Emerald City Confidential is OUT!

[Vel]

Why won't you use AGS?

[SSH]

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...

[Snarky]

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?

[Dave Gilbert]

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.

[LimpingFish]

Great work, Dave. Looks really nice.

...

And so on.

[thomasregin]

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!

/Tom.

[Tuomas]

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

[Dave Gilbert]

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?


Drama on Glinda's tower.

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

[Snarky]

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.

EDIT: 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.

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!

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.

[Ionias]

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.

[LimpingFish]

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.

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.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

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!

[Andail]

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.

[AGD2]

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

[JohnGreenArt]

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.

[Nikolas]

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! 

(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?)

[Ozzie]

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!

[Andail]

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.

[LimpingFish]

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.

[Dave Gilbert]

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.

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