The Map to Oz Adventures

This artwork is a wonderful world (pun intended) as a backdrop for this story. Using mechanics like Final Fantasy is a great idea! The idea of the poppies has always fascinated me and could lead to some amazing dream-like sequences. I also am curious where the Dorothy character would come in and can't wait for further elaboration and brain storming! Great work to the team and a mutual "squee of delight" to all the Insane Children!

Stephanie Groth

I have to say, this is very daring. It's quite different. Honestly, I love it. The inspiration for the other games is close enough for this project to work. Well, their core gameplay is what makes them special. I got hope. QUESTION: My question is about the survival part. It mentions that there is a stealth mechanic in the game. Can you tell us what exactly you have in mind? I'm asking because Stealth and Action combat don't mix perfectly well. The games that I played never really mixed those two elements properly. The game mechanics always favored one than the other. I would love to hear a reply. Or at least this question read on the Next Livestream.

Saleh Abu-Rashid

I feel like there could be something here to work with let's be honest odds are all 5 leaders of Oz don't really like they others though they may have some pact going on so it's not a free for all civil war.

I'll try not to add to much lucky dragon in my opinion did a good job laying out Oz history, with that being said I always found Oz to be odd in that he has technology and not magic yet is capable of "ruling" in a land of magic I see him as steam punk style ruling with the "magic" of technology and maybe a cruel strong hand.

I’m definitely excited. I’ve been waiting for this since the last one. I loved playing it!!! This one seems just as amazing (maybe even more amazing?) I just can’t wait!!

for the introduction could we have a dorothy? going with your earlier post about making her a black woman, and the picture on this post with two people. say the two arrive in oz (i don’t care how). and her friend starts to recognize the place and says, “no shit! is this for real? and your name is Dorothy!” then she replies, “that’s the name my parents gave me.” and he laughs, “we ain’t in kansas anymore.” then she says, “we’re from texas!” ofc the story in oz never happened, but they’re shocked to find that oz is real and try to figure out just what parts of the books or movie are true. sorry for the crappy “writing” but i don’t know what to call this scenario and tried to describe it. where they are aware of the oz story, and see that somethings match the story, but others don’t

On further examination of my comment here, perhaps that first line was not needed. I did not realize it would read as something an abuser would make as an excuse. The best intentions were meant, but that was a poor choice of words on my part. Not the kind of mindset I want to be associated with guys. Very sorry.

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

American, did you really feel like I was attacking you? I didn’t “hit” you. That’s a little silly to say, and a little surprising. I took a position of criticism, but I would dare anyone to look at anything I said objectively as being disrespectful. This honestly wasn’t even directed at you. I was only saying I was criticizing not just be a hater, but because I’m invested in this. But you seem to taken it in a way I did not intend, so I apologize. Sorry.

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

Not a fan of the "I only hit you because I love you" routine. If that's your voice, you're welcome to it. But it's difficult for me to hear your ideas in that format.

American McGee

I’m honestly already so excited to play this. It already looks like deep input was added so I don’t feel like I need to add anything.

Therese

You know I’m only difficult because I love ya, right? I really, really want this to succeed. Not just because it leads to Alice: Asylum, not because I’m a huge Oz fan and I’ve wanted you to make of game of it for a long time, but mostly because I want you to succeed personally. You’re one of my heroes and inspirations. I want there to be a Mysterious Studious that could make all kinds of games. I know you American, probably don’t need me to tell you this. But I just want to make it clear to anyone else that might think I’m being rude or something. One thing I never do is criticize without giving a reason. And that’s something I of advise any of us. Don’t just say you don’t like something. That isn’t really helpful. Say why you don’t like it, and give more than one reason. And ideally come up with alternatives.

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

The pitch shouldn’t be overly detailed. You misunderstand me. The core direction is what concerns me, and I feel it’s holding back this pitch from something that is gonna “wow”. This might work. I wouldn’t work on me. I wouldn’t buy it, but then again I’m not in an executive position so my opinion is worth less than a grain of salt.

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

I get that American, I agree to a certain extent with what you are saying, but there’s nothing particularly Oz about this Oz pitch. It comes off as generic. If you did dip into a bit more of the lore I think you would have a stronger pitch. Because this isn’t bad, but doesn’t really inspire me. I like that it’s episodic, the basic log line of each episode, but none feels very original.

