Masala Games Releases Detective Dotson Demo, An Indie Mystery Adventure Set in India

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Masala Games, not to be confused with Cyberpunk 2077’s in-game restaurant Masala Studios, is an Ahmedabad-based developer that has released the demo of its first game. Detective Dotson, a mystery-adventure game set in modern-day India, follows a reluctant detective as he tries to solve the mysterious death of his father. Ahead of its release later this year, you can try out a small section of the game thanks to its new demo on Steam.

As far as gameplay is concerned, the Detective Dotson demo will let you "chase down criminals, hunt for clues, create disguises, spy on foes, and recruit team members." In other words, pretty standard detective stuff, but with a desi twist. Masala Games says that the full game will contain more "episodes". The final game will also include an original OST made in collaboration with Nikhil Rao, a member of Indian Ocean, a desi rock band that has been jamming since 1990.

You can get a taste of Dotson's adventure by watching the gameplay trailer below:

The game was developed using Unity, with the company founded by an Electronic Arts and Pixar veteran, Shalin Shodhan. “Detective Dotson is our love letter to modern day India,” said Shodhan, CEO of Masala Games. “It’s inspired by Bollywood and Indian TV shows like CID complete with its own unique narrative. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we did making it.”

While Masala Games has released two iOS apps, Word Mess and Text Mess, Detective Dotson will mark the developer's first PC release. Late last year, Masala Games also released a hilarious parody of the GTA 6 trailer, a trend that many other companies outside of the games industry capitalized on.

Detective Dotson PC System Requirements

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Given its pixel art style, running Detective Dotson is fairly easy on modern gaming PCs. Here are the minimum system requirements to run Detective Dotson:

• CPU - AMD FX-4300/Intel Core i3-3240

• GPU - AMD Radeon HD 7750 or Nvidia GeForce GT 640

• RAM - 8GB

• Storage - 1GB

Besides Windows, the game also has support for Mac and Linux-based systems, so you should be able to play it on a Steam Deck without any major issues. With the full release just a few months ahead of us, Masala Games joins a growing list of Indian developers that will hopefully command an international audience by providing a unique perspective in its genre.

Here is the full description of the game as seen on Steam:

Detective Dotson is targeting a release by the end of 2024.