look somewhat similar to Solis, like Night in the Woods, A Space for The Unbound and Tails Noir. I really enjoyed all of those games, A Space for The Unbound stood out for me, I loved the vibe of that game. I also got really into Norco last year, with its almost painterly pixel art and completely off the wall story.
Billie is the main character in Solis and part of the marketing team at eliXeR, a company that promises eternal life. Due to her profession, Billie has sold this vision to the public, but throughout the game, you’ll discover the truth behind her employer.
GameScout: Billie is a unique character from her appearance to her personality. What was the planning process like for her character and can you tell us more about her identity?
Gibberish Studio: Billie was one of the characters that came out of the doodling sessions I had with some friends I mentioned earlier. She stood out because she seemed much more true to life than the other characters. Over time, she kept evolving; she got a job and a quest. By writing her voice, she came to life. It felt intuitive to write her, when drawing her I always had imagined her a certain way and it just came out that way.
She has a smart wit and a strong sense of individuality, but she is not a hero on a hero’s quest. She is also young and still learning, I would say she is very critical, sometimes to a fault. She is mostly just a person trying to find her way and looking for answers in a world full of powers beyond her control, just like we all are to an extent.
In writing her, I tried to strike a balance between giving her a distinct personality, but also leaving a lot of space for players to fill in the blanks.
Although eternal life may sound like an incredible scientific breakthrough to some, the world of Solis doesn’t reflect the sentiment. A character named Beer-Wine stood out to me, not only because it was the only non-human character in the demo, but I saw this as an interpretation of a future society that Solis represents. The demo also mentions an opioid crisis, and I believed Beer-Wine represented substance abuse taking over society.
GameScout: Speaking of characters, what does the Beer-Wine character represent and are there more non-human characters players can expect to meet?
Gibberish Studio: That’s a great question! He is one of the characters from the aforementioned doodling sessions. Of all the characters in the game, he is one of two that I actually didn’t originally design myself. I think the friend creating the character did so in a bit of an ironic comment on his own drinking habit. Ultimately, I asked him if the character could be in the game. I just liked how it didn’t quite fit or make sense with the other characters, but it made sense for the atmosphere I was going for, I guess. I don’t know, it just felt like something I had to do.
To be honest, there aren’t really any plans to include more non-human characters, but who knows, this interview might change that…
GameScout: When playing the demo, I noticed that the city has a dystopian feel. What kind of atmosphere and emotions are you hoping to create in Solis?
Gibberish Studio: Another great question. You know, the atmosphere is in a way the main focus of the game. When I think of my favourite games, often the atmosphere is the thing that stays with me the most.
Part of the dystopian feel is created very purposefully. I wanted to show a world where people were alienated from each other and themselves because of technology. At the same time, I want to allude to that utopia that technology tends to promise. Also, I wanted to show the huge wealth gap that is part of all that.
But if you speak of atmosphere, I think there is also a huge subconscious component that is much harder to explain. Whatever colours I use in the background, whatever sound I program on my synthesizer, it all ends up compounding to an atmosphere and a feeling that I think is an expression of who I am in that moment.
But I also want to invite the player to make their own interpretations. I want the player to feel immersed in the world and be curious at what is coming next. I want the player to feel like Solis is a place they visited and I want them to remember that visit by the feeling it gave them.
GameScout: Solis features sculptures created by Gijs Milius. What does his unique art style bring to the game?
Gibberish Studio: What I did was commission Gijs Milius to make sculptures that you can visit in a museum exhibition in the game world. The sizes of the sculptures are hugely amplified and distorted by the way they are presented in the game. They are also the only element in the game world that isn’t drawn. The sculptures are made with clay and meticulously lit and photographed. Then through using in game lighting as well, they are nested in the game world.
The meaning of the sculptures is personal and somewhat unexplained, even in the game itself. It gives room for Billie to have an inner dialogue about what she sees. I believe Gijs was inspired by the medium of games and by the fact that his artwork would be a connection between the real world and the game world (by being photographic.)
GameScout: Solis sways away from the traditional format of quests/challenges dictating progression. Can you tell us more about how players will progress through the narrative?
Gibberish Studio: So, Solis is a small game and it’s mostly linear in its progression. However, you are free to explore the city at your own will. You can go to the wrong place first, and you will. A lot of the content you find around the city is optional.
Something I’m proud of is that there is a lot of small action and consequence scripting in the game. For example; if you talk to person A and then to person B, you usually get a different dialogue than when you talk to person B and then to A. Often it gets more complicated than that, so if you talk to A, then look at C, and then talk to B and then A again, you might just get a bit of dialogue unique to that combination and sequence of events. I hope that makes sense! The impact of this isn’t always huge, but if you pay attention, it can kind of feel like the game knows what you’ve been doing and tailors the text around this.
In the game you also make a lot of small decisions and like I said, the game features a lot of content that is optional. What you decide and what you interact with ultimately ends up in the ending of the game. The ending will be personalised to how you played.
Travelling around Solis is done through a metro system which connects different districts. Essentially, it is a fast travel system that gets you to whatever district you please in just a matter of seconds. In the demo, players only get a snapshot of this, but, of course, there is more to come in the full experience.
GameScout: How many districts will be in the full game?
Gibberish Studio: There are currently 4, it will probably end up being 5 in total.
GameScout: Your website references “the first episode of Solis.” How many episodes will there be in the full game and how many endings will there be in each episode?
Gibberish Studio: That is actually something we should change. Making Solis episodic is an older idea that I’ve let go of a bit. I guess you can see a bit of the Kentucky Route Zero influence there, but Solis will be a complete story in and of itself. It won’t be a big game, maybe 3-4 hours, but it will be something with a beginning, a middle and an end.
When playing the demo, I quickly noticed that the music pumps a sense of life into the game. The soundtrack is going to be vast, due to the fact that each scene has its own distinctive theme and track. You can listen to some of the sounds of Solis via a dedicated SoundCloud playlist.
GameScout: The music from the Solis demo alone is absolutely incredible and truly brings a scene to life. I’m interested to know what the best parts of creating such a diverse playlist are and what challenges you have faced along the way?
Gibberish Studio: Thank you so much for the compliment. When I decided I was going to make a game, working on the music was actually the first thing I did. I recorded much more music than made it into the actual game. I think certainly north of 100 minutes of music, which is essentially 2 lengthy albums. I think I did a lot of thinking and feeling about what I wanted the game to be while writing, playing, and recording the music. I’m very happy with the way it came out, it turns out that making a soundtrack is actually something I immensely enjoy doing.
As far as challenges go, it was actually the most natural part of making Solis. I came up with musical ideas much faster than I usually do and I just felt like I knew what to do most of the time. The programming, animating, writing and just the whole project management often were more tough to tackle.
GameScout: Finally, Solis isn’t expected to release until 2026. How can players who are interested in Solis support the game until then?
Gibberish Studio: Thanks for asking that. Please wishlist the game on Steam. You can also follow my X page and YouTube page for updates. Keep an eye out for Solis during LudoNarraCon 2025, I’m hoping the game will be featured this year!
A huge thank you to Bram Boomgaardt for taking the time to speak with us. The Solis demo is available now on Steam.
