Happy one year anniversary since the launch of Pixel Noir!

It's patch time again...! - Backend Checkpoint Feature Added! When the player enters a new scene, it will save a checkpoint. A checkpoint can be used multiple times no matter how many times you leave and come back into a scene. However, if upon entering a scene, a event immediately triggers, it won't save a checkpoint, but instead use the previous scene as a checkpoint. When the player gets a game over, the game will start over from the checkpoint instead of loading from the last save point. A checkpoint is not a save. If you quit or close the game, you will have to load from your load data. You won't be able to manually load a checkpoint from the load menu. - Shade has a new summon! It's called Temptation's Rage which damages an enemy and can cause Enrage and Confusion status effects. - Fix to characters walking in place in events. This has been happening sometimes. - Fixed moving buff / de-buff and status effect icon positioning in battles. When the camera would zoom for various reasons it would change the positioning of these. - Fix to collider on the dead body at the crime scene in ch1. This was way off the target so we moved it and made the interaction larger for easier access. - Polish to ch2 where the player fights Woof in the prison yard. As always, we welcome all feedback and bug reports to us directly in our Discord. We have a bugs-and-feedback channel where you can communicate your feedback about the game and detail out any issues you're encountering so we can fix them and put out a patch asap! Thanks for playing!

[ 2025-02-07 06:12:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here's another patch addressing the issues players found at Super MAGFest 2025. - Fix to stopped progress in Ch4 train sequence of events due to vanguard characters not parented to the train causing a bad walk path. - Fix to stopped progress when starting a new game and pressing / holding in any direction while the ch1 comic cutscene is playing. - Fix to mini-map random appearances in credits screen in the end game.. - Fix to possible freeze where if a player pushes an NPC while trying to interact with their attached cinematic. - Fix to various layering glitches. As always, we welcome all feedback and bug reports to us directly in our Discord. We have a bugs-and-feedback channel where you can communicate your feedback about the game and detail out any issues or bugs you're encountering so we can fix them for you and put out a patch asap! Thanks for playing! Hope you enjoy!

[ 2025-01-29 20:53:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here comes another patch, have a look! - Fix to spawning point in Downtown's hospital save point. This causes situations where if you save in there you load in black space causing bad save data. - Added battle positioning points in various scenes to prevent players from escaping room colliders. - Fix to detaching party for various scene transitions in Downtown, Sprawls, and Industrial District. - Fix to Shade's Hellhound's Revenge summon where sometimes it's use can freeze battles. - Fix to Personal Demons case where instances of Lady Tempt cinematics were causing in battle freezing AND where party members stay detached from party follow. - Fix to keycard item glints returning to tents in Armory yard in the industrial district after Shotmaker battle in the Armory. - Fix to the rare possibility of player movement control in battles. - Fix to various layering glitches. As always, we welcome all feedback and bug reports to us directly in our Discord. We have a bugs-and-feedback channel where you can communicate your feedback about the game and detail out any issues or bugs you're encountering so we can fix them for you and put out a patch asap! Thanks for playing! Hope you enjoy!

[ 2025-01-21 00:22:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed up some small issues here. Check it out. - Fix to pathfinding for NPCs that may get stuck walking in place on an obstacle's colliders. - Preventing toggling of fullscreen / windowed mode in options menu for Steam deck which can cause UI to get out of alignment. - Fix to bad room transition in Eastern area of the Sewers scene. - Fix to the possibility of Shade getting stuck on ladder in events in Towers scene. This could cause soft-locking for some players. - Fix to nightmare scene events that was causing an instance of effects going away temporally while transitioning into the last event in the sequence. - Fix to various layering glitches. As always, we welcome all feedback and bug reports to us directly in our Discord. We have a bugs-and-feedback channel where you can communicate your feedback about the game and detail out any issues or bugs you're encountering so we can fix them for you and put out a patch asap! Thanks for playing! Hope you enjoy!

[ 2025-01-07 02:01:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

A very big long awaited patch has been released!?!? -GTFO....!!! Let's get into it! - Pathfinding has been totally overhauled! We stripped out the old system and implemented a new one which will end the issues with any studdering, delays or freezing. This also optimizes all walk paths / cycles characters inside / outside of event cinematics. Also resulting in better ladder climbing to account for this new pathfinding system AND any issues with rooftops causing freezes or weird glitches with the layering of objects in a scene. - Enemy downed response / get up time has been adjusted to a 30 seconds instead of anything lower than 15 seconds before this patch. Along with that, once you've defeated enemies that popped out from behind buildings or walls, they will now wait to respawn before popping out again when the player leaves a room and comes back before popping out again. - Optimized loading when transitioning between scenes, so the next scene loads faster. - Implemented framework for Spanish localization (This will be patched in eventually -TBA). - Implemented saving CRDTech card attributes, so they no longer change every time a tCRDTech match starts. Cards now have permanent attributes but they will differer from new game to new game. - Fixed enemies that would run away into another room then if respawned would stay faded out. AND fixed enemies fading out during room transition and stay faded out. - Fixed bug where Shade and V-Money would sometimes start at level 1 now correctly start at higher levels. - Fixed reload menu showing no bullets when the Detective or Deuce dies / characters who use guns in battle. - Fixed police station events respawning in Docks late in ch7 which caused a loop where it can stop the player from progressing. - Fixed max item being exceeded when having 99 of an item then picking up another item in the field allowing the player to break the 99 item limit. - Fixed rare instances where battles can softfreeze for unknown reasons. - Fixed all known outstanding layering issues..... ...And various small polish edits game wide... As always, we welcome all feedback and bug reports to us directly in our Discord. We have a bugs-and-feedback channel where you can communicate your feedback about the game and detail out any issues or bugs you're encountering so we can fix them for you and put out a patch asap! Thanks for playing! Hope you enjoy! Now, to begin porting to Nintendo Switch! ;)

[ 2024-12-27 00:51:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

ANNNOOOOTHER UPDATE!!!! We Fixed::: - After police station events in Ch7 de-spawn old event cinematic- players could repeat these events from Docks which can cause freezing. - Locked door to apt where Odd Couple case ends because players could repeat closing out the case. - Detached party members at Phil / intro to CRDTech cinematics in Junkyard - More events and scene colliders that result in soft-freezing due to a character not being able to get to their walking destinations. (ie: Boardwalk Black market guy running into building) - Added inventory check for 99 candy bars in lauroundtwo ch2 cinematic. Taking into account New Game + inventory - Statsheet edits for many higher level enemies. Still to fix.... - Sometimes after parade events in ch7 going into Uptown will freeze on black screen (team is still trying to reproduce the issue) - In rare instances battles can softfreeze for unknown reasons (we are working on this) - CRDTech cards changing attributes every time the mini-game loads As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute the QA process!

[ 2024-07-23 20:52:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Wait, what- another update!? WHAAAA!?!? We Fixed::: - A few events where character circle colliders may cause walk path soft freezing. - V-money as guest party member in late ch6 freezes battle if she dies. - Enemy encounter rates. Some players had complained that enemies appear too often so we made the likelihood an enemy will not appear after spawning into a scene 20%-40% vs 20% and below before this patch. This edit has been applied to every appropriate scene except the Sewers. - Skill point notification window glitch. - Added Controller Map help to Walking Encyclopedia NPC. - More typos! Still to fix.... - CRDTech cards changing attributes every time the mini-game loads - the further someone is in the game the longer the game loads (ie: in new game +) - Sometimes after parade events in ch7 going into Uptown will freeze on black screen (team is still trying to reproduce the issue) As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute the QA process!

