Pixel Noir News

Hey all,
Len here again! We heard you and we fixed alot of the popular problems that you the players were running into in today's update. Here's a list...

- Corrections made to spelling / grammar and punctuation use in dialogue game wide.

- In Ch1 the branching dialogue while talking with the widow and Cold where if you choose fingerprints the dialogue results in a soft lock.

- In Ch4 when you choose Deuce's Plan from the branching dialogue then going into another scene or going back to save data then reload resulting in no way to progress foreword in the game.

- Rabble Rouser achievement has been removed from Junkyard random enemy encounter (players are supposed to get this in ch4 after the events on the subway train).

- Sitting inmate in Ch2 cafeteria displays dialogue key instead of actual dialogue.

- Fixed various layering issues in Historical District Past scene in Ch1

- Player character name input extended from 9 to 14 characters

- You can now change the player characters name at any time in Ch3 onward by interacting with the computer in his apartment.

There are still some outstanding issues we are still working on including frame rate skipping due to path-finding calculation, battle soft-locking, enemy stat balancing, hit rate, certain skill use not being accurate (ie coffee break), delays for item receive notifications, item cap 99 being exceeded, and more...

Thanks to all the players leaving found bug threads in our Steam community forum and Discord. This makes our job so much easier to get you a better gaming experience. We are going to try to be more frequent with bug fixes and their announcements this week.

Thanks for playing!

Hello all,

I'm Len, the Creative Director behind Pixel Noir, and today is the day we finally put this full game out for everyone to enjoy! It's been a long road to get here, and I want to thank those who have supported our dream of a noir JRPG all these years!

Thank you, thank you, and thank you!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For this release, we concentrated on two things: that the game was as polished as possible and that we could do it justice in the marketing campaigns.

This project was always a labor of love and high ambitions as we at SWDTech persevered through many hard years of development. For those who missed the discounted Kickstarter or Early Access price, the game is 20% off on Steam for its first week!

Before we get into our patch notes, I want to emphasize that you should start the game with a fresh save. As I clarified in another thread on the subject, over the years, we made changes to give you features like New Game+ and highlighting dialogue choices from a previous playthrough to the New Game+. Your old save from Early Access may not work. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the polished content in those first few chapters!

Much has changed over the years from Early Access and today's full release, so I'm not going to provide a complete list of technical back and front end-wise, but I will give you a highlighted list of features we've either fixed or added.

- First, most of the bugs highlighted by our community have been fixed, including any freezes or soft locks posted in the community section. We even improved stability on Steam Deck and made the load times WAY shorter than during the Early Access days.

- In Early Access, you had about half the game to playthrough, whereas now you have the full game AND the before-mentioned New Game +. There are multiple ways the story can go and end, making New Game + a fun way to go through the choices you didn't make in your first play-through. We even highlight your choices from your previous play-through, giving you a newer experience in your second go-around!

- We added more items, gear, and skills of course!

- Skill points are a rare commodity in the game as you only get them for completing cases. You can spend your skill points to upgrade skills and grant skills new strengths and bonuses. There is a set number of skill points in the game, so I advise spending your skill points wisely.

- Entourage member's 2-way and 3-way combos have been fully fleshed out and are now the most powerful attacks in the game.

- The CRDTech mini-game has been fully fleshed out! Many cards have unique abilities to help you take down your Pinnacle City rivals. You can even bet a set amount of cash on some of the matches you play!

- Lots of sidequests have been added.Where can you find them? Well, some clients will call the detective randomly later in the game when he visits his apartment. And others you'll either bump into or have to hunt for yourself. There's a variety of them and some were even drafted by our Kickstarter backers!

- More Black Markets - a one-time stop for rare or powerful gear. Once you buy from them, they'll take off like the wind, so you better have your cash stashed before making a deal with these shady fellas.

- More Traders - NPCs that will trade you an item for another item if you have it.

- More Grifters - NPCs that will sell you a great piece of gear if the price is right.

- Shovel Knight Arena - a place you can access later in the game that pits you against the toughest mofos you can find for some sweet prizes.

- Bounty Hunts - At the Bail Bonds office, you'll meet a Max Cherry-like character willing to pay you to hunt down some bounties for good pay and skill points.

- Summons - Shade has facets she can call upon in battle. You'll usually get these abilities through the natural course of the game while they are in your party. There are some super rare ones out there if you can find them.

- Timed hits and blocks have been retooled to make them more accurate and have more of a payoff. Instead of a 1.5 for a successful timed hit, the character will attack again for around the same damage.

- Super secret Easter egg stuff has been added... That's all I'll say about that.

That does it for this announcement. Enjoy the full game everyone!

The official Steam launch has been pushed to February 8th. Here's what that means for everybody:

• For those of you who will be at MAGFest in MD on January 18th, the game will be fully playable and we will be selling DRM-free copies of the game as originally planned.
  
