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How Revolution survived the British games industryInterface
“Their stories were so pompous and were very
much appealing to an older American audience
who had this fantasy about Britain,” claims Cecil.
“I think the younger audience were much more
into the slapstick and the fun. So LucasArts
and ourselves were very much aimed at a
younger audience.”
The dystopian Beneath a Steel Sky followed
Lure of the Temptress a few years after, in 1994,
also for DOS. A collaboration between Watchmen
artist Dave Gibbons and the company, it came
about as a result of Cecil’s earlier attempts to
adapt Watchmen into a video game while at
Activision, an endeavour that came to naught
after they realised that it was Dark Horse who
actually held the rights.
“It was a huge pleasure to work with him,” says
Cecil. “Because we were this tiny little company
working in this grotty little office above a bacon
butty arcade and he’d get the train to London,
get off at Doncaster, and take this bone-rattler
to Hull, and he was just really game. He was just
good fun. And he contributed enormously to it,
partly because he said, ‘I can contribute to the
story, I can contribute to all these areas, but I
accept that this is your domain, mine is the art.’”When the day of the Mirrorsoft pitch arrived,
the car that Revolution had used to transport
its new 386 computer was broken into. In a
miraculous turn of events, however, the thief
opted not to steal the bulky piece of hardware
in the passenger seat, choosing to take the car
radio. Had they chosen instead to steal the 386,
Cecil reckons this would have spelled the end
for Revolution as a company.“I remember we then did a presentation to all
Mirrorsoft’s partners, and I finished and there
was silence,” he recalls, taking a brief pause
for emphasis. “I looked around and somebody
started clapping. Then everybody started
clapping. And then everybody stood up and
I realised that they were all just blown away.
It was the most amazing moment. It was just
realising that we’d arrived.”
The game they were showcasing at the time
was Lure of the Temptress, a point-and-click
adventure game, which eventually released for
DOS in 1992. It was conceived as a response
to the more po-faced, adult-oriented output of
their competitors in America, Sierra On-Line,
who were releasing games at the time like
Gabriel Knight and King’s Quest V.“We did a presentation to Mirrorsoft’s partners.
I finished, and there was silence” Action set-pieces are rare
in the Broken Sword games,
but that doesn’t mean
they don’t have some
exhilarating moments.