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Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon Developers Diary Month One

Over the next 7 months, the developers of Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon will be giving us an insight into the development of the game. Lets hope they can reignite interest in the aging art of adventure gaming. Here's Diary One.

Diary One

In my office, tacked to a filing cabinet to the left of my desk, is a calendar. There's nothing particularly unusual about its form, nor its theme(images of historic York - sent by a printing company that we once used and which we are unlikely to ever use again). It's unremarkable in almost everyway; anyone passing my desk would have no idea of the significance or the power held by these 12 sheets of glossy paper.

But flick through photographs of Winter's river Ouse (which has flooded ever since the board of Yorkshire Water sold off the reservoirs to fund their bonuses), past Summer's sun-drenched Castle Howard looking magnificent as ever, until the image depicts Duncome Park's bare trees. There, in October,circled in bright red mark pen is the number 10; a permanent indication of a key date for us all: the release of Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon.

So. Welcome then, to the first Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon diary. Through to the game's release - 10th October 2003 on PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox - we'll be updating you on the game's progress, hopefully offering you an insight into the development process. With little more than six months until release, we are moving at a terrifying pace. It's going to be anexciting time all round.

The news of THQ signing the title throughout the PAL territories was well received across the industry. We were immensely flattered with the attention it received, including a front-page piece on the trade paper MCV. As a former development manager of such publishers as Activision and US Gold, I know that a cooperative relationship between publisher and developer is vital - both sides need to work together for what should be a win-win relationship. THQ are absolutely committed to this game and have the passion and enthusiasm to build it into one of the year's biggest games. We are very pleased to be working with them.

So what is our vision for the game - our raison d'etre? We have pretty much started from the basic premise: "how can we write an extraordinary, narrative-driven, gaming experience?" We aim to bring together the key elements of beautiful graphics and animation, a compelling story and characterisation, stunning audio; all bound together with an intuitive interface. We continue to look at other adventures around us but feel that most simply look outdated - afraid to let go of the tried and tested grammar of the classical adventure which has resulted in a decline in sales of the genre. In the same way that Final Fantasy VII reinvented the RPG genre - Final Fantasy VI was considered too niche to even release in Europe - and Metal Gear Solid reinvented the stealth genre, we aim to reinvent and invigorate the adventure genre. I genuinely believe that Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon will achieve this.

Our work on the GBA version of Broken Sword proved to us that direct control works well - we've stuck with this with The Sleeping Dragon. Of course, the console versions come with controllers that suit this type of gameplay; but for the PC we have devised a unique mouse/keyboard combination (or keyboard only if preferred), which works very well. With direct control we can use the 3D aspects of the environment to broaden the gameplay opportunities - but always adhering to the key rule that the game is primarily cerebral rather than requiring manual dexterity. As well as the 'detective' or 'investigative' gameplay associated with an adventure, we allow exploration of the environment in a true 3D way through climbing, shimmying etc. I emphasise that the interface is primarily cerebral so the exploration gameplay is not threatening to someone who can't get past the first level of Tomb Raider!

We also include gameplay elements called 'Action Events' which are, in effect, interactive cut scenes. In an 'Action Event' the player is put under pressure and must work out what to do to get out of it - under a time pressure. This is not the 'stab the right button unfeasibly fast' of Shen Mue, but 'I have several seconds to work out how to get out of this situation or I am in real trouble'. There really is a big difference in emphasis.

Cutting edge art and technology is the key to providing an extraordinary game environment. I don't have time to expand in this diary entry, but it requires exceptional programmers and artists. We have a really strong team - certainly the best in our history. I intend to talk further about these elements in later entries. This month we've been working on the opening stage of the game, which sees George crash-land deep in the jungles of the Congo. It's an explosive and exciting introduction, which really sets out the excitement and drama of the game from the off. The plane skids through the jungle and ends up perilously overhanging the edge of a chasm. The player's first task is to guide George to safety. It's a cliff-hanger, in every sense.

The requirement has been to create visuals that look both beautiful and threatening. This has been achieved by setting the time of day such that there is a reasonably strong sun lighting up a lush jungle - set against the cliff face of a huge ravine, into which a water fall cascades. It's a thrilling set piece, yet as it's the first section of the game it's obviously not too difficult. It's more of a tutorial, but without being labelled as such: one of our goals is to write a game that is challenging but never frustrating - something that the Japanese, and Nintendo in particular, do so well. If any player needs to read the manual, then we will have failed. We are also working on a help system, which balances the requirement not to spoil the game for the player with that of ensuring that the player does not get frustrated if they get stuck and want to know how to move forward.

The fact we're working on the opening now is deliberate. Game development rarely runs along a straight line - sections are developed in tandem and slotted together later on - but as the opening sequence is so important, we wanted the team firing on all cylinders for this part of the game. It's crucial that players are impressed from the off. And this bit will probably form the playable demo, too, which makes it doubly important.
And that just about concludes this first diary. This month will see our first fully-playable demo, which we're tremendously excited by. I'll let you know how that hangs together next month.

Until next month,
Best,
Charles.

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