Emerald City Confidential is OUT!

[Vince Twelve]

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!

[ALPHATT]

yippie!

[Dave Gilbert]

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.

[ALPHATT]

Now what is this? :p

[Dave Gilbert]

Heh.  Apparently the game's got a fansite already.

[SSH]

A fansite? Here's another one! 

[Vince Twelve]

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...

[ALPHATT]

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.

[Andail]

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...

[Dave Gilbert]

Thanks Vince & Alpha!

Oh, and incidentally.  Check out what's #1 on the PlayFirst top ten. 

[Peder 🚀]

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 .

[ALPHATT]

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.

[Vince Twelve]

Just posted this on the Adventure Gamers Review 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.

[Dave Gilbert]

   Thanks, Vince! 

[jrp]

Fantastic!