A Song of Solitude

An emergent narrative RPG with a fantastic realism universe, inspired by Eastern and Northern Europe in a post-WWII landscape.

A Song of Solitude — title art depicting a burning city

The City of Ostrograd

The crown jewel of the Kingdom of Kralev, lies in ruins. For a total of three hundred days and twenty hours, the city was devastated by bombs and firefights. The troops from the commonwealth besieged the city, blocking all things from entering. When all hope was almost lost, the 3rd army of Kralev successfully broke into the city, opening up the "corridor of life".

Then came the ceasefire. The ruined city became a hub for all kinds of criminal activities. Armies from both sides desperately try to maintain the fragile peace and order. The factory workers in the Northern Industrial district have been making demands to the Kralev authority. Worse still, the Commonwealth has turned a senior official in the district to be a spy. Possibly plotting to exploit a weakness until they finally break the ceasefire.
The stars are out. The sky is burning.

Ostrograd city concept art — a snowy war-torn cityscape

What Is This Game?

We are huge tabletop RPG fans and we are taking a lot of inspirations from the globally acclaimed Blades in the Dark. It represents a completely different school of philosophy in TTRPG design. There has not been an attempt in adapting it into a video game, where we see there is a golden opportunity. We are adapting the core rules (which is under the creative common license) with our original mechanical twist and world-building. We believe this will pioneer the next generation of role-play games.

A Song of Solitude is a game about stories, stories of war, of trauma, of human struggle. The audience experiences the stories through a bespoke game system in which they make difficult choices. The world and the characters are simulated dynamically, so that no players would have the same experience. The world in the game is desolate and melancholic. The city, where the game takes place, Ostrograd is a mixture of Stalingrad, 18-century Stockholm and Tokyo after the allied firebombing. The player plays as El, a military chaplain who is someone between a political police and a spy.

Game screenshot — palace scene with characters

Who Do You Play As?

You play as El, a chaplain adjunct who has to replace the disappeared chaplain in charged of the Northern Factory district of Ostrograd. Her past, present and future are up to you to define. Each choice you make will have an everlasting impact on the story and characters.

Character art — Pavel

What Do You Do?

Explore

Wander Ostrograd's districts — from the grand Opera Quarter to the industrial Docklands. Every corner hides stories, dangers, and opportunities.

Research

Gather information through conversation, observation, and investigation. Piece together the truth from fragments, rumors, and lies.

Operate

Make decisions that matter. Forge alliances, betray confidences, trade favors, and navigate the city's web of power and corruption.

Repeat

Each day in Ostrograd brings new events, shifting allegiances, and consequences of your past actions. The city moves with or without you.

Core Pillars

Chapter Structure

Our unique system(Operation, Mole) and narrative design allow us to design the meta-progression into an episodic and seasonal structure. This benefits both our gameplay and potential business model.

Emergent Psychology

We have a deep literary ambition for our game, but we realize that is inherently in conflict with a systematic design. That's why we design the game in a way that play with player psychology, so that we don't sacrifice the gameplay depth for our narrative quality.

Fail Upwards

The game's experience centers around failures. Players have to keep making the best out of a worsening situation. Failure doesn't mean defeat. Our narrative is built like a roller coaster, full of unexpected turns and exciting downfalls.

Filling the Gap

DnD inspired games such as Baldur's Gate 3 (20 million copies+) and Disco Elysium (5 million copies+) are hugely successful, precisely because they stay true to the Tabletop-rpg design. Blades in the Dark is widely regarded as the next generation of tabletop-rpg design, and we are following the same philosophy by faithfully adapting the core mechanic of Blades in the Dark with our own unique twist and world.

No game currently occupies this space. We intend to fill it.

Who Is Listening?

Narrative-driven RPGs are heading into an extremely competitive space, where only the best of the best can survive. A key reason is that most players are tired of the similar design patterns offered by smaller RPG titles. They feel underserved by the market and actively seek out ambitious independent titles.

Market Opportunity

Market Size (Narrative RPG)$2.1B (2024)
CAGR8.4%
Comparable Units Sold5M+ (Disco Elysium)
Target Price Point€29.99

Episodic & Seasonal Potential

Dispatch proved that there is still a huge potential for episodic and seasonal business model. Our unique game design inspired by Blades in the Dark truly utilizes that. We allow players to keep exploring the undiscovered secrets and stories during each window between the episodes and seasons releases.

Exploration concept art — aerial view of Ostrograd

Development Status

2028 Q4 Release Target

We are aiming for a two-year production plan for the first episode, in which we establish the pipelines and scalable technology. For the subsequent episodes, we are planning to release each one within a three-month window.

The first season of A Song of Solitude will comprise of five episodes.

Exploring Demo — Development Status

SystemStatus
Dialogue System100%
Core Gameplay Loop80%
Visual Identity70%
NPC AI & Scheduling30%
World Building (Demo Area)25%
Audio & Music10%

To Be Explored

Demo screenshot — interior scene concept art

Roadmap

PhaseTimelineMilestone
1Q2–Q3 2026Investment Set-up
2Q1–Q3 2026Demo Development
3Q4 2026 – Q3 2027Pre-alpha Development
4Q4 2027Public Announcement
5Q3 2027 – Q3 2028Early Access Development
6Q4 2028Steam Launch

Budget

CategoryAmount
Development Salaries€600,000
Art & Audio Outsourcing€140,000
Marketing & PR€100,000
QA & Localization€50,000
Tools & Licenses€40,000
Legal & Admin€30,000
Contingency (3%)€30,000
Total€990,000

The Team

Our team comprises of Tencent and Nordcurrent veterans. Our designer and writer is responsible for Arena Breakout, which has a 30-day average player count of 3 million.

Yixin Song

Yixin Song

Design / Writing

Simon Fagergren Ekholm

Simon Fagergren Ekholm

Business / Production

Gediminas Skyrius

Gediminas Skyrius

Art

Alekh Chapman

Alekh Chapman

Production / Writing

Shuwen Yang

Shuwen Yang

Engineering

Kasper Sandin

Kasper Sandin

Level Designer

Joachim Cedervall

Joachim Cedervall

Animator

Linnea Wik

Linnea Wik

Environment Artist

At a Glance

Game

A Song of Solitude

Genre

Emergent Narrative RPG

Status

Pre-production / Demo

INITIAL Release Target

Q4 2028

Price Point

€29.99

Budget

€990,000

Let's Talk

Interested in publishing A Song of Solitude? We'd love to hear from you.

info@inactiveerror.com
Closing art — burning city of Ostrograd