[ 2024-07-01 13:20:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Pixel Noir fans, are you going to the Too Many Games convention in Oaks, PA next week? Well we are! From June 28th to June 30th we will be showing off the game and selling Pixel Noir t-shirts and physical CDs of the arranged album. Steam's Summer Sale starts at the same time for one week where we will be selling the game at a 10% discount. This will be a great time to pick up the game if you haven't already. So if you're around drop by our booth and chat with us, we hope to see you there! Too Many Games Official Website Too Many Games Steam Event Curation Page

[ 2024-06-19 17:12:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another update comin'atcha!! We Fixed::: - More events and scene colliders that result in soft-freezing due to a character not being able to get to their walking destinations. - More fixes to path finding to help prevent potential crashes. - More fixes applied to not being able to collect certain trophies. - The Underground Facility's boiler room switches could be interacted twice if they are hit then you leave the Facility and come back. In this case you're re-locking the boss room doors here stopping you from progressing. - Personal Demons case's Tempt becoming invisible / starting a battle with no enemy causing a soft-freeze. - Added highlighting for dialogue that is either inner narration / thoughts. - Various object layering glitches. Still to fix.... - CRDTech cards changing attributes every time the mini-game loads/ - When you have the map toggled on then teleport to another scene, the map goes away, But if you talk to someone (any intractable) the map comes back/ - Some inaccurate mini-map/map indication (player vs location) - the further someone is in the game the longer the game loads (ie: in new game +) As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute the QA process!

[ 2024-06-10 21:04:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another update comin'atcha!! We Fixed::: - Many of the events that result in soft-freezing due to a character not being able to get to their walking destinations. - Push-able NPCs - Minimal load time optimization chipping away at the further someone is in the game the longer the game loads (ie: in new game +) - Fix to all ladder climb speeds to make sure they're all consistent - Attempts to fix unable to collect certain trophies. Please report if you think you should have received a trophy from this version foreword. If you haven't received a trophy from save data before this update you won't automatically get the trophy. Only in starting a new game or actually getting the trophy for the first time after this patch or not is valid and it's what we are looking for to make sure this bug is fixed - Attempt to fix the further someone is in the game the longer the game loads (ie: in new game +) - Various object layering glitches. - Typos! Still to fix.... - CRDTech cards changing attributes every time the mini-game loads - When you have the map toggled on then teleport to another scene, the map goes away, But if you talk to someone (any intractable) the map comes back As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute to the QA process!

[ 2024-05-07 22:06:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today, we are releasing two digital albums through Steam for $11.99 The Pixel Noir Orginal Soundtrack (OST) containing all 60 tracks of Pixel Noir's music! If you've already bought Tales From The Beta ,a smaller album here on Steam during our Early Access, you'll get this one for FREE! The Pixel Noir Arranged Album contains select music from the game remixed by various acclaimed artists including Hiroki Kikuta, Mega Ran, Wilbert Roget, Danimal Cannon and many more! It's such a great companion to play the game with! You can even buy both of these albums on Itunes, Bandcamp, or Amazon! We hope you are enjoying the game and will pick up these collections of awesome music!

[ 2024-05-06 19:23:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

The long wait is over for this patch! Here's what we got for ya... We Fixed::: - Some dungeon mechanics not carrying over from patch versioning. - Sometimes equipped weapons won't carry over to New Game + if the player character has a weapon equipped when completing the game (because of course you do!). The game was trying to read two weapons being equipped because of the auto beginner weapon equipped through cinematic command in the beginning of ch1. - If the player character dies against Tornado and then Woof revives him, he auto re-equips his weapon (gun) after fighting barehanded to begin with. - Edits to enemy encounters game wide- changed Delay Before Getting Up from 8sec to 15sec. Gives the player more time to get away from enemies in dazed states. - Combo between Shade Deuce and the player character making them stay in the combo's location and direction after it has ended making the rest of battle play out a little strangely. - Added "Required" learning note to yellow manuscript descriptions. This gives the player the prerec skill name in order to learn a yellow manuscript skill. - implemented ability to equip bullets from Main Menu / Gear-- not just by the Reload command while you're in battle. - Implemented page scrolling in selection menus using L1/R1 or R/P on keyboard. - Added SFX to saving data confirmation and deleting data. - NPCs pushing player in walk cycles. - Escalators in the mall acting funny- too fast or too slow or party can't get off. - Hugging walls slowing down character speed. - Various object layering glitches. - Typos! Still to fix.... - Can't collect certain trophies - CRDTech cards changing attributes every time the mini-game loads - When you have the map toggled on then teleport to another scene, the map goes away, But if you talk to someone (any intractable) the map comes back - The further someone is in the game the longer the game loads (ie: in new game +) As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute to the QA process!

[ 2024-04-23 13:46:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

A small one before our next big one. There were players having an issue specific to the White Tiger Little Shanghai alley fight in ch3 that lead to the White tiger confrontation in the Junkyard. Choosing 'Handing over the reigns' would lead you to the Junkyard where the White Tigers weren't there. We made that small fix here! Enjoy!! As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute to the QA process!

[ 2024-04-11 00:27:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, Look! another update!!! We Fixed::: - There is a ladder in the Towers scene where you can hit a fall collider and ladder climb collider which can get characters stuck in the climbing position. This doesn't break the game because you can just move up to trigger the climbing collider again to fix the issue. - Lab 4's switches have trigger events that return but if the doors are already open the triggers do nothing. - Vanessa starts at level 1 ---she should start at level 30 - Write save data to file on save to prevent losing data on crashes - SceneLoader remove actions destroying objects it shouldn't (fixes ch1 police teleport on save versioning) - Tempt / enemy encounter interference in Sprawl - Thechase / sheng spawning back into little shanghai alley after events - Draw outcomes added to CRDtech - broken location title ref in industrial_alleys teleports - various layering glitches - typos Still to fix.... - Sometimes equipped gear doesn't carry over to New Game + - Some ladder's climbing speeds can be slower than others. - Hugging walls severely slows down character speed. - When you have the map toggled on then teleport to another scene, the map goes away, But if you talk to someone (any intractable) the map comes back. - combo between shade deuce and the detective makes them stay in the combo's location after it has ended - When Detective dies against Tornado, and then then Woof revives him, he auto re-equips his weapon after fighting barehanded to begin with. As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute to the QA process!

[ 2024-04-04 21:07:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Annnnnnnd here's another hefty update! BOOM!!!! We Fixed::: - More progress has been made with versioning to make sure data is safe when patching. - Paper / rolling can object's 3d audio immune to sound settings- Mute All or Sound Effects volume. - BGM volume can decrease if going in and out of interiors - BGM volume can increase while toggling investigation mode on and off repeatedly in certain areas. - Coffee Break skill timed hit not working if healing another ally in battle. Other stuff non-list related that we fixed.... - white boxes for button graphics in battle while using generic or unrecognized control schemes - All good skill not healing for the 80% amount as told in the description - enemies dying because of a status effect freezing battles - Not being able to use the boat at the Docks after the Armory events - bad room transition in NW sewers - various layering glitches - typos Still to fix.... - Sometimes equipped gear doesn't carry over to New Game + - There is a ladder in the Towers scene where you can hit a fall collider and ladder climb collider which can get characters stuck in the climbing position. This doesn't break the game because you can just move up to trigger the climbing collider again to fix the issue. - Some ladder's climbing speeds can be slower than others. - Hugging walls severely slows down character speed. - When you have the map toggled on then teleport to another scene, the map goes away, But if you talk to someone (any intractable) the map comes back. - Lab 4's switches have trigger events that return but if the doors are already open the triggers do nothing. - Vanessa starts at level 1 ---she should start at level 30 - combo between shade deuce and the detective makes them stay in the combo's location after it has ended - When Detective dies against Tornado, and then then Woof revives him, he auto re-equips his weapon after fighting barehanded to begin with. As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute to the QA process!