• For backers who selected Steam, this means that Pixel Noir will be launching on Steam Thursday, February 8th instead of tomorrow 1/18 as previously communicated. The extra time is needed to finalize the launch discount on Steam that we promised in our last update.

As always we're happy to answer questions in the comments or DM's. Hang on just a bit longer -we're nearly there!


As you can imagine, for launch, we are coordinating with Press, Influencers, and Streamers. If you fall into any of those categories, we’d love to work with you! Click here for our Press Kit. Streamers: we are setting up a streaming schedule, so please be sure to tag #pixelnoir on social media and coordinate with us through the email address [email protected] if you do plan on streaming the game!

We will have a limited supply of merch at MAGFest. However, you Kickstarter backers that stop by the booth will be able to get either the DRM-Free game/OST, the arranged album, a Pixel Noir T-Shirt, or all three (depending on pledge levels). Here's what we'll be selling at MAGFest....


Pixel Noir (DRM-free version) & complimentary 60 track OST for $25 ...Boo-yah!
Pixel Noir T-Shirts! for $20. That's right, you too can rock this sweet, noir aesthetic!
Pixel Noir Arranged Album for $10 (exclusively for MAGFest)! Some of the arranged artists are playing at MAGFest such as Lacey Johnson.


For display and demoing the full game (but not for sale) we'll have two fully operational Pixel Noir arcade Cabinets!!!

The team was pretty excited about this one. We built and 3D-printed the parts ourselves and we can't wait to debut it!

If you're excited about Pixel Noir, here are three steps you can take to make sure you're in the know:

• Join our SWDTech Games Discord server for a constant stream of screenshots, and granular development updates. You can even chat with the development team.
  
• Spread The Word on your social of choice that Pixel Noir will finally be out! You can follow us on:
  
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • TikTok
  • YouTube

Our next official update will be Feb 8th or 9th (unless we have more breaking news before then).

Onward and upward...

//Team SWDTech

As many of you know, we've been trying to link up with the perfect publishing partner for the past year. Given that we've been sitting on a finished product, we've made a BIG decision.....

Drumroll, please!

Tuh tuh tuh truh tuh tuh truh....! We will be releasing the game ourselves! This empowers us to deliver Pixel Noir directly to you, our backers and the fans! So, without further ado......

January 18, 2024 Pixel Noir will launch on PC, Mac and Linux available on Steam!
BOOM! Mark your calendars, set your alarms, tell your pals, snitch on the cat lady down the street, and join us for an unforgettable journey as we head to launch day! But that's not all...


In celebration of the end of an era in development, we will present the full version of Pixel Noir to the general public at MAGFest's Indie game showcase (MIVS)! If you're going, swing by our booth for some good times and exclusive merch!

Note: cover art for the Pixel Noir Arrange Album is still under construction

• DRM-free Pixel Noir USB keys with the digital OST for $25
  
• Physical Pixel Noir Arrange Albums by various musicians for $10
  
• Stylish Pixel Noir T-shirts for $20
  
• All of the above for a sweet $50 bundle deal!
  

Heads up, savvy gamers! The Early Access price is available right now of $14.99 at the moment, but come launch day, it will leave Early Access and transition to its retail price of $24.99. But fear not! We will roll out a 20% launch discount on Steam during the first week! Backers, you're already covered, so enjoy getting in on the ground floor and helping us build this odyssey of a game!

You get a discount. You get a discount. *Everybody* gets a discount!

After launch, we'll transition to getting out the backer rewards! We plan on having a more detailed backer rewards-based Kickstarter update sometime in the months after launch. That all said, this is a great time to ensure that your BackerKit survey is current- link here to review!

Porting will also be a central focus after this initial launch. Pixel Noir will first spread its wings on Steam, then Epic Store, and GoG for PC/Mac/Linux. After that, Nintendo Switch will be our next goal with XBox Series X and PS4/5 on the horizon! Our dev team is taking on the challenge of porting with no publisher in the mix.

The SWDTech Games mantra 💪


We're thrilled about this initial release! We also want to say thanks and congratulations to all the backers and Early Access patrons--this will be the end of an era and hopefully the start of a new one!



Stay tuned for more updates as we figure out the best way to bring Pixel Noir to you. Here's how you can stay in the know:

• Spread the Word: Share a story or status on the social medias of your choice that Pixel Noir will be launching January 18th! Please tell people about this unique TBRPG that our team has carefully developed over many years of work and dedication!
  
• Join Our Discord: Prepare for launch by joining the Pixel Noir community on our SWDTech Games Discord server. You'll receive exclusive screenshots and granular development updates while chatting with the team!
  

Our next official update will be on January 17th--the day before Pixel Noir launches!

// Team SWDTech