Category: 
Game- play
Each segment of the game has to do with the wedding plans, such as going to the florist, baker, dress maker, and the travel agent. At each location you are given a list of items to find. The location is a mildly interactive picture where the items are hidden in it like a mystic eye puzzle. If you get your glasses on, or squint hard you’ll see things. Such as a bunch of roses that is made up of many other tiny pictures hidden in it. The flowers might be made of coins, a melon, a baseball or even a car. There are twelve of these levels that are presented in a wedding photo album. It is clever enough. There are also four mini games that are wedding related.
Enjoyment
The game is sort of cute and a bit saccharine. It seems to be targeted at brides and wedding parties as a way to reduce stress and have some fun with wedding plans. It is colorful and different. It is short, and lacks any really engaging game-play. At $19.99 it is over priced, considering that there are so many similar casual games that are offered free of charge online. It isn’t designed for a hardcore female gamer, it seems to be targeted to women that wouldn’t ordinarily play a video game.
Conclusions
For those who don’t want to play online, or have an older machine this game might be perfect. The game would make an unusual sort of shower gift or even an entertainment at a small shower where a large screen PC is provided. The game is worth mentioning because it is being marketed as “a game created and designed by a woman for a woman.” That is an accomplishment in itself. But the game plays and looks like something that was made many years ago. What happened to the old point and click adventure games from 1999? Here’s a new one. The outdated graphics and weak game-play can only yield a score of an average time waster and gets a 5 out of 10.
Interview:
Geek Woman was able to get an interview with the Producer of Dream Day Wedding, Oberon’s Cara Ely. Cara was born in Stuttgart, Germany, the daughter of an engineer and a ballet teacher. She received a BA in Theatre from Whitman College, and worked for five years as a talent agent and casting director.
Cara entered the games industry in 2000, when she joined Sierra Online, hiring and directing local and celebrity talent including Jack Palance and Gwen Stefani. After working on titles such as “You Don’t Know Jack” and “The $100,000 Pyramid,” she transitioned to Sierra’s bestselling Hoyle Games team, acting as Producer on products such as Hoyle Casino, Card Games, Board Games, and Puzzle Games.
After joining Oberon Games in 2005, Cara acted as Producer on eight games for Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista: remakes of Solitaire, Spider, Minesweeper, Hearts, and Spades, and the new games Chess Titans, Mahjong Titans, and Purble Place. Cara currently resides in Seattle, WA.
1. What is your position at Dream Day Wedding (Oberon Games)?
Cara Ely: I am currently a Senior Producer at Oberon Games, and was the Producer and primary designer on Dream Day Wedding.
2. What kind of work do you do?
Cara Ely: As a Producer, I manage and assist in the development of games, from brainstorming to final delivery. I typically work with small teams of artists and engineers, and it’s my job to make sure that everyone can do his or her work as effectively as possible. On Dream Day Wedding, since that was my own game concept, I also did design and writing, though our entire team was involved in the design process as well. Game development is a hands-on process from start-to-finish, which is what makes it so rewarding (and often challenging).
3. What type of educational background did you have that got you to this point?
Cara Ely: I graduated from Whitman College (a small liberal arts college) with a degree in Theater. I spent years working as a talent agent and casting director; I got into games because I had a lot of experience hiring and directing voice actors, and there weren’t a lot of people who knew or were interested in that part of the development process. I started as an Associate Producer at Sierra Online, and was eventually promoted to Producer. I came aboard at Oberon in 2005.
4. Why a wedding game?
Cara Ely: I was browsing in a bookstore at lunch one day, looking for books to bring back to our development studio. I have a weakness for magazines, so I quickly found myself in the periodicals section — there were 22 wedding magazines on display! That got me thinking about wedding planning. There’s something irresistible about picking out flowers, cakes, dresses…and so many different types of people can relate to the wedding process, whether they’re single, married, divorced, or planning a wedding for their son or daughter. The idea of making a wedding-themed game just “clicked.”
5. How do you plan to market it to women?
Cara Ely: Well, along with the established casual game sites, I believe our marketing team is talking with several wedding-specific companies, which is exciting. It means that a woman who might not be an active casual gamer could be introduced to the game — and casual games in general — through a new channel, and then (perhaps) become a casual gamer for life! With so many games on the market, half of the battle is simply attracting a player’s attention; once that happens, we (as game developers) need to be sure we’ve created a game that can keep a player entertained and give them a reason to come back for more. That’s certainly what we tried to do with Dream Day Wedding.
What is the official URL of the game? – http://www.oberongames.com/DreamDayWedding.asp
Publisher: Elephant Entertainment
Developer: Oberon Games
Genre : Casual Find & Seek
Pros: A wedding game is unusual.
Cons: It’s short and repetitive.
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