Nirvana Noir News

[p][/p][p]Genesis Noir is 80% as part of the Steam Spring Sale! When a love triangle between cosmic beings becomes a bitter confrontation, you'll witness a gunshot fired by a jealous god—otherwise known as The Big Bang. Jump into the expanding universe and search for a way to destroy creation and save your love.[/p][p][/p][p]And don't forget to wishlist Nirvana Noir, the upcoming game from Feral Cat Den:[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]We’re back! This time, we’re going to talk about one of Nirvana Noir’s inspirations, the comic artist and illustrator Paul Kirchner.[/p][p]Paul is best known for Dope Rider, a comic he created in the 70s - 80s and resumed in 2015. The Dope Rider is a skeletal hero exploring psychedelic themes, pop art landscapes, shamanistic imagery, and surreal scenarios.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Each page is a visual treat of design, layout, and draftsmanship. We’re tremendously inspired by how he balances so many different elements and the constant inventiveness.[/p][p]We also adore Paul’s other works, such as Murder by Remote Control, a trippy detective story where the fedora’d protagonist's intuition is represented visually by conceptual layouts, like this one where a biker’s past is implied visually. He’s not telling the detective everything, but we don’t need to hear his whole life story to understand who he is.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We had only discovered this book after completing Genesis Noir, and it was very gratifying to discover another artist playing with repetition, graphic layouts, and visual depth to convey a timeline. Reading Murder by Remote Control left us very inspired to explore more of these visual timelines![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Paul Kirchner is a visionary artist whose work explores drug use in Dope Rider for High Times and sex in his work for Screw. You might think he’s a bit of a freak. But, as he writes in an autobiographical essay at the end of Awaiting The Collapse, he’s a pretty straight laced guy who had a mystical experience that “...made \[him] reluctant to use drugs, as having experienced what \[his] brain could produce unassisted \[he] was afraid to tamper with its workings.” [/p][p]Paul’s experience suggests that psychedelic territory welcomes all travelers. We hope you’ll enjoy journeying with us to Nirvana Noir’s.[/p][p][/p][p]Until next time![/p][p]
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[p][/p][p][/p][p]Heads up, budding gumshoes! Nirvana Noir is participating in the Steam Detective Fest! Step into the shoes of No Man (and No Man!) as you solve the mysteries of the Bigger Bang as you play across two parallel timelines - the noir styled Black Rapture, and the psychedelic Constant Testament. Only by playing across both realities can you save both of them.[/p][p][/p][p]If you'd like to find out a bit more about the music design of Nirvana Noir, check out the article below![/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]The demo is available to play all through Steam Next Fest, and gives you a sample of No Man's mystery. Be sure to check it out, and don't forget to wishlist so that you can stay up to date![/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[p][/p][p]This month, Feral Cat Den shares some musical influences for the all-new psychedelic world of Constant Testament. Here they are![/p][p][/p][p]Hey there from the Feral Cat Den team![/p][p][/p][p]Nirvana Noir once again features the music and sound design of Skillbard, who won an IGF award for Excellence in Audio for Genesis Noir! We’re excited to be working with them again for Nirvana Noir, because not only do they get to create more beautiful noir music, but they also get to unleash their wild side with some real psychadelia inspired by the acid-rock revolution of 1960s/70s California.[/p][p][/p][p]Skillbard has created a playlist of over 120 songs for us to reference when creating Nirvana Noir that dive deep into 60s and 70s counter culture, film soundtracks and classic jazz - and we’re excited to share a taste of these with you this month.[/p][p][/p][p]Astronomy Domine - Pink Floyd[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Hard to pick a single Pink Floyd track to share![/p][p][/p][p]Forza G (Quella donna) - Ennio Morricone[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Beware, this one gets steamy! Ennio Morricone was one of the greatest film composers and he is dearly missed. This track is from a great collection called Erotica Moriccone from funky 60/70s romance scenes.[/p][p][/p][p]The American Metaphysical Circus - The United States of America[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]A dive into classic psychedelia. [/p][p][/p][p]You Know More Than I Know - John Cale[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]We love the quiet and reflective drama in this track.