We’ve been faced with the problem of video games looking and feeling too similar to each other for some time now. The latest instance of this was the trailer we got for Concord during the recent PlayStation State of Play. As my colleague - and fellow Helldiver - Tessa Kaur said, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:"it was just Over🅘watch with extra steps."

Battle royales, hero shooters, and, in some cases, even third-person🥂 action adventure games all seem to be blurring together. So, how does a developer ensure that its game stands out from the lot? Perhaps a distinct art style, a fresh gameplay mechanic, or even a rarely showcased setting. While Masala Games' upcoming title Detective Dotson has all three of the above, CEO Shalin Shodhan feels it needs even more.

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Dওetective Dotson is a pixel-art mystery game set in a fictional sma🐼ll town that looks like a memory of someone's visit to India. You'll see everything from roadside hawkers, to roving gangs of stray dogs, and even some of the country's famous monuments all with just one scroll to the right. It's clearly not set in a metropolitan city like Mumbai – in fact, there's no evidence suggesting that it's set in a real location whatsoever.

"I think we want to give that feeling of coziness," says Shodhan when I ask him about the setting. "Everything is a little close together. Everything's very cute, warm and homely." When sho𝔍wn to a few Indians, they said the setting felt like a summer vacation. ꧒That usually means you're visiting your old home town that's a bit slower than the big city. There's not much else to do there besides talk to people and explore - which are the main gameplay pillars of a point and click adventure like Detective Dotson.

Detective Dotson Shiva Statue

Most depictions of India in video g𝔍ames have been mythological, with the occasional science fiction rendition. Hitman 2 gave us a good adaptation of Mumbai, but I can't think of many games that have portra༺yed the eclectic nature of small town India.

As for Dotson himself, Shodhan explained that his dream was to be a Bollywood star. If you know anything about India, you know that Bollywood stars compete with gods in terms ♓of popularity. However, due to his circumstances, he spends most of his time blending in. The game has you don a number of disguises, each based on everyday people - a local goon, a politician, a rickshaw driver in his uniform - whatever it take🥂s to find out how Dotson's father was killed.

"We were very sure that we didn't want him to be heroic,” Shodhan says. “But we wanted him to have the struggles that a lot of us have. The maiꦐn theme – for at least ho𝕴w I see India – is we just kind of go with the flow and go through life with very little control, but it all kind of works out anyway.

“That's Dotson's essence. He's ꦺnot good at being a detective. Hi🌠s dream is to be a Bollywood star, but his dad was a great detective. And so, he has to follow in his dad's footsteps, which is also a very Indian thing."

If you’re not reinventing the wheel mechanically, h✅ow do you stand out from the countless other point and click adventures? The best way to answer that question is with🍃 a few examples.

Among the people you encounter is a local political goon that pays you to remove posters of🍨 the rival party - rotating political posters is something that Indians will be all too familiar with. At the edge of town, a creepy looking sadhu will give you some vague advice – as they're known to do – which will only make sense later on. You'll also come across an angry police inspector paired with a comical constable, a trope in countless Bollywood movies.

Detective Dotson evidence board

It's not just the interactions that the devs ensured wer♊e engaging. Detective Dotson includes a satisfying little minigame – if you can call it that – which every Indian can relate to. Occasionally, an NPC will drop some garbage as they walk past you. The team at Masala Games fulfilled every Indian's fantasy by allowing you to pick up that piece of garbage and hurl it at the one who threw it. You can'♍t tell me that you've lived in this country and never felt the urge to do the same.

"It comes from a lot of personal frustrat𝓰ion,” Shodhan explains. “I think we all feel it. There's a lot of trash over here and it really doesn't need to be🐲. We want to send a message about it. But, instead of being preachy about it, what if we made it a bit fun? And what if we gave you a bit of an outlet to take your frustration out on the litterers?"

You may think that Detective Dotson has all the makings of a standout game. It includes a rarely explored setting, some unique and fun gameplay, and a distinct art style, so why does Shodhan think that may not be enough to be successful? Marketing a game like this is not as straightforward as you may think. Sure, it was featured on꧃ Future Games Show, but with the wave of indies and triple-As that come out each year, it needs more staying power.

"I think when it comes to marketing in India, we have a much easier time because what we found is that Indian audiences are more than 𒉰happy to champion a game like this and get behind us," Shodhan says.

In a country that thrives on multiplayer shooters like Battlegrounds Mobile India (formerly PUBG) and Counter-Strike, getting aud๊iences to try out an indie point and click adventure may be tough, but, as Shodhan mentions, if Masala Games can find the right avenue, Detective Dotsun could become a sleeper hit.

A screenshot from Detective Dotson showing various disguises like Holy Man, Band Member, Police Officer, and Chef

Before aiming for that, however, Detective Dotson needs to go through the trials and tribulations of development. One of the most dreaded parts of this cycle is securing investment. Based on conversations with other Indian developers, I've learnt that this step is often the hardest. Thanks to years of mislabelling and lobbying, when investors⛄ think of gaming, they really mean gambling. So, when they learn that the return on their investment isn't going to be as qu🐭ick as that of a poker or fantasy sports platform, they immediately become tight-fisted.

Thankfully for Masala Games, this project has been floated by its own services business, but Shodhan did h꧙ave some insight on the investor market, and it fits with the theme of this interview. "You take any game studio around the world, even if it has investment, there is a larger problem here, which is discovery. It's not enough to have capital."

From the game itself, to𓆏 the investment, and even marketing, Shodhan believes that standing out from the crowd is an effective way to successfully launch a game. But, what happens after that? Let's say Masala Games succeeds in all the areas it wants to, what doe❀s it want the audience to take away from Detective Dotson?

"I just want them to have a great time💙,” Shodhan says. “That's first and foremo🌠st for me. But if it gives them a little bit more curiosity about a weird thing that they saw and they're like, ‘what the hell is this?’ Maybe they walk away with a few interesting facts about India that they might Google later. That's good enough for me."

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