Update #64: A look back on 2020!

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2020 gave us a lot of... stuff: Covid-19. Murder Hornets (remember those?). The Cyberpunk 2077 launch...

Cyberpunk!!

But not all of it was bad! Pixel Noir grew by leaps and bounds this year! We started off the year with a battle system in need of a serious revamp, environments still needing to be implemented, and over half of the main story still not in the game. As we stated in our last update, we're in the process of polishing up and transitioning to post-production, so it's been quite a journey this year! But for now let's take a trip down memory lane!


All environments implemented!
As you might recall, this was definitely one of the things that took us the longest to implement due to the sheer volume of assets.

Yes this is all of them! The images are a bit small, but check out how big the game world is!

Added grifter & traders feature!

You can find grifters and traders throughout the game that will give you a quick offer for weapons/armor/items (they may have some rare wares)!

Your basic grifting grifter!

Got some junk to trade for better junk?

All NPC's implemented!

This was a huge undertaking, but every nook and cranny of Pinnacle City has been filled with quirky or informative NPC interactions!

Epic Sprite Party!

Maybe check out some of those knockoff suits in Lil' Shanghai!

Game Mechanics...

We made a number of battle updates including unveiling a new asynchronous turn-based battle system, skill system and other GUI updates!



OOOoooo!!! shiney new UI stuff!

All Backer Creation Tier Content Added!

Thanks again to all the creation tier backers who gave us some truly incredible characters, items, environments, and sidequests for the game! They fit in the world of Pixel Noir like a glove :)









Is Thaddeus an evil scientist or a Dr. Light fanboy? You'll have to find him to figure it out!

Tobias is probably the best DM in Pinnacle City

Finished implementing The Main Story & All Sidequests!

This year, the Pixel Noir story officially became playable from start to finish!















Finished & Implemented All Music!

7 cutscenes. 11 districts. 23 battle themes. 65 music tracks. 100's of hours of work. Pixel Noir is chock full of musical goodness!

Muzak's is in Downtown!

We finished creating all music & added the Muzak's shop where you can listen to some sweet, pixelly jams! Check out the audio sneak peeks that we've been gathering:

https://soundcloud.com/pixeltonemusic/sets/pixel-noir-samples


We also wanted to take a minute to talk about one of our team members, who left an indelible mark on Pixel Noir. Shane Stevens was part of our art team and was responsible for most of the character / monster sprites and misc. animations in the game. He passed in late September after a long battle with an aggressive abdominal cancer. Needless to say, without Shane's talent, Pixel Noir would be nowhere near as unique as it is.

This gif is from our Thank You video after Pixel Noir was successfully funded

Rest in peace, Shane. We're lucky to have worked with you and we'll miss you!



That wraps it up for us in 2020! In 2021, As always, follow our official Roadmap / Twitter bot, and don't forget to check out Leo's Pixel Noir dev stream to see coding updates happen in realtime! Our next update will be on March 4th!


From our 16-bit family to yours, we hope everybody has a great holiday and a safe and happy new year!


//The Pixel Noir Team