Sequel: Developments

[LilyLaura18]

Recently, I happened upon Emerald City Confidential. I'm sad I didn't learn about it sooner, for it really it a lovely take on the Land of Oz and its marvelous characters.

After a quick internet search, I discovered that there wasn't a sequel, but that many fans were asking (and hoping) for one. A fan on this forum suggested that exploration of Gillikin and Munchkin Countries would be nice (I, too, wish to explore the remaining countries).

D. Lewis Gilbert (ha, that was smart) said that he would gladly do an ECC sequel if he "got the go ahead" from PlayFirst.

Does anyone know of any new developments since then (2009)? Is there perhaps a way to contact/request that PlayFirst take on an ECC 2? I feel Petra, or at least Emerald City and the surrounding countries, still have a story to be told.

Laura

[DaveGilbert]

Hi Lily!  Interestingly enough, the Munchkin and Gillikan sections were fully designed and were originally going to be in the game, but the game went way over budget and they had to be cut out.  The Munchkin area was going to take place on misty farmland that was being attacked by a monster, akin to Hound of the Baskervilles.  It ended with a confrontation by Dee's old house (which was partially sunk into misty marshland).  The Gillikan section was a good old-fashioned murder mystery at a luxury lakeside resort.  There were several characters from the books involved there, I recall.  The Hungry Tiger was a food critic who was staying at the resort, and Button Bright was re-imagined as a cranky old groundskeeper called "Buttons."  I don't remember anything specific though.  Maybe I should try and find my old notes!

Unfortunately, a sequel will probably never happen.  PlayFirst has shown no interest in doing one.  Oz itself is public domain, so I suppose I could make another Oz Noir game if I wanted to - as long as i took care not to use any of the characters specifically created for ECC.  But I'm sure they wouldn't like that at all and I don't want to upset them, so I probably won't be doing one either.  So... yeah.  Most likely there will never be any more ECC.

[LilyLaura18]

Hm. Well, I suppose quite a few fans will be disappointed to hear that, but I'm sure all the hard work that was put into ECC will make for hours of re-play and talk.

Say, this is only a suggestion, but perhaps you could give fans a little sneak peak into what would've been the Munckin and Gillikin mysteries on your blog?

Thanks, Dave! Hope to see more games from you soon.

[nhoward428]

I was just curious if there was any news of a sequel for ECC yet?  If not maybe you could do some Noir games of other stories like Wonderland or other well known stories. 

[NicolasBahamondes]

Make an alternative version of the Noir Oz videogame, take advantage of the Oz fashion, Dave.

And, of course, you can mention vaguely in the speeches references to the ECC videogame. After all, you can't recycle the sprites, but you can mention the characters. A name doesn't have IP or copyright.

If you do it, I'll buy the game inmediately though Steam.

[DaveGilbert]

Yeah, that's why I never pushed PlayFirst too hard to get the IP rights. If I wanted to make another Oz game, it's in the public domain so there's nothing stopping me. I couldn't use Petra or Cutter or any of the characters I made for ECC, but there's about 40 (public domain) books worth of lore to draw from. Maybe one day!