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I think it would benefit from having...something else there. I'm not sure what, but as-is it's pretty bland. Also there's a really noticeable white outline around Fatman that detracts from the overall feel of it.

The wallpaper looks a lot cleaner when it's expanded to full-size.  Try it!  Shrinking down the image made it look a bit weird.

So what's the story with Fatman 2, man?  I went to the website expecting an update but saw nothing.

The event was called Pecha Kucha, and was sponsored by the New York City chapter of the IGDA (international game developers association).  So the event was in NYC, and the crowd was made up of various industry professionals, students, and so on.

Hah.  Man, I was so unprepared for that speech.  I was originally going to talk about Emerald City Confidential, but then the publisher decided to delay the announcement so I had to throw together a completely new presentation about 2 hours before I spoke. 

There was a lot more I could have talked about, but the presentation format was limited to 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide.  It's called "Pecha Kucha" and it's a type of presentation that's getting kinda popular.

We've got a new project manager and production has started to steamroll nicely!  Here are some new character portraits:

This is Josie Park:


This is Claude Urdin:


Nishanthi's back, too:


Read more about 'em on the Convergence character page!

Mmm.  I get to relive that dinner all over again by watching this video.  And those carbombs.  Yeesh.

Anyway, glad you liked the vid, gang.  It was great fun being on the show, as well as having Ivy, Grundy and Layabout crammed into my lil studio apartment for a week.  This place is too darn quiet now!

-Dave

With my black clothes and the dark background, I'm like Stealth Dave in that video.

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!

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.

oh, and snarky:

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?

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! 

He's the laziest lizard in space...

That theme song will be stuck in my head forever.

Zooty: yep!

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.

[Screenshots:]

Abount ten months ago, I was approached by a games publisher (PlayFirst)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.

Available now! 

Purchase HERE.

TRAILER HERE


Screenshots:


Petra's office.  It's not much, but it's home.


Ruggedo's pub is the best place in town to speak to the criminal element.


Petra speaks with Jack Pumpkinhead, a notorious smuggler.


Petra and her trusty steed, the Sawhorse, explore the far corners of Winkie country.


Petra has run afoul of a ruthless lawyer.


A chat with Betsy Bobbins, a local debutante.

Team:
Writer/designer: Dave Gilbert
Background artist: John Green
Animation and character artist: Flash Potatoes
Programmer: Andrew Goulding (cmonkey)
Engineer: Dan Filner
Music: Thomas Regin

Purchase HERE.

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

A little animation preview, courtesy of Mr. ProgZmax:



2x:

To be fair, the decision to not use AGS for the Playfirst project wasn't mine.  All Playfirst game have to be written in the Playfirst SDK, so I had to hire an engineer to make an adventure game framework within that SDK.  The portability of the system is a major point in its favor, but I'd rather be using AGS. 

Hi all!  Been awhile.  The infamous PlayFirst Project is keeping me massively busy, but I still have managed to give Blackwell a little love.  Or rather, Ian has.  He has updated the characters portraits and given them a more painted look.

 

Aiming to have an extended demo out by Halloween, so stay tuned.

My parents lost about 50 grand in the stock market in just a few days, so yes I'd say there's definitely a problem.  They are debating whether they should take the money out or hope for things to turn around. 

It's tough to commit so early but I have a definite interest in going.  Janet says she'll come too.

Well done, comrades!  Game bring much glory to AGS.

If you want to remake a text-based game to a graphical one, that's fine.  Although it's probably best to remake a game that would really benefit from a point-and-click interface.  A game like Infocom's Hitchhiker's relied on its clever use of language and wordplay (even if a lot of those words translated to "I'm a game that hates you" - HHGTTG was an evil game!) It could represented visually, but you'd lose a lot of the experience in the process.  What do you think adding graphics would bring to that table?