Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon
Have you read the concerns from fans that George looks a bit like Indiana Jones on those screenshots?
Yes I have and they are absolutely legitimate concerns. However, we are very early in development. George actually goes to Congo, and he wears that. But when he’s in Paris he just wears normal clothes. So he doesn’t really wear this outfit for very much at all. Because this is the only model we actually have of him, we made him look like Indiana Jones in Paris. It is a completely legitimate concern, but it’s only because we haven’t got around modeling him in his city clothes.
I guess this also answers my next question: there will be more than one outfit?
Oh yes. And Nico is going to have many, many outfits.
Speaking of Nico, will we be able to control her?
George is very much the main character, but you can control Nico. We swap between the two as we did in Broken Sword 2.
How does George earn the money to go around and save the world?
(laughs) A very good, legitimate complaint is that in Broken Sword 1, when he goes to Syria he hasn’t got fifty bucks and the plane ticket would have cost him thousands. So we don’t worry about the money. George is a very successful corporate lawyer and has plenty of money.
So, Broken Sword 2 for the GBA is still in development. When is that game to be expected?
That will probably be next month.
Have you seen the Broken Sword 2 1/2 game?
Never even heard of it.
A group of fans is using various resources from the first two games, adding their own, and creating a 2.5 sequel game.
(enthusiastically) Oh really? How amazing.
(to Simon Byron of PR) Why don’t we hear about this? It’s crazy!
They are probably afraid that if you heard about it, you’d shut it down.
No, of course we wouldn’t.
Will you create more adventure games with the Broken Sword 3 engine in the future?
I hope so. We have complete confidence and we feel that this is the right direction. The point is that the adventure had a huge following a few years ago and clearly there is a demand for this type of game. It’s just that we felt that the point-and-click interface was holding it all back. By changing all that we will then realize the potential that we have.
As you explained earlier, part of it is also the puzzles being less obscure. So no more things like, say, putting a ladder in your pocket, as in the game Simon the Sorcerer?
The thing that makes me rather cross is that it’s so easy to come up with bad puzzles. (points at a journalist leaving the conference room) There is a guy going out the door. If I could unclip my badge here and throw it like a Frisbee, I could knock him out as he goes through the door. Anybody can come up with puzzles like that. A lot of people think they can write and design adventures, but that’s because anybody could come up with those rubbish puzzles. If you want to come up with puzzles that are really integrated into the plot it really is very hard work. We review our puzzles again and again and work out what’s believable or whether it works within the environment. If it’s too difficult we can provide a clue to the player. We take that aspect very seriously as we don’t want people having to buy walkthroughs because every puzzle is impossible to solve.
Getting away with it
Even though Revolution started on the design last year, Broken Sword 3 has only really been in production for six months. Revolution has clearly set out the direction it wants to take, but only the final product will say whether they will succeed. The design philosophies behind the project testify to Revolution’s willingness to go into new territory for the genre, while at the same time trying to stay true to many traditional adventure game elements. If Revolution’s promises come true, we will be in for a tightly written, fast-paced game that may reinvent your concept of the adventure and begin a new era for adventure gaming.
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