[ 2024-03-18 23:37:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

In comes Spring which means you get 10% off (if you're buying the game for the first time) and a hefty update! BOOM!!!! We Fixed::: - More work has been done with versioning to make sure data is safe when patching. BUT there is still an issue around missing party members in the events at the end of the Armory yard events and the end of the Armory events before you fight the Shotmaker--- we are still trying to sort that out but it's got us baffled at the moment. - Enemies chasing you / pushing you into corners can cause soft-locks in rare instances. - In the Personal Demons case in Chs6-7 after leaving the Towers if you fight Lady Tempt at one of the places she's causing trouble. Then the battle ends and then you go to trigger the same fight again she won't show up causing a soft-lock in battle because she doesn't reappear in the scene. - Carrying 99 of an item and being able to break the 99 cap by getting a treasure in the game you already have 99 of. This also causes weirdness in shops when trying to sell items over the cap. - Adding mods to weapons can sometimes give an incorrect stat result. - Mod icon can disappear from V-Money's knives when adding it to her weapon from the Upgrade menu in shops. - In CRDTech mini-game very rarely when two abilities trigger it can soft lock the game. - PS5 controller icons show up as a generic controller icon. - Door marker in investigation mode can be seen in other rooms from the one you are currently in. - odds and ends- directional changes for walking characters / item balencing / enemy stat balencing / enemy encounter fixes / edits for typos Still to fix.... - Sometimes equipped gear doesn't carry over to New Game + - There is a ladder in the Towers scene where you can hit a fall collider and ladder climb collider which can get characters stuck in the climbing position. This doesn't break the game because you can just move up to trigger the climbing collider again to fix the issue. - Some ladder's climbing speeds can be slower than others. - Hugging walls severely slows down character speed. - Paper / rolling can object's 3d audio immune to sound settings- Mute All or Sound Effects volume. - BGM volume can decrease if going in and out of interiors - BGM volume can increase while toggling investigation mode on and off repeatedly in certain areas. - When you have the map toggled on then teleport to another scene, the map goes away, But if you talk to someone (any intractable) the map comes back. - Coffee Break skill timed hit not working if healing another ally in battle. - When Detective dies against Tornado, and then then Woof revives him, he auto re-equips his weapon after fighting barehanded to begin with. As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute to the QA process!

[ 2024-03-15 00:19:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

The update you've all been waiting for has arrived! Here's a list of things we've fixed and what we have been working on from that list of known bugs put out on Feb. 26th. We fixed---- - Save data from 1.5 and before once and for all!!! (...or so we hope we are still going to be testing and updating this.). Alot of time has gone into this one because since launch it's been the game's biggest issue. - Pathfinding has been optimized to use less RAM. This was causing the crashes and lagging the FPS for many players. - The various issues from the Shovel Knight arena have all been fixed! - Various freezes when enemy skills would occur. - Stat balancing with various enemies and their attacks. - A few typos. We are still working on--- - Enemies chasing you / pushing you into corners can cause soft-locks in rare instances. - In the Personal Demons case in Chs6-7 after leaving the Towers if you fight Lady Tempt at one of the places she's causing trouble. Then the battle ends and then you go to trigger the same fight again she won't show up causing a soft-lock in battle because she doesn't reappear in the scene. - Carrying 99 of an item and being able to break the 99 cap by getting a treasure in the game you already have 99 of. This also causes weirdness in shops when trying to sell items over the cap. - Adding mods to weapons can sometimes give an incorrect stat result. - Mod icon can disappear from V-Money's knives when adding it to her weapon from the Upgrade menu in shops. - Sometimes equipped gear doesn't carry over to New Game + - In CRDTech mini-game very rarely when two abilities trigger it can soft lock the game. - PS5 controller icons show up as a generic controller icon. - There is a ladder in the Towers scene where you can hit a fall collider and ladder climb collider which can get characters stuck in the climbing position. This doesn't break the game because you can just move up to trigger the climbing collider again to fix the issue. - Some ladder's climbing speeds can be slower than others. - Hugging walls severely slows down character speed. - Paper / rolling can object's 3d audio immune to sound settings- Mute All or Sound Effects volume. - BGM volume can decrease if going in and out of interiors - BGM volume can increase while toggling investigation mode on and off repeatedly in certain areas. - When you have the map toggled on then teleport to another scene, the map goes away, But if you talk to someone (any intractable) the map comes back. - Coffee Break skill timed hit not working if healing another ally in battle. - When Detective dies against Tornado, and then then Woof revives him, he auto re-equips his weapon after fighting barehanded to begin with. - Door marker in investigation mode can be seen in other rooms from the one you are currently in. As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute to the QA process!

[ 2024-03-09 21:52:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! As it's kinda slow going on the patches because we are a small team, we figure we would put out a known bug list out here so you players know what we are fixing and what to look out for. Later on this week when we put out another patch we will use this list to show you what we've fixed. - Save data from 1.5 and before will likely be bugged. But from 1.5.1 on there shouldn't be any issues with using data from this version on. You may run into events that repeat or NPCs reappear on rare occasions but nothing from stopping your progress like in earlier versions. We are still testing and making improvements to this. - Game FPS lags sometimes leading to crashes have been reported. This can likely happen due to not enough RAM for computers or lowered FPS settings on the Steam Deck. It's also because of how path-finding is calculating as you're moving through the game. - Enemies chasing you / pushing you into corners can cause soft-locks in rare instances. - In the Personal Demons case in Chs6-7 after leaving the Towers if you fight Lady Tempt at one of the places she's causing trouble. Then the battle ends and then you go to trigger the same fight again she won't show up causing a soft-lock in battle because she doesn't reappear in the scene. - In the Arena (run by the famous Shovel Knight) there can be matches where when you defeat a group of enemies they won't de-spawn from the scene as you go to the next match. This has been known to cause soft-locks in or after battles. - Carrying 99 of an item and being able to break the 99 cap by getting a treasure in the game you already have 99 of. This also causes weirdness in shops when trying to sell items over the cap. - Adding mods to weapons can sometimes give an incorrect stat result. - Mod icon can disappear from V-Money's knives when adding it to her weapon from the Upgrade menu in shops. - Sometimes equipped gear doesn't carry over to New Game + - In CRDTech mini-game very rarely when two abilities trigger it can soft lock the game. - PS5 controller icons show up as a generic controller icon. - There is a ladder in the Towers scene where you can hit a fall collider and ladder climb collider which can get characters stuck in the climbing position. This doesn't break the game because you can just move up to trigger the climbing collider again to fix the issue. - Some ladder's climbing speeds can be slower than others. - Hugging walls severely slows down character speed. - Paper / rolling can object's 3d audio immune to sound settings- Mute All or Sound Effects volume. - BGM volume can decrease if going in and out of interiors - BGM volume can increase while toggling investigation mode on and off repeatedly in certain areas. - When you have the map toggled on then teleport to another scene, the map goes away, But if you talk to someone (any intractable) the map comes back. - Coffee Break skill timed hit not working if healing another ally in battle. - When Detective dies against Tornado, and then then Woof revives him, he auto re-equips his weapon after fighting barehanded to begin with. - Door marker in investigation mode can be seen in other rooms from the one you are currently in. As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute to the QA process!

[ 2024-02-26 22:33:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Listen to SWDTech Games' Co-founder / Creative Director Len Stuart and Lead Programmer Leo Riveron's experience developing and launching Pixel Noir! https://youtu.be/Z28-a0BDbVM

[ 2024-02-25 16:35:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, v1.5 build is finally live!!!! - Some layering issues have been fixed around the game. - Stomped out some typos. - An attempted fix make to some achievement markers not working. - Missing ATB heads for white squares. - Made it a little easier to win at the casino games. - Levels reverting -this shouldn't be happening anymore but if it is please let us know. - The chapter #s in the data menu when saving, you'll just need to load then save again and you'll see your chapter number. - And of course the most major thing that this update fixes (and the reason why we took so long to get this out) is the save versioning system!!! Now any fixes we did to things in the story past the point you might be at in the game will update correctly. However, please let us know if you reach a point in the story where you can't continue on and where that may be so we can fix it in the next update.

[ 2024-02-21 16:10:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

SWDTech Games' Creative Director Len Stuart talks about all things Pixel Noir with the guys from the Up-N-Up podcast! Listen to the interview on Apple podcasts!

