Adventure Game Studio

Abount ten months ago, I was approached by a games publisher (PlayFirst (http://www.playfirst.com))to do an adventure game for the casual audience.  I've had to keep mum about the project since then, but the game was just announced on their website so I am off the leash.  I'm really excited to announce...



The magical land of Oz, as written by L. Frank Baum, is put through the gritty filter of 1940s film noir.  Harsh city streets, grey rainy skies, femme fatales, tough guys, trenchcoats, fedoras and plot twists.  It's Oz, seen through the eyes of Raymond Chandler.

You are Petra. Emerald City's only private detective.  One dark night, she is approached by a strange woman named Dee Gale.  It appears Dee's fiancé is missing, and Dee is willing to pay high and above the going rate in order to find him.  Lacking any other prospects, Petra agrees.  What starts off as a simple missing person case soon takes Petra deep into the seedy underbelly of the Emerald City's criminal underground and beyond.  She will encounter many characters both familiar and new, learn several magic spells, and uncover the answer to a dark secret that has haunted Petra all her life.

Features:

- over 40 hand-drawn 2D backgrounds
- over 6,500 lines of spoken dialog for 35 characters
- a story that takes place over 5 chapters.

This game will published and sold by PlayFirst. (http://www.playfirst.com)

Available now! 

Purchase HERE. (http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/PF.htm?page=purchase)

TRAILER HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFY6UJzntoU)


Screenshots:

(http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/mayoco/project/media/ECC_screen1.png)
Petra's office.  It's not much, but it's home.

(http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/mayoco/project/media/ECC_screen2.png)
Ruggedo's pub is the best place in town to speak to the criminal element.

(http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/mayoco/project/media/ECC_screen3.png)
Petra speaks with Jack Pumpkinhead, a notorious smuggler.

(http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/mayoco/project/media/ECC_screen4.png)
Petra and her trusty steed, the Sawhorse, explore the far corners of Winkie country.

(http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/mayoco/project/media/ECC_screen5.png)
Petra has run afoul of a ruthless lawyer.

(http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/mayoco/project/media/ECC_screen6.png)
A chat with Betsy Bobbins, a local debutante.

Team:
Writer/designer: Dave Gilbert (http://www.wadjeteyegames.com)
Background artist: John Green (http://www.johngreenart.com/)
Animation and character artist: Flash Potatoes (http://www.flashpotatoes.com)
Programmer: Andrew Goulding (cmonkey) (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?action=profile;u=567)
Engineer: Dan Filner
Music: Thomas Regin (http://www.thomas-regin.com/)

Purchase HERE. (http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/PF.htm?page=purchase)

For more details on the game (like character info, concept sketches, and other goodies),  please mosey over to the Wadjet Eye Games website. (http://www.wadjeteyegames.com)

Excellent! I plan on buying this one when it comes out!

Question: 6500 lines of dialog is probably going to make this a BIG download! Will there be a CD order available for those poor people with terrible internets (ie, me)?

Otherwise it'll probably take me three straight days to download  :=

Ps, the screenshots looked a little blocky here but when I checked them out on your website they seemed quite ok. Strange - maybe it's just my browser?

This is fantastic news for humanity.

 :o Woah!
Looks great.
Will we get to see Dorothy?

Ben: Yep!  There will be a CD version to order or purchase in stores, but it won't be available until a few weeks after the release.  I think.  I'll have to check.

Eggie: Thanks!

Stupot: Yep!  Kinda.  Read the plot description again. :)

Quote from: Dave Gilbert on Sat 01/11/2008 13:06:26
Stupot: Yep!  Kinda.  Read the plot description again. :)

Ahh, yep, I geddit now ;)

Well, surprises like this justify my jaw-less avatar.
Jaw just dropped, all the way down.