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

And an example of a couple things you could take from the books that would fit your sensibilities: It would firstly be the story of the Tin Woodman. The Wicked Witch of the East cursed a man named Nick Chopper with clumsiness, so he would accidentally chop of parts of his body with his ax. He replaced them with tin, but kept hacking off parts until only his heart was left. Then he hacked that out too. He could no longer give or receive love from his beloved fiancé. The there is Princess Langwidere from the Land of Ev. She collects people’s heads and wears different ones for different occasions like hats. You see, there’s already juicy stuff in the books that if I didn’t know that were actually in the books I would assume they were your twisted interpretations of them. You don’t really need to turn Oz into something else. Make it an exaggeration of itself. You’re the “fucked up fairy tale guy” to many. And isn’t that kinda what [Redacted] wants? This already is ripe for a fucked up version of itself. So stray from the material, but I get the feeling like we are straying a little far. Even playing some of this straight would be more inline with what I’ve come to expect from an American McGee game.

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

LD: There is a very large difference between an Elevator Pitch and a full-blown design document, script, narrative outline, etc. What we're building here is purposefully limited in scope and focuses only on The Action and The Hooks. The review team at [REDACTED] do not know anything about "Oz" aside from "It's a popular American children's fairy tale series that McGee and his fans can turn into a successful game series." If we get bogged down in the details we'll lose the audience (for the pitch) and fail to secure funding. Please adjust your sense of what needs to be done here to match that reality. Thanks.

American McGee

There was a comment I made previous to my last one that Patreon ate. I’ll attempt to recreate it. The basic outlines for the individual episodes are a good place to start I suppose. Having the player characters become familiar characters like the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman is a bit of a departure since those two are Ozians, born an raised. I’m not sure about making the Munchkins, Quadlings, Winkies, and Gilkens enemies because they’re just the citizens of Oz caught in the middle, but I can go along with it. One thing I object to is making the Wizard some kind of god. Sure, make him a bad guy, but he’s just a guy. The closest thing Oz has to a god is Lurline. I have to ask, does the team’s entire knowledge of Oz come from the Fandom wiki? Have any of you actually read the books? Because, and I mean this with all due respect, it seems like you Googled various things in the books and used the names and a few basic descriptions and applied them to whatever thing you wanted them to be, without much consideration for how any of it fits into the lore. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t depart from the material and make it your own, but this feels backwards, like you’re creating an original story and an original world and putting an Oz skin over it. Instead, what I would recommend doing is starting from the source material and extrapolating certain things and spinning them into interesting and unique directions.

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

Here I’ll help you. These are 8 key points or rules that you should abide by to make sure your Oz is still in it’s DNA, Oz. You can depart and go off into any direction you wish as long at least the first 5 are adhered too. I feel without doing so, it isn’t truly Oz. The bottom 3 are important as well, but if you truly wish to ignore them Oz fans could probably live with it. 1. Oz is broken up into 4 countries: Gilken Country, Munchkin Country, Quadling Country, and Winkie Country 2. Most of Oz is paved with a road of yellow bricks, and all paths of the road lead to and from the center of Oz, the Emerald City 3. Where the Emerald City now stands was on once the seat of power for all of Oz. First ruled over very briefly by Lurline, Queen of the fairies, then the human King Pastoria, before his and his daughter’s (the half human/half fairy Princess Ozma) disappearance 4. After the fall of King Pastoria, Oz was broken up, and each country was ruled over by one of the four Cardinal Witches. Oscar Diggs, (the Wizard) at the same time, takes up his position as ruler of the Emerald City 5. Queen Lurline is responsible for Oz’s magical nature, having placed an enchantment on all of Oz to become a fairy land 6. People do not age in Oz, (there have been different ways this is interpreted, whether everyone always stays their same biological age, children remain children, or children at least reach maturity either if they choose to or some other reason) therefore all the inhabitants of Oz are biologically immortal and will not die unless they are killed 7. Oz is cut off from the rest of the world by 4 impassable deserts, and leaving Oz is no easy task, usually requiring extraordinary magic or luck 8. The characters of the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Woodman, and the Scarecrow exist or at some point existed

Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’

I like it, but I still wish Dorothy will be in the story, either as a main character or side character helping the main character. Dorothy could be helping the main characters and we might not know it’s Dorothy till later. This also makes me think of Sabrina the Teenage Witch: A Twitch in Time, though it’s different, I know. Anyway, I am excited and can’t wait to see where it goes! 😄

Nicole E.

That piece of art is gorgeous! I love how magical and whimsical it is! I'm also loving the idea of playing characters that become integral to the story later and that you guys are pulling directly from the Oz Books to set up your world and the enemies you may face as the story goes on! Im very excited about this project tbh :) I've wanted an Oz game for a long time and Oz Adventures is very promising so far!

I’m really excited to see where this goes! Adam and Omri killed it with the art 💗