[ 2024-02-15 15:57:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Yep we are still fixing this and that, so let's get into it! - Fixed the annoying skipping in shops / Gear menu - Player character sliding when interacting with non pausing cinematic events - issue with save data -we are still working on this but some progress has been made - battle HUD level positioning - broken cinematics in ch1 police station - Sewer monsters anims causing soft locks - gate door in ch2 still blocking the way when loading save data after completing Needle's case

[ 2024-02-14 00:34:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Pinnacle City Police Dept. is on the lookout for ten new elite detectives! The mission is clear: Find Shovel Knight. Flex your sleuthing skills & enter our Shovel Knight x Pixel Noir contest! Ten winners will receive a Steam Shovel Knight Dig key, digital OSTs for both games, and a digital copy of Pixel Noir's arranged album! Contest Details: ->Identify the elusive blue burrower in Pixel Noir & take a screenshot ->Share the screenshot on X, Facebook, or Instagram and tag with #PixelNoirCompetition Go get em!!

[ 2024-02-12 19:10:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

We fixed some of the annoying issues that players have been reporting.... Here's a list. - Reviving a character who has a status effect stopping on the ATB causing soft-freezing. - Running then dying in battle causing freezing or other weird effects. - Player showing as the younger version of the detective in ch3 with mostly grayed out main menu choices - Resolved issue with hit rate. You won't be missing all the time now! - Character gear and stat inconsistencies between saves and update versions. - Various layering issues. - Dialogue grammar issues. We also found a big problem with save data we will be trying to fix between today and tomorrow. We will be fixing that soon since that seems the most critical at the moment. A longer issue with frame rate to even crashing due to path finding calculations still remain but we are working on it. Man, just when you think things are problem free new problems crop up out of nowhere... Please believe we are doing our best to keep the game from doing these annoying things to you. Thanks to all the players helping us in reporting these bugs.

[ 2024-02-12 18:30:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

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!

[ 2024-02-11 17:08:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

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=Uko0zgpbTwk;full][/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!

[ 2024-02-09 03:34:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

A Small But Important Update!

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!

A Note Regarding Coverage...

As you can imagine, for launch, we are coordinating with Press, Influencers, and Streamers. If you fall into any of those categories, wed 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 press@swdtechgames.com if you do plan on streaming the game!

MAGFest Info.

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!

In Closing...

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

[ 2024-01-17 18:51:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a surprise update!

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...

January 18th also happens to be the start of MAGFest in Oxon Hill, MD!

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!

Early Access, Launch Discount & The Great Beyond!

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

That's A Wrap For This Update!

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

[ 2023-12-12 19:16:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

We hope you all are having a great summer! We're excited to bring you another update into the latest developments on your favorite detective RPG, Pixel Noir. Let's dive in!

The Pub Crawl

As we navigate around launch territory, we want to be transparent about our ongoing pursuit of a publishing partner. While we've had exploratory conversations with a number of publishers, we haven't aligned on a deal that we're comfortable with. One common theme we're seeing is that our Early Access launch on Steam has presented a unique challenge that cause most publishers to back away from proposing a deal. We released Early Access to gather feedback from you all, as well as to get the game out to everyone while we finished the rest of the development. However, it was launched with minimal marketing support from our previous publisher. In essence, the Early Access launch has made Pixel Noir appear as if it has officially launched when, in reality, it hasn't. Publishers care about this sort of thing because of the Steam search algorithm prioritizes unreleased games, which effectively means you can market to more people. To be clear, from a development standpoint, Pixel Noir is complete and now we're using this unforeseen (and semi-unwelcomed) extra time to refine many aspects of the game. The team is committed to continue delivering a great experience by meticulously polishing to perfection and we're determined to find the right launch strategy for the full game.

Early Access Updates

While the publisher situation is frustrating, don't think for a minute that we don't have any goodies in store for you! We've been working on addressing Steam feedback to make the game even better. We patched the Pixel Noir Early Access. Here's a list of what you'll generally find in the new build:

• Enjoy an even more engaging experiences with improved story events, skills, audio, and user interface interactions
• Experience more difficulty balanced battles, ensuring satisfying gameplay
• Discover exciting item effects like Lunar Redeye that boosts your adrenaline, Chili Pepper causing Enrage, and Dive Poster as valuable quest items
• Adding to the city atmosphere as police cars now patrol Pinnacle City, making the environment feel alive with the occasional siren passing by
• More dynamic gameplay with custom damage events and environmental hazards that create new challenges.
• Have more fun playing CRDTech with smoother and more enjoyable card game mechanics
• Test your stealth skills as enemies now have a cone of vision.
• Enjoy a smoother experience as we introduce refined dungeon mechanics in critical areas.
• Enhance your combat strategy with the new "Pistol Whip" skill, giving you more ways to approach battles.
• Jump into the game faster with optimized backend data that minimizes load times for better seamless gameplay.

Known Issues

Here are the known issues for the latest Pixel Noir Eary Access build version 9/12/23.

• Initial load times in selecting New Game or loading saved game data from the title screen clocked in at ~90 seconds. However after loading a game, load times are significantly shorter.
• Saved data from previous build versions will be bugged in this version, It's advised to start a New Game from the title screen.
• Soft lock in battle with combo tutorial event in ch3 (rare)
• Random battles can take place if already in a cinematic which can cause soft-locks or even freezing (very rare)
• Premature fade out to enemies in Armory when in mid-room transition (in some instances)
• Getting hit by cars next to a roadblock at the end of the street can push the player outside of the environment colliders
• Minor issues with graphical asset layering (very rare and can be brief)
• Achievements may not be accurate because of a mismatch between old/new build versions
• Door SFX can play when failing to fully go through room transition areas
• In Ch2: Chapel as a following NPC can step through objects at times
• Causing paralysis status while a character (enemy or ally) in battle is going to attack will still allow the character to take their turn. Paralysis status takes effect after the inflicted character's preceding action.
• In CRDTech: Using Kato Sheng cards ability on Deuce's card, causing the use of Deuce cards ability to back out by pressing Shift (or B / cancel) soft-locks the game
• In CRDTech: Kato Sheng card placed last can cause a soft-lock
• In CRDTech: Bai Hu card doesnt use its ability when placed
• In CRDTech: Using Meeks cards ability can cause an opponent to take two turns

More Goodies For The Full Game

Since our previous Kickstarter update we've been putting in all kinds of polish. Hazards: We've added damage causing environmental hazards as well as functionality within story events, allowing us to improve immersion both inside and outside story events.
Watch your step!
Sometimes reality hurts. More Skills: We've even added a few skills such as Pistol Whip and some more "summon" discoveries for Shade, our masked vigilante, which should allow players to expand battle strategies.
Smack!
Epic discoveries to behold!
Hair of the Dog? Skill Point Usage: We added skill point costs for skill upgrade levels AND we added cost discounts for using skills depending on the gear you have equipped.
More points to upgrades means MORE POWER... random Home Improvement reference.
Skill Bonuses mean skills cost less in battles!

Sweet Jams

Finally, we couldn't let this update pass without debuting a new track from renown producer, musician, and all-around-great-guy, Mustin!!!! A while back we asked him to help with some of the music production on the game. He's the reason why the OST sounds extra-polished, why the audio in the game is all balanced now, and why you're going to have fun listening to the Pixel Noir Arrange Album! This latest track from him is featured in the game and is called "Four on the Floor". It's played at a popular club in Uptown filled with a DJ and lots of EDM fans. And no, it's not cool that you spilled your beer on me, bro. Alright? [url=https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/35093567/bf6bbbeeaac4da652a27eccfa24c16b6d15c5a30.gif]

That's A Wrap For This Update!

We're excited about the progress we've made in these last few months and can't wait for you to experience these improvements firsthand. As always, thank your support fuels our passion in delivering a game that lives up to your expectations! Stay tuned for more updates and announcements in the coming months as we figure out how to get this game out to all of you. If you're excited about Pixel Noir, here are three steps you can take to make sure you're in the know:

• Let a publisher know about us! Whenever you find a publisher you believe would be an excellent fit for Pixel Noir, tag us in a social media post/email mentioning the publisher. We made it easy on you guys--click on the links below to go with a pre-drafted message (or feel free to create your own): 1. X (formerly Twitter) Template, 2. Email Template
• Join our SWDTech Games Discord server for a constant stream of screenshots, and granular development updates. You can even chat with the development team!
• Follow our daily progress on our official X bot (formerly Twitter bot).
• Our next official update will be Feb 8th (unless we have some breaking news before then). We welcome all feedback and thoughts! Please enjoy the updated Early Access build!

