How psychedelic detective game Nirvana Noir is adding 3D and colour to its nostalgic graphic design look

Nirvana Noir is certainly one of the most visually unique indie games you'll find, if not for the fact it's a sequel to 2021's Genesis Noir, where its eye-catching graphic design for depicting a world of cosmic beings began.

While this sequel takes a leap from its predecessor's moody jazzy noir to something more colourful and psychedelic, Brooklyn-based indie studio Feral Cat Den's eye-watering minimalist aesthetic is still intact.

"We came mostly from a motion graphics background in commercial animation and design, which always favoured that economical character style," technical lead Jeremy Abel says in reference to my impressions of the visual design, which is carried over to the sequel.

Two timelines, two styles

Nirvana Noir doesn't merely stick to the same monochrome aesthetic but also introduces colour that distinguishes how this game has two different timelines to play through, one where the Big Bang was stopped, the other where it wasn't.

Creative lead Evan Anthony tells me the decision to make a sequel was made as as the team was finishing off Genesis Noir, and then working on DLC for it. "In the very beginning of that story, you see the city where that gunshot takes place, but you don't really explore it much," he explains.

He adds: "And we were very curious what that metaphysical metropolis would be, a place where a gunshot could create a whole universe, what are the cosmic beings that live in there, what is the architecture and the space in the city and what kinds of stories could be told in there?"

For those who haven't played Genesis Noir, Anthony believes Nirvana Noir isn't exactly a full sequel, given its split timeline structure, so is also hopeful that newcomers can pick up this new entry without feeling confused.

To an extent, the first timeline feels like a continuation of Genesis Noir, with its classic monochrome style where it's raining perpetually, while Anthony describes the new timeline as a neon noir. "It's like a psychedelic LA at high noon and a hot city filled with people and colourful graffiti."

The neon noir timeline also plays differently, essentially giving you two ways of playing detective. "The first timeline is exploring environments, finding clues, scrutinising paperwork, and all about material, physical things, and the other timeline is all about being a detective through conversation and manipulation or learning to speak someone's language," Anthony adds. "There's some overlap, but for the most part they definitely have very distinct verbs and tone."

Moving from 2D to 3D

While Nirvana Noir's visuals are primarily 2D art, this new timeline also involves exploring the city as a three-dimensional space, such as being able to walk down an alley or entering a building then leaving it.

"Originally [in Genesis], there was that hub world then you dive into a specific area and that specific area was usually one or two spaces that were all loaded at the same time, and then once you're done with that, it all unloads and then you go back to the hub and we don't need to preserve any of that data," Abel explains.

The dev adds: "Whereas now, you can enter and exit any building whenever you want, so it's not as linear. There was a lot of challenge in terms of getting that to be architected in a way that wasn't super painful to work with. How to enable these environments to be familiar and consistent and navigable, while letting us put in as many different scenes, whether that's a close-up with two characters or a big crowd shot or something more abstract, has been a really fun creative challenge."

Its predecessor had started development in Unity before moving to Unreal Engine, whereas Nirvana Noir is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, though Abel says they haven't been leveraging any of its major features, preferring to come up with their own bespoke solutions.

"When we started development, [Unreal 5's tools] were immature, so it kind of forced us to figure out our own better solutions that were more tailored to our specific use case," reflects Abel.

"One of the big goals for the art direction is to find a way that lets us cheat as much as we could," Anthony says. "In Genesis Noir we kept it mostly black and white so we could imply things rather than rendering actual intricate details within the geometry or character design, then use whatever tells the story the best in the most economical way, such as 2D character animation over a rigged 3D character animation.

He continues: "I think a really important creative thought process for any small team is to find ways to simplify and put your resources into one aspect about the presentation. For Nirvana Noir, we're trying to continue with those same kinds of ideas about mixing media and using abstraction and design to render less detail and instead focus on what the most important element of the scene is."

Nirvana Noir will be coming to PC and Xbox. While a release date is yet to be confirmed, you can play the demo on Steam now.. Inspired? Read our guide to the best game development software.