Broken Sword 5

Funny, intriguing and effortlessly charming, Broken Sword 5 - The Serpent's Curse is an old fashioned point and click romp that feels like a breath of fresh,. From multi-award winning Revolution Software comes the latest explosive episode in this classic series. Playing as intrepid American George Stobbart and sassy French journalist Nico Collard, you find yourself on the trail of a stolen painting – and a murderous conspiracy.

. WW: 21 September 2018Mode(s)Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse is the fifth title in the series of, developed and published by, for, (via the ),. The game was released in two episodes: the first was made available on 4 December 2013; the second was released on 17 April 2014 for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux. It was announced on 23 August 2012, along with a; it was launched for the development of the game, which had been self-funded until the launch, to be completed. The game is presented in and returns to the series' roots, with characters pre-rendered and saved in 2D frames. The majority of the funding for the game was raised through Kickstarter, more than $771,000 of the requested $400,000 were raised, and together with donations, over $823,000.

Revolution co-founder Charles Cecil, creator and director of the Broken Sword seriesWhen writing the first two titles in the 1990s, 's games were published by, who wanted to ensure that the games were of quality, putting Revolution under no pressure and giving them much creative freedom and little time restriction (more so with the first game, ). Towards the end of the 1990s, however, adventure games, largely 2D and PC-exclusive, were declining in popularity during the rise of visceral, 3D platformers and were viewed as 'commercially unfeasible.' Cecil credited the decline to, which introduced a new audience of University age interested in visceral, 3D games.

As a result, publishers would rather pitch titles such as 3D shooters to retailers. This 'drove away the audience that wanted more cerebral games like adventures, so sales for the genre dropped even further and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy,' said, Revolution's CEO and Broken Sword creator.This meant the Broken Sword sequels (2003) and (2006) could be commissioned by publishers only by switching to 3D. When Revolution signed a contract, the publisher took control of the schedule, in which Revolution's creative process was limited by tight milestones that would compromise the game and guide the design to appeal to retailers rather than audiences.

Ecco the dolphin series. Ecco: Songs of Time is a soundtrack album which contains the original soundtrack from the Sega CD versions of Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time. It was released on September 3, 1996. The music is composed by Spencer Nilsen.The music is atmospheric and ambient, heavy on high-quality synthesizer, low-frequency percussion and various samples, including dolphin squeaks and squeals. Ecco the Dolphin. Ecco the Dolphin is an underwater adventure game created by Ed Annunziata and developed by Novotrade and Sega with games originally for the Genesis, Sega CD, Master System and Game Gear. A reboot of the series, without the involvement of the original team, called Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future was later created for the Dreamcast.

In this publishing model, the publisher took the financial risk, benefiting from the game's success, while the developer didn't – after the publisher and the retailers took their cuts of the revenue, a modest 7 percent was assigned to the developer; despite the Broken Sword series earning 'hundreds of millions,' Revolution was, to quote Cecil, 'developing very successful games at a loss.' However, when Apple contacted Revolution in 2009 to produce their games for the iOS, Revolution self-published Broken Sword – The Shadow of the Templars: Director's Cut and Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered on the iPhone/iPad Store, and later on for PC and Mac on GoG.com, Steam and iTunes Store and for Android on Google Play; in the self-publishing model, Revolution was commissioned 70% of the revenue rather than 7%, meaning that the company was in a far stronger financial position than before. The commercial performance of the Broken Sword I and II reimaginations were also considerably stronger than the series' 3D entries, particularly on handheld platforms: The two remakes were purchased 500 thousand times, with downloads totaling five million through promotions, on the iOS in 2011 alone. Cecil credited Apple and digital distribution to saving indie developers such as Revolution, and reviving the adventure genre. This enabled the studio to partially self-fund their next title, The Serpent's Curse – 500 thousand dollars, earned with the success of the self-published releases, were spent on the game.

Revolution then had to choose between making a shorter, more linear game with $500,000 with the length of the shortest Broken Sword, The Smoking Mirror, or try to raise money through crowd-funding to make an overall better game.A few months before the announcement it was largely believed in the game press that Revolution was working on a fifth instalment in the series. Cecil didn't confirm the speculations though, but did confirm that they were working on a new title, which would return to Revolution's roots which was planned be announced in July 2012. Announcement, fundraising and release After a few delays, Revolution announced Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse on 23 August 2012, starting a project with a $400,000 goal. Until then, the production of the game had been self-funded and $500,000 had been spent. Despite interest of the 'industry's biggest third party publisher,' Revolution preferred to self-publish the game, giving them creative freedom, which Cecil felt allowed them to make decisions that are best for the game. However, Cecil has also noted that he still plans to work with publishers in the future for retail releases. The game's Kickstarter goal was reached in the project's 13th day.

It was successfully funded on 22 September 2012, raising $771,560 from 14,032 backers, and a total of $823,232 counting 1,218 backers who raised $51,672. Revolution co-founder Tony Warriner, one of four Serpent's Curse programmersThe game has been released for, and, with a large possibility of a and release.

Regarding Revolution's choice of platforms, Cecil said that the point-and-click interface of the PC platforms translated very well to the 'slide-and-touch' user interface on mobile platform, but that the direct control interface on a console controller differs greatly from the former two interfaces. He noted though, that there he is still very keen to bring the game to consoles, but that it is not a certainty. Cecil has also noted that Revolution would have to publish the console versions through the format holders rather than self-publish. At the 2013, Revolution released a teaser trailer for The Serpent's Curse and announced a release.Cecil stated that the game is expected to be released 'in the first quarter, or right at the very beginning of the second quarter of next year 2013, so probably, end of March.'