//Team SWDTech

[ 2023-09-12 19:26:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is going to be a bit of a rollercoaster of an update. We're going to laugh together, cry together, and probably end up in a pottery class together. But before we jump into it, we wanted to let you all know that a few of us are going to be at PAX East this weekend! Look out for the 30-something-year-old nerds in Pixel Noir T-shirts and say hi if you see us!
It seems like ages since we were at a con! We won't have a booth this time around, but we'll be floating around!

Getting Down to Brass Tax

As mentioned in update #72, we ended our business deal with BadLand Publishing due to a myriad of reasons. Here's an overview of what BadLand was supposed to provide and what we've been able to source ourselves:
There are several big gaps we need to close. If we launch without a publisher, there's no guarantee we can accomplish all of this. As you can see above, since we dropped BadLand Publishing, we were able to successfully fill a few gaps:

• We hired Elevated Play, who is currently helping us in QA/testing the full Steam release. Switch testing will be our next order of business likely starting in May.
• We've acquired porting equipment for Playstation and Xbox (Switch is still pending).
• We had talks with a few potential publishers, no deal with any of them so far (but we'll keep you posted).
• We're still on track and working our collective asses off to finish full development by the end April.
• A few of us are starting to transition to backer rewards fulfillment. The team is going to kick this workstream off with finalization of the official Pixel Noir OST.

As we have no publisher yet, we're not in a strong position to go live with the finished game. As a result, we are officially delaying our Steam launch to Q4 or earlier. The decision to pull back our launch date was due to the fact that we've poured years into this project and want to have a strong launch for our passion project. To recap: we're on track to finish with the game as promised, we just need to line up marketing support before we can launch. So bummer: yes, but worth the delay: absolutely yes because it will get into more hands in the long run as well as set us up for delivery of more of the things we had promised with our previous publisher! If you have a publisher in mind for Pixel Noir, PLEASE let either them or us know so we can move forward here...the sooner we get a publisher lined up, the sooner we release! In lieu of all this info, we will do two rad things: [olist]

We'll update the Early Access on Steam sometime in May or June. Less bugs + more polish = more fun!

We will look to accelerate distribution of the OST as part of our fulfillment to backers who purchased digital merchandise. It doesn't fill the void left by a delayed launch date, but if we can't launch, by god, we'll start to deliver on some of the other promises we've made. At the end of the day, you guys have supported us through thick and thin and we appreciate you all. Hopefully you will enjoy some of the sweet tunage from our composers Kunal Majmudar & Hiroki Kikuta. [/olist] Once we get the OST out the door, we will transition efforts to the Arrange Album, which has some incredible talent on it! Here's a sneak peek of the lineup for the Arrange Album: [previewyoutube=zC7bB2wT5JE;full][/previewyoutube]

Development Updates

Our next stop on the update rollercoaster ride is dev team updates! Because of the work that has been done in coordination with Elevated Play as our QA support, we've been able to identify many new bugs AND we've already managed to fix a majority of them. By the time we update the Early Access on Steam, our goal is to have as few bugs as possible.
"Uhh, I'm stuck.... Alittle help here!?" Dungeon switch mechanics: We had to reimplement some of the dungeon switches due to issues with saving/loading resulting in soft freezes galore--particularly if you spawn when inside the environment after unlocking some of the doors or extending bridges. [previewyoutube=xAeelP87gmQ;full][/previewyoutube] New item added to game: We added the new item "Chili Pepper" to the game- a minor item that heals some HP but also causes Enrage status, which speeds a character up in the ATB bar and makes them auto-attack when their turn is up. Enrage is similar to what "Berserk" does in Final Fantasy 6:
Woof: "Let's get pissed off and start swinging!!" Achievements: About a month ago, we added the rest of the trophies into the game. In the Early access there's 10 trophies you can get but in the full game you'll have 30 to try to obtain!
This one goes out to all you completionists out there! Quality of life: We put in some small quality-of-life features. A simple save data overwrite confirmation and an easier way to erase save data. We also put in a way to equip gear within shops.
Just trying to make things easier for ya!

That wraps it up for this update!

As mentioned above, we'll keep you guys in the loop if we sign with a new publisher--and in the meantime, we'll get going on some of the backer rewards! As always, we appreciate you all and the journey of epic proporations that Pixel Noir has taken us all through. If you're excited 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. You can even chat with the development team! 3. Follow our daily progress on our official Twitter bot.
Our next official update will be on July 27th, however we will likely put out a smaller update before this one with more details around the OST/Arrange Album as well as an update on a Publisher (if there is news to share). From our 16-bit family to yours, we hope everyone is having a great 2023 so far! //Team SWDTech

[ 2023-03-24 14:47:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy New Year From Team SWDTech!

We hope you've had a great holiday season. We're all very excited about what we have in store for 2023. But for now, we wanted to focus on the progress we made in 2022. Last year saw a major shift in the game's development. We moved from a very long development to post-production and throughout the year crushed many many many bugs and added a lot of great polish edits, culminating in an update to the Early Access last month! Let's take a trip down memory lane!

Major features implemented in 2022

One of the bigger changes to the game was how skills are managed. This included changing how characters acquired skill points, as well as adding skill bonuses to gear, effectively reducing skill cost.
We updated the CRDTech card game, adding in tons of skills, new BGM / SFXs, and even implemented Gambling NPC's throughout the city who will gladly throw down some cards to win your hard-earned cash. [previewyoutube=mKO9xTgLlZE;full][/previewyoutube] Speaking of NPC's, we put in grifters, traders and bums who you can potentially get some goodies from. We even added some random dialogue to all shops. and we updated all the bartenders in the game, they now sell alcohol!
Time at the bar!
Charitable giving can be rewarding.
Damn inflation! We implemented New Game + which will allow you to replay the game and carry over things like experience, cash, and gear from your last play-through. You can even see which choices you made on your previous play-through so you can make some different choices and maybe take a different path through Pixel Noir's story!
Yeah you signed in on your first playthrough, remember? We've added the bounty hunting system, effectively giving players another whole set of side-quests & cases to solve!
Track down some of the most notorious thugs in the city! We've also made a lot of little changes such as updating the design of the club in Uptown (inclusive of flashing lights, obnoxiously loud music, & all!), varied the typing SFX's for all characters, added more polish to the casino games, and decreased load times. GUI upgrades were another big focus area including "quality of life" upgrades such as highlighting key terms or call to actions with red/green text, the ability to zoom in/out when looking at the the Map of the city, and lots more!
Un tis Un tis Un tis Un tis Un tis ... [previewyoutube=u3C1hRPYU0Y;full][/previewyoutube]
Call to attention highlighting so you don't miss the important stuff.
We even added more ways to fast travel to parts of the city.
The house always wins.......maybe. Most recently we updated the Early Access build on Steam with another update on the way in the coming weeks! If you either previously played the Early Access or were planning to, give it a shot and drop us a line in the Community Forum to let us know how you like it!

Signing Off

That wraps it up for us in 2022. But as we move into 2023, If you're excited about Pixel Noir, here are three steps you can take to make sure you're in the know: 1. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/754320/Pixel_Noir/]Wishlist Pixel Noir on Steam! 2. Join our SWDTech Games Discord server for a constant stream of screenshots, granular development updates, sprint summaries. You can even chat with the development team! 3. Follow our daily progress on our official Twitter bot. Our next update will be on March 23rd! From our 16-bit family to yours, we hope everyone had a great holiday season! //Team SWDTech

[ 2023-01-13 15:19:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

News news 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!

Updating Early Access

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!

Development Updates

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=mKO9xTgLlZE;full][/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=u3C1hRPYU0Y;full][/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!

The Wrap-Up

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

[ 2022-12-17 10:28:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Thursday!

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

Launch Window Announcement!!!

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!

Steam Indie Showcase

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...

Development Updates

Bounty Hunting

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.

Phone Calls

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...

Buy A Drink!

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??

Battle Positioning Optimization

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!

Other Improvements

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

Music

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?

The Wrap-Up

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

[ 2022-08-11 20:33:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

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!

