The pixel-art RPG Pixel Noir has been released:

PIXEL NOIR | OFFICIAL LAUNCH TRAILER

Pinnacle City has a problem, and you’re the only one that can solve it. But will chasing the answer cost you your sanity? Pixel Noir is out today — check it out on Steam now

The Early Access version of Pixel Noir will be available tomorrow:

Game Features:

Living on the streets of a dump like Pinnacle City, there’s only two things to keep you going: A pack of cigarettes and the feeling that there’s more than this.

There was something rotten in that rundown place. You were in over your head, but you were too proud to admit it. It was your pride that killed your partner. With the hospital burned to a crisp and nothing to exonerate you, they threw you in jail.

For ten years you were haunted by unanswered questions and unspeakable horror, frightened by what you saw, what you did - and what you could still do. Now you’re scraping by as a private eye, running a business out of a crappy apartment. But a chance comes along to clear your name once and for all. With your sanity at stake, how can you afford not to take it?

Pixel Noir is a turn-based RPG set against a film noir backdrop.

• Solve a variety of mysteries as Pinnacle City’s cheapest Private Eye! From missing pets to murder investigations, your detective skills will earn you either fortune or face punches.
• Fight enemies in turn-based combat. Unleash devastating combo attacks by teaming up with other heroes in your team!
• Explore Pinnacle City--a wretched hive of scum and villainy harboring black market trade & hawked by colorful characters.
• Use your investigation mode to reveal clues and over time unearth new secrets and storylines!

Some gameplay by TheHeroOfLight:

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The SWDTech Games crew is happy - Pixel Noir Kickstarter update #19:

WE DID IT! Thanks, Add On Update, and Whats to Come!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

I haven't felt this way in a long time. Its like beating a game that really meant something to you. You've conquered the final fight, the credits are rolling, and you have a moment to reflect on your entire journey.

I want to keep this short so we can do a much larger, in depth update for all of you, but I couldn't wait. I had to swing in and let you know how incredible this is for all of us at SWDTech Games.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[...]

 All great things to come!

So, now the real work begins. Here is an idea of what we are getting into right away:

• Closing out the Kickstarter. This involves reaching out to all of you beautiful people to make sure all of your pledges are set, you picked up everything you need, and all of your information is received by our team.
• Money for rewards is going to get ear marked immediately, even before we have the money in our hands. That money will be locked down and put into a pipeline to create the reward tiers as soon as possible!
• Continue constructing Pixel Noir. We are diving right in! We will have lots of things to share with you through development! Showing you guys how we work and what we are working on is a keystone of our development plans! Get excited, its going to be a fantastic time!

Did we say thank you?

No seriously, this is a dream come true for us. Thank you. We will shower you further with love and praise in the next, big update! Stay tuned, gumshoes!

//Tim Robinson, Sleepy Project Manager

The Pixel Noir Kickstarter campaign has almost reched the $50000 strtech goal - 4 days to go:

Update 14: Heart Forth Alicia Cross Over & Vance Royal pt. 2

Well folks, we are already 1 day into our final week and you guys are DESTROYING UNIVERSES :O We jumped nearly 10% to 163% funded in a matter of hours today! This unbelievably puts us in stone's throw of unlocking the 3DS stretch goal!

We hope everybody's enjoying the new demo which was released Wednesday evening! Keep an eye on our social media! We'll be helping to get the word out on livestreamers stream Pixel Noir! And don't forget to vote for us on Steam Greenlight!

New Crossover Announcement!

We have some more great news today! The Heart Forth, Alicia team were great allies to Pixel Noir during our last campaign. They took the time to give us a HUGE shout out during their campaign and this time around, we would like to shine the spotlight on them!

Pixel Noir will be crossing over with Heart Forth, Alicia! We loved this Metroidvania RPG concept and similar to our crossover with Shovel Knight, we are working with the Heart Forth, Alicia team to create a small cross over for everyone to find and enjoy! We will have more exciting details as we get further into development!

[...]

