Dakota [MAGS December 2013 Entry] - A horror game.

[Dualnames]

Screenshots:

Story:
Dakota, is a horror game. Taking place in a motel, on Christmas Eve in 1962, Dakota, Minnesota, the game tells the story of an unsolved case, narrated by the only survivor of that night.

"One man dead by a 6 bullet revolver."                                                                             
"Any reasonable man, would have categorized this as a hit and run. I know I should have."
"But I found seven darn bullets on the body."                                                                       
"The shots were not apart, and everyone witnessed that they barely separated each other."

Features:

• Simple left-click interact/walk - right click examine interface
• Several GUIs to spicen up gameplay
• J-RPG inspired artwork and visual style
• Horror gameplay
• A story told from three perspectives
• Pretty particles including rain, noise and snow[/i]
  

Team:

Game Design, Artwork, Coding, Music & Sound Effects: Dualnames
Music & Sound Effects: qptain_nemo 
Testers: LostTrainDude, selmiak, qptain_nemo, bicilotti, Construed 


Behind the development:
The game originated behind an idea I had whilst watching Planet Terror. I found the character Dr. Dakota Block played by Marley Shelton to be wonderfully interesting, and thus wanted to perhaps do the same. Combining also Now You See Me's plot, it's a mix. The references on Rodriguez's movie are all over the place, and I hope appreciated. Concerning the development in general, I've modified several of the modules used here, and I'm also using a Walking Dead choices interface at some point in the game. The ending song played in the credits references my previous game, Retina as both ending songs authors were affiliated and influenced each other. Concerning the music, it's mostly done by me, though qptain_nemo being pressured time-wise by other choices provided one song, which I edited and split into two.

DOWNLOAD THE GAME HERE

Thanks For playing, please let me know what you think.


TAKE ON DAKOTA BY THE CAT'S LADY AUTHOR
After my and James' recent talk about pros and cons of Dakota, Dualnames kindly let me have Dakota's build so I could play with  it, as an experiment of sorts, and I figured I'd turn it into a different- yet very Dual-like, game. It's short and creepy, and I tried to stick only to the assets that were already there (which wasn't entirely possible and I ended up rebuilding each room... but I tried;) )

The author of the game gave me the permission to post it on the forum, so here goes: DAKOTA REVISITED.

DAKOTA: REVISITED

[Snake]

This game is shit.

Spoiler

I'm just kidding, I haven't played it yet

[close]

[Dualnames]

Thank you.

Spoiler

Fuck you

[close]

[miguel]

Pretty cool so far! And I'm already stuck!

[cacaro]

This game is shit.

Spoiler

I'm just kidding, I haven't played it yet

[close]

Thank you.

Spoiler

Fuck you

[close]

lol

Game looks interesting, by the way. I'll definately try it as soon as I can find some free time.

[Chicky]

Help me DualnamesKenobi, this game is dope!

I'm stuck in the room with the super creepy music (i'm looking at you nemo)

Spoiler

Okay, so hotspots are: Bed, Bloodstains, Newspaper, Victim 1, Victim 2, RB-TL Computer, Door. Am i missing any? I've interacted with everything and have no inventory items to play with.

[close]

The flashlight bit worked incredibly well and i'm loving the art style. Great job.

[Dualnames]

Spoiler

Just look at the newspaper 3 times and pull the covers

[close]

[kaput]

Hey, played this a couple of days ago and completed it, but didn't get round to telling you how cool I thought it was. Loved the bleak and sinister atmosphere, just the right amount of pessimism for me. Meh, who am I kidding, more would have been nice. The music was really a perfect match and provided a nice level of creepiness. Anyhoo, ultimately what topped it for me was the film noir writing style. More of this please.

[qptain Nemo]

This was some excellent work. Perhaps me and Dualnames should collaborate on music more.

[kaput]

This was some excellent work. Perhaps me and Dualnames should collaborate on music more.

You guys totally should.

[Dualnames]

Hey, played this a couple of days ago and completed it, but didn't get round to telling you how cool I thought it was. Loved the bleak and sinister atmosphere, just the right amount of pessimism for me. Meh, who am I kidding, more would have been nice. The music was really a perfect match and provided a nice level of creepiness. Anyhoo, ultimately what topped it for me was the film noir writing style. More of this please.

Thanks for playing. I'm really glad you liked it, thanks for your kind words. Concerning the music, nemo contributed a track which I split into two parts and then edited and sampled over. Those parts are audible at the room with the flashlight.

[Ibispi]

Hello Dualnames,
I've recently played Dakota, so I wanted to share my opionion of it with you.
*It has an peculiar graphic style(in a good way; it reminds me of To the moon).
*It is driven by its atmosphere: great music and effects.
*Also, I've gotten so absorbed into the game, that I've gotten scared a few times .
**It's too short - but this was done at a great price to convey the story the way you thought it out, I guess.
Well done sir, 4/5 (4, because of shortness; the puzzles were almost non existant, but I feel this was more of an atmospheric game(like Amnesia or Dear Esther) rather then a classic adventure game).

[Stupot]

Just played it. Nice little game there Jim.  The hallway scene was proper creepy and I jumped out of my skin at that one bit
I didn't quite catch the exact details of the story so I might play again and concentrate harder to actually get what went down, but overall good job :-)

[Grim]

After my and James' recent talk about pros and cons of Dakota, Dualnames kindly let me have Dakota's build so I could play with  it, as an experiment of sorts, and I figured I'd turn it into a different- yet very Dual-like, game. It's short and creepy, and I tried to stick only to the assets that were already there (which wasn't entirely possible and I ended up rebuilding each room... but I tried;) )

The author of the game gave me the permission to post it on the forum, so here goes: DAKOTA REVISITED.

DAKOTA: REVISITED

[Tramponline]

...yet very Dual-like, game.

Let me guess...

Spoiler

...it contains naked lesbian hookers making out, right?

[close]

Awesome! I'm going to check it out right away...

[kaput]

Dafuq did I just play? Pass the doobie to the left hand side, Grim.

[Grim]

Dafuq did I just play? Pass the doobie to the left hand side, Grim.

Is it that obvious?... haha I meant well!;)

[Stupot]

Nice work, Grim. Short and sweet and pretty messed up.
Now you have to let Dualnames make 'Dakatlady'.

[kaput]

Dafuq did I just play? Pass the doobie to the left hand side, Grim.

Is it that obvious?... haha I meant well!;)

Haha! There is certainly no shame in that.

'Dakatlady'.

Mind blown... What kind of crazy conspiracy is this?? *le dies of awesomeness

[selmiak]

cooool... for whatever that was