[/p][p][/p][p]Meditation des enfants - Alain Goraguer[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]A great track from a great animated film! If you haven't seen Fantastic Planet, it's a must watch.[/p][p][/p][p]Oscillations - Silver Apples[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Experimental synthesizer rock and roll played from the 60s. Incredible stuff.[/p][p][/p][p]India - Live at the Village Vanguard, New York/1961 - John Coltrane[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]The spiritual jazz of John Coltrane was a big inspiration in Genesis Noir, and continues to be in Nirvana Noir![/p][p][/p][p]Time Has Come Today - The Chambers Brothers[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]And to end it - a track full of tumbling time.[/p][p][/p][p]We hope you've enjoyed this selection of tunes! Don't forget to wishlist Nirvana Noir if you haven't already to keep up-to-date on our news.[/p][p][/p][p]Are there any noir-y or psychedelic songs that you love?[/p][p]
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[p]Hello, it's the Feral Cat Den team here![/p][p]It’s been a little while since we first announced Nirvana Noir, and we want to share with you an update on how the game is progressing.[/p][p][/p][p]For those of you who are new here, Nirvana Noir is a detective adventure split across two parallel realities - the noir Black Rapture and psychedelic Constant Testament. You’ll need to play across realities in an effort to save them both.
[/p][h3]What Have We Been Up To?[/h3][p]Building a living city wrapped in a psychedelic, non-linear conspiracy has proven even more ambitious than we expected, both in complexity and cost.
[/p][p][/p][p]Focusing on Building and Refactoring the Core Systems[/p][p]Mostly in the last six months of development, we’ve been focusing on building and refactoring the core systems of the game, as we learned about their limitations and how we want to use them. It’s taken much longer than expected, and to this day, we continue to tweak them. [/p][p][/p][p]Two Timelines, Double the Trouble.
Our goal with Nirvana Noir is to create an unfurling conspiracy. That means, anytime we improve a scene, it ends up touching every part of the rest of the game. As each scene develops, we’ve depended on the imagination of our playtesters to fill in placeholder art. But, as each scene is at a slightly different state of development (narrative, gameplay, and art), any small bump or inconsistency can overload mental focus when playing through an already delicate scene of mystery, intrigue, and psychedelic weirdness![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]This clip from Malcolm in the Middle really captures the process of fixing even a small detail![/p][p][/p][p]Creating an experience with systems and stories that build on top of each other is really so difficult! Often the flashier animations or interactions are the easiest thing to create. The small details and mundane systems, with all their quirks, have required more attention than we anticipated. 
[/p][h3]Following the Clues[/h3][p]Our Creative Lead has been focusing on removing all our placeholder cards and text descriptions, replacing them with a rough draft for each cutscene. By sequencing the concepts of each scene, giving them a visual and some time for pacing, we’re feeling much more confident in the narrative hierarchy. Less cognitive load is spent on imagination, and we can focus more on the storytelling which is delivered in small digestible bites. [/p][p][/p][p]Here’s an example of a cutscene that could use some extra polish, but where a first pass on staging/pacing is feeling good.
[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Yup, it’s an Akira slide (which has become the Wilhelm scream of animation)! This is the first time creating a version of this iconic shot, and it feels like a big milestone.

Our Technical Lead has been fleshing out lots of Nirvana Noir’s interactions. One of his favorites features No Man gathering a big crowd around the city. The challenge with this interaction was to build it in a way where thousands of crowd members could follow the player while avoiding obstacles, without destroying the game’s performance.
[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]We’ve also been building out environments, adding lots of beautiful detail, now that we have cutscenes and narrative coming together.[/p][p]Here’s a look at an epic entrance to city hall:  [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]and No Man’s completed clocktower:[/p][p][/p][p]
Thank you for your support and patience. We look forward to sharing more with you about Nirvana Noir in the coming months. Don't forget to Wishlist Nirvana Noir below so that we can keep you up to date on what's happening:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]And if you haven't already, pick up No Man's first adventure:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]Feral Cat Den and Fellow Traveller[/p]