:o Looks gorgeous! And congrats on getting under PlayFirst wings; they usually have an eye for quality ;)

Dee... I get it.  ;)

Interesting. I always like the detective aspects of your games, so I'm looking forward to that. Not sure about Oz as a setting--isn't that ground fairly well-trodden? Anyway, I'm sure you'll make it work somehow, and the graphics look good (if a bit stiff in the character poses). The art deco look of Emerald City is a great fit for a noir tone; and I really look forward to another great jazz soundtrack by Thomas Regin. A definite must-buy.

The character descriptions make it sound like the game is based on deep and extensive Oz research (i.e. not just the movie and the Wicked musical, but the whole series of books). I hope it'll still be accessible for casual (and non-) fans.

If you're recording voices now, does that mean that the game is nearly done and you can focus your attention on Blackwell Convergence again?

BTW, the plural of "femme fatale" is "femmes fatales", "not femme fateles". (Ummm... and also, on your website you describe Petra as "a young (if slightly embittered) young woman", and the PlayFirst company description is in a different font than everything else.)

Wow, this was truly a nice surprise - I agree with Snarky somewhat on the Oz-setting, but heck, who am I to complain? This does indeed look awesome. And, as always, I'm hooked from the very mentioning of film noir. :) Great work, Dave, I'm really looking forward to playing this!

While on the topic: It seems as if there's been a lot of Noir-ish-ness in quite a few up-and-coming adventure games recently...
Three Cards to Midnight (http://www.bigfinishgames.com/) and Face Noir: The Cat with Jade Eyes (http://www.facenoir.com) springs to mind... I got a very Grim Fandango-ish vibe from the site of the latter, anyways.

Stores you say? With windows and doors stores?

Zooty: yep!

Sexcellent!

That is pretty cool! I like the concept so I'll probably get the game when it's done. Good going, Dave!

Wow! Looks great! :D
I don't know much about Oz to be honest, so do I have to catch up on that front first?

The premise reminds me somewhat of Discworld Noir (fantasy world meets film noir)........coincidence? ;)

Yay, it's finally almost done!

Very nice!  I love Dee Gale ... subtle and clever :)  Lookin' forward to playing!

Awesome! I'm excited to check this out too.  Beautiful artwork, and I really like that thing, the Sawhorse, that she's riding in the one shot.  I want one.

Looks great, well done Dave!

Wootness.. this looks gorgeous,..

oh, and snarky:

QuoteIf you're recording voices now, does that mean that the game is nearly done and you can focus your attention on Blackwell Convergence again?

Sigh.  Alas, not quite.  There's still a lot left to do.  All the dialog is finalized but there is still a ton of playtesting to do and bugs to fix.  ECC is the largest project I've ever worked on! 

Why won't you use AGS?

Quote from: Vel on Sun 02/11/2008 18:10:24
Why won't you use AGS?

Because Playfirst are paying all the bills for the game and they have their own SDK that they insist on Dave using, perhaps?

Believe me, the game isn't suffering for the sake of not being written in AGS. Although probably the cost and development time are...

Quote from: Dave Gilbert on Sun 02/11/2008 18:04:41
Sigh.  Alas, not quite.  There's still a lot left to do.  All the dialog is finalized but there is still a ton of playtesting to do and bugs to fix.  ECC is the largest project I've ever worked on! 

OK. Just looking forward to the next Blackwell game.

Oh, by the way: I looked around on PlayFirst, both the reviews/ratings of your games and other games on the site. Really interesting to see the kind of things they like/don't like over there. Their preferences seem really different from the AGS community's. For example, The Shivah (still my favorite Wadjet Eye title) gets a really low score, while the Blackwell games do somewhat better. I can't help but think that this has something to do with the main character: It looks like almost all the PlayFirst games have you play a girl/young woman (the same character in all games?). Their players clearly don't see the appeal of the VGA-like graphics, and a lot of people complain about being stuck on the first puzzle. (There were also complaints about Blackwell Legacy being too talky, but I complained about that too.)

