Detective Dotson from Masala Games, one of the featured titles of LudoNarraCon 2025, is currently flying under the radar – but it really shouldn’t be. Playing through the opening chapters ahead of the annual narrative game festival, I’ve become enchanted by this game, its depiction of modern India, and its branching mystery mechanics.
I love a game that twists an established formula. Recently, I played through The Horror at Highrook and was enthralled by its card-based puzzle solutions, which replicate tabletop gameplay. In similar fashion, Detective Dotson wields mechanics like your Obra Dinns and Golden Idols, making investigation and experimentation a core part of your journey as the titular detective, with twists.
Within the first case, Detective Doston hooks you. It opens on this: Who painted Papadam the Dog a sweet shade of pink? It’s up to you to investigate nearby apartments and the town square (all lovingly rendered in a colourful, bright pixel art style), and to interrogate the folks that flit in and out of their apartments.
As you speak to people, you’ll gather word, item, and character clues in the form of sticky notes, which must then be placed correctly on a corkboard, in connect-the-dots fashion. One mystery leads into the next, with Dotson’s personal mystery board comprising a host of secrets, from the light-hearted and bizarre to the more serious and intriguing.
The logic flow of puzzles is nicely balanced, and not too easy, either. Initially on talking to my suspects and learning more about their thoughts, I had the incorrect suspect flagged. But in working out the flow of sticky note clues, and where they could be placed on the board, I realised I was missing something. So I set about reconsidering my options, eventually finding the real culprit by connecting those aforementioned dots.
The process of making your way through the game’s puzzles is gratifying, particularly when you stumble on a revelation. When you see the wider picture, and understand exactly how the current mystery connects to the overarching plot, it’s even more compelling.
Read: LudoNarraCon 2025: 5 great demos to check out
I’ve not finished my journey through Detective Dotson just yet, as LudoNarraCon 2025 has distracted me with a smorgasbord of equally cool, novel narrative games to play through, but even in a first taste, this game has impressed me. I’m certainly keen to forge on, even if it’s just to spend time in its vibrant pixel world.
This really is a beautiful game, packing with lovely details. While its character models are simplistic and blocky, its 2D-3D landscapes are lovingly textured. There’s colourful flowers packed into every corner, and the sunset skies overhead cast a warm glow over proceedings. Even when the casework becomes more serious than ‘who stole the biryani’, it’s wonderful to travel through the game’s world.
LudoNarraCon presents a chance to try narrative games that focus on new, innovative, or unique subject matter. In the case of Detective Dotson, it’s a chance to explore a quirky detective tale set in a modern India, told from an Indian perspective, and discover much about the country and its culture along the way.
If Detective Dotson isn’t on your radar, now’s the time to get across it. It’s now available on Steam, and you can learn more about it during LudoNarraCon 2025.
