Discworld Noir
Discworld Noir is a 1999 point-and-click or graphic adventure game based on the Discworld novels. Unlike the previous two games, it has an original character and story which includes plenty of parody of classic film noir detective stories. It was released for Windows PCs and the Sony PlayStation console.
The player controls Lewton, an ex-City Watch guard in Ankh-Morpork who quit to become the Discworld’s first private investigator. Lewton is hired by a mystery woman named Carlotta von Uberwald to find Mundy, a man who’s disappeared two days after returning to the city from Tsort. There are many references to classic noir cinema, including Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. Like the other videogames it is not considered part of the “canonical” Discworld, and contains some contradictions to the novels (most notably Vimes, who is portrayed as having it in for Lewton since he once accepted a bribe), but it is intended to be set between Feet of Clay and Jingo.[1] References in the game suggest Lewton was a member of the Watch before Guards! Guards!, and that he hasn’t been keeping up on news of his old boss.
Discworld Noir was developed by Perfect Entertainment, who had previously produced Discworld and Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!?, but they had already gone into insolvency by the time the game was finished. The company was briefly resurrected as Teeny Weeny Games, the name of one of the companies that had merged to create Perfect Entertainment in the first place. The game was published by GT Interactive, and was the cause of a court case between Perfect and Sony over a three-game deal.
Blurb
Original PC release
INTO THE MEAN STREETS OF ANKH-MORPORK ONE MAN MUST GO...
The name's Lewton. I'm a private investigator. I don't know where the idea came from, I was just thinking one night that it would be really cool to have an office with my name on the door and a sturdy desk for sexy broads to lean across. Trouble is, wherever there are sexy broads there's trouble, and the dame I'm working for wrote the book on trouble, and the sequel too. Her name's Carlotta, and between her, the psychotic dwarf who’s following me and this walking mountain with the brain of a pomegranate who calls himself Malachite, I'm beginning to wonder if the Discworld's first private investigator might be about to become the Discworld's last private investigator too.
- Walk the mean streets of Ankh-Morpork in this latest addition to the hugely successful Discworld saga.
- You are in control the action in this new and original story, created under the guidance of Terry Pratchett.
- Talk to almost seventy different characters - including old favourites like Corporal Nobbs, Death and the Grim Squeaker - using a new and innovative conversation system that puts you in charge of the investigations.
- Visit over seventy different locations, all rendered in stunning 3D, as you attempt to solve murders, reveal conspiracies and attempt to uncover the truth - before it's too late!
WHERE DEATH STANDS ON EVERY CORNER, ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS.
Creative Team
The credits below are taken from the end of the game; the voice cast appear separately (pending an attempt to assign them to specific characters).
Crew
- Designed by Gregg Barnett and Chris Bateman
- Produced by Gregg Barnett and Luci ‘Loki’ Black
- Executive Producer: Angela Sutherland
- Script by: Chris Bateman
- Lead Game Programmer: Mark Judge
- Lead Engine Programmer: John Young
- Technical Art Director: David Hirst
- Animation Director and Senior Animator: Simon Turner
- Art Director: David Kenyon
- Background Design and Concept Art: Nick Martinelli
- Lead PlayStation Programmer: Manjit Ghataora
- Character Design: Matt Taylor, Ben ‘Lord’ Willsher
- 3D Programming: Chris Waterworth
- Character Models: Mark Booth, Warren Hawkes, Ben Willsher
- Additional Programming: Jason Brooke
- Background Artists: Jim ’Scouse’ Ellis, Mark Booth, Warren Hawkes, Dave Hirst, Steve Packer, Guillaume Camus, Mohand Zennadi
- Animators: Ben Willsher, Steve Packer, Warren Hawkes, Jim Ellis, Darren Charles Hatton, Mark Booth
- Realtime Lewton Artists: Mark Booth, Dave Hirst, Dave Swan
- Front End Graphics: Steve Packer, Matthew Bell
- Game Puzzle Implementation: Chris Bateman, Mark Judge
- Music, Songs and Sound Effects: Paul Weir
- Audio Director: Rob Lord
- Speech Recording and Conversion: Mark Bandola and Rob Lord
- Additional Sound Effects: Rob Lord
- Technical Assistant: Paul Stamp
- Production Assistant: Siobhan Reddy
- Conduit for Uncontrolled Rage: Colin Fuidge
- Notebook clues by: Jim Ellis, Steve Packer, Matthew Bell
- Additional art by: Luc Lemaire
- Director of Development GT: Graeme Boxall
- Senior Producer for GT: Steve ’Sargie’ Sargent
- Producer for GT: Craig ‘Ledski’ Leigh
- Assistant Producer for GT: Trevor Barnes
- External Services Manager for GT: Kevin Turner
- QA Manager: Graham ‘G-Dog’ Axford
- QA Supervisor: Tim Wileman
- QA Supervisor: Marc Smikle
- Kode Supervisor: Krazy Kolin Tregaskes
- Lead tester: Alys Robinson
- Testers: Mark Dearsley, Johnny Moorcroft, Francis Digby-Firth, Keanan Jones, Mike Richards
- Manual: Chris Bateman
- Proof Reader: Jon Rouse
- Ontological Consultant: Jehanine
- Manual Coordinator: Marianne Durand
- Manual Design: Red Pepper Design, Resham Badhwal
- Special thanks from Perfect Entertainment to: Josh Kirby, Victor Gallancz Ltd (for permission to reproduce extracts from the Discworld Companion by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs), Nichol Murray and Louisa Ardley.
- Special thanks from GT to: All of GT’s QA staff, Paul Fox, Matt Woodley, Lee Kirton, Axel Blagmore, Charlie Gig, Trent Vegaess, Bart Vormees, Rob Letts and not forgetting Eric Cartman. Kickass.
- Agent for Terry Pratchett: Colin Smythe
- Far too much interference: Terry Pratchett
Cast
The small cast provides voices for all the characters in the game.
- Rob Brydon as Lewton (and others)
- Robert Llewellyn as Butler and others
- Nigel Planer as others
- Kate Robbins as Carlotta and others
- With additional voices by: Rob Lord[2]
Podcast episodes
Major appearances
These are episodes primarily devoted to discussing this game.
| Date | Show | Episode | External link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-04-24 | Adventure Games Podcast | “Interview with Chris Bateman - Discworld Noir” | adventuregamespodcast.com |
Other appearances
Episodes where the game is discussed, but not as the main topic.
| Date | Show | Episode | External link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-01-02 | Video Game Newsroom Time Machine | “Gregg Barnett - Beam Software, Discworld” | libsyn.com |
| 2026-03-09 | The Great Game Guide | “The Adventure Where Seeing is Believing, Part 6”[3] | substack.com |
External links
- Discworld Noir at Wikipedia
- Discworld Noir at the L-Space wiki
- Discworld Noir at the Internet Movie Database
- Discworld Noir at MobyGames
Footnotes
- ↑ See this interview from 1999 with writer Chris Bateman in Discworld Monthly (now Better than a Poke in the Eye).
- ↑ Possibly including Sam Vimes, though some sources claim Vimes is played by Terry Pratchett, in an uncredited cameo. The voice doesn’t sound like him, but it also sounds like it’s been digitally altered, so it’s hard to tell.
- ↑ This podcast mentions all of the Discworld games, briefly, as well as almost-Discworld game Simon the Sorcerer and its sequels.