wfmag.cc \ 09Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t
some people around the world creating
adventure games and they’re doing it
relatively cheaply, but that’s over a long
period of time with a great deal of passion,
where a lot of people are presumably
not actually paying themselves. So, yeah,
I mean I do laugh at the idea of £80,000.
The games that we write cost considerably
more than that.Finally, do you have any advice for up-
and-coming adventure game developers?
You don’t know what the future is. When
things are going well, you need a lot of
people [and when they aren’t, you don’t].
Wherever possible, build strong alliances
and work with people on a freelance
basis or a subcontracting basis rather
than employing them. [While doing that],
treat people the way you would expect
to be treated, because if you have a good
relationship with tons of people, then
you will want to work with them again,
and more crucially, they’ll want to work
with you.Beyond a Steel Sky releases soon on
Apple Arcade and PC.The way that we structure is that the story;
I’m very jealous with the story document,
I keep control of that and then work with
people on elements of design, and all of
that is kept very much in-house. Obviously,
the producer is in-house as well, and from
this hub in York, we then work with people
all over the world. It’s a fantastic way of
working, it’s very efficient, but it means
that we can scale up and work with very
talented people, and we’re not constrained
by a geographical location.
Beneath a Steel Sky was made for around
£80,000 in 2019 money. Does that figure
seem quaint in today’s climate, or do you
reckon you could still make a game for
that price?
£80,000? That’s wonderful. The answer
is absolutely one can. Of course, there
are wonderful games that are produced
for a few tens of thousands of pounds
or dollars. I really admire people who do
that, and they can be very successful.
In an adventure game like Beyond the
Steel Sky, we have so much in terms of
assets relating to background, textures,
animations, and character modelling, as
well as the core technology. We’re using
Unreal Engine, which is great. But, it would
be utterly impossible to write an adventure
game for a contemporary audience to
the quality that a contemporary audience
would expect for £80,000.
Characters have their own schedules and
activities to stick to – how you interact with
them is as much about that as it is speaking.
wfmag.cc \ 09IN COLDER BLOOD?
Sometimes, you just have to ask someone:
what’s next, and is it In Cold Blood 2? Cecil was,
fortunately, open for the brief discussion of
what Sony once touted as a Metal Gear Solid-
killing series: “Honestly, the great thing about
being a small studio with a low overhead is
that we have a great deal of freedom,” he says.
“The next game might be a new Broken Sword,
or it might be an original game. I did love the
idea, at one point, of going back to In Cold
Blood and we did a lot of work on it, to be
honest. It kind of fizzled out.
“We’re exploring a number of options... But
as always, there are lots of ideas bubbling
under, and I guess at some point we’re going to
have to work it out, but at the moment it’s not
set in stone.” So not In Cold Blood 2, then.wfmag.cc \ 09 Charles Cecil is an expert in the
field of adventure games. Lead character Foster returns,
both literally and figuratively. Hacking plays a big part in
Beyond a Steel Sky.InterviewAttract Mode