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Announcement

When NOT to go commercial

When Volrath and I first came up with X-Noir we determined that this would be our first commercial project. But neither of us had much funds so we decided we would do a Kickstarter once we had a sizable demo. Rather than just jump into the fray we decided to put the demo on some of the big RM sites and see what the response was. And so we put it up and waited. And waited. And waited.

It seemed no one was interested in trying out the game. We thought the noir theme might draw people's attention but it didn't seem to. Not even the promise of a completely unique ABS. The RTP sprites probably didn't help either. Our game was for the most part lost in the already oversaturated project forums. Eventually I requested some reviews and surprisingly some very generous members answered the call. We got some great feedback which gave us added insight into the project. Probably the biggest insight was that this would not be our first commercial game.

It's not that we view the game as a failure or anything. We still plan on finishing it and adding it to our library of games (which is currently just MotW). I'm actually proud of how experimental it is. Volrath and I went out of our element working on this game both story and gameplay wise. Not all of it worked but I'm glad we attempted it. I'm not going to go into details since you can read about most of it in the reviews themselves.

So X-Noir will remain free. Volrath and I still plan on going commercial in the future but it won't be with this project. Hopefully this game will still find an audience that will enjoy it.

Progress Report

More Art

Ronnie has been working on the halfway house residents. I think they are some of her best profiles yet. But you don't have to take my word for it. Here's profiles of (left-to-right) Diamond, Monk and Chicken Wayne.



In other news, we should have some big announcements forthcoming about the future of the project.

Request

Looking For Feedback

Nothing new to report. Just a request. We're looking to get more feedback for our game. We'd be real appreciative of any new comments or (even better) a review! We'd especially like to see more analysis of the story and characters. The game touches upon some dark themes like alcoholism and depression/suicide and we'd like to hear how that resonates with people. Thanks!

Announcement

New Demo

After almost a month of silence the demo is now live! To reiterate it includes the following features:

  • Entirely redone city maps using Celianna's new futuristic tileset
  • Custom profile faces done by Ronnie of SSP fame
  • Custom sprite work from Raven the Dark Angel and Cup o Wisps
  • An all new action-oriented intro
  • Case 3 which follows the conclusion of the last demo
  • Improvements to the battle system
  • Bug fixes


I hope everyone enjoys the new demo and leaves some feedback. We love to hear from you.

Announcement

New Demo Forthcoming

If you haven't tried out the last X-noir demo then you might want to hold off. The X-Noir team has been hard at work on a definitive demo that will have the following features:
  • Entirely redone city maps using Celianna's new futuristic tileset

  • Custom profile faces done by Ronnie of SSP fame

  • Custom sprite work from Raven the Dark Angel and Cup o Wisps

  • An all new intro that focuses more on gameplay

  • Case 3 which follows the conclusion of the last demo

  • ... and many more minor improvements!


We're currently in the testing phase so it shouldn't be much longer till we have a public release. I'll keep the page posted with new details!

Progress Report

Let There be Art

There's been more progress on the art front since I last posted a blog. Rye has been hard at work on making custom profiles for some of our more featured characters. Here is a nice compilation of all the profiles she's finished so far.

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We've also had some help from RavenTheDarkAngel. She's done some awesome custom sprites for us including a sprite for Eddie based off of Rye's art. Here's a screen of him waiting for the bus.

Show


In addition to the art we have also made a lot of progress on the next demo. More details on that soon!

Progress Report

Custom Faces

Tired of looking at those character generated faces? Well, we've enlisted the very talented Rye to help us with custom portraits for our game! Below are the first few profiles we've received.

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Eddie

Show

Young Eddie


What do you guys think? :)

Announcement

X-Noir Demo

It's been several months of quiet but now the X-Noir demo is finally available to play! The demo runs about 2 hours and features the first 2 cases of the game.

This is our first release outside of Master of the Wind so we're excited to see what old fans think as well as new ones. Hope everyone enjoys it and looking forward to your feedback!

Miscellaneous

X-Noir Arcader

Minor update for MotW fans. In the first case of X-Noir you will be challenged to beat a gamer's high score in an arcade game. The arcade game is BARON'S QUEST. The goal is to defeat the evil vampire queen Ariel and survive against the onslaught of her minions until sunrise. This is a clip from the last zone. Obviously it's pretty insane.

http://youtu.be/2c7iLU0ML7Q
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