PITCH BLACK INC. · INTAKE TERMINAL 02 · 3301
READY
THE STORY HOLDS VIOLENCE, ABUSE, SUICIDE (SHOWN ONLY THROUGH ITS AFTERMATH), DRUGS AND COLD CRUELTY
EVERY PERSON, COMPANY AND BRAND IN IT IS INVENTED
SESSION CLOSED. YOU CAN CLOSE THIS TAB
18+A solo indie noir city game
Amateur Hour, the year is 3301. One corporation owns the city, the sea and the air. You arrive on a 90-day work permit and sleep in a dead woman's flat
Offshore · across the bayTHE VOID STACKS
Megablocks of flats up to 2 kilometres tall stand on piers in the sea. The canals run under them, between the piers
Average life expectancy here: 24 years
Sky bridges and cables cross between the towers. Decks hang on the walls over the water. Every stack has a lift, every deck has a noodle cart, and a rat burger costs 2 compute
Lit windowsEach lit window is a flat with a tenant, a bed and a job. You can fly up to a window and knock
Walk the decks. Ride the lifts. Fly the canyons
Charter notice 00-APITCH BLACK INC
EIGHT DAYSYour choices decide the ending
T-01Public wrapper · Hecaton
Hecaton's public hologram. She stands 30 feet tall over the platforms and waves
Tilly is the voice of Hecaton's scoring computer. She also speaks from the speaker by your door
She reads a death on the terraces, a locked shelter and a tournament score in the same cheerful voice. Your door lock plays her greeting with the last tenant's name
“Good evening, Ms. Hart. It is 6:30 p.m. Outside temperature is 7 degrees, with heavy rain.”
Tilly, the speaker by the door of Flat 4A
Magnification 243×Cells and circuits in one tissue
Each cell has a membrane and a nucleus. Circuit traces thinner than a nerve link the cells
A full neural network walking
Metallic blue-cyan nanotech. Rain beads on it and runs off. It does not age
Specimen R-02 · Desk 2R-02 works Desk 2 in the lobby of Pitch Black Inc., every hour of every day. She holds her smile 2 seconds longer than a person can
Tier 1Synthetics · 3% of the basin
A new species. A super intelligence with a body of its own
Each synthetic is one intelligent system: billions of bio-chips spread through the whole body and linked like nerves. The blue skin is part of the system
Corporate labs grew the first of these minds inside simulated economies. Now synthetics own the top of the city and live in Zenith
CensusPitch Black basin · 3301
Below the synthetics live 4 kinds of body. All of them pay rent to the same corporation
The majority, pushed out to the Stacks
Most live in the Void Stacks, where the average life is 24 years. A gate scans them at every crossing into the city. A human stays inside with a work permit from a broker, a heritage exemption or a top test score
Humans with implants, bought on loan
They sold parts of their body to Lazarine for implants: titanium bone, armour under the skin, a lens for a lost eye. They pay for it with 15 years of wages. They work as detectives, guards and riggers
Humanoid machines at the counters
They pour drinks at Tech Noir and run the battery till and the noodle counter. A glossy shell and a black visor. Ask one, and it tells you it is a machine
Machines with no mind and no rights
Gen-1 arms on rails and dock cranes. Gen-2 rigs that wash the streets. Gen-3 walkers for Corvin and Oversight, with floodlights and suppression rods. A robot costs a third of what a human costs to keep
RECTransmission 01 · real game footage
Recorded in the game as it runs. The full trailer is being edited
Full trailerNot available yet Video channelNot available yetRECOpen city · real game footage
Walk, drive, take the lift or fly a ship. These clips are recorded in the game
Through the glass doors of PITCH BLACK INC. to Desk 2. The lobbies, flats, bars and shops all open
Every conversation is voiced, and most end on a choice. The game records each one
Your phone rings with video calls and voice messages. Duke calls from Halverton
Walk in from the rain to the counter. The shop owners give side jobs: a lamp repairman, a noodle stall, a raincoat tailor
RECTransmission 02 · real game footage
The hover car on the avenues and on Lantern Row, at night, between jobs
Terminal networkCorporate files · 6 of 14 open
14 corporations run the basin. You can read 6 of their files here
Main storyDay 1 to day 8 · logged
Each choice moves your traits. Your traits decide where the 8 days end
7 traits. Your choices move them. They decide which ending you reach
Solo indieOne developer · one counter
One person made this game in about 3 months. After release, one counter adds up every copy on every platform, every gift and every supporter. Each line it reaches starts new work
A new chapter of the city, free for everyone who owns the game. Its mark is the cicada
Work after the lineAbout 3 months
The game rebuilt on Unreal Engine: a photoreal city, high-fidelity digital humans, better models and more gameplay
Work after the line9 to 12 months: the city generator, every system and over sixty characters move to a new engine; Expansion II ships with it
Language-model agents run the people of the city, and the simulation runs at full scale: every home and every shift
Work after the line6 to 9 months, on top of the rework: agents that keep the story's rules, the cost of running them, and the testing
The whole source code, released for anyone to read, fork and build on
Work after the line2 to 3 months to clear every third-party licence and document the code; Expansion IV in about 3 months, alongside
10,000 players from Brazil and Portugal: Portuguese text. 10,000 from Latin America and Spain: Spanish subtitles. 150,000 of one language: its voices, recast
Work after the lineAbout 6 weeks per text language (some 273,000 characters, reviewed and checked in the game); about 4 months per voiced language (2,380 lines)
One developer works on one goal at a time, in order. If a line is reached early, its work starts when the work before it has shipped. The bars show the months of work, one goal after another
A supporter's pledge adds to the same counter as a copy. Each supporter's tag (a handle or a symbol, checked first) is painted on a wall in the next expansion
18+A solo indie noir city game
NOT YET ISSUED
The release date will be the same on every platform. Wishlist the game to hear when it is out
