Renoir is a story-driven 2.5D puzzle platformer that draws a deep drag of inspiration from film noir genre — the classic Hollywood crime dramas from the 1940s and 50s.

Merging modern technology (Unreal Engine 4) and a noir style, developers want to offer players a deep atmospheric experience. Our mission is to drench our video game in that one-and-only mood and aesthetic of the film noir, while adding our own unique flavor to the mix: the characters, the gameplay and, of course, the story…

James Renoir is a private detective with a dark knot of a past struggling to stay afloat in a city sunk to the floor by crime and corruption. As a former police detective, Renoir makes his living doing the only thing he knows: investigating, digging, exposing...

One night, a night like any other, Renoir gets ready to meet an informant. He needs a new slice of evidence to his latest case. Renoir has done more meets like this than can even remember. He’s relaxed. Too relaxed. And the night turns new pretty fast. Renoir is caught off-guard; shot by a who-knows-who and left to die with the gunshot echo of a why.

Since the official announcement of the project in February, the developers have worked hard to ready sneak-peeks of the actual gameplay and its basic mechanics.

To finance the planned 18 months of development up to game completion, Soulbound Games have launched a kickstarter campaign, looking for £39,000/$$61,279.

But Renoir’s journey ain’t over...

James Renoir wakes up. Nothing is unusual - not the place, not his condition.

Except that he’s dead.

Nothing unusual, but everything changed.

And so the wheels of the gameplay and the story start their turn.

Renoir must find out what happened and why, but he quickly finds he can’t communicate with the living — shock gives way to that hollow sense of ‘alone’. No one but he can find the clues that’ll bring the answers; that can lead him to his killer...

High contrast between light and dark is at the core of the noir style, as it is in our game. In his new state, Renoir can’t expose himself to direct light. More than ever, he must keep to the shadows. The tricky process of tracking safe passage through darkness is at the heart of our gameplay…

But there is one thing that aids him. In order to solve a whole myriad of different environmental puzzles, Renoir can call upon a new ability — at the site of any violent crime or fatal accident, Renoir can use the souls of the victims to help him.

How? For a brief window of time, the player can ‘become’ a victim and perform a set of actions, which, once set in motion, will help Renoir negotiate all kinds of obstacles. And as the victims, these lighter souls, are less vulnerable to the pain of light, he can use them to open up safe passages for him through the shadows.