Where did the inspiration come from to blend Oz with the “noir” detective story atmosphere?
It was always a dream of mine to make game based on the Oz books ever since I got into game development, but I could never think of a really good concept for one. Then one day I was watching “The Maltese Falcon” and, for some bizarre reason, I imagined what the Scarecrow would be like if he were played by Peter Lorre. I laughed, of course, but the idea took shape from there. I started assigning other Oz characters to classic film actors. Dorothy became Gloria Graham. Betsy Bobbins became Judy Holliday. Ruggedo became Sydney Greenstreet. It started out as pure fun, but after awhile I thought “Hey this is kinda cool.” When PlayFirst approached me later on and asked me to pitch a game, I knew right away what I wanted to do. It helped that the creative director at PlayFirst (Kenny Dinkin) was reading the Oz books to his son at the time, so he especially liked the idea. How much input did PlayFirst have in fleshing out the concept? They did make one or two changes at the beginning (more on
