Latest game from Feral Cat Den promises mind bending visuals, a complexing dual narrative and ear melting soundtrack
What I love about indie’s is their ability to push the boundaries, try something new and really push a vision to its absolute limit. That’s where you’ll find true creative genius, right on the edge.
Games created by indie studios often begin life as concepts, something entirely different, usually born out of pure passion and so unique they just have to work. Games that AAAs are not brave enough to develop but often follow in their footsteps.
One studio pushing the limits is Feral Cat Den, who describe themselves as a small team of artists who ‘dream of nesting in a derelict barn’. Until then, they have a small studio in New York City where they make games, amongst many other things. As they strive to fuse animation and interactivity to create visually rich and tactile experiences.
From Genesis to Nirvana Noir
Feral Cat Den is currently working on Nirvana Noir, an adventure game and the follow up to the studio’s first game, Genesis Noir. The game continues with the characters from Genesis Noir, but playing Genesis Noir first isn’t required to enjoy the latest incarnation.
Evan Anthony, Creative Lead, Feral Cat Den, says, “Completing our first indie game after seven years of hard work was a life changing experience for me. I was challenged in ways that I couldn’t have anticipated.”
Reflecting on this experience gave Anthony the impetus to continue with the series, he says, “By the end I was exhausted but with a new perspective on making art and faith. We were no longer the authors, the story had come to life and it was clear that the characters had more to do and say.”
Genesis Noir ends with a choice and two potential endings. The protagonist, No Man, is the embodiment of time and must be experiencing both of these endings simultaneously, so both endings are canon. Anthony wondered what that experience would be like for the character, and how a story could be told with a duality structure.
“We didn’t have the answers to these questions, but we listened to the call and had faith that answers would find us in time. Over the course of development, our trust has been rewarded and creating Nirvana Noir has been a series of synchronicities, happy accidents, and all the joys of art making.” says Anthony.
The Nirvana Noir story follows No Man, a watchmaker, who faced an impossible decision and chose the impossible – to live two lives. One life where the Big Bang was never fired, the other an explosion of color and sin. While his new lover is tangled in rumors of a ‘Bigger Bang’, No Man must unravel the mystery and stop the threat to the cosmic city.
Gameplay and Narrative
The gameplay of Nirvana Noir is a mix of exploration, dialogue, and simple tactile puzzles, says Anthony, “Players will explore the streets and the stars, discovering surprises that lurk within a cosmic city of dreams.”
Players will question gossipy shopkeepers and learn to speak their language, be that by constructing words out of sausages or moving text bubbles to create a Venn diagram where the subtext of their speech is revealed.
They will also be able to consult their Minds Eye, to track the clues and characters they encounter while pursuing the Bigger Bang. All while interacting with digital toys to create psychedelic visuals and sounds.
The narrative of Nirvana Noir is described as a mix of classic film noir like The Third Man, and neo-noir like Inherent Vice.
In one half of the story, No Man is trying to complete his Clocktower as a series of arsons spread throughout the city. In the other half, No Man is released from jail as a confidential informant as a new drug is spreading through his town like wildfire.
Both stories take No Man into the role of unwitting detective, investigating leads, and scratching at the surface of greater conspiracies – all in an effort to save The Constant city from the mysterious Bigger Bang.
Colour, Art and Music
Genesis Noir was a noir adventure in black and white and gold. Feral Cat Den chose this restriction both to pay homage to the look of classic noir films, but also as an aesthetic constraint. By imposing a limitation on color, the team were able to focus efforts on other qualities of the game like animation and interactivity.
Nirvana Noir builds on top of this visual language by adding psychedelic color. Half the game is set in the Constant city past midnight as rain falls on the cold streets. Darkness dominates, only to be broken by harsh lighting and long shadows. The other half of the game is set under the noon-time sun. Light bounces off the concrete and colorful graffiti adorns every surface.
The result is a bamboozling assault of the visual senses, transporting the player into a world of pure artistic creativity. In what feels like an understatement, Anthony says, “Balancing the colors of these two versions of the same space was a fun challenge!”
The artwork was a group effort. Anthony primarily works on the characters and technical art, Marcin Zeglinski leads the environmental design, Noah Sablan dabbles in everything from animation to technical to environmental art and Andri Aarason focuses on character animation.
Anthony is also quick to praise the wider team, “We’ve also had some wonderful contributions by our art interns, Minju Kim, Mira Seeba, Michael Anthony, Ashely Yu, and Jimmy Li.
“And all of the visuals wouldn’t be possible without the incredible work of our technical lead, Jeremy Abel. Jeremy is not only an expert developer and engineer, but also an incredibly talented visual designer and generative artist.”
Nirvana Noir’s delightful soundtrack, which further immerses the player in this alternative dimension is by London based studio Skillbard, continuing on from the success of their work on Genesis Noir. The soundtrack for Nirvana Noir takes inspiration from 60’s psychedelia, an evolution of the 50s jazz of the first game.
Noir
Although noir may not jump out to everyone as the go to genre for creating a game, for Anthony and team it was perfect. Allowing them to create the surreal and transportative game they envisioned.
“Noir is a genre really well suited to exploring big sublime, cosmic, spiritual themes,” says Anthony. “The protagonist in noir stories is often flawed. The conspiracy they find themselves caught in is far bigger than they can comprehend. They often fail in achieving their goal, or if they do then they often have to make enormous compromises.
“We only ever get a glimpse of the truth, just like our endeavors to understand the eternal mysteries of our universe. We really love these themes, and adding interactivity can enrich them by making the player directly participate in the failure of the protagonist.
“Noir is also a great genre for an indie game! It’s a form of storytelling that utilizes the audience’s imagination by not showing all the answers – a valuable attribute for a small team!”
“One delightful discovery from our research that really resonates with our story is this passage from The Philosophy of Neo Noir: ‘The character is “divided” against himself, although not so much emotionally, as in Shakespeare, as epistemologically: divided in time as two selves, and one is looking for the other.’”
Nirvana Noir’s Release
Feral Cat Den has set themselves the challenge to build a more intricate narrative than that of Genesis Noir. They felt they kept things simple for Genesis Noir, which featured a love triangle that emphasized poetry more than plot. Nirvana Noir maintains the poetry of Genesis Noir, but has more active conflict and a detailed conspiracy at the heart of the story.
The team’s ambition is to also have their community contribute to some memorable scenes in the game. They are running a Kickstarter campaign and backers can add a message and drawing to the game.
Anthony explains, “These submissions will contribute to both the themes and plot of the game and enrich the experience for everyone. Without spoiling anything, we can say that the more submissions we get the more psychedelically wonderful the game will become!
“Featuring these audience submissions in a prominent place in the game is going to be a real balancing act (do they fit well with the scene or do they take the player out of the scene?), but we believe we will create a truly memorable moment!”
What’s Next
The Kickstarter campaign launches on the 4th of June, which will help the team move towards its beta build. The game is already in alpha, with all its core systems and story structure in place. All that’s left is lots of polish, playtesting and making everything as fun and beautiful as possible.
Nirvana Noir has no fixed release date at this time but it is coming soon. You can watch the game’s trailer and wishlist the title on Steam. To stay in touch with Feral Cat Den and the game’s progress, you follow the development on Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, or Facebook, and back on Kickstarter or wishlist on Steam.
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