At a certain point in the brilliant old-school shooter Dusk, you will encounter the Intoxigator, a huge alligator with moonshine bottles strapped to its back that spits toxic vomit. Later on, you will meet Son of Intoxigator, a similar-looking boss beast who's smaller, faster, and much tougher. And even further into the game, if you find the secret, you will also discover Wife of Intoxigator. She's not a boss, though, but rather a picture that looks like it was drawn by a child and taped to a fridge.
That is because that's exactly what it is, except that instead of being taped to a fridge, it was emailed to the creators of Dusk.
"In September we got an email from the mother of a 6th grader with autism who'd drawn concept art for a new boss in Dusk," New Blood Interactive producer Dave Oshry revealed on Twitter. "We liked the 'Wife of Intoxigator' so much we hid the picture in the game (linked it to an achievement) and when you interact with it it says, 'Thanks Caleb!'"
I stumbled across the picture of Mrs. Intoxigator some time ago and assumed it was just a weird gag, like Dusk's take on the Dopefish, and that the reference to Caleb was simply a nod to someone who had helped out with the game in some obscure, uncredited fashion. But Oshry confirmed that the story is legit—the developers were sent the image and put it directly into the game, complete with eraser marks—and also said that this is the first time the team has revealed where the picture came from.
As for his thoughts on why a sixth-grader would be playing an explosively bloody shooter like Dusk in the first place, Oshry said, "It's not yet rated by the ESRB, and his mom is clearly cool as hell."
Dusk is currently on sale for $17/£13/€14 in the Steam Winter Sale.