Some updates for Pixel Noir and a short story:

We are working overtime for you guys to try and get some cool things together for you! Here is a taste:

• Physical Rewards Samples. We wanted to put out prototype images of reward tiers (T-shirt, collectors editions, etc).The art on these will NOT be final, but we wanted to give you an idea of what you are getting!
• A new Kickstarter Build. Leo, Stephen, and Kunal have all been working their faces off trying to update our current Kickstarter build with some new features! This will be dropping soon, so keep an eye on these updates!
• Reward Tier and Stretch Goal Updates. We've been listening to your feedback and will be revising some reward tier options this week! Get ready to hop onboard the all-digital tier hype train!
• Linux support. We've been looking into it and are working on a plan for you guys. Please stand by!
• FANSTORM. We love the support and energy in spreading the word about Pixel Noir! Lend us your voice once again to get Pixel Noir as far along in stretch goals as possible! Tomorrow's FANSTORM target will be announced early tomorrow morning. Stay tuned!

We have an incredible story to present to you in Pixel Noir. Our writer, Jennifer Keating, has built a bustling world filled with both good and terrible characters amidst a story dripping with power plays and double-crosses. One figure above others stands out and casts the longest shadow of them all...
[Story follows here...]

Cliqist checked out the Pixel Noir demo - some first impressions:

I'll be honest. Until now I had yet to see an RPG tackle film noir tropes. With Pixel Noir that’s changed and I decided to give the demo released for it a spin. And I have to say that the very little bit shown shows plenty of promise. While the story would probably have suited a medium like adventures better I do really like the approach that the developers are taking with this.

So, as with any good noir story, the demo starts out with a hungover Detective as he answers a knocking at his shabby apartment door. Yes, that’s the character’s name. I’m assuming that it’s a placeholder for right now and that you can rename him whatever you want when playing the full game. Anyway, you’re greeted by a client known only as “Deuce” who wants you to track down someone that’s gone silent. You pretty much have no choice but to take him up on it and you leave for the local bar.

Here’s where it stops being just another pixelated story using an RPG overlay. You get your first taste of combat in the alleyway behind the bar. And, like most turn-based games of its type you’ve got an “active time battle” system complete with standard attacks, special abilities, and items. You’re pretty much limited to using your gun and going on a “coffee break.” I didn’t use the latter but I can only assume that it’s an HP restorer.

The demo for Pixel Noir then continues as you smack the information out of the dude riddled with bullet holes and he leads you to a warehouse down by the docks. So, of course you head down there and meet up with your quarry. Who promptly tells you that things are afoot and that he’s being hunted by the same people that hired the Detective to go looking for him. Then the crap really hits the fan.

Deuce promptly shows up in the middle of the conversation, says that both parties have reneged on their “contracts” and that payment is off. Then shoots the guy that we’ve been tracking down. Followed promptly by our “hero” getting a headache and starts to see things that belong in a nightmare. Which, presumably, is tied to whatever happened to his old partner years ago that sent him to prison. It’s not really stated in what we’ve got to play around with.

Here’s what I love about what I saw with Pixel Noir so far. While we’ve barely scratched the surface and only taken on one case it does set the stage for what’s to come. It plays out just like most 16-bit titles from the past, right down to the turn based combat. Which actually works. Sometimes a shoot-out is inevitable, particularly in detective stories. It’s not easy being a down on your luck gumshoe taking whatever comes through your door, and despite only being about a half hour long it gives us a taste of what to expect. I really do look forward to seeing where they take our Detective once the game releases.

The Kickstarter campaign for Pixel Noir is making its way through the stretch goals:

Folks, we have been doing an amazing job - blasting through our first two stretch goals in a couple of days! Thanks to you, both an Xbox One port and NEW GAME+ are officially unlocked! It happened all so quickly that we didn't even get a chance to tell you all about our plans for NEW GAME+! Well, we'll save that one for a future update :)

Our current stretch goal is the card mini-game. At the time of writing this update, we are amazingly a mere $75 away from having this in-game!

With 20 days still left in the campaign, I think it's safe to say that you guys are absolutely DESTROYING these goals one by one :O

Thanks Eye!

Didn't notice that Pixel Noir was back on Kickstarter again after it not making its pledge goal in May. At that time they asked for $97K and in their current campaign they ask for $30K, which they have surpassed with still more than 3 weeks to go. There are already 6 updates on the game, which you can go and read for yourself.
If you are wondering what the game is about, then read this:

Pixel Noir is a JRPG-inspired detective game set against a film noir backdrop. Think Earthbound meets Sin City!