Release & Porting News

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.

Shade's Summons

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

Dealing With Enemies

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!

Place Your Bets!

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.

More Polish & Optimization

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!

New Tunes

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!

That's A Wrap!

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!

[ 2022-04-01 19:58:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, 2022!

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!

Ally/Enemy Skills & Party Combos

Over the past year, weve added various in-battle cinematics, meticulously working to add visual and audio flair to every battle. Were 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.

Random Encounters & A New Way To Escape Battles

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!

Visual Effects

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.

The Battle Arena, Hosted By Shovel Knight!

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!

Quality Of Life Enhancements

For starters, weve 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.

Items Discovery: Treasures, Traders, Grifters, Black Markets, & Battle Rewards.

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 \_()_/
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!

New Game +

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!

Audio

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=vQDX00KtGQg;full][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube=UoNsKvIlJ6U;full][/previewyoutube]

Stat Balancing

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.

Peace out, 2021!

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: [olist]

Wishlist Pixel Noir on Steam!

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

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. [/olist] Our next update will be out on March 24th! See you then! //Team SWDTech

[ 2022-02-01 14:33:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Friends & Fans

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!

Since The Last Update...

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=vQDX00KtGQg;full][/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.

Alright, you're almost done, but what's left?

• 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!

Closing Up The Update Bag

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

[ 2021-12-09 19:49:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone!

As we get to the end of another hot Summer, we're excited to close out several of our tasks! But, before we get to the progress we've made in these last few months, we wanted to announce that we're launching our very own SWDTech Games Discord server!
Over the last few months we've built a little home for our dev team on Discord and we are ready to open it up backers/fans/cactuars to provide a space for our community to grow. Over at our Discord server, you'll be able to communicate directly with the development team, get granular development updates, stay in the know when we're streaming development of Pixel Noir, catch the latest screenshots & gifs teasing the game until launch, connect with other backers *cough RPG nerds cough*, and more! So join our Discord server, claim your role, & post as many detective/RPG memes as you want! Important note for backers: please follow the directions in the #choose-your-role channel so that we can add you as a Kickstarter backer! Once you're added, you'll have access to #backer-lounge where we'll drop specific announcements and answer generic backer inquiries!
If David Tennant can't convince you to join, probably nobody can

Progress

While we are keeping a lid on an estimated release date until development is finished, we wanted to give you an update on the short list of tasks we laid out in the beginning of the year. Since our last update, we've finished:

• Collectible Placement - Treasure boxes, bundles of cash and items found through using Investigation Mode are now all in the game!
• Shops, Traders, Grifters, & Black Markets - Yes, that's right folks you can buy, sell, and get ripped off now in the streets of Pinnacle City!
• Battle Encounter Placement - Now you'll find patrolling baddies that might jump you around town! We've also added mimic type enemies!

This is what we have left before we can ramp up on porting & localization!

• Bugs, bugs and more bugs - Yes, these still are popping up, but we are tracking less with every play test! This will be an ongoing task, even through patching but we want to make sure game play is as tight as possible.
• Battle / Skill / Stat Balancing - This is the longest, most tedious task in testing. We closed out our first (and longest) pass of balancing and are working through our second pass.
• 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.

Along with the many features we've been polishing and testing from the last update, we're working our way through implementing the visual effects for skills & items in battle. It's a much-neglected area that hasn't been updated since the Early Access release. Here's a sneak peek at some of the changes!
Woof swinging that chain so fast that it creates wind shear!
Is it fair to say that this thug has officially been mooned?
Slowing down is sometimes the best way to speed up. #showerthoughts
A little randomness never hurt anyone....maybe.
Who's ready for a cocktail party?
Here's what items now look like when used in battle!

Audio

Here's a sample of the Fish Market BGM which will play in (you guessed it) the Fish Market! Here you'll be assailed by a number of colorful union teamsters and other fishy characters! https://soundcloud.com/discover/sets/track-stations:1121178766

That's It For Now

Before we sign off, there's a small issue we wanted to address. In recent weeks, our development progress tracker (the Roadmap) has been on the fritz. It's fixed now, but if you've noticed a slowdown in code pushes, know that we were chugging away--it's just that the code pushes weren't updating publicly. It should all be fixed with the correct data now. As it turns out several Google API's were updated causing the issue on our end. Our next update will be out on Dec. 9th (exactly 3 months from this update). As always, follow our official Roadmap / Twitter bot. Also, don't forget to check in on Leo's Pixel Noir development streams on Twitch Monday and Thursday nights and now Len's NEW Development streams on Fridays to see the game's progression in real time! //Team SWDTech

[ 2021-09-09 18:11:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Its been a busy couple of months here at SWDTech!! Weve got a lot to share with you, so lets jump right in!

Vita Talk

We had a little controversy with the Vita news a couple of months ago where we thought Sony was going to shut down it's online store for Vita. Apparently some very vocal Vita fans spoke up with passion to this news which forced Sony to keep its digital marketplace online (meaning we all can still buy the games on the marketplace). However, this move leaves developers like us in the dust because Sony won't be allowing new digitally released games to populate it's online store for Vita. (Source 1: Official PS blog - Source 2 Playstationlifestyle.net's article). We may be able to homebrew it digitally, but we are still looking into figuring this option out. Obviously this news also means that there won't be a physical release of Pixel Noir on the Vita. That said, we've got a laundry list of porting to do, so we're going to have to consider our approach here. Hopefully, Sony rethinks this decision and allows game developers to add new titles in the future. With that we're off to the development updates! We're continuing to progress through our list of open items from last update.
::continues scanning news from Sony::

First Pass Of Stat-Balancing Completed!

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. As of this update, all seven chapters now feature balanced allies, enemies, and gear. But we are going to do another pass or two to tweak difficulty as necessary but that will take far less time than this initial pass.
Along with balancing, we've also been adding semi-scripted random battles throughout the game. Watch your step in Pinnacle City, you never know when someone will try to mug you!
Run away!

Case Manager Now Integrated With City's Map

All main plot lines and cases (side quests) have been loaded into the case manager! This means that you will now have clues for each case as well as highlighted map tiles indicating key locations for almost any selected case.
As a detective, it's up to you to figure out where your next clue lies within that highlighted tile...

Teleport & Doorway Indicators

Just for a small quality of life improvement, we added arrows that point to doors and teleports in the game world by activating the detective's investigation mode.
FF7 called... They want their teleport arrows back!

Arena Battles + Shovel Knight!

That's right folks, we are adding a battle arena into the game hosted by our very own cameo appearance of Shovel Knight! He runs a virtual arena in the Tronics shop Downtown where you can battle the game's various enemies for prizes!
Look into my eyes.... *poof* You're in battle land!

New Game +

As you might recall, New Game + was a stretch goal. This feature will allow a player, upon completing the game, to start a new game with their experience, money, items and skills, but this time the player can make different choices, which could lead to different outcomes.
How many cigarettes can the you get the Detective to smoke in your *SECOND* playthrough?

Bug Crushing / Polish Mode

From the beginning of the year to this point we've been play testing rigorously to eliminate any game/emersion breaking bugs as well as adding finishing touches throughout the game. For example, door sounds were added to every environment in the game. Check it out! [previewyoutube=ty_SJyip1GY;full][/previewyoutube] We've also added some cool flash and sprite coloring effects to our cinematics for more of a dramatic effect!
A bloody, dramatic *Color Flash*!
Background color filter test sample.
Off screen explosions!

Audio Sneak Peek

Finally, here's a sample of the Uptown over world theme! Uptown is a nice part of town where Pinnacle City's more affluent citizens live. Here you can find the Apparel Mall, the Tronics Factory, and the Pinnacle City Gazette! Check it out: https://soundcloud.com/pixeltonemusic/uptown-overworld-sample

Thats it for this months update!

