As a game designer for Detour, a game based on the 1945 noir film, I knew that the visual style and music arrangement would play a critical role in immersing players in the game's world. In this blog post, I will share my experience in finding the right tone for the game's visual and audio design.

To create a game that captures the essence of the 1945 noir film era, I decided to go with a low-res pixel art style. This style of art is reminiscent of early video games and was perfect for capturing the retro feel that I was aiming for. To create the art assets, I used reference images from the original film and applied stable diffusion (Midjourney) to generate background scenes and character models/sprites. This technique helped me create textures that looked realistic and had a sense of depth and complexity.

Original Reference Art:

Stable Diffusion Artwork:

Once the assets were generated, I used PixelOver, a pixel art editor, to convert them into pixel art with classic dithering. The software allowed me to enhance the assets by adding more details and patterns to the pixels, which helped the game's visuals look more refined and polished. The result was a visually stunning game that looked like it was straight out of the 1945 era.

PixelOver Post-Production Work:

Next, I needed to create a sound that matched the game's visuals. I found classic jazz music pieces from the jazz real book (public domain) in MIDI format and used GXSCC, a software synthesizer, to recreate them into 8bit chiptune music. GXSCC emulates the sound of old video game consoles, making it perfect for creating a retro sound. By using GXSCC, I was able to create a sound that perfectly matched the visual style of the game.

GXSCC:

After creating the music using GXSCC, I imported it into Reaper, a digital audio workstation, to fix the EQ and mastering. This allowed me to create a soundtrack that sounded polished and professional while still maintaining the 8bit chiptune sound.

Here is one of the tracks that I created for the game.

Reaper DAW:

In conclusion, finding the right tone for Detour's visual and audio design was crucial to creating a game that captured the essence of the 1945 noir film era. By using low-res pixel art, stable diffusion, PixelOver, GXSCC, and Reaper, I was able to create a game that looked and sounded authentic while still maintaining modern levels of polish. The result was a visually stunning and sonically immersive game that I'm proud to have been a part of.

Below are all the links for the software I used to do this process:

• PixelOver: https://pixelover.io/
• MidJourney: https://midjourney.com/
• GXSCC: https://meme.institute/gxscc/
• Reaper: https://www.reaper.fm/
• Jazz real book (public domain): http://www.freejazzinstitute.com/showposts.php?dept=Jazz+Real+Book

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