• Solve a variety of mysteries as Pinnacle City’s cheapest Private Eye! From missing pets to murder investigations, your detective skills will earn you either fortune or face punches. 
• Fight enemies in turn-based combat. Unleash devastating combo attacks by teaming up with other heroes in your team! 
• Explore Pinnacle City--a wretched hive of scum and villainy harboring black market trade & hawked by colorful characters.
• Use your investigation mode to reveal clues. Level it up over time to unearth new secrets and storylines!

Taking on jobs from your clientele will push you deeper into seedy Pinnacle City. From missing pets to murder investigations, your detective skills will earn you either fortune or face punches!

Heroes will have their own, personalized gestures! Subtle actions like these add to the sense of pixelated immersion you'll feel while playing Pixel Noir.

Thanks Eye.

Well it seems to be a bad month for most kickstarter RPGs as Pixel Noir is the next one to be unsuccessful as it only managed to get $36,454 of the games $97,000 goal.

Life after Kickstarter

While our Kickstarter campaign wasn't successful in meeting its funding goal, we succeeded in doing two things:

1) Meeting all of you--all our awesome backers and supporters.

2) Getting some great coverage and exposure. It wasn't enough to fund the Kickstarter, but it was more than enough to make a significant impact in the industry.

As stated in numerous interviews and press articles, we will fight to make Pixel Noir a reality for all of us. By hail or high-water. This is, of course, easier said than done, but we have a few paths open to us. As many backers have suggested, we may choose to de-scope the game a bit and release another Kickstarter a few months down the road.

Or we may develop the game ourselves over a longer development timeline.

Or we may even reach back out to publishers to see if we can work with a publisher who will allow us to keep Pixel Noir true to its core design.

In fact, we are already exploring all of these possibilities and others (such as Steam Greenlight). The bottom line is that the fight is not over in 10 hours. In fact, the fight has just begun. And we hope you will be there right beside us with pistol raised and shotgun cocked. 

Get ready. Because we're going to build a game together.

SWDTech Games sent out a press release with information about the soundtrack for their Kickstarter RPG Pixel Noir. Here are the details from the developer.

PIXEL NOIR Soundtrack Evokes Golden Age of JRPGs

New York City, New York - April 30, 2014 - SWDTech Games is delighted to announce the availability of a soundtrack sampler for their 16-bit-flavored role-playing title, PIXEL NOIR. In what's been described as an equal blend of Chrono Trigger and Shadowrun, PIXEL NOIR aims to resurrect the classic JRPG, and has taken to Kickstarter to fund development and stay true to their vision rather than cave into publisher pressure to add pay-to-play features and cater to a casual audience.

PIXEL NOIR's soundtrack is composed by SWDTech Games Business Development & Audio Lead Kunal Majmudar, who is best known for his role in the game music cover band, The OneUps, and the remixing group, The Bad Dudes. The soundtrack combines 8-bit and orchestral elements that are heavily influenced by JRPGs of the 8-bit through PlayStation eras. The PIXEL NOIR: Super Mysterious Detective Sampler is currently available on Bandcamp, and can be streamed in its entirety for a taste of what to expect:

PIXEL NOIR: Super Mysterious Detective Sampler on Bandcamp

As a part of the ongoing PIXEL NOIR Kickstarter campaign, the full soundtrack, which is being painstakingly crafted by Majmudar, will be available in digital format starting at the $25 support level and in physical format at the $100 support level. Multiple other backer rewards are available as well, and fans of this golden age of JRPGs are encouraged to check out the Kickstarter campaign:

"PIXEL NOIR is a 16-bit love letter to the 20- and 30-something gamers who grew up playing games like Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and the early Final Fantasy games," comments Majmudar. "It explores a more adult and little explored stylistic niche while baking in all the best features of classic JRPGs." The game features:

- A classic 16-bit look, feel, and sound, but upgraded with things like motion comic cut-scenes and 3D atmospheric effects

- A 10+ hour detective story about a private eye gumshoe who begins to question his sanity throughout his journey to solve a case from his past that should have been long dead and buried

- Classic game design concepts upgraded for modern-day platforms including streamlined graphical interface, unlockable achievements, and cross-save functionality, allowing you to save and play the game across multiple devices

- Explore a dynamic and ever-changing world with Pinnacle City. There's plenty to do and see here if you look hard enough-including tons of side quests, hidden missions, and black market stores

The team is looking forward to sharing more of PIXEL NOIR's features and music with their supporters as development continues, and for those interested in the full soundtrack release, there's still time to contribute through May 11, 2014.

