Righteous Kill has a violent premise for a game, but it is a good hide and seek with some interesting police-themed mini-games. 

Step into the shoes of Erica Dean as she investigates crime scenes in New York City. It’s a man hunt for a vigilante on a killing spree through 16 locations containing over a thousand hidden objects. With the help of Sergeant Vasquez, Erica will use clues she collects in a number of detective-themed mini games. Inspired by the motion picture film, Righteous Kill features clips from the movie and 15 animated levels.

Although it is “inspired by” the movie coming out in September, Righteous Kill has mostly women in the story (as opposed to the movie, which stars Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. The production values are good, including the sound and the visuals. Interesting mini-games include a fingerprint search, stopping a computer trace, and determining differences in a crime scene photo. 

Download the game free for one hour or buy for $19.95. BigFIshGames is also running a 40% off back-to-school promotion until September 3rd. Find out more about Righteous Kill here.

I love the hidden object game Forgotten Riddles: The Moonlight Sonatas! It’s a twist on the traditional seek and find, since you have to solve riddles in order to find out what you can cick on. There are also many challenging mini-games scattered throughout the rooms of the Opera House that you are exploring. This is the second game in the Forgotten Riddles series, but it is, in my opinion, better than the first. The puzzles are good but not too frustrating, the story is engaging, and the technical effects (visuals and sound) are top-notch.

Francis von Amadeus was a child prodigy and talented composer. The city of Godesberg has given you access to his journal filled with secrets and riddles. Use the clues to detect hidden objects within the many chambers of the Moonlight Opera House. You`ll notice a gaunt, ghostly figure still graces the second floor balcony. Can you solve the mystery behind the Moonlight Sonatas?

Click here to download the game for an hour free, or buy it for only $19.95.

I was lucky enough to get to interview Cara Ely, producer at Oberon Games, and the creator and developer of Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan and the rest of the highly popular Dream Day series of casual games: Dream Day Wedding, Dream Day Honeymoon, and Dream Day First Home . The cool thing about Cara Ely is that she is not only a woman working in the male dominated world of game development, she’s created and is creating a series of casual games that are one of the most popular among women.

____________________________________________

MCG: What does a game developer do exactly?

Cara Ely (CE): Game development teams typically include software engineers, artists, game designers and producers. I work as both a producer and designer, so I create and document the gameplay experience (design), and/or manage the development of the game design from start to finish. That includes scheduling, budgets, contracts, and making sure the team has everything they need to make the game.

MCG: What is your background, specifically relating to gaming?  Do you have programming experience, writing experience, etc?

CE: I spent many years in the entertainment industry as a talent agent, and then a casting director. I started in games in 2000, as an Associate Producer at Sierra Online; I wrote scripts, hired and directed voice actors, and helped manage the development process on a variety of casual games. I also worked with small teams to help design new games, or new features for existing games.

MCG: Why do you think that these games are so popular with women?  I know why I like them (easy to pick up and put down, clearly defined goals, a storyline and progression, ability to play with my kids), but is that the norm?

CE:  I think all of the things you’ve mentioned are keys to the success of the Dream Day games. But I also think the visual style is appealing – we really focused on making the backgrounds look sophisticated and beautiful. We also injected a bit of humor into the games, especially with the “crisis” levels; I think users like the fact that we aren’t taking things too seriously.

MCG: The games have themes that a lot of women identify with (marriage, honeymoon, first home).  Do you plan to continue to more themes (Baby, Job, etc)?

CE: I can’t go into detail about the upcoming Dream Day games just yet, but I will say that there are a few surprises in store! I don’t think people should make too many predictions just yet.

MCG: How long does a game take to produce from start to finish?

CE: Dream Day Wedding took about 12 weeks to produce, which is a very short development cycle, very unusual. We really wanted to launch the game on Valentine’s Day so the team did a lot of extra work to make that happen. A more “normal” development cycle is four to six months, depending on the game.

MCG: With the many similar games being made, how do you differentiate yours from the others?