Then, looking at some of the other games, there seems to be a lot of interest in mini-games and "hidden object"-type gameplay... what we would call pixel hunts around here (even a Jane Jensen title based around the latter--I have to wonder how many of that audience even know who she is). So that's what the casual market wants, then?

To what extent have you tailored the ECC design to appeal to this group? The higher-resolution, line-drawing art style with cartoony characters with huge eyes definitely seems more in line with what the audience expects. Sticking with a young, female main character looks like a good calculation, too. I think you also mentioned at one point that this game would be a little easier, which I'm sure is going to help people feel like they're getting somewhere in the demo. Are we going to see pixel hunts and mini-games play a bigger role? Do you think there are conflicts between what different groups of players want, or is there some way to make a great game that will please everyone?

Sorta yes and sorta no, Snarky.  Originally, I envisioned the main character for ECC to be male, and my producer asked me to make it a female.  I balked at first, but as I started to develop the game and her backstory, I began to really like the decision.  The simple act of making the character female enabled us to break away from the overused "tough guy noir PI" cliche and create a character that really stood out.  That and the pillbox hat.  That hat is awesome.

As for the cartoony style, that was actually my choice!  The PF art director wanted a more realistic style, but I knew it would be difficult to do that.  There are a lot of characters in the game, and several bucketloads of animations.  Making the characters more "realistic" would mean spending a lot more time and a lot more money on them, which was not possible due to the budget and timeframe.  So, we leaned towards a stylish but clean animation approach, like the Bruce Timm batman cartoons of the 90s.  Evocative and stylzed, but simple enough to animate quickly.

As for tailoring the game to the casuals, no there isn't a big emphasis on minigames and hidden object stuff (although there is one optional sidequest which does involve a hidden object type of thing).  The game is an adventure game as we know the term.  The puzzles in the first part of the game will be a bit simple (i.e., with characters practically telling you the solutions), but the difficulty will ramp up as the game progresses.

We are all well-aware that this isn't the usual casual game fare, but there's enough of an overlap between the adventure game market and the casual market to make it worth it.  Nothing like this has been tried before, so we're all very excited to see what will happen. :)

Great work, Dave. Looks really nice. :)

...

And so on.

Quote from: Snarky on Sat 01/11/2008 14:00:26
and I really look forward to another great jazz soundtrack by Thomas Regin. A definite must-buy.

Hi Snarky. Thanks for the heads-up, but there'll be no jazz for Emerald City Confidential, but a mysterious and adventurous full orchestral score, which I hope you'll enjoy just as much! :D

/Tom.

Looks pretty nifty. With Zak McKracken being the last game I bought, that was probably, what, 10 years ago, I'm really feeling like I'd like to try this out. It looks very nice and interesting. That and green being the popular colour in fashion this year 2008, hopefully they won't bring in something else in '09 before this one is released ;)

Here's another screenshot, just because I feel like it. Can you tell that I'm excited about being able to talk about this now?

(http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/mayoco/project/media/ECC_screen_7.png)
Drama on Glinda's tower.

Glinda was designed about six months ago, so any similarities between her and Sarah Palin are a total accident!

Quote from: LimpingFish on Sun 02/11/2008 20:47:18
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that "hunt-the-trash" games are primarily for easily-amused morons, or perhaps very slow children. I have no qualms with thinking this, and if you happen to have spent time playing one, then, yes, I probably consider you to belong to the growing ranks of said morons. It's nothing personal, but I struggle to find any other reason why reasonably sane people would devote time to these non-games.

Isn't it pretty silly to disparage people based on what type of activity they find entertaining? I personally don't see the attraction of hidden object-type gameplay, but then again I don't enjoy watching sports, or going out dancing, and plenty of people enjoy those things. On the other hand, a lot of adventure games involve little else than rearranging objects to trigger the next cut scene, and I like those even if the whole concept is pretty stupid. To think better or worse of people for such trivialities... it doesn't seem all that smart. Besides, have you seen the commercials for that multiplayer Wii game? One of those girls is hot!

