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Putting the Madness in The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, Available Now on Xbox One

Hello, Xbox fans! We are D’Avekki Studios, a new game studio run by myself, Lynda Cowles, and my husband Tim Cowles. We’ve been fans of Full Motion Video (FMV) games since the early 1990s, so we’re thrilled our own FMV, The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, is out today on Xbox One.

In TIMODD, you play a psychiatrist taking on the patients of the recently murdered Dr Dekker. One of his patients killed him and it’s your job to work out who did it! This is a murder mystery complete with Lovecraftian themes. In fact, our mantra during development was “Always play with their minds,” so if you end up questioning your sanity, we’ve done a good job!

“Doctor, you’re late, and after all those promises. Never mind, let’s not keep the patients waiting.”

Probably the strangest part of the game is the patients, who all need your help with their supernatural problems. There’s Bryce, a gravedigger who claims to have an extra hour a day to “do as he pleases,” and Elin, a nurse whose colleagues call her “the angel of death.” Marianna suffers from blackouts and wakes up naked on the beach, and Nathan’s PTSD causes him to relive entire days. Finally, there’s Claire who, by her own admission, is a “delusional psychotic with obsessive tendencies.” And that’s just what they’re willing to tell you in the first session!

The more you get to know them, the darker their stories will get, and the harder it will be to dismiss them as just stories. Choosing the questions provided on the predetermined list will give you a lot to work with, or you can type your own keywords or questions to delve deeper (reminder: the Xbox iOS/Android app can control the on-screen keyboard).

“Listen to me. You’re not listening. It’s your only bloody job!”

The more you uncover about your patients, the more you’ll be putting your own sanity at risk. At the end of the game, you’ll get one of six different insanity endings according to how much weirdness you’ve exposed yourself to. You can play it safe, ask only the scripted questions, and finish with your sanity intact (well, mostly). Or you can surrender to curiosity and madness and use the keyboard to try to find all their responses. Either way, keeping your patients’ best interests at heart will help you as well as them.

“There’s just a lot of crazy flying around Doctor. Don’t catch any of it.”

As the game progresses you’ll experience more and more strangeness. Deja vu. Apparitions. Teleportation. Even a couple of jump scares! You may start seeing things, or find creepy messages in your notes. Your patients may accuse you of bizarre crimes. It’s all very convincing but remember: if you’re seeing things or hearing things that don’t seem right, you can always watch the replay videos to check what really happened. If it’s not in the replays, well, that’s a sure sign you’re losing your mind (or the devs want you to think you are)!

“Don’t joke about going insane Doctor. That’s one thing I can’t let happen on my watch.”

Of course, we don’t really want you to lose your mind playing our game… we hope you’ll find it a fun and unique experience full of otherworldly creatures, faceless stalkers, and necromancy. If you manage to solve the murder too, that’s just a bonus!