Visit a mystical Montreal corner store in this cute little indie game

Need something from the store? Mushroom milk? Freshly baked cakes? A mystical jeweled skull? I'm just getting into Depanneur Nocturne, a great little game that came out in 2020, and I forgot to post about it. It's a small first-person adventure set in a corner shop in magical, mystical Montreal, where you can wonder, find, peek, and talk to the owner. It will cost you the same as a pint of Kingsmill bread, semi-skimmed from your local shop.

Dépanneur Nocturne is the kind of game I love: pay a few quid and finish in an hour to see something different, weird and wonderful. When most of my gaming time is devoted to rogue-like games and repetitive multiplayer killfests, a spark of innovation is important. Here we are in the city at night, it's late, it's raining, and your girlfriend is waiting for you back home, but you want to bring her something nice, so you go to the local store. depanner.

It's a cozy little shop and a friendly one. Talk to Evgeny, the seller of the Salamander shop! Make yourself a coffee! Help yourself to a cake! Love the cat! Have a nice trip! See what you can find! See what you can do! Even if you are not interested in most of the products in the store, you can bring some special items to Evgeny to explain what they are, and maybe buy them for your beloved. Maybe he will show you his special fund. I don't want to exaggerate the scale of the Depanner Nocturne, but it has a lot of little things to discover, including quite a few that I only discovered when I went back into the store last week.

I love that this Québécois game is bilingual and I love how it is handled. Eugene congratulates you en français “Bonsoir!” and you set the game's language by answering in French or English (although you can replace it at any point in the dialogue option). Although I speak French with enthusiasm rather than competence, I have improved my knowledge through French. bandees dessinees A bookstore opened in Edinburgh and I love discovering the different tone and energy of the game's French conversations. As someone with a formal European French education, I enjoy the casual experience of Québécois French, where even slang can be found. depanner strange because in French the word means mechanic or repairman.

It's just a nice thing. To experience the big world by visiting a small corner of it. Experience what you can do, discover secrets and surprises in the process. A good thing to look at. A great look at the entire game. A new friend. A beautiful cat that you can adopt. What more could you want?

Dépanneur Nocturne is available on Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam and from Itch.io for £4/€5/$5. You might already own it without knowing it because it was in Itch's Ukraine 2022 collection. It was created by GP Lackey of Montreal's KO_OP studio, which also includes the teenage dinosaur visual novel Goodbye Volcano High and the GNOG publisher.