News: Wadjet Eye and PlayFirst release Emerald City Confidential

March 23, 2009, 03:29 PM

by ian, via via Wadjet Eye Games -
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My video game designer crush (totally platonic, I assure you) Dave Gilbert has released his latest game, the fantasy/noir/beloved-public-domain-story themed Emerald City Confidential. Set in L. Frank Baum's OZ, well after the events of most of the best known stories, it is again an adventure game, and while there seems to be a little more in the way of inventory management this time, the writing remains sharp, and the puzzles compelling. The opening has a fairly heavy handed tutorial, but this is understandable given that the game is published by PlayFirst, a company known largely for the casual games market. A market made up, chiefly, of 55 year old women who's most common careers are (in order) retired, homemaker, and disabled. I'd really love to find out how this thing sells. Once you're past this early trouble point though, the game really kicks into gear. I'm a huge fan of Gilbert's design, and if Casual Games is the market that can sustain him, then by all means, bring it on.
 
Now he needs to hurry up and release the next Blackwell game.
 
Conflict of Interest: I would love to link to a site where you can buy this, but due to various things I've signed, I can't. What I can do is tell you that Wadjet Eye Games has links for this very thing on their own site. Also, you probably know how to use Google.