Pixel Noir has 12 days left, and still needs another $70,000. Also SWDTech Games has posted a new kickstarter update today about the games battle system.

Battle System

For today’s update we thought we’d talk a bit about Pixel Noir’s battle system and explain how it works, feels, and plays. Having a robust battle system is absolutely critical for classic RPG’s, so it should come as no surprise that we spent a fair amount of time designing and tweaking our battle system.

Fast-paced, yet strategic

Pixel Noir’s battle system goes at the speed that you prefer. It uses an Active Time Bar (ATB) to determine order of attack.

The ATB clock temporarily freezes while the player is choosing an action for a character. This means that if you’re a strategic thinker, you can take time to plan out your attack.

Timed Hits & Other Mechanics

We don’t ever want players to feel like they are mindlessly clicking their way through fights. We want you excited, engaged, and invested in every shot fired.

That’s why we made the decision to have battle in Pixel Noir revolve around player interaction. Basic attacks and defense include a timed hit and a timed block where you tap the screen at the right time to do extra damage to an enemy or to block some/all of the damage done to your character.

SWDTech Games talks about the story of Pixel Noir, and how it will play out in the latest kickstarter update. The game has fourteen days left to get funded.

Story & Pacing

For today’s update, we focus on something near and dear to our heart—the story of Pixel Noir. For us “story” is not simply the plot of the game. It’s bigger than that. It’s lore; it’s dynamic interactions; it’s design. 

The Tale of Pixel Noir 

You had it all, once: a job, respect, a chance to make a difference in the world. And as an up-and-coming detective in the Pinnacle City Police Department, you were well on your way to doing just that. But you got cocky – following a lead on a cold case that you were convinced you alone could solve. Instead, the only thing it led to was your undoing; taking the lives of innocent people, including your partner, Det. Cold, in the process. 

Ten years later, with detours in the nuthouse and a bottle of scotch, you’ve hung your hat in Pinnacle City. It’s no garden spot anymore, but it’s still home to a colorful population of washouts, dirtbags and big time crooks. Lucky for you, these sad sacks provide your private eye business with plenty of cases: mostly snapping pictures of cheating spouses and telling poor saps what they already know. Every now and again, a Mr. ‘Deuce’ pops up like a bad habit, paying too much for jobs that are too much trouble than they’re worth. No friends to speak of, unless you count the bartender at the local watering hole. And maybe the local wild man Woof, though he’s not so much of a friend as he is a cocker spaniel with fists. It’s not a great life, but it’s uncomplicated and it’s yours. 

And then someone has to ruin it all by bringing up the past. You thought that cold case was dead and buried, but a new lead’s crossed your desk that may unearth everything. But as new evidence is brought to light, your sanity starts sinking into darkness. Without warning, people contort into gruesome monsters; alleyways melt into visceral mazes. How can you hope to uncover the truth, when your own senses betray you? 

Story as Design 

We’ve worked hard to test and optimize things like pacing of dialogue, pacing of story, and how conversations look and feel. 

From the get-go we knew that Pixel Noir needed to be told at the right pace, not only from a story perspective, but from a dialogue perspective as well. Everybody at one point or other has experienced a game that has had either too much or not enough dialogue—and we wanted to ensure this is paced right especially for mobile players who may not have the time to sit through 10 minutes of conversation. 

When we started building our pre-alpha demo for publishers, we thought about how to visually display conversations in Pixel Noir. We wanted to ensure that they were intuitive and easy to understand. At first, we thought about having conversation boxes appear near the character with differently colored boxes depicting who is talking. It worked, but didn’t really look great. 

SWDTech Games talks about a new cross save system for Pixel Noir in he games latest kickstarter update. The system will allow to play and save your game anywhere.

Cross Save

Summer vacations, holidays, and long weekends gave many of us growing up the chance to lose ourselves in our favorite video game worlds. Whether it was Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, or another title, long-form RPG’s require time and patience to unravel deep, often complicated stories. Many times they don’t have voice-over and require the player to read through heavy dialogue.

Growing up made it much harder to find the same time to dedicate to gaming as when we were younger. The worst part about this is that, as a player with little time to invest in an RPG, we lose a sense of immersion in the story and lore of the game.