Check. And. Mate.

QuoteEDIT: For the love of crumbcake, just take a look at PlayFirst's top ten selling games! Homogeneous! Now I'm a little less loving ECC's visuals. In fact, now I'm a bit annoyed. Who sucked all the fun out of FlashPotatoes style? Where is the quirkiness of the characters in his online portfolio? It seems ECC's characters are now visually interchangable with PlayFirst's other guff. Oh man. I know concessions have to be made, and everybody has to earn a buck, but this is a very depressing hint about why these portals really are the domain of creative vacuums.

Sorry, Dave, I really mean no offence, but I also really disagree with this kind of creative inanity.

I was actually kind of impressed by how FlashPotato and, especially, John Green were able to work within the parameters of the PlayFirst house style, and still make it look so lush and stylish. The only complaints I have about the graphics so far remain the stiff-looking character poses, and the way the boxes and books in the first screenshot form a line that exactly follows the vignette shadow, with only emptiness beyond. Another pile of books behind the first row would make it look much more natural.

Quote from: thomasregin on Sun 02/11/2008 22:36:41Hi Snarky. Thanks for the heads-up, but there'll be no jazz for Emerald City Confidential, but a mysterious and adventurous full orchestral score, which I hope you'll enjoy just as much! :D

Oh wow! I assumed that some jazz would go great with the 20s noir look, but as long as it works, I don't mind.

Dave you’ve simply outdone yourself, again. Give yourself a pat on the back for me. Looks beautiful and I can’t wait to head to my local Game Stop and touch it. :)

Quote from: Snarky on Mon 03/11/2008 01:47:20
Isn't it pretty silly to disparage people based on what type of activity they find entertaining? I personally don't see the attraction of hidden object-type gameplay, but then again I don't enjoy watching sports, or going out dancing, and plenty of people enjoy those things.

Silly and bitter, that's me. I consider lots of the day to day stuff that people do to be moronic, so I'm in the habit of labeling people morons on a fairly regular basis. It doesn't mean I'm right.

Quote
I was actually kind of impressed by how FlashPotato and, especially, John Green were able to work within the parameters of the PlayFirst house style, and still make it look so lush and stylish. The only complaints I have about the graphics so far remain the stiff-looking character poses, and the way the boxes and books in the first screenshot form a line that exactly follows the vignette shadow, with only emptiness beyond. Another pile of books behind the first row would make it look much more natural.

I didn't realise PlayFirst had a style when I first saw Dave's post. I checked out Flash Potato's portfolio and was a bit taken aback. The fact that ECC's characters seem to be bereft of some of the flair I saw in that portfolio is what I find a little disheartening. From what Dave has shown us of EEC, the main character could have easily stepped from any of the Dash games on PlayFirst's site. But I'm also poor and non-published, so what do I know?

Basically I'm saying that I think a lot of the visual charm of Dave's self-published games, and their characters, has been sacrificed to ensure ECC conforms to what PlayFirst wants for their audience. But since they are the fiscal force behind it, they are entitled to expect their product to be designed to their wishes. Which is why, seeing as this is a game made to order, this is not the place for me to express my views on creative freedom and all that jazz.

Hopefully Dave can forgive me for hijacking his thread a second time.

Being one of the testers of this game, I can only tell you guys that the puzzles vary from simple to quite interesting.  They're pretty standard fare for an adventure game of this sort so you probably don't need to worry about it being too casual gamer friendly.  I was pleasantly surprised by the visuals the first time I played it, and as usual, screenshots don't really do the game justice :).  Also, Thomas's score for it is great!

Backgrounds look great, but the artist seems to have this thing for exceedingly bright white light-sources :)
A bit too cheap an effect in my eyes but I guess it works on a casual audience...

Anyhow, really interesting game, Dave, I hope to play it sooner or later.

Congrats, Dave! Seems like it's going to be an excellent game. I'm looking forward to this. Good luck with everything!

