Solitude: Subject Placement is the beginning of a brand new interactive experience within the Solitude universe. The games mastermind Xavier Rotom has opened up an island off the coast of a world governed and socialised into oblivion, in an age of anarchy called Volitigital, and is reaching hands out to those who feel punished by the weight of the current world they are governed by, in hopes to bring catharsis by tapping into the worlds secret desire of trash television and death of the privileged and fraudulent.
Subject Placement is a multiple choice questionnaire that will send you down several different lines of questioning, and 64 possible ways to end you into either of the four designated fates Xavier will place you in.
Advocates are the ones who roam the Coliseum’s crowds watching on in the blood bath killing games. These are the people who had succumb to “volatigital”, a self created apocalypse that left scorn across the digital age. While the outside world looked relatively unharmed, and very much like our own world’s current landscape, socially everyone became engulfed in the digital age, and grew tired of the worlds governed rulings / influential power.
The apocalypse is much more technologically online, because this particular world lives and breathes vitriol they could almost never express in the real world. Most people had turned their back on those of power in terms of respect, and lived in divide of one another for some time.
The only thing they could agree on was there was something wrong in the field of power, but could not decide on what it was. It was this that forged the people together, realising something needed to change. Their thirst for answers and closure lead them down paths of engulfing themselves into trash talk television, and would make it tradition to lift spirits through this cathartic medium. That is until Xavier Rotom emerges from the shadows.
Xavier offers refuge and the promise of a new world for those who wish to start fresh, and the biggest persuasive point was his knowledge of their inner thirst. Promoting exactly what society had wanted, advocates were those who made it through Subject Placement on this new island far away from the normal world, as people were promised closure, feeding on something they had longed for deep within. If you were an advocate, you volunteered your time to cheering on the deaths of those who ruined their trust.
It was hard enough to trust in this world, but it finally felt like for the first time, society knew exactly where they wanted to go.
The ungrateful conglomerates with influential power, often used for selfish gains and fake presence. Becoming accustomed to the game of life and survival, a game they had no capable knowledge of handling, and often times resulted in behaviour that either was ignorantly positioned, or willingly aggressed. Influencers of the world were held at high regard long ago when there was a sense of heroism in the voices of the unknown brave enough to speak out against powerful forces against the world. Soon it would turn into voices of fake platitudes, often born from riches themselves.
When society entrusted their loyalties to these rogue voices, the gravity of their danger was lessened, but blindly so was their willingness to depend on change, as they were told vague sentiments by these influencers, much like “Keep going” and “We stand with you”. However the reserved voices of these influencers held less water as time had progressed.
More and more influencers through generations became entitled, and compensation was demanded. government powers weren’t willing to fund nearly as much as influencers had wanted, and so they began to neglect their day to day responsibilities, became divided in their words, Wreckless in their nature and more desirable to the sweet life in the clouds. It’s on one of these days they ran into a young and naive Xavier, who came from a working class family. This was to be Xavier’s very first time meeting with influencers, and would soon be his last after a fatal run in with a group. This would supercharge Xavier’s future into a trauma fuelled mission to give back to those who suffered like Xavier did in a brand new Coliseum event filled with death traps and hunger games, clenching the thirst of the advocates, those who had been done wrong by people of power and influence. You could say they became Xaviers… “Playmates”.
These were the division beyond division, their lack of independence was brought on by the hysteria of both extremes that looked down on people with intervention, cooperation and middle ground. These were solution makers that involved sacrificing something of either side to create a world that could work together. Alas they were shunned by all and supplied no convenient use case in a world of complete bias. Xavier might hold pity on lost subjects, and rather than sending them away, he brings them in to be involved with play testing all the things that make Playmates boil and suffer. That said since it is unclear of their viewpoint, especially when they can barely recognise themselves from traumatic circumstance, Xavier could also very well uncover an ulterior motive buried within the subconscious through these games. Nevertheless they were brought in for testing to discover if they live to serve a cause that helps their inner demons be clenched, or die to the cause they had never realised they were part of all along.
There is no clear conclusion with the likes of the moderately unplaced. Ducking between indecisiveness and fear of non inclusion, they are uncertain about their place in life. A life that can easily be persuaded. Likely not useful for the cause, these are subjects that are routinely placed in confinement chambers ready to be tested on for new games down the line. for better or worse, they are positioned regardless of their pledged loyalties. Loyalties they do not know themselves.