Our next update will be out on Sep 9th. As always, follow our official [url=" https://swdtechgames.com/roadmap"]Roadmap / Twitter bot. Also, don't forget 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! //Team SWDTech

[ 2021-06-07 15:41:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everybody, This is Len Stuart, creative director behind Pixel Noir and co-founder of SWDTech Games. I decided to personally come out and give you a brief summary of how I see things at the moment to let you know what's happening at this stage of development.
You can't see it from this picture, but yes I am chained to my desk. :D While implementation is complete, a lengthy polish/bug extermination phase has been underway in these last four months to increase stability. In parallel, we are continuously testing to make the game balanced via player/enemy character stat and gear tuning, while also factoring in collectables/skills. It's a large game for as small as it is... (if that makes sense? -may only make sense to me!) Have a look at our funny but frustrating bug collection...
Surfs up..?
What are you doing Shade!? Why can't you climb a ladder like a normal sprite!?
Party poopers...
We even have our own version of that truck sliding down the street in Texas! For those asking about a release date, although we are very close to finishing from a development standpoint, were not yet ready to predict a release date. Its because this last leg of the journey is fraught with new bugs and balancing difficulty hurdles we are continuously jumping. We want to put out a nicely polished game upon release because Pixel Noir is a project that has always focused on the quality of our game instead of profit. Not only that, but for as long as we all have been working on this project (and all the time you all have waited), we firmly believe it's worth putting in the effort at this point to make sure we can all be proud of the game we brought to life--dev, backer, and fan alike. Now more from the bug collection...
I think the clerk is in on it!
This band is horrible but I can't leave- the eternal struggle...
She... walks her own path.
...Don't ask... With all that said, let me remind you of the things we are currently working on at the moment with Pixel Noir:

• Battle / Skill / Stat Balancing - This is the longest, most tedious with the battle testing and all that must be done over and over and over....
• Collectible Placement / Shop Stocking / Traders + Grifters + Black Markets - Items and gear need to be factored into balancing as there is some complexity in the later chapters of the game. We've done this for about 35% of the game as of this update.
• Battle Encounter Placement - Turn down a wrong alley in Pinnacle Ci--never mind you get the point. (25% finished)
• Bug, bugs and more bugs - Of course, we are still dealing with these... However we are tracking less with every play test!!
• Polish - Continuing to fine-tune audio, cinematics, dialogue, and flesh out extra features such as CRDTech encounters. This will be ongoing until we finish...

As outlined in Update #63, this phase is one of the longest parts of our development cycle outside of the environment implementation that we finished earlier last year. So just sit tight, stay tuned for more, and know that were still motivated to get this game out to everyone!!

Waiting like... Your next update will be on June 3rd. As always, follow our official Roadmap / Twitter bot and don't forget to check follow Leo's Pixel Noir dev streams on Thursday nights to check in on progress in realtime! //Len and the rest of Team SWDTech

[ 2021-03-08 14:48:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

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!

Here's the progress we made in 2020..

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

In Memoriam...

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!

Signing Off for 2020

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

[ 2020-12-23 18:48:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, guess what?

And unlike Doc Strange, we won't leave you hanging on the master plan At this point, the core of Pixel Noir is officially playable from start to finish including all the main story, sidequests, features, and more! BUT, There are some things to do before we can call this turkey done and ready for public consumption! Here's a list (in chronological order) of the things we have left to finish.

• Battle / Skill / Stat Balancing. This is the longest, most tedious, most important task we have left.
• Collectible Placement / Shop Stocking / Traders + Grifters + Black Markets. Items and gear need to be factored into balancing as there is some complexity in the later chapters of the game, so we'll need to be careful about how these are implemented to ensure we don't create loopholes/imbalances in the game.
• Battle Encounter Placement. Turn down a wrong alley in Pinnacle Ci--never mind you get the point.
• Bug, bugs and more bugs. Of course, we are still dealing with these... Thankfully, we have far fewer than what we had before Early Access, woohoo!!!
• Polish. Continuing to fine-tune audio, cinematics, dialogue, and flesh out extra features such as CRDTech encounters.

After these have been taken care of, we will work with our publisher to port, localize, & launch!
::micdrop::

Sneak Peeks

WTF is this guy?
Marvel at the wonders of cheap technology!
Sooner or later you may have to stay at one of these places...

Audio

Finally, as always, here's a sneak peek of brand-new Pixel Noir jammage!!! https://soundcloud.com/pixeltonemusic/lab-overworld-sample This is the Lab BGM. For this one, Hiroki Kikuta (composer, Secret of Mana) and Kunal worked collaboratively to create something dark, mysterious, and foreboding. When you enter the labs, you can tell some really "bad stuff" went on here. Kind of makes you wonder what they were trying to do in these labs... We hope you enjoy!

See Ya Soon!

That wraps our November update! The next update will be on December 19! And as always, follow our official Roadmap / Twitter bot, and don't forget to check out Leo's Pixel Noir dev stream for some good music and some good, ol' fashioned gamedev! //Team SWDTech

[ 2020-11-13 14:10:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

In our last episode...

...we entered the "Final Chapter!" Guess what? We are extremely excited to let you all know that the main story has been completely implemented and semi-polished! AND we've already blasted through most of the side-quest implementation work!
::awkward dance party::

Side-quests

This next piece of the puzzle is already 91% finished as we've been working on them since late July. This was the next step after finishing all the main story content. To be this far along is fantastic and could spell out the end of all dev / polish on the game before the end of the year!! We're so close to being finished!! Have a look at our roadmap numbers...
Whats Next? After implementing side-quests, we will spend the next few months moving through a deep polish phase to ensure the game is bug-free, balanced, and includes the icing on the cake stuff like CRDTech battles, random enemy encounters, dialog edits, treasure drops, more environment interactions, etc.
Little do they know, this "kid" is an expert with knives :O
Breathe, Woof, breeeeathe!
"Never bring a gun to a card battle" - old proverb

Audio Update

We are 89% finished with all remaining audio for the game! However, because we had Kunal helping out with story implementation, this has been on the back-burner for some time. Now with the main story complete, audio will be finished rather soon! Here's a sample of the recently-created "Parade" BGM that will be used later in the game. For this one, Kunal pulled heavily from his high school marching band roots! https://soundcloud.com/pixeltonemusic/parade-sample

Talk Soon!

The next update will be on November 11th! And as always, follow our official Roadmap / Twitter bot, and don't forget to check out Leo's Pixel Noir dev stream on Monday & Friday nights for more granular progress-watching, a little bit of fun and some good music! //Team SWDTech

[ 2020-09-02 15:34:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

The End is Nigh!!!

The team has recently finished up Chapter Six and have now moved on to......
::insert gratuitous lens flare:: Like past updates of 100% implementation, completing work on a chapter is the result of a ton of work on nights and weekends which has pushed us to being 84% complete on the development overall! Here's a chart with more details:

What's Next?

Once the final chapter (Chapter 7) is finished, the team will then be moving on to implementing the remaining side quests, enemy encounters, and treasures--among other shady happenings around the city...making this one of the last remaining milestones before Pixel Noir can be totally housecleaned for bugs and polished for maximum enjoyment! After that, porting, localization and launching will all take place. So stay tuned in the coming months and we'll keep you in the know as we cruise towards launch! In the meantime here are some sneak peeks from the past few months of work...
V-Money = Absolute BOSS
Chill out, Woof ::hands Woof a Snickers::
Nice Doggy!

Backer NPC's!

Also, we're thrilled to announce that creation tier backer NPC's are now in the game! A boss sprite-sized thank you to everyone that worked with us on the original concept for these. We are excited to let you all loose to go find them!
We even put in the backer originally inspired environments and the NPCs that go with them in these areas of the game:

Tobias totally gives off the "comic book guy" vibes...

New Tunes!

Finally, since today's a pretty rad milestone update, here's a sample of the "Junkyard" battle theme. BIG guitar riffs all around \m/ LINK: https://soundcloud.com/pixeltonemusic/junkyard-battle-sample

In Conclusion...

Our next update will drop on Aug 25th. As always, follow our official Roadmap / Twitter bot, and also Leo's Pixel Noir dev stream on Monday & Friday nights for more granular progress-watching, a little bit of fun and some good music! Much love and thanks as for the support as always, everyone! //Team SWDTech

[ 2020-06-16 14:19:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! In the midst of the global pandemic, we continue to make great progress on Pixel Noir. We have some great dev news this month, so let's not waste any time and jump right into it!
::coding intesifies::

100% Implementation Of Environments!

