Westfield Chandler

Dave Cornelson has formally announced his plans of commercial IF publishing on the rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroup. Peter Nepstad’s relative success with 1893: A World’s Fair Mystery is not easy to dismiss, as even the forum folks have been discussing commercial publishing as well.

It’s too early to tell what effect Westfield Chandler Publishing will have on the IF scene, but this will hopefully bring more people into the field. If it can attract a lot of other writers as well as players, it’ll be a success.

A tip of the hat to Dave and his team! Good luck.

UPDATE: On February 2007, the company name was changed from “Westfield Chandler” to “Textfyre,” with their own website here.

Twisted (but) fun

I’m currently playing another AGS adventure game called Emily Enough: Imprisoned (EEI) by Logan “Anarcho” Worsley. It’s a tale about Emily Enough, the highly intelligent heiress to the Enough estate, who decided to murder her parents and everyone else in their household because her birthday demands were not met. She was then tried and sentenced to live in an asylum until her 21st birthday. But that’s not the fun part yet.

Emily Enough at the asylum

The fun part is in the asylum. The game begins during Emily’s arrival in the asylum. It turns out the mental institute is owned by a chemical company, which is currently undergoing several “infrastructure changes,” so to speak. To save money, the company had to move their offices over to the institute so they could try recovering there.

Emily shudders at what she sees happening inside, and wants to escape. How she does that is up to the player.

Emily Enough: Imprisoned is, to say the least, not for everyone. It’s certainly sick and twisted, and Emily’s almost aristocratic behavior reminds me a bit of Hannibal Lecter. This is complimented with a lot of humorous comments provided by both Emily and the NPCs. For example, when Emily looks at herself in the mirror, she says, rather drily, “Beautiful…but dangerous.” Or when she recommends mauve-colored shorts to one of the patients.

The game’s graphics are clean and well-drawn, and character movement is pretty smooth. This is probably due to the improved graphics support on the new AGS engine (v2.7). I recommend playing the game on a full screen to better enjoy it.

The gameplay is fun, and I found myself constantly searching for clues. There’s bound to be some pixel-hunting, though; the player might need to scour areas for that one particular area, as some of the items needed are not as obvious. The puzzles are easy, and the game can be finished, well, through some persistence. (I admit I am a wretch when it comes to puzzles, so you can probably take that with a grain of salt.)

Overall, EEI is a good solid adventure. If you’re looking for one that’s a little different from the rest, then this is for you. Still not for the PG-13 crowd, though.

UPDATE: A more comprehensive review (from Adventure Europe) plus a download link can be found here.