CE: As I said, one priority for us is the quality of the artwork; we try to make the Dream Day games as beautiful as possible. We also try to create something a bit new and different with each game; for example, the dual-path “choose a house” mechanic in Dream Day First Home. I also think the amount of time and care we take with each game comes through in the final product. Every background, every “crisis” letter, everything the player experiences in the game, is something that the team brainstorms about, experiments with, and plays over and over again until we feel it’s just right. There are definitely a lot of great games out there, but I hope the fun and passion we put into the Dream Day games gives them that little something extra.

MCG: Have you ever thought of doing games for teens (my first date, first day of high school, graduation, college, best friends, etc.)?  I think the Dream Day concept would work very well for younger girls.  I have a young son who enjoys playing the Dream Day games with me.  We look for clues together, decide how the story goes, etc.  I spend time with him and he gets to use his brain on a non-violent game.  It works for us.  You may be able to appeal to girls the same way. It would be great to have a game that mothers could play with their daughters.

CE: We do hear from a lot of players that they play the Dream Day games with their spouses, children, even co-workers! You are definitely not alone in enjoying that cooperative play.  At the moment, I am not focusing specifically on making games for teens, though we do have many Dream Day fans in that demographic. That may be something we explore in the future, though; I think players of all ages look forward to their own particular “Dream Day” events.

Thank you for your questions! I am thrilled to be able to make these games, and hearing from the people who play them is one of the most satisfying parts of the job.

____________________________________________

Thank you, Cara, for a great interview! If you would like to download or buy the Dream Day series, click on the links below. And go to Oberon’s website for more information on the games.

• Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan
• Dream Day Wedding
• Dream Day Honeymoon
• Dream Day First Home  

In the brand-new game, The Race, compete against five cut-throat teams in the worldwide adventure spanning 30 locations. Speed past spots like Niagara Falls in Challenge mode, or relax and explore at your own pace in World Explorer mode. Sleuth for hidden objects using tools like a magnifying glass and a compass, or hurl a bomb to knock off a team in the lead. Blaze through 120 rounds in The Race World Wide Adventure and sharpen your scouting skills.

Download a free 1-hour trial or buy for $19.95 today.

Blood Ties is a hidden object game based on the Lifetime TV show, and also on the series of vampire/detective books by Tanya Huff.Help private detective Vicki Nelson solve a series of unexplained missing persons cases that appear to be connected to a secret society. Is the connection real? Vicki thinks so, and its up to you to help her, along with her friend Henry (a 450-year-old vampire) and assistant Coreen, to investigate the crime scenes and solve the mystery! Unearth hundreds of items in beautiful and unique locations throughout the city to discover the dark secrets behind this mysterious cabal.

The gameplay is interesting (and progressively harder) and the enivronments are both spooky and ordinary. The music and graphics are great, and the storyline is engrossing. Click here to download a 60-minute trial or buy the game for $19.99.  

I love the movie Dirty Dancing. Of course, in the 80s, I got burned out when my best friend had to listen to the soundtrack EVERY SINGLE DAY and watch the movie at least once a week. Even so, with classic lines like “Nobody puts Baby in the corner”, great couples dancing, and intense (and sometimes cheesy) acting, this is one of my favorite time-waster movies.

Well, Codemasters has taken the world of Dirty Dancing and made it the backdrop of a really fun casual game. You play a guest at Kellerman’s. Like the Sims, you create an avatar and furnish your cabin with furniture and accessories. The avatar choices are limited, although you do get to wear the outfits that Baby sported in the movie. Choose from her classic pedal pushers to the dresses she wore for the dance competitions.

To earn money to furnish your cabin, you need to take on odd jobs around the camp. These jobs combine some of the classic casual game standards - match 3, search for objects, time management, and more. There are 10 games in all, and there are various levels to each game. You can also unlock more locations to furnish, and many extras.

One of those extras is, of course, a dance competition. You need to earn enough money to enter, and then take dance lessons. The lessons are a bulls-eye type game that’s a little difficult, but not too bad. You move up in rank until you can enter the big dance contest.

The music, sounds and cartoon animation and backdrops are first-rate. I loved that they included some 50s songs, and the Kellerman theme song in the game. I really enjoyed playing this. If you’re a fan of the movie, or love variety in your gaming, give it a shot. Click here to download for a free 1-hour trial, or buy the game for $19.95.

