The studio came to mind again this week with the announcement that they were making a new game called Beyond a Steel Sky. The original game was created with Dave Gibbons, a comicbook artist famous for his work with Alan Moore on Watchmen, and he'll be working on the new game too.
Revolution Games is based in York, UK, and was set up in 1990 by Charles Cecil, Tony Warriner, David Sykes and Noirin Carmody, all of whom still work for the company. Their first game was Lure of the Temptress, which was released in 1992. You can download the original version of the game for FREE on GOG.com. Their second game was my beloved Beneath a Steel Sky, in 1994, also available for FREE on GOG.com. The game follows Robert Foster and his lovable (and offensive) robot Joey. I love a good sci-fi yarn, and this is a great game, without too many impossible puzzles!
And then, of course, in 1996 Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars was released. Not only was this an atmospheric puzzler set in Paris, with possible romance on the cards between George and Nico, it was responsible for a puzzle so annoying that it has its own Wikipedia page: The Infamous Goat Puzzle! 1997's Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror was great fun too, but for me things went a little downhill after that, when things went 3D.
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| The Infamous Goat of Lochmarne Castle |
In 2000 they released In Cold Blood on the PlayStation (their first 3D game), a game that I never managed to get very far in (I seem to recall that since it's the protagonist's memories, every time you die he says "no, it can't have happened like that", or something similar). They also released Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado. Following this Broken Sword hiatus, things went 3D for George Stobbart in 2003's Broken Sword III: The Sleeping Dragon. According to Wikipedia, the switch to 3D was the only way Revolution could get publishers for their games. Suffice it to say, this doesn't sound like a super happy time in the studio's history.
In 2004 Revolution changed from being a designer and producer of video games to being purely game designers. Staff were let go. Changes in the market had made times bad for independent developers. Using this new model, a number of former Revolution staff were taken on by Sumo Digital to make 2006's Broken Sword IV: Angel of Death.
What Revolution moved to a couple of years ago, because it was difficult to survive as an independent developer with a team of 15-20 people, was move to a freelance model, which some call the Hollywood model. We'd pull people together for a team project, then everybody would dissipate and either get together for the next one or not. Clearly that suits us, in that our overheads are lower, but it also creates a wonderfully dynamic working environment.
When people join it means that they really care about the project. They know that they're going to work with us for an X number of months and for X fee, and everybody really wants to make sure, from a personal and professional level, that the project is good as it possibly can be. It's a very exciting and very interesting dynamic. Personally I much prefer it to staff, where there are much more complex dynamics going on in the relationships between people. Some of the people that used to work at Revolution before we downsized a few years ago got jobs, while some of them decided to work with us again on a freelance basis and I'm delighted to have them back.
- Charles Cecil speaking to Mark Walton (Gamespot) in 2012
Thankfully, the dark times were not to continue forever. By the end of the decade, with digital distribution, it was possible to self-publish. Also, with the rise in mobile gaming, in 2009 Revolution was asked to produce some versions of Broken Sword for iOS. This relationship with Apple continues with Beyond a Steel Sky, and the new versions brought Broken Sword to a new audience.
Broken Sword V was announced in August 2012, with a Kickstarter campaign. New methods of funding meant that Revolution could control everything themselves, instead of being under the mantle of a big publisher. The game returns the series to its original 2D roots, hooray! Broken Sword V: The Serpent's Curse was released in 2013.
And that brings us up to today, with the recent announcement of Beyond a Steel Sky. The game looks gorgeous, from the images on their website. It's due to be one of the launch titles of Apple's new "Apple Arcade" subscription gaming service, though apparently there will be a concurrent PC launch.
I just hope Joey's in it! :-D
Revolution, then, a brilliant UK game developer - I hope they have many years of creativity to come!
Follow them on twitter @revbot.
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