Pixel Noir News

As we close out 2022, we'll get to our usual updates but first and foremost, we wanted to share the news that we will be ceasing our business agreement with BadLand Publishing.

BadLand was providing us with Marketing, QA, Localization, and Porting services. The termination of this relationship is unfortunate, but rest assured we've already made alternative arrangements for some of the services BadLand provided and are in talks with other publishers.

While we can't get into more details now about the termination of the agreement, please be aware that we are continuing to move towards our Q2 launch commitment. If we can't arrange for certain deliverables such as Spanish localization for example, we will let you all know. It's a bummer and we are disappointed, but like most bumps in the road, it's not the end of the journey.

And with that, we're moving on to brighter pastures! Let's kick things off with the long-awaited Early Access update, chock full of new features and goodies!




As promised in our last update, we patched Steam Early Access! Chapters 1-4 of Pixel Noir are playable with all of our updated features. Here's a brief recap of what you can expect:

• Battle updates galore including the new skill system, asynchronous turn-based battle system, loads of new party/enemy skills, and many more battle encounters throughout the city.
  
• The CRDTech minigame has seen a major update with more cards, new music/SFX's, and NPC's who will happily battle you for some cash. We included more card abilities, which will make the game more strategic!
  
• Lots of audio updates including 3D audio, text typing, and more--all this helps Pinnacle City come to life with cars now audibly whizzing by you, doors now sounding like they're being opened, conversations between NPC's no longer sounding monotonous, audio transitioning seamlessly between exteriors/interiors and beat-syncing to transition into battle music.
  
• Loads more NPC's and intractable objects around town. We've added grifters, traders, and bums to add to the atmosphere Pinnacle City!
  
• Updates to graphical assets in the GUI, environments, and sprites--everything looks sharper and cleaner and new character portraits added to boot!
  
• Creation tier content has been added in! Thanks to all our content creation tier backers! In the Early Access version you can expect some of said content.
  
• Tons of back-end optimizations, decreasing load times, ensuring that menus bug free.
  
• More side-quests are now available for you to play through and experience!
  
• And much more!

We can't wait for people to play this new version! Of course, the full game will be coming out next year but, if you can't wait, the Early Access will surely whet your appetite!

*crowd noises* Oooh! Aaaah!

Yes, we're still adding little bits of polish to the game as we continue to work through the bugs in our list. Here's some of the things we've added since the last update in August:

Applied new SFX/BGM to CRDTech card game - Kunal squeezed out more some more audio to improve CRDTech's experience! Check it out...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Audio Voice Effects - Kunal also added new SFX for character voices. Previously, every NPC and party character in the game had the same typing sounds. Now there are multiple types of typing sounds effectively differentiating the "voices" of characters throughout the city. Check it out in action!!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Gear Skill Bonuses - Skill bonuses from armor & accessories reduce use costs for learned skills.


Menu organization has come a looong way from when we launched the Kickstarter!


Charitable Giving - Outside of being able to hit them up for intel, you can now help Pinnace City's homeless population out! We've implemented a feature where you can choose to give them a few bucks of your hard-earned money. Sometimes they'll give out an item of appreciation. Remember: it always pays to be good to people, so hopefully this adds a small, but fun dimension to the game.

Tis the season to be thankful!


The game is in a polished state but we're still dealing with some bugs. However, we're happy to announce that we've closed out this year with implementation of all of the final features we wanted in the full game!


More launch details will arrive next year sometime in Q1, but we wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who continue to support us--we're excited to finally be at this point! Happy holidays & have a great holiday season!

If you're pumped about Pixel Noir, here are three steps you can take to make sure you're in the know:
1. Wishlist Pixel Noir on Steam!
2. Join our SWDTech Games Discord server for a constant stream of screenshots, granular development updates, sprint summaries, and chat with the development team!
3. Follow our daily progress on our official Twitter bot.


Turn the wrong corner in Pinnacle City and...


Our next update will be our year-end wrap up January 12th!

Later taters!

//Team SWDTech

We hope you've all been enjoying your Summer! We have some big news to share, so let's just jump right into it!



Pixel Noir will launch in Q2 of 2023 on Steam and Nintendo Switch! Additionally, the Early Access will be updated in Q4 of 2022!


Our publisher, Badland Publishing, will be putting out a press release about it next week, but we wanted to let you VIPs know first! Xbox and Playstation won't be too far behind the initial launch, but we are still sorting out the timing. News on kickstarter backer merch fulfillment will be coming in early 2023, so stay tuned for those deets!


Woooo!! Time to party like it's 65,000,000 BC!


Over the years, we've been on the long road of development through countless nights, weekends, and holidays to bring this RPG concept to life. We appreciate all those who have stuck with us through thick and thin!