It's not that we don't love RPG's as much. It's simply that our lifestyles have changed. 20 years ago, you would have one or multiple gaming-specific devices and then separate telephone devices. These days, people have two different types of gaming devices: computers/consoles and smartphones/tablets--and two very different types of games for either device.

Enter Cross Save. This handy feature allows you to play the game and switch between any of the supported platforms seamlessly, without skipping a beat in your game’s progress. It's a lifestyle feature. And it resonates deep within Pixel Noir's game design.

Cross Save is the reason that when you pledge to our Kickstarter, you will receive the game on TWO platforms—a console/PC platform as well a mobile platform. And if you have a mobile lifestyle (which apparently 90+% of you do), this is great news for you.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that getting seamless cross-platform support will be easy with consoles. We will have our fair share of challenges implementing Cross Save between Sony and non-Sony devices. But if you don’t try, you sure as heck don’t succeed.

We want to kick off a trend where a person can purchase a game and play it on whatever they want with no shortcomings. No shoddy ports, no being forced to buy a game again just to start from the beginning, no excuses for poor design.

SWDTech Games talks about the new reward tiers, and talk about what's coming next in third kickstarter update for Pixel Noir. As for funfing the game still needs $78,000.

Reward Tiers & What's Coming

Before we kick off this update, I just want to thank everybody who pledged, commented, liked, shared, upvoted, blogged or did anything else to support Pixel Noir! You guys are awesome--thanks for your continued support!

What's Coming

As promised, here are the topics we’ll be tackling throughout the rest of the Kickstarter campaign. Stick with us, we've got some very cool things that we can't wait to talk about and show off!

We also need everyone to share the Kickstarter EVERYWHERE! Post it on your Facebook, talk about it on reddit, Tweet about it to friends and people you think might be interested. We’ve already gotten some great media coverage, but every little bit helps! If you know somebody in the video game press, tell them about Pixel Noir!

SWDTech Games has posted the second update for Pixel Noir with more information from Pax East, and mentions a few reward tier updates.

Reward Updates!

Thanks so much to those who brought the $15 reward tier to our attention—and especially those who were defending us! It was a mistake that we made while making our updates at PAX. I’m happy to announce that the $15 tier cap has been lifted! Here are the details. We’ve even included a special thank you to those who pledged at $25 or higher:

• The 15$ Tier will be RE-OPENED! Anyone on the fence about the game can now slide in at this really sweet price! 
• The 25$ Tier will be UPGRADED! Anyone who has the 25$ Tier or above will now have the opportunity to have Stretch the Bartender join their party in Pixel Noir! All of his attacks will be Bartending based and he can only be obtained through a $25 or higher Kickstarter pledge.

Upcoming, we are gearing up to show off some more of the game! We are getting some images together of the Equipment, Weapon (with info on weapon customization!), and Leveling up systems for you guys to sink your teeth into!

Those systems contain a lot about how Pixel Noir works, and yes, you should get excited!

And lastly, I want to ask all of you to help get the word out about Pixel Noir! Please share the Kickstarter on Facebook, Tweet about it, have discussions on Reddit, and even try to let your favorite gaming websites know about us!

Pixel Noir is the latest kickstarter to go live this week asking for $97,000. The game is being developed by a small studio called SWDTech Games.

Help fund a JRPG-inspired, 16-bit noir detective Role Playing Game!

Who can you trust when you can’t trust yourself?

Something happened that night in the hospital - something that cost you your career as a police detective, your sanity and your partner's life. Ten years later, you have the chance to put things right. Are the hallucinations that plague you a key to what happened that fateful night? Muster your detective skills and gather your allies as you take to the streets to prove your innocence!

The developers also have a new update about International Tiers.

PAX East Update & International Tiers

Thanks to all our backers for your support! We had an amazing time at PAX East meeting you all, getting your feedback, and seeing the incredible support and response to our game! Once we get back from PAX, we'll answer more of your questions and messages on Kickstarter, Facebook, Twitter, and email.

Due to an oversight, we had no international shipping available. We have now added new tiers to allow worldwide pledges as we always meant to have the game available to play for everyone. So no matter where you are, you can now pledge to Pixel Noir!

Thanks again for your support! Look out for further updates next week and keep spreading the word!