Azada has become one of my favorite games. Why? Because it combines many different puzzles and it takes a long time to play. With over 40 unique puzzles, including hidden object, matches, mazes, logic, word, and jigsaw puzzles. These are all combined with great visual style and haunting music.

The background story is that you are trying to release the hero, Titus, from an enchanted room. But the backstory is just a setup for some of the most interesting games around. I played this game with my family, and we all enjoyed it very much. The puzzles were easy enough at the beginning for my 10-year-old son, but they eventually got harder so that they challenged me and my husband.

The puzzles also played to different puzzle-solving strengths. There was also a maze/dexterity puzzle that my husband could finish, but that really frustrated me. Lucky I had help.

This game is definitely worth the $19.99 that you pay for the full verson. The puzzles are good, and the game lasts a long time. To try a free hour, click here.

Who knew that Agatha Christie’s work could be translated into a hidden object game? It’s actually a really good one, too. In Death on the Nile, you help Poirot solve the mystery by uncovering clues and finding hidden objects.

This game is familiar to anyone who’s done hidden object games. There are some gorgeous scenes, and some tricky ones, too. And the mini-games are good, for example, matching the suspect with the weapon, etc.

The unique piece to this game to me, though, is the helping Poirot aspect. I’ve played some of the other Agatha Christie games (like And Then There Were None), but they were hard and I didn’t like spending hours retracing my steps. In this game, I get the feeling of solving, but the ability to pick up and leave off without any problems.

Click here to download a free trial or buy your copy of Death on the Nile today.

I usually try to review games separately. However, both of these games from Nevosoft, Magic Academy and Mysteryville, are both “I Spy” type search games, and are very similar in gameplay, graphics, and even storylines. They share some really good things, and they also have the same drawbacks.

Magic Academy is set at a magician’s school. You’re a student looking for your sister who disappeared a year ago. With the help of tutors, fellow students, and magical items, you search for your sister.

Mysteryville is set in a town where strange things are happening. You are a reporter trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious happenings, and trying to stop a major disaster. Oh, yeah, and there may be romance involved, as well.

As I said before, both of the games are similar. In both, you must ask questions of various people, and they then send you to other people for more answers. You do eventually find out answers, but you must search for a lot of things in the meantime.

One thing that these games do very well is to mix up the gameplay. In addition to seeking a list of articles, you must also search for differences in rooms, and for the shapes of articles. But the most fun activity for me was finding a certain number of something (keys, bottles, papers, etc.). These puzzles are somewhat hard, and you may have to restart them a couple of times to find all of the articles as quickly as needed. If you buy the game, however, you can have unlimited play.

The graphics are excellent here, and the ambient music is very good. There are a lot of things to find, and I didn’t feel as if the objects were recycled too much from puzzle to puzzle.

And now time for my pet peeve. The conversations are in text, and, to be frank, they’re not that good. There were many mistakes and bad choices that broke me out of the game. I kept feeling frustrated that the language was so poor, but the gameplay was so good. To be fair, though, if you’re not an English freak and writer like me, the conversations may not bother you.

Overall, I think that these games are very good. They add enough twists to the formula to make them new. And the graphics are sometimes jaw-droppingly good. If you can disregard the sometimes stilted conversations, these may be the search games for you.

• Download a free 1-hour trial or buy Magic Academy.
• Download a free 1-hour trial or buy Mysteryville.

Abra Academy is another “search the pictures and find the items” type of game, just like I Spy. I love these types of games, and this has the added appeal of being set in a witch’s school. You help the witch students pass their classes by finding magical items in different rooms of the school. The atmosphere is appropriately magical and spooky, and some of the items are really hard to find.

One great thing about the gameplay is that there isn’t a timer. That means that all 24 levels are relaxing and stress-free. There are also some fairies to help with locating items you’re stuck on.

With great graphics and sound, this is a fun game to play either alone or with someone to help locate objects. Click here for a free one-hour download or to buy Abra Academy for $19.99.