Releasing a single game on the popular gaming platform Steam is already an incredible feat but indie game dev Kenneth Agar has done it an impressive eight times. Horror afficionado Kenneth Agar tell us about his journey in game dev and his upcoming game Silent Still III. (Yes, we definitely saw what you did there).
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Tell us a little something about yourself and Solitary Studios
Hi! I’m Keneth Agar, Founder and CEO of SolitaryStudios. SolitaryStudios is a Filipino horror game dev studio consisting of just me and my girlfriend. I work as the one-man development team, while my girlfriend serves as the manager and CFO of the company. She handles the finances, while I manage everything related to game development such as coding, music, design, UX/UI, events, editing, storytelling, and more.
SolitaryStudios mainly focuses on horror games, and we are considered one of the pioneers of modern psychological horror games here in the Philippines and they are all available on Steam. Some of our games have even been played by famous YouTubers and influencers around the world.
How did you personally get into video games? And eventually game dev?
I’ve always loved playing games and using computers. I started using computers in pisonets when I was in Grade 3, around 9 years old, and the very first game I played was Counter-Strike.
From that point on, I basically became a “pisonet boy” who spent almost every day playing games throughout elementary and high school. Even during senior high school, there were times when I stayed awake all night just to play PUBG at an internet café near our school. (But don’t worry, I never cut classes haha.)
Back in high school, my chosen TLE subject was Bread and Pastry because the ICT slots were already full. But every after class, I would rush to the ICT room and watch the teacher teach HTML and basic coding through the classroom window. That was the moment I discovered my dream, to become a game dev and someday create a game like DOTA 2.
When I was in Grade 10, I stopped going to pisonets just to play games. Instead, I started using Unity Engine and experimenting with it by creating ugly and simple little games.
Then senior high school came, and my grandmother loaned money just to buy me my very first low-spec laptop for school. That laptop became the start of everything.
What are your oldest influences in games? How about horror movies?
The very first game that influenced me to pursue this career was DOTA 2, even though I don’t actually play DOTA 2 that much. I just loved the idea of creating a game that people could enjoy and spend time playing.
As for horror movies, the one that left the biggest impact on me was The Grudge. It was incredibly creepy and terrifying. For me, it’s still the scariest horror movie of all time.
Ironically, even though I’m a horror game developer, I actually hate playing horror games and watching horror movies because I get scared very easily and can’t handle jumpscares well. The irony is real.
You’ve had quite a few games come out on Steam. Tell us about them.
Yup! I’ve already released eight games on Steam, and we currently have 1 upcoming game, which is our biggest and most ambitious project yet: Silent Still 3.
Our most successful games so far are Silent Still 1 and 2, which revolve around sleep paralysis. Players really connected with the series, which is why we decided to create Part 3. It’s currently our most difficult and expensive project because the expectations and pressure are much higher now.
But interestingly, some people say the scariest game we developed isn’t our most successful one, it’s Thin Threads. The game focuses on the struggles of a Filipino family living in another country, surviving with almost no money or food. The realism and emotional weight made it terrifying in a different way.
Apart from the horror genre, were you ever interested in other genres in game development?
Yup! We once tried creating a non-horror game about a robot dog stranded on Earth trying to return to its mothership. To be specific, it was an alien robot dog. The game was a mix of platforming, rage-game mechanics similar to Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, and emotional exploration inspired by The First Tree.
Unfortunately, after months of hard work, the game flopped badly. Since then, we stopped making non-horror games because horror games are currently the most profitable and manageable genre for us to develop as a small indie team.
If you ever made another non-horror game, what would it be about?
Right now, we honestly don’t plan on making non-horror games anymore because our previous attempts didn’t perform well. But if we ever decide to create one again, I think it would be a relaxing adventure game where the protagonist is a cute animal living in a cute world.
The main objective would simply be to explore, relax, and enjoy the environment. Basically, a cozy game we could also play ourselves whenever we get stressed developing horror games.
It was mentioned your house actually burned down before. Do you want to tell us about that?
Yeah. My girlfriend’s house burned down, and since we were living together at the time, my entire setup was inside our room, which had just been renovated a month earlier.
The cause of the fire was a faulty extension cord in the room beside ours. The night before the fire, we could smell something like burning rubber, but we ignored it because we thought a neighbor was just burning tires or plastic nearby.
Then around 3 AM on March 13, 2025, I woke up because of a crackling sound. At first, I thought it was just rats since the house was built beside the railroad and made from old wood and plywood, so rats were common.
But the sound kept getting louder. I stood up, turned on my phone flashlight, and walked toward the door. I noticed a bright orange light shining through the gap under the door. When I opened it, I saw a massive fire already spreading through the hallway and the room beside ours.
We rushed outside immediately because the fire was already huge. My girlfriend’s father was upstairs near the burning room and tried to go back inside, but the fire spread too quickly. We thought he had escaped, but he became trapped as the flames consumed the entire house.
We weren’t able to save anything — not even our slippers. The only things we managed to bring were our phones. We lost our PCs, passports, IDs, college diplomas, government documents, and even future game projects. It honestly felt like life had completely reset.
A few months later, while we were renting a small apartment, a couple contacted me and asked for my address. They ended up gifting me a brand-new gaming PC — and not just any PC, but an absolute beast worth over ₱100,000.
That was the PC I used to develop Silent Still 2 in our apartment. A few months later, the game blew up and generated huge revenue. Because of that success, I was able to build my parents’ dream house, and we also helped build my girlfriend’s family’s dream house.
Now we’re back on our feet, more stable and successful than ever, with partnerships, opportunities, and the freedom to travel with our families. Everything changed because of that second chance, and I thank the Lord for it every day.
What can we expect from Keneth Agar and Solitary Studios in the near future?
Expect the unexpected! We’re currently working on many new unannounced projects, and we’re excited to surprise our community and players with them.
And of course, there’s Silent Still 3, which we’re carefully crafting as our flagship game. We’re putting everything we’ve learned into making it our best project yet.
What are your tips for people wanting to get into the game development industry?
First of all, don’t get into game development if it’s not truly your passion. Don’t do it just because you want to earn millions or make quick money.
You can’t survive in game development without genuine love and passion for it because burnout will hit you very quickly.
A lot of people think game development is only about coding, but especially as a solo or indie developer, you have to become almost everything — a graphic designer, sound designer, video editor, writer, game designer, QA tester, financial manager, marketer, and more.
You need to learn and handle all of those responsibilities before you can even release a simple game.
Game development is not easy money. It requires passion, dedication, creativity, and vision.