Emerald City Confidential
Emerald City Confidential is a 2009 computer adventure game conceived by Dave Gilbert, developed by Wadjet Eye Games, and published through PlayFirst. It follows the protagonist Petra, Emerald City's only private eye, as she is approached by a strange woman named Dee Gale. Dee's fiancé is missing, and she is willing to pay Petra 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 encounters many characters from the Oz canon and some new characters, learns several magic spells, and uncovers the answer to a dark secret that has haunted Petra all her life. "Emerald City Confidential" is a third-person, mouse-driven adventure game in which the player must solve various puzzles and follow certain procedures in order for the linear storyline to proceed. As a pure graphical adventure game, "Emerald City Confidential" follows the guidelines first introduced by LucasArts: it is impossible to die or to get stuck at any moment in the game, which allows the user to become fully  immersed in "Emerald City Confidential"s universe without the fear of making a mistake or the constant need to save the game. With this in mind, there are no save game functions, but the player's position is automatically bookmarked and restored when the game is restarted. The game is set in the magical land of Oz, created by L. Frank Baum, as put through the gritty filter of 1940s film noir, with harsh city streets, grey rainy skies, femmes fatales, tough guys, trenchcoats, fedoras and plot twists. It is Oz, seen through the eyes of Raymond Chandler. Development. The game  was developed using Playfirst's Playground SDK. Background art was done by John Green, the artist and co-creator (with Dave Roman) of the graphic novels "Teen Boat!" and "Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden." Response. Most reviews of the game have been positive, with particular praise for the story even where the rest of the review has been less glowing. It has also topped PlayFirst's own chart for weeks after its release. Game Tunnel reviewed the game as "Buy" and awarded it a Gold Award, rating it #2 of February 2009 indie game releases. Emerald City Confidential Emerald