Quote from: Andail on Mon 03/11/2008 09:06:21
Backgrounds look great, but the artist seems to have this thing for exceedingly bright white light-sources :)
A bit too cheap an effect in my eyes but I guess it works on a casual audience...

Can you further explain what you mean by "too cheap an effect"? I can understand if it's not your thing, I'm just curious what makes it cheap.

I think that the game will suck!

Graphics look awful.

Music will definately be quite bad, I know it. No Jazz? Shame, Thomas! Shame!

As for story and dialogs we all know that Dave is not the person to do this.

And above all, it's not made with AGS!

*ah3m*

So, Dave, we ARE looking into Jan 2009, right? Cause in all honesty: I CAN'T BLOODY WAIT! I do want the CD version, of course, since I'm some kind of purist, but other than that, this looks excellent!

As for playfirst: They gave their money, for this game to be made. End of story. They get to make a "few" choices. End of story. At least not on the story, I hope. End of story. Which incidently brings me to the closing of my post.

End of story!  :P

(For the record, I'm still suffering from jetlag, being in Seattle, and having woken up at 04:13. Probably this is how silly posts are generated?)

Well, I can understand LimpingFish, my first thought was also "this looks so......casual, ugh!".
But apart from that I actually like the graphics.
I just hope that it is also interesting enough for "normal" adventure gamers. I guess we'll see!

Quote from: JohnGreenArt on Mon 03/11/2008 13:22:29

Quote from: Andail on Mon 03/11/2008 09:06:21
Backgrounds look great, but the artist seems to have this thing for exceedingly bright white light-sources :)
A bit too cheap an effect in my eyes but I guess it works on a casual audience...

Can you further explain what you mean by "too cheap an effect"? I can understand if it's not your thing, I'm just curious what makes it cheap.

This is not the critics lounge, and I also appreciate that the backgrounds have been mass-manifactured, so I'm sorry if I'm being a bit snobbish here.

Basically the lights have been applied as very strong white daubs and are poorly integrated in the environment. I think this makes the scenes more impressive at a first glance, or for a less critical eye, but appears a bit "plastic" and generic upon closer inspection.
I could point out in detail how the lighting is rather unnatural, but I don't want to come across as too anal.

Either way, for being an entire set of backgrounds, they are well done and very stylish.

Unlike Flash Potato, I'm familiar with John Green's work (through Nearly Departed), and to be quite honest I didn't recognize his style in the first backgrounds Dave posted.

I think what people may be pointing out is that some of the uniqueness these artists have shown in the past has been sacrificed so that ECC conforms to a preordained visual style. But as Andail has stated, this will probably come across as snobbery on our part, and it's not really the time or the place for such debate.

I will say that visually the game is very professional. Coupled with Dave's writing and direction, this should prove to be a fine addition to the genre. :)

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but it seemed more appropriate than starting a new one.  Anyway, as the new subject title sez - the game is now gold and will be out on February 19th!  You can see some preview scenes from the on my new vidcast, which you can find here. (http://www.wadjeteyegames.com)

Have I really been working on this game for over a year?  Yeeshus.

Congratulations Dave, can't wait to try it.

Time goes by..when you're not looking at the clocks.

Great! I was thinking just the other day that you'd probably be releasing it soon!

Look forward to trying it out :D.

You said that PlayFirst wanted you to change the protagonsit to a female because of the audience their aiming for wich I like but...

... will be the puzzles 'easier' because of the 'audience PlaysFirst is aiming for'?

Anyway I love the look, I love the concept so I'm planning on buying.

cheers.

Quote... will be the puzzles 'easier' because of the 'audience PlaysFirst is aiming for'?

Yes and no.  The puzzles are the usual kind you'd expect to find in an adventure game, but we've included a hint system which for those who have trouble with them. 

Thanks for letteing me know. Very clever.
:P

PF just released a trailer for the game RIGHT HERE.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFY6UJzntoU)

That looks really nice, Dave! (Watched it with the sound off since I'm at work, but based on the clips in your vidcast, I'm sure it sounds nice as well.)

