A new mystery adventure game is all set to hit the market soon. Independent game developer Masala Games has released a new gameplay trailer for its upcoming mystery adventure named Detective Dotson. This game will be unveiled at the Future Games Show Summer Showcase 2024. This Minecraft-like game offers players a chance to explore, disguise themselves, and use the game’s clue board to solve mysteries in a stylised fashion.
Detective Dotson is a mystery adventure game set in a stylised version of contemporary India, where players step into the shoes of Dotson, a hesitant detective. The game is available for wishlist on its Steam store page, and a demo is currently accessible on Steam.
Detective Dotson: Demo Plot
In the Detective Dotson demo, players tackle the mystery surrounding Detective Dotson’s father’s death. You’ll pursue criminals, gather clues, craft disguises, surveil enemies, and recruit team members.
The demo offers a glimpse of the gameplay, while the full release, featuring additional episodes, is expected later this year.
This game has been developed in Unity and features controller support along with an original OST made in collaboration with Nikhil Rao of Indian Ocean, pioneers of Indian fusion rock.
Detective Dotson X Future Games Show Collaboration
Additionally, Future Games Show hosts Roger Clark (known for Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2) and Britt Baron (recognised for Tifa in FFVII Rebirth and Justine in Netflix’s comedy-drama wrestling show GLOW) were transformed into pixel art versions of themselves to introduce the Detective Dotson trailer.
Founder and CEO of Masala Games, Shalin Shodhan, said, “We always like to make pixel art versions of the creators that work with us — it’s our way of saying ‘thank you’. Future Games Show gave us the opportunity to take this a step further by letting us drop the show presenters into our Indian street-side set. When we found out it was Red Dead Redemption 2’s Roger Clark and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s Britt Baron, we were ecstatic to have them decked up in Dotson-ified avatars. We produced the whole segment in 4 days in Unreal Engine.”
The story begins with Britt’s sudden disappearance, prompting Roger to leave the stage to find her. They reappear as pixel art, Dotson-style cartoon versions of themselves in the cosy Indian mohalla setting of Detective Dotson. Britt is seen trailing a wedding procession, adorned in a beautiful fuchsia ghagra and elegant wedding jewellery. Meanwhile, Roger is depicted as a local roadside Romeo, lounging at a corner tea stall. Together, they introduce the game, with Roger pondering how they will return to their human forms.