Dave Gilbert has made a number of fantastic games using AGS. Two of a Kind is a fun and fresh game that shouldn’t be missed by adventure fans. More recently, he has launced a foray into the world of the commercial developer by selling his latest game, The Shivah for the sweet sweet price of five bucks.

I’ve been meaning to write some game reviews around here, but I never find the time. But if I did write reviews, this game would be one of first and the quote that you’d take from it would be, “The Shivah is a brilliant demonstration of how a unique and compelling storyline can propell the gaming experience to a new level of greatness.”

A shivah (Not to be confused with “Shiva”) is a Jewish period of mourning, or so I’m told. One such shivah plays a central role in this game. In The Shivah, a rabbi is undergoing a crisis of faith when one of his ex-congregation members leaves him a tidy sum in his will. A murder mystery with rabbinical dialogue puzzles… What more could you ask for?

The game also has full voice acting which is quite a bit better than the voice acting that you find in a lot of big budget titles.

Short story: buy this game. You’ll be supporting a brilliant indie game developer (not to mention a nice guy) and getting yourself a fine couple hours of entertainment for five tiny dollars.

And, if you’re still not convinced, Dave presented this game at the IGDA’s recent Demo Night in New York City and was very well recieved. He writes a bit about the experience here. Last week, a write-up of the night was posted on Gamasutra in which The Shivah takes center stage. Also the full video of his presentation popped up on YouTube. You’ll find links to those videos on Dave’s blog here.

Finally, you can buy the game directly from Dave or from Manifesto Games though Dave probably gets a bigger cut if you buy straight from him.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 11:53 am and is filed under Miscellany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.