In a UK podcast on 31 October 2012, Cecil stated that the game was expected to be delayed 'for a month or two' because of the achieved stretch goals that increased the development time due to the promised additional content.After further delays, Revolution announced on 5 November that the game will be released as a two-part episodic title, with the first episode coming on 4 December 2013, and the second one in Q1 2014. Initial releases would be for desktop platforms, and other releases would follow shortly after.

Cecil explained that the game became much larger than they had anticipated, with enough content for two full-fledged games. This meant that the title would not be fully completed by the end of 2013, but Revolution had promised a 2013 release, and so came the decision to split the game in two. Cecil also added that sometimes games are too long, and players don't find time to finish it, and saw that a split would also benefit in this field. He compared the length of a single episode to that of The Smoking Mirror.On 29 November, backers of the $50 tier or more were given exclusive beta access, featuring the first three scenes from episode 1. Both episodes bundled together were made available for pre-order, on 27 November 2013 on, and on 28 November on. Episode one was released on 4 December for PC on the same services (episode 2 would be added to the game as an update for the same purchase).

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The first episode was also released for the Vita on 18 December, bought either separately or with the second episode, and for iOS on 6 February and on for Android on 18 March. On iOS and Android, episode 2 would be released as an in-app purchase.Technical design Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse was built by four main programmers, using Virtual Theatre 7, Revolution's own in-house developed game engine based on the company's original, used to create their 2D titles in the 1990s., co-founder and technical director of Revolution, programmed the game's engine, in particular its (UI) and game scripting system, wanting to warrant the UI was 'as smooth, simple and intuitive as possible.' As an engine developer, Joost Peters, who previously co-programmed the two Broken Sword remakes with Warriner, had to ensure the engine was portable and ran optimally on a wide range of platforms.

Coder Peter Brooks had to implement features between various platforms and connectable to the game. Andrew Boskett, who previously worked on The Sleeping Dragon, returned to program The Serpent's Curse. Warriner and Brooks both usually used OS X, Peters used Linux and Boskett Windows, to ensure that all the game would remain in sync on all platforms. Creative design Artistic direction With The Serpent's Curse, Broken Sword returned to its 2D roots, in (HD).

While the latter two Broken Sword entries had been generally well received by the series' fanbase, the move to 3D graphics was met with mixed reactions. The backgrounds for The Serpent's Curse were originally planned to be pre-rendered 3D ones, but Cecil felt they 'just didn’t give the crew the look that they wanted.'

He also believed that while 3D was accurate and realistic, it 'lacked character' and the 'classic' feel of the 'clarity and beauty' of backgrounds hand-drawn by skillful 2D layout artists that Cecil felt could 'cheat perspective to achieve maximum emotional effect while remaining believable' and 'create environments that are more interesting and it creates a much better overall feeling.' Revolution sourced experienced layout artists that have worked for companies such as, and, including lead art director Tori 'Cat' Davis, who has worked on acclaimed works such as animated films (2010), (2011) and (2012), as well as the children's animated television series (2007–); she created and managed the hand drawn environments for the game and oversee the work of the background painters. Craig Gardiner, the game's lead animator, oversaw the work of the animation team, to ensure the character animations were consistent and did not feel out of place, fitting within Cecil's vision of the game. Tim Robins was the graphic artist; he created text information seen on the screen, such as icons, menus and maps, was responsible for the visual style of interactive elements in the game and also served as an assistant layout artist. Backgrounds were traditionally hand-drawn and then colored in, while Robins usually worked in Photoshop and.While the return to 2D had been met with high praise, the characters were modeled in 3D and then pre-rendered and saved in 2D sprites rather than being hand-drawn 2D sprites, which was initially met with mixed reception from fans. Cecil explained that the game was in full HD in order achieve the highest visual quality possible, but the original animations from The Shadow of the Templars and The Smoking Mirror were created in 640×400; a move to HD would require animations three times larger, and hand-animating so many pixels might be possible, but would be a 'massively complicated job.' To further quote Cecil, 'The massive advantage of rendering and then modelling is that obviously the data is much more manageable, we can connect animations much more smoothly, we can continue to tweak to optimise the 2D look which we’re in the process of doing, and you can hand-touch them at the end.

A lot of people have said that we should be doing 2D, and I totally respect their comments, but my opinion is that it’s just not feasible. I’m also very pleased with the way the sprites are looking anyway. What we probably need to do is communicate that the end result is they look like they’re sprites, they look like they’re 2D. So I don’t regret the decision at all, and I’m absolutely convinced it’s the right one. I just don’t think we’ve communicated as well as we should have done that the end results will look like cartoony 2D sprites.' He also stated that 2D and 3D in HD brings the 'best of every world.'

Technology written specifically to give the sprites a more 'cartoony' look was written.

Paris in the spring. Shots ring out from a gallery.A robbery. And the beginning of another epic Broken Sword adventure.From multi-award winning Revolution comes the latest mystery in this much loved adventure-puzzle series.Playing as intrepid American George Stobbart and sassy French journalist Nico Collard, you find yourself on the trail of a stolen painting - and a murderous conspiracy. A conspiracy whose roots lie in mysteries older than the written word.Armed only with logic, integrity and a wry sense of humor - can George and Nico save mankind from disaster?

Can you solve the secret of the Serpent’s Curse? A curse some say was forged by the Devil himself.The game includes Behind the Scenes movies created especially for the Nintendo Switch version. Unlocked as play progresses, these videos reveal the story and the development process behind the game, through previously unreleased interviews with the Broken Sword team.