Adventure Gamers last chatted with Dave Gilbert back in 2006 when he'd only released one game commercially (The Shivah). Since then, he's put out two well-received games in the Blackwell series and started venturing into new ground as both a developer and fledgling publisher. With the release of his first externally-published adventure, Emerald City Confidential, just around the corner, I recently caught up with Dave again to find out what he's been up to and learn a little more about his upcoming releases and the future for his company, Wadjet Eye Games.

Adventure Gamers: Dave, for those not familiar with you or your work, can you give us a brief profile of yourself, please?

Dave Gilbert: Sure thing. In a nutshell, I'm an indie game designer from New York City. I run my studio, Wadjet Eye Games, from my apartment in the east village. The studio has released three games so far, and two more will be released this year. Only two that I can confirm. We are working on others, but I can't confirm that they will be released this year.

AG: So the next game in your pipeline is Emerald City Confidential (ECC). Tell us about it.

DG: It's basically Oz meets Raymond Chandler, or an "Oz Noir", if you will. The Emerald City is a shadowy, dark place full of enigmatic characters all with their own agenda. The main character is Petra, a detective in the city who accepts a case from a mysterious woman named "Dee Gale", and in the course of her investigation she uncovers a plot involving an old enemy.

AG: Ah, so it's THAT Emerald City. Will there be any singing?

DG: Hah. No. No musical numbers in this game!

AG: So what made you choose Oz? Those of us who only know of it via Judy Garland may see it as a strange place to set a noir game.

DG: I loved the Oz books as a kid. There were 14 of them written by L. Frank Baum and I couldn't get enough of them. When I got older and started making games, I always had the thought of making a game based on Oz but never could find a good idea. Then I got into noir movies and detective stories, and one day I found myself imagining the Scarecrow being portrayed by Peter Lorre. The rest fell into place from there.

AG: That's obviously a much different vision of Oz than Baum's. Did you have any reservations about taking such a revered world and characters and taking it in a totally new direction?

DG: Not really. If you read the original Oz books, you’ll find a lot of dark edge to them. This is my way of expanding upon that.

AG: What was it about Oz that you felt lent itself so well to a detective story and noir setting?

DG: Anything can lend itself well to a detective story, really. As for noir, it’s not just about the shadowy streets and trenchcoats and fedoras (although those are certainly cool!). The real essences of noir, for me, is the blurred line between right and wrong. The characters can do really good things for bad reasons, and vice versa. In the original books, there was quite a bit of that.



AG: The books are beyond copyright now, right?

DG: Yep. The books are public domain now.

AG: I guess that saves a licencing fee.

DG: Exactly.

AG: At the time of this interview, we're just about a week away from the release of the game. As it’s your biggest release to date, how do you feel?

DG: It's a crazy feeling! Before this game, the most I ever worked on one project was 4-5 months. I've been involved with Emerald City Confidential for over a year now, and it's weird to be saying goodbye to it. But at the same time, I'm excited. I'm eager to see what people think of it, since I've never done anything this ambitious before.

AG: As an adventure for casual gamers, did you have to make any changes to accommodate them? Or is it a casual game for adventurers?

DG: We added a few enhancements to the game to make it more casual friendly, but nothing that detracts from the gameplay. For the most part, it is an adventure game as us die-hards know it. The biggest enhancement is an in-game clue book. If the user gets stuck on a tricky puzzle, they can consult the clue book for help (with the clues getting more and more detailed the more you consult it). It's a great way of easing the usual frustrations of adventure games without taking away what makes them challenging and fun.

AG: If you had to choose a single label, is ECC casual or adventure?

DG: Casual games are such a broad term, since there are so many types of casual games. Emerald City Confidential is story, dialog and puzzle driven and there isn't an emphasis on action or random clicking. So if I had to choose, it would definitely be an adventure game.

AG: Adventure Gamers recently commented that casual gaming may pose a significant threat to the adventure genre. Do you think that's a problem?

DG: I don't think there’s any reason to be concerned. In fact, I'd say the opposite is true. The first two Blackwell games were not casual friendly in the least, but did phenomenally well in that market. It might have been a fluke, but it's an audience which has been known to love adventure games. The truth is, it's hard to lump ALL adventure games into one category. It's like lumping all movies into one category. If you don't like comedies, you aren't going to like Sam & Max. If you don't like science fiction, you aren't going to like The Dig. If you really like westerns, you will probably love Freddy Pharkus. It's all about finding the right audience for your work. Just trying to appeal to "adventure gamers" is too broad.

AG: Have you got any of the traditional casual game features in ECC like Escape-the-Room pixel hunts or Badges for achieving certain things?

DG: Badges are the casual equivalent of Xbox achievements, and you'll definitely be receiving some in Emerald City Confidential. There is a little hidden-object like side game where you have to find shiny buttons in each location, and each one rewards you with little extras like concept art and sketches, but they aren't necessary to complete the game.

AG: How did you get involved with PlayFirst, the publishers of ECC?

DG: I met them at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco in 2007. At these conferences, all the big companies throw a party. A friend of mine snuck me into the PlayFirst party (it took place at a diner and was called the "Diner Bash", to celebrate their game Diner Dash), and I was introduced to Kenny Dinkin, the creative director at PlayFirst. He told me he really enjoyed The Shivah and offered me a publishing deal. At the time, I wasn't familiar with PlayFirst and their types of games. When I later checked them out, I looked at their games and thought "I don't know anything about making games like this!" and then kinda forgot about the offer. Then, several months later, Kenny got back in touch again. This time, he made a point of saying that he wanted a "real adventure game, like the kinds on your site." I agreed, of course. I came very close to blowing it!