NEWS
UPDATED 7-4-12

No news except my web host was contacted by the legal team of Telltale Games,
apparently, and for some reason think the game violates Dave Grossman's
intelectual property, so they took the file down. This is of course absurd. I demo'd the game
in person to Dave at the Telltale office (which is mentioned lower in the 9-20-08 update),
and I'd think if he had any objection to it he'd have said something. Anyway, if you don't
have the demo, who knows when my web host will clear it again, but you can KEEP TRYING.


UPDATED 7-27-11

I just want to let people know that I have not abandoned this game.
While it's playable, minus sound or music, it's still not complete
and has some bugs here and there. I am looking to build a more stable
version of it, ans ideally get it on more platforms than just MAC and PC,
but there's a lot of work involved and other projects keep taking up time
away from this one. But I'm not giving up!

 

UPDATED 10-11-09

Since I'm too busy to update people assume the project is dead. Let me reassure you
that the game is still quite UNdead! Ha ha... ha. Anyway, since it's nearing Halloween,
I've decided to release an in-progress build of the game. It's still incomplete, and there
are still some weird issues with out of sync animations and skipping dialog, but it's
playable through about 70%. Once you get to parts where you get "that part of the
game has not been implemented" messages, you'll know you've gone about as far
as you can. More assets of the game have been completed, they just haven't been
finished to a playable state just yet. This new demo can run in Flash player or
your browser, but since it's twenty megs it's not really streaming-friendly. You can
download the game HERE. I hope you like it and I'll try to update more frequently.

 

UPDATED 11-01-08

The confidential project I've been working on has finally been revealed!
Emerald City Confidential is a point-and-click adventure game (much like Nearly Departed).
It was developed by Wadjet Eye Games and is being published by PlayFirst.
It's a noirish tale of mystery and magic in the land of Oz, and will be released in January of 2009.

The game features over 40 hand-drawn 2D backgrounds,
more than 6500 lines of spoken dialog for 35 characters, and a story that takes place over 5 chapters.

I did all the artwork for backgrounds in the game (plus some background animation here and there)
and you can see some of them at the Wadjet Eye site or in my main site's GAMES section.

And now to get back to work on Nearly Departed!


UPDATED 9-20-08

It has been quite awhile without an update! Let it be known that I'm still working on the
game, a little bit here, a little bit there, but most of my time for the past six months or so
has been taken up by a professional game gig. Can't talk about it much, but it's an adventure
game being developed by Wadjet Eye Games and I'm doing the backgrounds. I hope to
be able to release more details, and maybe some screenshots, in the near future.

As for other Nearly Departed news, I showed the game (so far) in
person to Dave Grossman at Telltale Games, and I think he sorta dug it.

 

UPDATED 2-19-08

The current issue of PCGamer is zombie-themed, and they have a little bit about
Nearly Departed in their issue. The PC demo is also on their game disc.

And in case anyone wants to see a better quality version of the recent teaser video
I made, you can find it at GameTrailers.com


UPDATED 1-07-08

Instead of just making another "Yes, I'm still working on it!" post, here's a teaser trailer for the game:

__________________________

I'm still getting e-mails from people asking if the game is done. Believe me, I'll make a big hullabaloo
when the game is ready for everyone to play! I managed to get three more NPC's (non-player characters)
done in the past few weeks, which just about completes three of the approximately 40 rooms in the game
(minus sounds and voices.) There's still plenty more work to do though!
I also updated the main page so the links to the downloadable demo are easy to find. I've heard
rumblings that the Director-based LASSIE games may have trouble with the new Intel Macs as
well as Windows Vista. That's unfortunate, but keep in mind the final game should not have any
such problems as it will be Flash-based, and should run fine on virtually any platform.

__________________________

Sorry for the long delay between updates. I feel bad when there's nothing to update except
"I'm still working on it!" but then some people are afraid that if there are no updates than that
means the project is dead. Anyway, the project is not dead, and I'm getting stuff done, but
I still really can't give an estimate on when the game will be complete. I just hope everyone will
be patient with me! Thanks!

__________________________

Happy New Year! Well, I guess it's a little late for that... but not for Chinese New Year!
Anyway, things with the game are going quite well. Most of the art for the locations is finished
and placed in the new LassieAS engine (so the game will be playable online as well as in full screen)
and I've almost got the demo rebuilt, with some variations on the puzzles so anyone who's played
the original will have a slightly new experience. It will be awhile until there's much new to show
as I don't want to give away too much. Afterall, most of the fun of an adventure game like
this is discovering what your going to see next, so where's the fun in seeing it ahead of time?

Also, this upcoming weekend, February 23-25, I will be at the New York Comic-Con,
where I'll have copies of the original demo on CD plus a Nearly Departed T-shirt or two.
I'll primarily be promoting my comic books Jax Epoch & The Quicken Forbidden and Teen Boat.

__________________________

Happy Halloween! For a little fun, here's a classic style mask of Nearly Departed's protagonist.
Just print it onto heavy paper, cut it out, tie it to your head, and make funny observations about
being a zombie! Click on the thumbnail for a hi-res printable version.


__________________________

Here are direct links to the demo download:
Mac | PC

Can't figure out what to do next in the demo? Check out the demo hints.

A few sites plugged Nearly Departed recently:
JayIsGames
CrocodileCaucus
Digg

ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS

New Age Gaming (large images)
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Text only (includes LONG answers)
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Amped IGO
On site | Archive
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Le Sanctuaire de l'Aventure
English | French | Archive
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Got-Next
On site | Archive
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Adventure Europe
On site | Archive
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Pinhead Games
Press release | Interview

 

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