Detective Dotson Interview – A Cultural Joyride Through India

The more we learn about Detective Dotson, the more it grabs our attention. Billed as a love letter to all things modern-day India, it’s got a fascinating premise that catches the eye right off the bat. Add to that its gorgeous semi-pixel art aesthetic and its promise of a mechanically and narratively engaging adventure experience, and you get a game that we can’t help but be more than a little enamoured by. To learn more about Detective Dotson and what it will bring to the table, we recently reached out to its developers at Masala Games with a few of our most burning questions about the game. Scroll ahead to read the full interview.

"The setting is what makes Detective Dotson truly unique. It’s as vital to the storytelling as the main character! We are looking to build a cultural joyride through India."

Detective Dotson being billed as a love letter to India with its story, characters, and setting is one of its most eye-catching elements, especially in an industry where India has typically had little representation. How heavily will the game emphasize this particular aspect? How significant of a role will the setting play in the overall experience?

The setting is what makes Detective Dotson truly unique. It’s as vital to the storytelling as the main character! We are looking to build a cultural joyride through India. And we are layering on details galore. From beautiful indigenous trees to UI backgrounds inspired by local textile patterns, we are curating delightful and charming motifs from the India we live in and putting it in the game for players to enjoy.

Detective Dotson sports a gorgeous art style. How did you land on this look for the game?

We knew we wanted pixel characters to represent the people of India as the cute and endearing lot that we are. One of our early experiments was to place an animated pixel Dotson inside a photograph of an abandoned house. The juxtaposition looked so compelling that we decided to make the environments real while keeping the characters bright pixel art.

What can you tell us about the evidence board mechanic and the role it will play in the core gameplay structure? How much time will players be spending sorting through and lining up clues on boards? Will it involve much trial and error, or will it be fairly automated, sort of like the case board in Alan Wake 2?

The evidence board mechanic is somewhat inspired by Case of the Golden Idol. The idea is that you are solving a sentence but the nouns are missing. The nouns are the clues that you explore the world to find. Ultimately the sentence should make sense. So it’s not so much trial and error as it is reasoning about a plausible sentence describing what happened. Our evidence board is a graphical version of this sentence. We think it’s a great way to expose the story clue by clue. It’s also flexible enough that the player can discover clues in any order and ultimately feel satisfied at piecing together the puzzle. In terms of time spent, a majority of the time will still be spent finding the clues. The actual act of solving the board is less than 10% of the total case time.

"One of our early experiments was to place an animated pixel Dotson inside a photograph of an abandoned house. The juxtaposition looked so compelling that we decided to make the environments real while keeping the characters bright pixel art."

How extensive will the disguises mechanic be? How many choices will players have access to in terms of the disguises that they can put on, and how much flexibility does something like that afford in how to tackle certain obstacles?

We are looking at 10 disguises to launch with (though we have already designed 24!) It is a pretty extensive mechanic. Each disguise is meant to be more than just a key around an obstacle. It’s meant to be a whole new lens to explore the world with. It’s shaping up to be the most fun part of the game.

Being able to pick up, use, and throw a variety of objects scattered throughout the environments is an interesting mechanic. Can you tell us how the game uses it for the purposes of things such as puzzles? What level of variety should players expect in the objects they’ll find and be able to pick up?

The throwables mechanic is for the player that wants a bit more action and chaos. Throwables can break/disable stuff, anger/subdue other characters or simply set off a chain reaction that changes the environment. But remember if you hit the wrong person, it could anger them and other characters can throw stuff at you too! We want to go fairly whimsical with the variety of throwables – so everything from paper planes to cursed coconuts will feature as throwables.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of the campaign be?

An average case would be about 12-15 minutes. The entire campaign is about 5 hours.

Detective Dotson is also set to feature a local co-op mode. How significantly will playing with another player change the experience?

All the co-op mode cases will be specifically designed for two players. They will be a bit more challenging and require efficient use of the split screen. While the basic mechanics will be the same for each individual player, two new playable characters – Inspector Durai and Journalist Jotson will bring their own special skills to the table.

"We want to bring this game to as many platforms as possible."

With the game’s couch co-op cases set to be standalone and separate from its single-player campaign, how sizable will its co-op offerings be, in terms of pure gameplay hours? Is this a part of the game that you could perhaps add to with, say, post-launch DLC cases?

Co-op content will be 2.5 hours of gameplay on top of the 5 hours of single-player campaign. In terms of launch – PC single-player launches first, followed by Xbox which is the single-player + co-op. Upon the Xbox launch co-op content comes to PC as a free update. We do plan to do DLCs but that comes after this core 7.5 hours of content.

Do you plan on adding online co-op down the line?

No, but Steam Remote Play works great with Detective Dotson!

Do you have any plans to eventually also bring the game to PlayStation and Switch?

Absolutely, we want to bring this game to as many platforms as possible. We have confirmed PC and Xbox for now. Stay tuned for more details on other platforms!

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