You might want to point out to PF that one of the intertitles says "The Emarald City Has Lost Its Luster..." They should probably try to get the name of the game spelled right.  ;)

Quote

You might want to point out to PF that one of the intertitles says "The Emarald City Has Lost Its Luster..." They should probably try to get the name of the game spelled right.  Wink

Hah. Yes.  That was pointed out to them like 5 minutes after it was uploaded.  They'll have a new version up soon.

Looks (and sounds) very neat!

Good stuff :)

I especially like the

Spoiler

You're all heart, Tinman

[close]

comment!

Wow! Amazing! how much hours/days you spent in one background???
They are beutifull!  :D

Quote from: jakerpot on Wed 11/02/2009 02:18:06
Wow! Amazing! how much hours/days you spent in one background???
They are beutifull!  :D

I didn't draw them.  I hire people to do that for me now. ;D

 ;D so you have money huh? Just kidding. This backgrounds should be very expensive  :-X if i could draw this way, i could earn some money too.

John Green did the backgrounds. Great artist and a really nice guy. I suggest you check out his website. He does comics too. I haven't really read them, but from what I hear they are really great. I almost wet myself when I saw his line renditions of NYC. So so lovely.

http://www.johngreenart.com/ (http://www.johngreenart.com/)

If we are lucky, he might say hello.

Dave is lucky to know talented people who are passionate about his games and love to help out. For the green stuff naturally.

The character animations in ECC are so so nice as well. I'm not sure what the actual artist is like as a person, so we will just leave it at that, hey? :p

Can't wait to see what lovely games come from the Wadjet Eye factory in the future, but all I know is they are sure to be quality. :D :p

Sweet   :D this guy makes good art. GOOOOD art.

John Green is the man.  And I'm not saying that because he draws a character that looks suspiciously like Rosa Blackwell. (http://www.quickenforbidden.com/story.shtml)  He's a great artist and great fun to work with.  You all should hire him!

no, i don`t have money, just if he want to work for me for 5 dollars a hour  :=
J-

Nice stuff there Dave, I'm really teased on..

THanks for the compliments, everyone!

It's out! It's oouuuutttt!!!

You can purchase it through the Wadjet Eye Games site HERE. (http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/PF.htm?page=purchase)

It's already garnered one positive review! (http://www.meryl.net/2009/02/pc-game-review-emerald-city-confidential/)

So, phew.  It's always a great feeling to get a new game out, and this is no exception.  Hope you all enjoy it.

-Dave

I bought it with the through PlayFirst last night, sorry, I guess you would have gotten more money if I had waited a day and gotten it off your site.  I didn't even think you were going to be able to sell it through your site.

Anyway, it's looking really good so far.  My daughter sat on my lap while I played it and kept asking things like why the sofa is flying or why the lion is bad (she's accustomed to nice lions like the ones in Lion King and Madagascar 2 :) ).  I'm looking forward to playing it some more tonight!

yippie!

Hah.  That's OK, Vince.  I didn't even realize they were going to release it at midnight!  Glad you and your daughter are enjoying it, even if it's confusing her. :)

Now what is this (http://www.emerald-city-confidential-game.com/about.html)? :p

Heh.  Apparently the game's got a fansite already. :-D

A fansite? Here's another one! (http://ags-ssh.blogspot.com)  ;)

Quote from: Dave Gilbert on Thu 19/02/2009 15:07:05
Glad you and your daughter are enjoying it, even if it's confusing her. :)

It's not actually confusing her.  She just asks questions all the time.  She also asked me how old I was when I was little and where grandma's toothbrush is.  True story.  I don't know how she comes up with some of this stuff. :)  I can't even read her a book without answering 2-3 questions per page.  It's kind of hard sometime to explain what's going on in a Dr. Seuss book...

