Dépanneur Nocturne (Nighttime Convenience Store) is a short exploration game developed by G.P. Lackey of KO_OP, as the first game of the "KO_OP mini" Initiative to create short, experimental games. It was released on Itch.io in February 2018 and on Steam in May 2020.
You're tasked with finding a last-minute gift for your significant other. The problem? You don't know what to get her. Thankfully, the late night convenience store is still open, and the store's owner and shopkeeper, a salamander named Eugénie, is happy to help you pick something. But there's more to the store and Eugénie than meets the eye...
Tropes:
- All Witches Have Cats: While Eugénie doesn't refer to herself as a witch, she carries on her family's witch legacy and has a pet cat.
- Convenience Store Gift Shopping: The reason the player character is shopping at the store is that they need a last minute gift and it is the only one open.
- Creepy Basement: In order to get to the restroom, the player has to navigate through the basement, which is unsettling compared to the convenience store. The basement is eerie, with ghostly whips of wind, a security camera that follows you, and walls covered in posters warning about paranormal activities like doppelgangers, "shadowselves", and "subjacent serpents". At the very bottom, there's a vending machine that's been abandoned yet is kept freshly stocked with drinks, and if you find a particular spot on a wall, you can find a giant hand growing out of the ground.
- Diegetic Music: The music comes from a radio in the store, and the player can change the volume and station. Fiddling with the antennae causes it to play a mysterious series of numbers.
- Effortless Achievement: "Commerce" - earned by purchasing anything in the store.
- Fiery Salamander: Salamander hair is a fireproof material that can be made for useful things, such as clothing. When looking at the fireproof jacket, Eugénie mentions she cut and sold her hair in college to make money. She also mentions having once worked as a furnaceer, as salamanders were often hired for the role due to their fireproof nature.
- Gotta Catch Them All: While the player only needs to find one gift, there's nothing stopping them from loading their bag with as many items as they can in one play session. The only items that can't all be collected in a single playthrough are the mythical gifts Eugénie can offer, as she'll only let you take one.
- Featureless Protagonist: The main character is always in first person and is never seen. They are possibly a Funny Animal given the shopkeeper and girlfriend are.
- Holiday Mode: If the computer's clock is set to October 31st, All Hallows' Eve, the shop will have Halloween decorations, while Eugénie and the girlfriend will be wearing costumes.
- Interface Screw: Drinking one of the bottles from the basement's vending machine will change the game's colors.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Ronron, Eugénie's cat, has a habit of disappearing from his spot the moment the player looks away and reappear somewhere else.
- Painting the Medium: Eugénie is fluent in both English and French, and will greet the player in French when they walk in. The player can choose to reply in either language, and that will dictate what language she'll speak to them for the rest of the game.
- Permanently Missable Content: If the player agrees to look at the special gifts and enters the door in the freezer room, Eugénie will disapper from the counter, so the player won't be able to add anything else to their checkout bag.
- Potty Emergency: The player can invoke this as an excuse to get Eugénie to give them the keys to the basement.
- World of Funny Animals: Implied. The two characters seen are both anthropomorphic animals (Eugénie is a salamanders, and the player's girlfriend is a deer), and the player character's shadow, seen in the bathroom mirror, is vaguely anthropomorphic animal-shaped.
