It was a dark and rainy night when the universe was created, or at least that’s the case in the new Kickstarter title Genesis Noir.
All The Time In Existence
Developed by Feral Cat Den, the title is an adventure game that takes place before, during and after the Big Bang, all from the perspective of the godly detective No Man. When a quarrel of passion between gods fills the inky blackness of space with a bang, and sends creation hurtling out with a bullet’s ferocity, only No Man can try to set things right and save his love before it’s too late. He’ll move the stars themselves to protect her, and maybe even destroy everything once or twice in the process.
Players will venture into the burgeoning blast of existence to alter its course, exploring fragments of life yet to become. One area might have the player venturing across fields, interacting with fallen stars to clear the way forward; in another, they could find themselves conversing with another god in her cosmic Jazz bar, filled with mingling deities; and in yet another, they’ll tumble through the broken debris of street lamps and sidewalks into the unknown.
The premise has all the trademarks of a classic pulp crime noir novel, but stays whimsical in tone thanks to its cosmic scale. The idea of the universe being created from an argument between two godly forces is certainly an interesting one, and how Feral Cat presents the Big Bang as a gunshot bleeds originality.
Stylized Significance
The art goes a long way in selling this, blending simple 2D designs with sweeping seas of stars and nebulae. The simple line art sprites of the characters stretch and sprawl across the solemn voids of space, depicting sketch art in motion as No Man interacts with objects to alter creation’s trajectory. This is all done primarily using a black and white color scheme, further adding to the classic Noir tone.
The music is phenomenal as well, filling each story beat with jazzy tunes out of a ’30s night club in space. The score is composed by the London-based Skillbard, members of the independent creators and animators group Late Night Work Club who are credited with creating scores for the Australian animation studio Rubber House as well as Cartoon Network’s Lasso and Comet. A full list of their works can be viewed on their site.
A Hazy Dream Turned Reality
Though the game has been in development for sometime – see the first teaser trailer, which was posted February of last year – the project has really come into its own since then, as seen in an interactive prologue now available to play (Fair warning though: It can be a bit finicky on Mac OS). It’s more than worthy of the praise its been given by publications and other developers, and considering it achieved nearly a quarter of its funding goal after only 24 hours on Kickstarter, its patrons share much the same sentiments.
Genesis Noir’s campaign is set to run on Kickstarter until February 16 at 9:36 a.m. MST. Should it reach its funding goal of $40,000, the game has a full release window of December 2019.
