FEATURE ARTICLE – Revolution: The Quest for Game Development Greatness

By Marty Mulrooney

For much of 2022, I have been editing and collaborating on a new book written by Revolution Software co-founder Tony Warriner. Those who know me (and long-time readers of AMO) will know that I am a massive fan of Revolution – and in particular, the studio’s Broken Sword series of point-and-click adventure games. This article will hopefully shed some light on my involvement with Revolution: The Quest for Game Development Greatness, what readers can look forward to, and why I believe it to be an important book.

Before I begin, please indulge me for a moment while I rewind a little. I founded Alternative Magazine Online in 2009 when I was in my final year of university, and right from the outset, the site had a heavy focus on a video game genre that is near and dear to my heart: the graphic adventure.

My two favourite adventure games growing up were Grim Fandango and Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars, from LucasArts in the US and Revolution Software here in the UK, respectively. In particular, I had long felt a particular affinity with Revolution because they were British and actively engaged with their fans – first via their now-defunct forums and later via their social media channels.

In 2011, I struck up an online friendship with American actor Rolf Saxon (the iconic voice of protagonist George Stobbart in the Broken Sword games) who kindly agreed to let me interview him, and the following year, Broken Sword 5 was announced and successfully funded on Kickstarter.

It was a joy to be part of the campaign, and I ran several news stories and interviews during this time to help raise awareness. One particularly memorable interviewee was Tony Warriner, who co-founded Revolution and programmed all of the studio’s greatest hits before his departure in 2016. His dry sense of humour and quick wit made both the interview and our subsequent email exchanges hugely enjoyable.

I would never have dreamed in a million years that a decade later I would be working with Tony – who programmed some of my favourite games of all time – on a book about the history of Revolution Software.

How this ended up happening is a story in and of itself: one detailed extensively in the introduction to Revolution: The Quest for Game Development Greatness, which Tony kindly asked me to write. I won’t cover that again here (you’ll have to read the book!), but I will say that this has been a dream project to work on.

So… how did our collaboration work? Well, first of all, Tony did the hard part and wrote the entire first draft of the book. Originally titled From 8-Bit to Revolution, it was 100% readable from beginning to end when he first sent it to me.

I remember that day clearly, as my wife was somewhat bemused that instead of power-washing the driveway I was sitting and reading Tony’s story in the doorway of our home. It was engrossing from the very first line – I was hooked!

That first draft was shared with me via Google Docs, and Tony and I soon fell into a comfortable editing rhythm. I would come home from work, eat my tea and shower, and then work late into the evening editing the book. Sometimes, I took this too far; I’ve always been a bit of a night owl, but Tony could tell from the timestamps on my edits that I would occasionally fall asleep bolt upright, mid-sentence, before waking up 10 minutes later and continuing to edit!

Tony is an early riser – whereas I am not a morning person at all – so I would usually wake to find my inbox filled with Google Docs email notifications detailing all of the previous night’s accepted edits. This is but a small taste of what a typical early morning inbox would look like:

Tony and I would continually talk via Messenger while I edited, which made it easy for me to ask any specific questions that I had, and sometimes our discussions would lead to the text being expanded too (Tony teased me once that I’m the studio’s biggest fan, but to be honest I was secretly chuffed). We would also have weekly calls via Skype where we would have a few drinks and talk about the book and life in general.

One thing I was never 100% happy about was the chapter titles. I had written some placeholders when I initially split the book into chapters, but they were completed the night before my wife went into labour and my daughter was born (almost a month before her due date). Tony seemed to like them more or less – and we had a lot of other, much more pressing things to deal with in terms of the editing itself – but I think we both knew they weren’t quite right.

Book editing with @AltMagOnline today. Fixing up chapter names! #pointandclick pic.twitter.com/Ts1CMVAns1

— tonyw (@tonywarriner) June 27, 2022

Tony visited me in Liverpool shortly after Maisie was born, and I returned the favour a few months later by visiting him in Hull. Following a somewhat boozy evening upon my arrival, we felt pretty guilty the next day and had a sudden flash of creativity.

Over the course of an afternoon, we wrote new titles for each chapter that far surpassed the placeholders. In fact, they’re the same chapter titles you’ll be able to see when the finished book is in your hands! Lesson learned: procrastinate, then innovate. 🙂

I believe we’re on draft seven or eight now – and we’re still tinkering a little – but for the most part, it’s done. I can’t wait for the backers of the Kickstarter campaign to read it, as I think it’s an important book for both fans of the studio and gamers in general.

We live during a time when online toxicity is at an all-time high, and a vocal minority of gamers can be particularly cruel towards developers. It is easy to forget that the people behind our favourite games are just that: people. Revolution: The Quest for Game Development Greatness shares the highs and lows of the game development process while pulling back the curtain on the rigged publisher deals that threaten to ruin the industry as a whole.

Now, Revolution’s fans are nicer than most, but there are still a few people out there who believe that content was removed from Broken Sword: Director’s Cut out of spite (for example), or that Broken Sword 4 wasn’t very good simply because Revolution didn’t care. Nothing could be further from the truth – there is a valid reason why Tony’s copy of Broken Sword 4 remains unopened and unplayed to this day. This book will set the record straight.

However, it isn’t all doom and gloom! The highs are just as juicy as the lows – here is what readers of the book can look forward to:

So there you have it: 2022 was the year I became a father and finally realised my lifelong dream of seeing my name grace the front cover of a book… and what a book! Working with Tony has been incredibly rewarding, and we aren’t quite finished yet either.

On a personal note, Revolution Software and the studio’s games mean a great deal to me. They’ve helped me through some difficult times, and I even had composer Barrington Pheloung’s beautiful ‘Hotel Ubu’ music from Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars playing on my wedding day while my wife and I signed the wedding register.

Many congratulations to Martin @AltMagOnline and Jane who got married to the #BrokenSword Hotel Ubu music by @bpheloung. Absolutely brilliant pic.twitter.com/7HKKVBznHa

— Charles Cecil (@CharlesCecil) May 19, 2019

Being involved in the creation of this book and working with Tony – one of the most fiercely intelligent people I have ever met, and a wonderful writer to boot – has been, and continues to be, an honour.

The Kickstarter campaign for Revolution: The Quest for Game Development Greatness will finish on Sunday, 16th October (it’s already 100% funded!). If you would like to back the project before it’s too late, be sure to visit the following link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tonywarriner/revolution-the-quest-for-game-development-greatness