I've started playing ECC I really like the story so far, actually I would've loved to see the game in a similar style as the sketch of Petra but I guess it wouldn't have appeald for the PF audience...

Anyway great game, the voicework is great but It feels the sounds have been compressed very heavily(idk if it is the right experssion to use but whatevs) it put me off a bit, but what can i say atleast the download is smaller.

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Thu 19/02/2009 16:55:20

Quote from: Dave Gilbert on Thu 19/02/2009 15:07:05
Glad you and your daughter are enjoying it, even if it's confusing her. :)

It's not actually confusing her.  She just asks questions all the time.  She also asked me how old I was when I was little and where grandma's toothbrush is.  True story.  I don't know how she comes up with some of this stuff. :)  I can't even read her a book without answering 2-3 questions per page.  It's kind of hard sometime to explain what's going on in a Dr. Seuss book...

As a teacher, I'm sure you have the appropriate arsenal of punishments for such a nosey, inquisitive behaviour!

OH and sorry for the OT...

Thanks Vince & Alpha!

Oh, and incidentally.  Check out what's #1 on the PlayFirst top ten. (http://www.playfirst.com) 

I just played the whole 1 hour trial, and I am liking it alot!
This will for sure be another of my TO BUY games ;D.

I've finished the game.

The only thing I can say is that ECC is the best indie adventure game I have ever played.
Other than the saving method everything in the game is top notch.

I salute you Dave Gilbert.

Just posted this on the Adventure Gamers Review (http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,980?) comments, but I thought that I should post it here to, so that AGSers who are on the fence might be tipped in the right direction.
>>>
I done finished the game and shucks if it wasn't awesome.

I can understand how some players going in with different expectations could be disappointed.  It would be impossible to please everyone.  Casual players are going to wonder why the items aren't hidden all over the screen, and why you have to talk to characters, and hard-core adventurers are going to bemoan the fairly easy puzzles and simplified interface.  Especially if they only play the one-hour trial.  The hand holding drops off significantly later in the game, though it never does become genuinely difficult.  However, the game works great for someone like me who is really looking for a unique story, fun characters, and great writing, and are looking for a little diversion that can fit into their jam-packed lives.

First off, the background and character art are excellent.  The game bogged down when there were too many animations on the screen at once, like when characters were shooting magic at each other.  But other than that, I loved the old-cartoon stylings of the characters.  Especially the duel-arena owner.

The story and writing are both just as amazing as you'd expect from Dave.  I loved how, even though I've never read the books, the game did a great job at filling in the blanks on the history and lore of the land of Oz beyond what you get from the gussied up version we saw in the classic movie.  I'm not sure what amount of the world was authentic to the books, and what amount was Dave's own unique Noir-twist on things.  Though the story starts as a little missing-persons case, it spirals into an epic tale (at the expense of the Noir feel, sadly) that would have been a chapter in the history books of Oz, so Dave was clearly not afraid of taking the reigns and making the world his own.

The characters and interactions are all expertly scripted and fun.  Unlike most adventure games these days, I made sure to choose every dialog option possible to hear all the lines of dialog.  I loved the voice acting as well.  I thought it was excellent across the board, with a few standouts (Anzel, Oz).

The puzzles are mostly easy, with some toughies spread around.  A couple of the puzzles were particularly clever.  The game had a built in hint system, but as the game was fairly easy and logical, I can't imagine someone needing it very much.  However, I'll admit to not being inside the mind of a casual player.   This would be the first time I've finished an adventure game in a long time without needing to go hunt down a walkthrough.  So, if that is a bad thing to you, then you'll probably be disappointed by the difficulty, but if the story and characters (and non logic-bending puzzles) are more important, then you'll have a grand time.

I think this is the best indie adventure game that I've played.  And I think the only games that come close are Dave's Blackwell series.  So, he's definitely on top of the indie adventure scene in my book.  I would agree with the four stars of the reviewer (http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,980?).

 ;D  Thanks, Vince! 

Fantastic!