We will be a part of a Steam event called Another Indie Game Showcase, which will be on September 12th, 2022, @ 3PM EST, hosted by our friends over at the Dual Screens podcast. If you haven't checked in on the game in a bit, we think you'll like what you see since battle mechanics, GUI -- nearly everything has evolved since the Early Access launched in 2019!

Dual Screens Presents: Another Indie Showcase on Steam & Youtube!

Okay, let's keep this party going and jump into some...



[h2]Bounty Hunting
[/h2]
We added a bounty hunting system which is accessible later in the game. You'll be tracking down and apprehending the biggest bottom-feeding scumbags that Pinnacle City has to offer. This feature gives you another way to take on new cases!

Little known fact: Slimey Saul got his name because he uses *way too much* hair product.


[h2]Phone Calls
[/h2]
Throughout the game, don't forget to return to the Detective's apartment to answer your phone! Private-eyes get weird phone calls with even stranger cases to take on.

Clearly, the Detective isn't really concerned with missing calls...


[h2]Buy A Drink!
[/h2]
Ever felt overwhelmed by all the cases you've taken on? Well, here's something small but fun: you can buy drinks at the various bars around the city!

But is the craft beer locally sourced from Pinnacle City??


[h2]Battle Positioning Optimization
[/h2]
In testing, we've noticed that getting into random battles throughout the city still resulted in awkward sprite positioning. Sometimes enemies would wander out of frame, and characters would turn in the wrong directions. We completely overhauled positioning battle encounters in the game, resulting in a much more optimized system that allows battles to play beautifully!

It might not look like much fun, but this was a massive win in terms of optimizing the game and reducing bugs related to battle positioning!


[h2]Other Improvements
[/h2]
In addition to finding and fixing MANY bugs, we also:

• Updated to the 2021.2.9 version of Unity, which helped decrease load times and drove several back-end benefits
  
• Updated colliders, interaction points, and car walk paths/speeds
  
• Added fast travel between the Docks, Boardwalk, & Royal Island
  
• Optimized the layered depth sprite sorting algorithm, putting an end to layering issues between sprites
  
• And made a
• ton* of AI, dialogue, and polish tweaks throughout the game
  

We've got a juicy sample from our brand new CRDTech theme! A couple of pieces of music will play throughout the CRDTech mini-game, but this tune will play during the actual match. "Risky Gamble" features the incomparable Tim Yarborough of the OneUps on guitar. We hope you enjoy it!



::shakes head:: jazz musicians, am I right?


And with that, we're officially wrapping up this update! If you're pumped about Pixel Noir, here are three steps you can take to make sure you're in the know:

1. Wishlist Pixel Noir on Steam!

2. Join our SWDTech Games Discord server for a constant stream of screenshots, granular development updates, sprint summaries, and chat with the development team!

3. Check in on development by dropping by Leo's Pixel Noir development streams on Twitch Tuesday and Friday nights. Also, remember you can follow our daily progress on our official Twitter bot.


Our next update will be on December 15th!

Catch you all on the flip side!

//Team SWDTech

Hey Everybody!
As you can probably tell from each successive Kickstarter update, we've been posting fewer update content. That's because we're in the process of finally closing out our development cycle! While you'll continue to see polish and bug fixes up through release, we'll be transitioning from development to porting and localization over the next few months. Let's jump into the rest of the update!



Although we are still locking down timing, we plan to launch on Steam first and subsequently on consoles. We were hoping to have more details around release times for you by this update, but we're still in planning discussions with our publisher. Currently, the team is in the middle of heavy testing, so the amount of time needed to find/fix bugs and the defects with the porting/compliance issues that are sure to rise up will greatly influence exactly when we can target a launch date. We know launch times are important to you backers and fans, so we are working to get you this information as soon as we can.


We implemented Shade's Summon skills a couple of months ago, which means this mysterious character is ready for battle with sword in hand.





We've added in and polished up the enemy skills for every enemy in the game! Some of these attacks will challenge you and have you rethinking your strategy.



In addition to adding many enemy skills, we are currently on our fourth pass of balancing for the game. We've fine-tuned enemy encounters during this run and ensured that enemies have appropriate item drops. Battles were already feeling pretty good, but now they feel rewarding too!



We're excited to showcase card-slinging NPCs. These characters will be happy to play a game or three of CRDTech with you. And happy to take your hard-earned cash while they're at it.



Finally, we've made several enhancements, including updating and adding a ton more player interactions.



We Added text highlighting to item, skill, & case descriptions.



And lots of optimization to pathfinding to help decrease load times!



Finally, on the audio front, last year composers Hiroki Kikuta and Kunal Majmudar finished out a pretty spectacular boss theme. Does it feature a turbo intense orchestra? Check. Is it full of bloops and bleeps? Double-check. Does it feature Slavic women wailing? Ja! Feast your earbuds on this!



