Revolution Software

Revolution Software was founded in 1990 by Charles Cecil, Tony Warriner, David Sykes and Noirin Carmody. Its history is linked first to Kingston upon Hull and later to York, England, but its identity was clear from the start: to create narrative, accessible and modern adventure games, balanced between Sierra’s puzzle severity and LucasArts’ smoother comic approach. In a European market still strongly tied to Amiga, Atari ST and PC, Revolution entered with the ambition to tell livelier stories, less static and more attentive to the behaviour of characters inside the world.

Its first game was Lure of the Temptress, published in 1992 by Virgin Games. It did not become as famous as the studio’s later classics, but it introduced Virtual Theatre, an engine designed to give non-player characters an independent life inside the game world. The idea was important: NPCs should not simply stand still waiting for the protagonist, but move, act and follow routines, making the environment feel more believable. This attention to the internal life of the world became one of young Revolution’s defining traits.

The breakthrough came with Beneath a Steel Sky, published in 1994 for MS-DOS and Amiga, again with Virgin Interactive. Designed by Charles Cecil and Tony Warriner, with a crucial contribution from Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons, the game built a dirty, ironic and political cyberpunk dystopia, very different from the fantasy or comedy adventures that dominated the market. Robert Foster, Joey and Union City entered player memory thanks to writing, atmosphere, art and a very British form of social satire. Beneath a Steel Sky became a genre classic over time, helped also by its later freeware release and ScummVM support.

The greatest success, however, arrived in 1996 with Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars. With George Stobbart and Nico Collard, Revolution found a perfect formula: historical mystery, witty dialogue, cinematic pacing, European locations and an elegant point-and-click structure, less punishing than many earlier adventures. Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror followed in 1997 and consolidated the brand, turning Revolution into one of the last major names of the classic graphic adventure before the genre’s commercial decline.

During the 2000s, Revolution tried to adapt to a changing market. Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, released in 2003, moved into 3D and direct control, while Broken Sword: The Angel of Death continued in a more modern direction, although not always with the same warmth received by the 2D chapters. Later, the return of point-and-click through digital platforms, mobile releases and crowdfunding allowed the studio to reconnect with its audience. Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse, funded partly through Kickstarter and released between 2013 and 2014, marked a conscious return to a form closer to the illustrated tradition of the series.

In recent years, Revolution has continued to work with its own history without being trapped by nostalgia. Beyond a Steel Sky, released in 2020, revisited the world of Beneath a Steel Sky with Dave Gibbons, while Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Reforged brought the first chapter of the series back in an updated form. Revolution Software’s legacy is that of a small but stubborn studio, able to build one of the most recognizable identities in European adventure games: narrative worlds, British humour, historical mysteries, living characters and rare loyalty to the point-and-click genre. For Retro-Gamers, Revolution is a natural bridge between Amiga, DOS PC, comics, graphic adventure and modern digital preservation.