As we've said in previous updates, one of the biggest challenges over the past few years of development has been the slow and steady implementation of Pixel Noir's expansive environments. Every layer of detail needed to be hand placed while every nook had to be meticulously crafted to keep our Detective from falling off the world. Here are the new areas we put in for the rest of the game (not included in our Early Access). We know these area maps are a tad small but they should give you a sense of what was involved here with all exteriors, interiors and alleyways included in these images.
In Chapter 4 you can check out the modern day version of the Historical District (The game starts started out here but in the past in Chapter 1).
You'll start Chapter 5 by casing the Boardwalk for clues between playing at the arcade and climbing the lighthouse.
The Fish Market is where Pinnacle's citizens buy fish goods. Despite the smell you'll also find the local union hiding a very large secret (see lab).
Downtown is the heart of the city! You'll be able to walk with the coffee drinkers and random hipsters in Chapter 6.
The Sprawls is a ghetto full of cons and ex-cons alike. You'll pass through here in Chapter 6.
Uptown is the most posh and well financed area of Pinnacle city. Lots of rich folks, business types and upscale apartments to deal with in Chapter 7.

Story Implementation

Since we've closed up environments, the team has shifted its full focus toward the remaining story implementation. We are planning on finishing up Chapter 6 in mid May then moving onto Chapter 7 (the last chapter of the game!!) and then of course the side quests (we have a ton of side quests, It's about another chapter's worth).

NPC Implementation

Len has been working like a dog to put interactions and NPCs into the game. Since mid January. He said "We're slowly populating Pinnacle City with it's odd-ball citizens." and that it's looking like we should be finished with those by mid-May as well!
This guy...

Battle System Update

In one of our previous Kickstarter updates, we described working on a new Asynchronous Turn-Based Battle System. Well, good news! After much tweaking the updated battle system is working really well and we'll continue to be working this into the final game. Our programmer Leo has been streaming his development of this new battle system as well as other coding sessions of Pixel Noir on his Twitch channel https://www.twitch.tv/leolicos [previewyoutube=gorBqAPlbPA;full][/previewyoutube] Our battle overhaul was created to make everything feel much faster, more tactical and more engaging. Your feedback helped us get to update this key portion of the gameplay experience through the Early Access build's "Feedback" button in the settings menu amongst other DMs and suggestions we've received since last June. We feel we've added some much needed game design polish to our street brawls!

Fresh Audio For Your Ear Holes

Finally, for our audio sneak peek part of the update, check out a boss track for one of our hidden bosses! https://soundcloud.com/pixeltonemusic/slime-boss-sample

In Closing

As always you can keep up with development by checking out our roadmap, following our Twitter devbot, or tuning in for Leo's development streams! next update is on June, 15. Until then, stay safe out there! //Team SWDTECH

[ 2020-04-14 18:48:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

As of tonight we will have just put out Patch v.200, where we've continued to crush several bugs and added several needed features: What's New

• Added interior environments to Southside (Residence, Corner Spot and Crawlspace).
• Fixed FPS issues resulting in lag in various places mostly when running
• Names in lists that go outside the bounds of UI now wrap
• Windowed / Fullscreen toggle now available in game Options Menu!
• New revised character portraits added! / Adjustments made to UI to accommodate
• Bug fix: Rain doesn't go away early when teleporting / added rain effect to alleyway (Ch1)
• Bug fix: NPC: Bar Regular's disappearing stool upon interacting (Ch1)
• Bug fix: Able to solve Ballad Of Two-Strings case again after save/loading after already solving case (Ch3-4)
• Bug fix: Cutscene videos play at full volume despite set audio setting options

Known Issues:

• There can be a slight delay when starting the game application.
• Under certain circumstances, the Detective's adrenaline gauge won't fill completely in prep for Combo tutorial (Ch3).
• After getting the clean trench-coat from the laundry place in Southside if you save/load the item glint returns but you can't get another trench-coat (Ch3-4).
• UI_Fullscreen in Options menu in Spanish

[ 2019-12-10 04:43:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sorry for the wait! Here's what we fixed up in patch v.197. What's New - Loading times severely cut down!! - Added MANY new NPCs!!! - Controller type indication icons added to title screen and main menu. - Updated Spanish localization! - Polished various aspects of the UI. - All UI aspects now sourcing from localization. - Added Icons to map / mini-map (helping with finding save points / various shops / places to rest...etc.). - Fixed not being able to see skill slots when in "Plan" mode from Main menu / Skills (Spanish Only). - Gas N Go Interior in Industrial District is now a shop. - Added Old Garage interior to Southside. - Fixed repeating events after save/loading (Ch1). Known Issues - Various FPS issues resulting in lag in various places mostly when running. - There can be a slight delay when starting the game application. - Cutscene videos play at full volume despite set audio setting options. - Stool disappearing under Bar Regular when interacting in Memory Bar (Ch1). - Detective may not be shown on couch asleep before dream sequence (Start of Ch3). - Sometimes the Detective's adrenaline gauge won't fill completely in prep for Combo tutorial (Ch3). - Able to solve Ballad Of Two-Strings case again after save/loading after already solving case (Ch3-4). - After getting the clean trenchcoat from the laundry place in Southside if you save/load the item glint returns but you can't get another trenchcoat (Ch3-4). - Soft lock may occur at random battle by Stretch's in Southside. (Ch3-4) Thanks to everybody who gave us bugs to squash! -Team SWDTech

[ 2019-08-27 23:11:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Wednesday everybody, Last night we pushed a patch where we fixed a bunch of bugs. Thanks to each and every one of you that have been posting bugs or suggesting recommendations--we take your thoughts into consideration with each new sprint. Keep 'em coming! Here's the skinny on what was patched with v.181: What's New

• Fixed several crashing / freeze issues
• Fixed the train save bug
• Adjusted position of branching dialog boxes as to not block the scene
• Fixed various saving / loading issues pertaining to sidequests
• Fixed switching leaders while transitioning through doorways
• Fixed issues with the mini-map accuracy
• Fixed issue with Reload menu showing all the same bullet icons
• Fixed interaction point in Thrift Shop
• Blocked off apartment in Little Shanghai that was sending players into black space
• Added more heal items into Chapter 1 and made boss fight non-fatal
• Fixed missing case descriptions in Spanish
• Fixed more Spanish translation rough spots (places where there is still English text)
• Fixed BGM volume stabilization issue

Known Issues:

• Various FPS issues resulting in lag at various places
• Load times starting a new game can be long
• Additional text that needs to be localized to Spanish (e.g. cutscenes)

Thanks to everybody who contributed for helping making Pinnacle City a better place. -Team SWDTech

[ 2019-06-19 16:14:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody, This is our first patch since the EA public release this past weekend. We fixed a bunch of open bugs so that things play smoother: What's New

• Fixed various spelling issues
• Fixed problems in the beginning of Chapter 2
• Fixed bribe talent freezing the game in some instances
• Fixed running from certain fights freezing the game
• Fixed NPC's missing upon saving / loading
• Fixed various layering / collider issues
• Fixed meeting Woof at the docks freezing game in some instances
• Fixed White Tigers not showing up in the Junkyard after second alleyway fight in Chapter 3
• Fixed various bugs with skills
• Fixed missing dialog keys
• Fixed issues around how 'Game Over' is handled
• Fixed clipping through vehicles
• Fixed Spanish translation rough spots (places where there is still English text)

Known Issues:

• FPS issues in the Casino
• In rare cases Spanish translation may be missing dialog only displaying their dialog keys (IE: SearchTent_Detective_2) OR certain text may not be translated properly and still show up in English
• The mini map may become inaccurate if you go into tight corners in exterior areas--this problem usually fixes itself by changing area environments

Thanks again to all for the hype, bug finding, and all the great discussions and reviews/curation! Happy sleuthing, detectives! -Team SWDTech

[ 2019-06-11 16:34:49 CET ] [ Original post ]