Nintendo + Noir = ???

Original Design

Every year, since 2002, my husband and I have hosted a Halloween Party. One of the premier events that night is a murder mystery game. Each year follows a different theme, ranging from Star Wars to Ninjas, from Trigun to Final Fantasy I. The theme for 2009 was Classic Nintendo. My husband writes the game, but instead of keeping 100% to cannon, he takes significant artistic liberty with the characters, usually by mixing in another theme. For instance, the year we did Lord of the Rings, all of the playable characters, with a few exceptions, were high on "magic mushrooms" that Gollum had sneaked onto the pizza at that party at the Prancing Pony. So, when we tackled the Classic Nintendo theme, he added a Film Noir twist. We created a Noir-themed Mushroom Kingdom setting and went all out for the build-up for the game that year -- not limited to creating a Facebook page for Max Koopa, premier reporter. The Facebook page still exists, but most of the links to the articles are dead--some of the pages are, I believe, still on my husband's laptop, so if there's interest, I can re-upload them.

Noir Redesign

This is where the basic concept for the Nintendo Noir came from. That year was also the first year we decided to make badges for the players. I had just started Gothic Panda Studios, and so I had the supplies -- badge clips, lamination sheets, laminator -- and it seemed like a fun addition to the game that would also make it easier for players to keep track of who was who in the game. Since that game, I reworked the art a little, added the profile descriptions to the back, and made the Nintendo Noir badges available at my art table. We are working on editing and compiling the original murder mystery into a pdf file that we will make available for free download.

Note: Originally posted to WordPress on March 11, 2011. Reposted here when I moved to Blogger.