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