In an age full of advocacy of vitriol in the digital realm, damaged cultures and corrupt governments ran rampant. Yet in the cruel world of Solitude, some weren’t as brave to speak either online or offline, and were doomed to silence in their own complacency.
The powers above all in the world of Solitude were born from a collaboration of compromise with society creating regulation for all, a free and open world that can thrive in an economy that was fair to all. This turned sour after generations became more indecisive, fuelled by a world that were unsure of what they wanted despite the screaming cries and demands the world had bestowed. Due delegation became ruthlessly in favour of bias, which caused this eruption in division. Government officials began to turn their backs on the people, and focus on riches for the benefit of themselves, which divided this even more. It became less about the people, and more about their own pride and enrichment.
Xavier has utilised this opportunity to use government boards with his wits to buy estate on an island off the coast of the country, with no legal standing and no government. It is here that Xavier would create a brand new world that would oppose current rulings and to hopefully entice people to join this new order. That’s where spies come in.
Spies have been watching how this new island is formed while government insiders crowd source and fund the construction. Xavier is able to develop planning for multiple purposes that aren’t advertised as conjoined with one another, which was what helped bypass security clearance and potential denial. Spies are on hot pursuit to find out more about how the world is being created, and are messenger pigeons for their government back home, who wish to interrogate the island, and most importantly terminate the killing games.
Government power still exists despite being outlawed by the apocalypse, and there are several means to take down the killing games and put a stop to the global ruling, putting in place regulations and taking control once again. It is unclear if their intentions are to learn from their past to make a better government, or to bring back what they considered was normal for them through ignorant means, the system itself is divided.
While this may have a small beginning, this is not the end of Solitude’s journey. In fact it’s very much only the beginning! Throughout the course of years we are planning to expand our development and design teams bringing all of these ideas to life. Of course this can’t simply be done in a few weeks, even months for that matter, hence why we wish to bring out Phases throughout the many years to come. We hope our community to grow and learn at the same time as Solitudes so it can be a more inclusive and mature feedback driven consensus that pushes us right through to the future.
Phase One
Our first step is to create a concept piece to be showcased live this year. The idea is to open up the DAGames fan server and create voice channels. A mastermind VC and Lobby VC will be created, and when it is your turn you will be dragged in and be questioned by the mastermind live. This will all be televised on a YouTube stream. This will help to focus group our game and develop feedback to hopefully expand on this idea for later.
Solitude was born at the same time as DAKnockout’s first movie focusing on Solitaire, where it all began. Phase One includes a sequel to this movie, and the game will be Space Cadet Pinball. This hopefully helps showcase more lore throughout the full length feature as well.
Phase Two
Once we have assessed feedback and implemented future touch ups, we plan on releasing the first programmable version on Itch.io (A free game platform with options to donate). With it should come with many more assortments of questions to hopefully create difficulty chains that will further add more tension points, and brand new styles of mini games that can be played depending on the faction chosen, right after you have indeed been chosen. This comes alongside a third DAKnockout movie focusing on Minesweeper. The theme imagines these classic game titles into the very Coliseum death games that will be played by Playmates down the line.
Phase Three
The final planned phase will focus on expanding all of these features, making it much more repayable, more content and lore driven, which will hopefully bring more unique ways to play the game. We believe Itch.io is a great starting point, and would hope to release the grander version on Steam when we have more availability, as well as a focus grouped price point that we believe the community will be happy with at the end! And with that? Another DAKnockout movie that will pit us (the lost subjects) against one of the most intelligent games in the board scene, Chess. It will require whits and patience unlike anything we’ve seen, but… I’m sure that’s not new!
There is also potential of creating a Solitude based album out of the new music to go alongside the DAKnockouts and Solitude reveals, so there should be hopefully plenty to release in the upcoming years. We understand this is a very big endeavour, and our community has vast and wide interest in many of my other IPs too, which is why we must ask of patience at this current time. But our aim is to work hard for you, dream big for you, and bring you all together in a fresh new interactive experience, and I certainly can’t wait to reveal more down the line!
