Earlier this year Fort Solis, a sci-fi thriller game from new developer Fallen Leaf, was announced at Summer Game Fest.

Starring Troy Baker and Roger Clark, it certainly looks like it has the potential to have a dramatic story, but beyond a short trailer almost everything about Fort Solis is shrouded in mystery.

“Fort Solis is a third-person, sci-fi thriller set on the Solis Planum of Mars at an isolated mining post,” says Tinsdale.

As a story-focused game, Fort Solis is inspired by the biggest studios working in interactive fiction.

“We look a lot at the brilliant narrative games that came before us, [they] are certainly an inspiration,” Tinsdale says, name checking developer Quantic Dream and Supermassive Games.

“We wanted to look at narrative techniques that were used in those games really successfully, but also add elements of gameplay.”.

Crafting something that really tapped into that sense of isolation had Fallen Leaf initially look at making a first-person game (Tinsdale notes how effective the view point was in Resident Evil 7.) But the final decision to go for a third-person perspective for Fort Solis was driven by the team’s wish for the game to be played in one continuous shot, similar to films like 1917 and Birdman.

“We wanted to keep one cut, no edits throughout the entire game, so the immersion levels would be super immersive throughout the whole experience.

Fallen Leaf believed it was important for players to explore the station properly, and so rather than playing out in movie-style scenes that dictate where you character moves to like so many other narrative games do, you’ll be able to freely explore Fort Solis as you wish.

“[Fort Solis is] fully open, the whole location, from the minute you arrive,” Tinsdale explains.

“On the surface we have the dust storm that progressively gets worse through the chapters,” Tinsdale explains.

Fallen Leaf calls the more cinematic set-pieces in Fort Solis ‘Key Sequences’, and has designed them to go one step further than the action scenes of some other interactive fiction games.

“Key Sequences are our big, cinematic moments in the game, but we wanted them to be completely playable,” says Tinsdale.

As a narrative-style game, Fort Solis doesn’t have combat encounters in the way a traditional shooter or action game does.

“We don't have a ‘B to punch,’” Tinsdale says, “but we do have a lot of moments where you can choose to [punch].

As a thriller, though, Fort Solis will naturally (hopefully) be filled with dramatic high-points delivered through its characters.

But with the facility itself abandoned, Fallen Leaf had to use a classic video game method to add characters to the story without them actually being there.

“We really wanted to fill the void of not just having characters walk around in silence,” he says.

“We have a chit chat system between the two […] and then later in the game she becomes playable in certain segments," Tinsdale reveals.

“Wyatt Taylor, Troy's character, is probably the most complex, and probably the biggest character in the game,” Tinsdale explains.

“I really like that,” Tinsdale says

“We wanted our really big moments to have really decisive outcomes,” says Tinsdale