In our humble series of interviews with developers, today is SWDTech‘s turn, with Pixel Noir, to answer our questions. We’ve talked about it a number of times here on our website: Pixel Noir is an investigation RPG in which you take the mantle of a detective resolving various cases. After a successful Kickstarter campaign and a development cycle apparently just as successful, Pixel Noir got its 1.0. release earlier in 2024 and has been updated ever since.
Now, to the questions!
RPGJV: Hello and thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! Could you introduce yourselves?
Len Stuart: We are SWDTech Games, the team behind Pixel Noir started as a passion project by Kunal Majmudar and myself; Len Stuart.
RPGJV: How did you get the idea for the game?
LS: The idea for Pixel Noir first came as a notice of the severe lack of modern day mystery themed turn based RPGs in the last 30+ years.
RPGJV: What were your influences during the development of the game?
LS: Earthbound – Chrono Trigger – Shadowrun – Grandia – Super Mario RPG
RPGJV: How much time did the development take?
LS: 11 years from putting together a stable dev team, 2 kickstarters and spending all the rest of the time developing / testing / strategically marketing the game.
RPGJV: How many people worked on the game?
LS: 12 people worked on the game from permanent dev cycle long members to freelance hit and run members.
RPGJV: What tools did you use?
LS: Photoshop / Unity engine
RPGJV: What should be the future of the game? Do you have any plans?
LS: We plan to port it to major consoles and get it localized in multiple languages.
RPGJV: What are the features and specificities of Pixel Noir? Its length? Its replay value?
LS: Pixel Noir runs anywhere from 10-12 hrs just rushing through the game to over 100 hours with exploring and picking up various side quests (cases). Turn based battle system with party combos / upgradable skills with timed hits blocks button inputs. Wide exploration with mini map and individual case tracking. Complex card game where you can win or lose money. New Game + carries over items levels and skills from a pervious play through with choices from the first play through being highlighted so players know what choices they made previously.
RPGJV: What is the story of the game?
LS: Without giving too much away it’s a story about a detective on the force who makes a huge mistake and ends up in jail. After he gets out he becomes a PI and receives a chance to clear his name.
RPGJV: What influences did you use to create the lore and universe of the game?
LS: I watched a bunch of film Noir and film Noir adjacent movies like Sin City, Dark City, Brick, Fight Club, A Scanner Darkly, Blue Velvet – which helped me edit and develop the events and scenes in Pixel Noir to be more true to life to help in steering away from typical RPG tropey dialogue or situations.
RPGJV: Do you have a favorite character in the game?
LS: Speaking for myself, not really, although the consensus between the team and fans is that Woof is everyone’s boy.
RPGJV: Do you have a specific moment of the game you prefer above all others?
LS: I do and it’s a spoiler (pssst, just go play the game!)
RPGJV: How were the game critics during the Early Access phase? Did you change some aspects of the game?
LS: Early Access was a chance to see how the game did in the public space. It was well received despite the many bugs we would fix later on. There isn’t much we changed to the game since the early access except for QoL changes that made things easier or maneuver through the games systems.
RPGJV: Do you have a particular regret regarding the game? Did you have to unwillingly take something away from it despite the desire to keep it/implement it? Why?
LS: One thing we had then took out was the ability to do more in investigation mode, a feature that allows the player to see hidden objects, clues and paths throughout the game. Originally, you could select highlighted objects in investigation mode followed up by a choice menu. Listen to people’s thoughts. Examine certain objects… etc. We ended up taking this out because we couldn’t come up with enough dialogue to make this mechanic intriguing enough to the player so we scrapped it and made investigation mode a basic use feature.
RPGJV: Do you plan on localizing Pixel Noir in French for our players?
LS: Possibly, demand through fan outreach determines whether we will localize in French. While we’ve had a few inquiries about French localization we are finding we have a very high demand from players / fans to localize in Spanish. So we may go in that direction first before taking on French localization.
Thanks again for your time!
Pixel Noir is available on Steam.
Interview en français.
