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Road to Dirty Land leads through Kickstarter

If you instinctively equate the letters ABC with "always be closing," then indie Canadian developer Naturally Intelligent's Dirty Land: Thrill of the Sale is for you. But for that to happen, the upcoming narrative adventure inspired by classic sales films from the eighties and nineties will first need to close its own deal on Kickstarter. 

Described as "part drama, part satire, part life of a salesman and part murder mystery," Dirty Land tells a story about "desperate people and criminal behavior in an era when greed was good." Players control Frank Marsh, an honourable man at heart who has made a terrible mistake that devastated his family. It's 1982, and you've just begun a "job from hell" at Pure Sky Properties, a "real estate office where coffee is for closers and the goal is selling worthless swampland to unsuspecting buyers for a profit." Not only must you make enough sales to survive in this ruthless business, you'll also need to balance the consequences to your family and clear your name when a death occurs and you become a prime suspect. 

Dirty Land features a retro pixel art style, as befits the era in which it takes place. The game is set in a "drab office in a run-down strip mall," where you'll need to contend with "a bizarre boss, wisecracking rival salesmen, an elusive owner, and more." Every day you must follow up leads, which requires getting to know your potential customers and doing whatever it takes to close the deal. Unless you decide to "take the high road and find a way to carve out an honest living" instead. Your choices matter in how the story plays out, but it won't be easy to navigate as you "come face to face with crime, corruption, backstabbing, and even murder." In order to stay out of jail, you must become an amateur detective as well. Everyone has something to hide, and "you'll need to gather clues and piece together the truth to gain the upper hand in this double-crossing world."

Speaking of sales and following up leads, if you're up for a little Glengarry Glen Ross-style adventuring, you should head right on over to the Kickstarter campaign for Dirty Land, where the developer is aiming to raise a little over $30,000 USD by October 23rd. If successful, we could see the game released by November 2021 on Windows, Mac and Linux, with mobile and even console ports possible later on.

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