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X-Noir Near Completion

  • Stoic
  • 05/28/2014 06:27 PM
  • 2021 views
Now that Labyrinthine Dreams is complete and out on steam Volrath and I have had time to start refocusing on our other projects. The two running right now are codenamed Project Kobold which we plan to be our next commercial project and also another game in the Solest universe... and X-Noir.

Despite 0 feedback on case 4 Volrath and I felt it was worthwhile to complete the game since we were fairly close to done. Case 5 is more or less done and Case 6 (the final case) is also nearing completion. Volrath is still committed to the project although my interest in it has faltered quite a bit as of late. Seems silly though to leave an open loop when we're so near completion.

I do notice a pattern though. Besides when we initially worked on the game back in June 2012 we've had long periods of inactivity. It wasn't always related to the game. There was sickness, babies, Labyrinthine Dreams, et.. But for me there was also a lack of intrinsic motivation. Perhaps because there's no extrinsic motivation as well. Although that's always just been fuel added to the fire. But for me the fire is mostly just smoldering ashes right now.

That said, I don't want the game taking up either of our attention. So I think there is value in finishing the game. It's also another notch in our belt. It might never be widely played but it's nice to have to show that we were working on something at the time and this is what we thought was important. Although it can be painful.

I guess this blog post REALLY came about because I was playing through the game again - particularly the intro. Having had a little more time apart from the game and looking at it more objectively I'm finding a lot of faults with it. Nothing that hasn't really been said before. I'm reading through old blogs and reviews again and agreeing with a lot of the criticism I see there. It's hard when you're deeply invested in a project to see these things but now that I don't feel so invested maybe that's why they're even more apparent.

Anyway, that was a bit of a meandering blog post. I guess we'll be finishing the game within the next few weeks. If so, we might release it here. Or we might just share it with our friends. If we do put in the effort to get a public version ready I hope some of the people that invested time in it before will finish it. Around case 3 I think the game really starts to hit its stride. Not many people have seen them yet but case 4 and 5 have some great scenes and I really like how the new zones came out.

It's legacy might be that it had characters and a world that inspired Labyrinthine Dreams and maybe even future titles.

Posts

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NeverSilent
Got any Dexreth amulets?
6299
05/28/2014 06:56 PM
It is always a good idea to take a critical look at your own work; But I think this blog post is overly pessimistic. Now that many of the initial flaws (the most famous example being the shooting through walls) have been ironed out, I really don't see what's fundamentally wrong with X-Noir any more. In my opinion, it still is a well-written and worthwhile game, and I've been looking forward to cases 5 and 6 a lot. I did give feedback on case 4 and will do the same for the following cases as soon as they're ready.
Please just don't feel like this game is not worth the effort. There are many people who are enthusiastic about X-Noir.
icovoc
295
05/28/2014 07:56 PM
I'm definitely pumped for the game. Looking forward to playing it whenever it's out; really curious to see the different directions you two have gone in since Master of the Wind.
Stoic
2071
05/28/2014 08:01 PM
Hey NS. I do appreciate your posts over at the website and I'm looking forward to your feedback on cases 5 and 6. When I said there hadn't been any feedback I was mostly referring to here. But as a whole there hasn't been a lot of interaction with the game.

I didn't want this post to come off as pessimistic. I was just being absolutely honest about my feelings about the state of the game right now.
Stoic
2071
05/28/2014 08:02 PM
author=icovoc
I'm definitely pumped for the game. Looking forward to playing it whenever it's out; really curious to see the different directions you two have gone in since Master of the Wind.


Thanks icovoc. If you haven't already you might want to check out Labyrinthine Dreams which was a game that was inspired by X-Noir. It's on Steam right now.
Volrath
2760
05/28/2014 08:06 PM
author=NeverSilent
Please just don't feel like this game is not worth the effort. There are many people who are enthusiastic about X-Noir.


You've been a great supporter of all our work, but I have to admit I feel like if there are a lot of people who really enjoyed this one, they've kept pretty quiet.

I can think of a few things I could have done better with this one...it took me a long time to nail the mixture of seriousness and irony that I wanted (and some might argue that I still haven't figured it out). Having an intro that relies on a twist in Case 5 to congeal with the rest of the story might have been ill-advised. I also probably erred in regard to which characters are emphasized early on in the game...important ones like Regina Keller and Christina Vong probably should have been introduced earlier.

But despite that, I am pretty pleased overall with the story, characters and world. I feel like it's strong enough to support other games and indeed, already has. The whole reason Beth and Artie are in Labyrinthine Dreams is because I was reluctant to fully disengage from X-Noir when we were coming up with the idea. Leaving this story orphaned without an ending would have drove me nuts.

This one may always be the red-headed stepchild of Solest's body of work, but I think there are a lot of lessons from it that we can apply to future projects. And who knows, you guys may see Eddie Humphrey again someday...
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