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

1. Wishlist Pixel Noir on Steam!

2. Join our SWDTech Games Discord server for a constant stream of screenshots, granular development updates, sprint summaries, and chat with the development team!

3. Check in on development by dropping by Leo's Pixel Noir development streams on Twitch Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights. Also, remember you can follow our progress on our official Roadmap / Twitter bot.


Our next update will be out on August 11th! See you then!

[h2]Hello, 2022!
[/h2]Happy new year!!! Hopefully you had a fantastic holiday! We ended the year strong with a lot of great wins (see more details in update #68). For this update, we wanted to recap all the development achievements we made this past year, so let's kick this thing off!

For the love of Pete, *punch back* 2022!


[h2]Ally/Enemy Skills & Party Combos
[/h2]Over the past year, we’ve added various in-battle cinematics, meticulously working to add visual and audio flair to every battle. We’re now up to 180+ ally/enemy skills, attack combos and in-battle item cinematics!

Keep your eye on the ATB... Where the characters stop, you'll never know!
Talk about passing wind... #dadjoke2022
::Insert 80's action movie montage::
Clearly the Detective had a printer jam right before this battle.
Hot enough for ya?
This gif is a bit of a shocker.
Sometimes you need a cocktail to take the edge off... A Molotov Cocktail that is!
Here's an example of how items now look when you use them in battle
Combos got a major facelift this past year too!
Shade's blade slices through enemies like butter.


[h2]Random Encounters & A New Way To Escape Battles [/h2]
While exploring the world of Pixel Noir, you never know when someone will try to mug you. Throughout Pinnacle City, baddies will jump out, sometimes alone and sometimes along with more bad dudes. Many enemies will just be hanging out in plain sight, while other enemies might be patrolling or disguise themselves as an inanimate object (like a trash can)! We've even overhauled our "run" mechanic. Previously, as seen in Early Access, you'd select run and the enemy just sort of went "poof" and disappeared. Now, when you select run, a mini game will determine if you can run from a battle.

What a nice evening for an ambush.
If you're fast, you might be able to escape a potential enemy encounter!
Pinnacle City has a few different types of mimics, so be careful out there!
Put those fingers to work if you want to run from a battle!


[h2]Visual Effects
[/h2]We've added many visual effects creating much needed polish to the dramatic parts of the game. You'll see flashes of color, new animations for skills, and even heavier use of screen shakes and other camera tricks!

You want dramatic effects? We've got em'!
Whoa, trippy!
That flash of red really adds a nice "oomph" to Deuce's execution.


[h2]The Battle Arena, Hosted By Shovel Knight!
[/h2]We've added a battle arena that you can access later in the game! 14 rounds with one-time prizes for finishing each round, featuring a cameo by none other than Shovel Knight! We can't tell you what the final round's prize is, but trust us, you'll want it!

That's a hell of a power, Shovel Knight!


[h2]Quality Of Life Enhancements
[/h2]For starters, we’ve been iterating on the menu's user interface to improve intuitiveness as well as display more useful information. We've also added arrows that point to doors and teleports in the game world. You can see them by activating the detective's investigation mode. All main plot lines and cases (side-quests) have been loaded into the Case Manager! This means that you now have clues for each case as well as highlighted map tiles indicating key locations for both main quests and side-quests.

A peek of the latest menu UI!
You can see doorway & teleport indicators now!
It'll be much easier to keep cases moving along even if you step away from the game for a bit.


[h2]Items Discovery: Treasures, Traders, Grifters, Black Markets, & Battle Rewards.
[/h2]Treasure boxes, bundles of cash, and items found through using Investigation Mode are now all in the game. You can also now buy, sell, and get ripped off in the streets of Pinnacle City with the different ways to acquire items and gear off NPCs!

The NPC that owns this garage probably didn't need it anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Investigation Mode can show hidden items all over town!
Think carefully before making a trade, no backsies now!
So is the "fork" really a fork? Or could it something awesome??? ....or maybe it really is just a $1000 fork?
Keep a generous amount of cash on hand for these Black Market dudes... They charge premium prices, but they also have primo wares!
And of course, what RPG is complete without enemy item drops!


[h2]New Game +
[/h2]We also rolled out this feature that was funded thanks to a stretch goal! Upon completing the game, New Game + will allow a player to start a new game with their current experience, money, items and skills. This time, however, the player can make different choices, which could lead to different outcomes.

New Game + is officially in the game. Thanks to the Kickstarter backers for bringing this one to life!


[h2]Audio [/h2]
We've added 3D sound effects to scenes and moving objects. You can really hear the city come to life as cars drive by, neon signs buzz, trash blows around, waves crash against the beach and more. Additionally doorways with doors now play creeks or other SFX when you transition between rooms.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Stat Balancing
[/h2]Testing stat-balancing isn't the most exciting element in the development of an RPG, but it's absolutely essential to delivering a balanced gameplay experience. All seven chapters now feature semi-balanced battle scenarios and gear. And, of course, we'll continue to play-test and tweak difficulty up until launch.



