Revolution Software Ltd is a British video game developer, based in York, United Kingdom.
The company was founded in 1990 by Charles Cecil, Tony Warriner, David Sykes and Noirin Carmody. Until 6 December 1990, the company was named Turnvale Limited after the location in their first game Lure of the Temptress. The company's speciality would be for writing adventure games, including Beneath a Steel Sky, and the Broken Sword series which have sold over 4 million copies worldwide and have earned £100 million. The company was started with a view to creating Lure of the Temptress - which incorporated the Virtual Theatre Engine. This virtual engine was subsequently used to develop the first two games in the Broken Sword series.
Video Revolution Software
Company history
1992-1994: Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky
Released in 1992 for the Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS platforms, Lure of the Temptress was both critically and commercially a success, which helped set the company up for their future game releases. Revolution released the game as freeware on 1 April 2003.
Their next game was released in 1994; Beneath a Steel Sky became a hit on the Amiga and DOS. The game focused on protagonist Robert Foster's abduction and subsequent search for answers in a dystopian city of the future. In that period they also ported Sierra's King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow to the Commodore Amiga. Virtual Theatre system was used instead of Sierra's Creative Interpreter due to its much better performance.
1996-1997: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars and Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror
Despite the success of Beneath a Steel Sky, it was the company's next game that they would become best known for, and which would have both the biggest critical and commercial success. Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars was released for PC and PlayStation in 1996 and was later ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2002. The game revolves around the story of George Stobbart, an American tourist whose holiday in Paris is rudely interrupted by a bombing. Investigating, he runs into photo-journalist Nicole Collard, and the two embark on a globe-trotting adventure. The hand drawn graphics, story and characters, and gameplay helped make the game a hit, and cemented the company's reputation for story driven games. The game was quickly followed by a well-received sequel, Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror. According to Charles Cecil, each of the first two Broken Sword games sold around a 1,000,000 copies in the mid-1990s.
2000: In Cold Blood and Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado
On July 2000, the company released their first 3D game In Cold Blood for the PlayStation (later released for Microsoft Windows in October 2000). Set in the near future, the game featured John Cord, an MI6 agent. Sent to the fictional, former soviet region of Volgia, the player embarks on a mission to investigate a newly discovered substance, Blue Nephrine. However, Cord is betrayed and must work out by whom, while simultaneously trying to work out what plans the dictator of Volgia, General Nagarov, has for this mysterious new chemical and the implications for the world.
On December 2000, the company also released a children's adventure game Gold and Glory: The Road to El Dorado to coincide with the release of the film The Road to El Dorado.
2001-2002: Good Cop Bad Cop cancellation
The company then started work on Good Cop Bad Cop, an action game for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. However the game was eventually cancelled so that the company could concentrate on Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon.
2003-2006: Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon and Broken Sword: The Angel of Death
Released in November 2003, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon featured 3D graphics, and moved away from the 2D point-and-click style of older games. As the game was developed for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2 and Xbox simultaneously, they decided to implement a direct control mechanism for the protagonist, instead of mouse control clicking on hot spots, as this was easier to convert to console game pads.
Revolution released Broken Sword: The Angel of Death on 15 September 2006. At the start of the game, George is working as a bail bonds clerk, when he falls in love with Anna-Maria, a woman who asks George to help her find an artefact.
2009-2011: Director's Cut and Remasters
On 1 March 2009, Revolution Software released a director's cut version of their first Broken Sword series, called Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Director's Cut, for Wii and Nintendo DS platforms (later on iOS, Microsoft Windows and OS X). According to a Charles Cecil interview with Pocket Gamer, the iOS version of the Director's Cut sold around 160,000 copies by December 2010. The company also announced that The Director's Cut is coming soon to Android.
On October 2009, Beneath a Steel Sky - Remastered was made available on the Apple App Store. The Remastered Edition sold around 20,000 copies in its first month and expected to hit 70,000 sales in the first year and 100,000 lifetime sales.
The company announced the remastered edition of the second game in the Broken Sword series on 9 December 2010, called Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror - Remastered. The game was released in late 2010 on iPhone, April 2011 on OS X and May 2011 on Microsoft Windows.
2012-present: Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse, Beneath a Steel Sky 2 and Broken Sword 6 ideas
On 25 July 2012, Charles Cecil posted on his personal Facebook account: "Totally focused on the announce video for our next game. I am thrilled by how it's looking, and can't wait to talk publicly, but completing the video for end of the month - as originally promised - now seems somewhat ambitious." After a short delay, the game was officially announced to be a fifth entry in the series: Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse. The game was announced with a Kickstarter campaign and a video, showing some of the game's graphics and hinting at its storyline.
After the release of Beneath a Steel Sky - Remastered, Charles Cecil and Dave Gibbons stated that a sequel could be likely and that iPhone would be the ideal platform. During its Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, the company originally put Beneath a Steel Sky 2 as a $1,000,000 bonus stretch goal if the new Broken Sword game raises enough money, but it only raised $820,000 (inc. PayPal donations). On 24 September 2012, after failing to reach the bonus stretch goal, the company's co-founder Tony Warriner said that "after the huge success of the Broken Sword 5 crowdfunding campaign on Kickstater, it inspired us to begin work on Beneath a Steel Sky 2. Development of the sequel will begin after the release of Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse. We're delighted by the recent level of interest in a sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky and are currently discussing design ideas for this project which we plan to go into development following the release of Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse. We're deeply touched that our Beneath a Steel Sky fans are as enthusiastic today as they were when the original game released in 1994." Beneath a Steel Sky 2 is to be developed for iOS, Android, PC, Linux and OS X. There is also a possibility in looking into a console version release. In a September 2015 interview, Cecil announced that he was working on a story for Broken Sword 6, which would involve the main characters traveling to Germany.
Maps Revolution Software
Games developed
Recognition
Awards and nominations
Appearances on lists
References
External links
- Revfans - Revolution Software Fansite
- Broken Sword 2.5: The Return of the Templars Fangame
- Revolution Software entry at MobyGames
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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