[h2]Peace out, 2021!
[/h2]To give you an idea of what's to come in 2022, our efforts will be heavily focused around...

• Polish & Bugs: Implementing the last little bit of polish & stat balancing to get us into post production territory! We also have a handful of small tasks on the coding side, including save/load optimization, several GUI updates, and adding in trophies. Oh, and of course, zapping the bugs that we keep finding and fixing on a daily basis.
  
• Porting, Localization, & Compliance: As mentioned in previous updates, the good folks over at Badland Publishing will be helping us with these tasks. We'll have a better idea of the porting roadmap and release plans later THIS year after we've finished with development.
  

Well, that's a wrap for our 2021 year end review update! If you're pumped about Pixel Noir, here are three steps you can take to make sure you're in the know:

1. Wishlist Pixel Noir on Steam!
2. Join our SWDTech Games Discord server for a constant stream of screenshots, granular development updates, sprint summaries, and to chat with the development team!
   
3. Check in on development by dropping by Leo's Pixel Noir development streams on Twitch Monday and Thursday nights. Also remember you can follow our progress on our official Roadmap / Twitter bot.
   

Our next update will be out on March 24th! See you then!

//Team SWDTech

We got another fully stocked update to get those gaming fingers salivating (fingers salivate right?). If you haven't already noticed, we've been more active on social media lately. That's because Pixel Noir will finish it's development cycle within the 2nd quarter of 2022 (if not earlier)!

#HYPETRAIN

Just to be clear, development will be complete, however there will be several other tasks that need to happen leading up to launch like porting, localization, compliance/QA testing, and just some general marketing planning. We also would like to remind everybody that we plan to address backer rewards closer to launch so that our team can stay focused on all the pre-launch work and bug crushing.

In the meantime, if you have still have any questions or would like to switch platforms, feel free to DM us here or on any social media platform that we're on (Discord, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram) and we'll get you squared away!



All of the ally and enemy skills are now in the game! We had a blast creating these and of course, they will continue to get polish treatments as time permits prior to launch.

This skill was a total *shocker*

Screenshake FTW!

Flamethrower packs a punch!

We started implementation of party member combos a few weeks ago and we're looking to be finished with constructing these sometime this month!

Use combos to wreck your enemies in style!

Even a single change in your party lineup can change the attributes of the combo attack!

For atmosphere, we added 3D sound effects to scenes and moving objects. You can really hear the city come to life as cars drive by, neon signs buzz, trash blows around, waves crash against the beach, and more! Check out a little preview.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We've overhauled our run-from-battle mechanic. Previously, as demo'd in the Early Access, you'd select run and the enemy just, sort of went "poof" and disappeared. Now, when you select run, a mini game will determine if you can run from a battle.

Escape depends on the levels of your party members in comparison to the enemies' level....and some quick finger work.

We also added a battle arena that you can access later in the game! 14 rounds with one-time prizes for finishing each round, hosted by none other than Shovel Knight!

Thanks to our pals at Yacht Club Games! We're excited to see Shovel Knight make an appearance!

We finished implementing and distributing all learnable party member skills AND collectable CRDTech cards throughout the various story events and game world. Keep an eye out, you can find skills and cards almost anywhere!

Gotta collect 'em all!

You can find skills just about anywhere- story events, case rewards, shops and of course your humble treasure box.

Last but not least, we made a few UI updates. Skill level indicators and skill level descriptions are now in all the necessary menus.

Sometimes it's the little touches that matter most.

• This & That - Miscellaneous stuff mostly covered in the section above: Ally combos. Enemy level implementation. 3D audio. Mini-map environment mapping (making sure that mini-map is accurate). We're pretty close to being finished with this bucket of work!
  
• Bugs, bugs and more bugs - Yes, these still are popping up, but we are tracking less every week (We expect this to be a constant up until and after we release on steam.)
  
• Battle Difficulty Balancing - We just finished our 3rd pass of this most tedious task in testing!
  
• Polish - We are continuing to fine-tune audio, cinematics, dialogue, and flesh out extra features such as CRDTech encounters. This will be an ongoing task until we launch
  

Of course we'll be crunching through the holidays!


If you're excited about this project, join the SWDTech Games Discord server or follow us on any number of social platforms! We're going to be putting out more and more content and teasers up until the release, so keep an eye out!

Be sure to check in on Leo's Pixel Noir development streams on Twitch Monday and Thursday nights to see the game's progression in real time! Also, don't forget to follow our official Roadmap / Twitter bot.

Our next update will be out some time in January to recap the progress we made in 2021. Then the next official update after that will be out on March 24th! Until then have a safe & happy holiday season!

//Team SWDTech