Сломанный Меч: Тень Templiers - История Разработки и Успеха

1996 video game

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (also known as Circle of Blood in the United States) Clues and other information are obtained by clicking on items in the inventory and on objects in the environment. The player navigates with a map, to which new locations are added as the story unfolds. Unlike in most adventure games at the time, the protagonist's death is possible, after which the player starts from the last save point. In a September interview for French magazine Génération 4 at the time, Charles Cecil stated that he had begun working on a scenario for Revolution's third game, after 1992's Lure of the Temptress and 1994's then upcoming Beneath a Steel Sky. The following month, Cecil visited Paris to research the Templars; Cecil, Dave Cummins, and Jonathan Howard began work on the story and design. Revolution artist Steve Ince created initial location sketches for the game before working on Beneath a Steel Sky. He was promoted to producer halfway through the project. As a result, Cecil contacted Sony Computer Entertainment, who agreed to release the game for the console. but not resemble interactive movies of that time; he felt that they were "mimicking movies." Cecil contacted composer Barrington Pheloung, who agreed to create the game's score. He scored the music for orchestra and added the structural elements by breaking it up into sampled pieces. The remaining credited voice actors in the original are Rachel Atkins, David Bannerman, Rosy Clayton, Jack Elliott, Steve Hodson, David Holt, Peter Kenny, Richard Mapletoft, Matthew Marsh, Colin McFarlane, Don McCorkindale, Gavin Muir, Paul Panting, and Andrew Wincott. The game uses the Virtual Theatre engine, The game's final cost was one million pounds. It received a Game Boy Advance port in 2002, and it was later ported to Palm OS and Windows Mobile in 2006. Dave Gibbons, with whom Revolution worked on Beneath a Steel Sky, created additional artwork for the game. A version of the Director's Cut for iPhone and iPod Touch was released on January 20, 2010. In May, a version in high definition was released for the iPad. Versions for Windows and Mac OS X were released on September 2 on digital distribution services. An Android version was released on Google Play in June 2012. The original version of the game is available from Sold Out Software and GOG. com with Director's Cut purchases, and from Steam as free DLC for Director's Cut owners.

Broken Sword was a commercial success, and marked the first time that Revolution Software received royalty payments on a game. By August 2000, it had achieved sales of 825,000 copies, of which 480,000 were sold at full price. It was particularly a hit on the PlayStation, despite low sales expectations. Tony Warriner noted in 2004 that the publisher anticipated "60,000 copies and it went on to do nearly 300,000". In 2015, Charles Cecil stated that the PlayStation release alone accounted for 500,000 sales. Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut also sold well – particularly the iOS version, which, along with The Smoking Mirrors remastered edition, was downloaded by over four million people in 2011. According to Cecil, the remake's sales were higher than those of The Sleeping Dragon and The Angel of Death.

Adventure Gamers ranked Broken Sword fourth on its lists of "Top 20 Adventure Games of All Time" in 2004 and "Top 100 All Time Adventures" in 2011. In 2006, Adventure Classic Gaming put the game in third place on its list of the "Top 10 retro graphic adventure games of all time from PC to consoles". It was listed on Bright Hub's "Best Windows Mobile Games Software" in 2008. In 2010, Retro Gamer placed it in second on its list of the "Top 20 Adventure Games of All Time  not by LucasArts", and was included in Universe Publishing's 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, a book by video game designer and programmer Peter Molyneux and longtime Edge editor Tony Mott published in 2010. NowGamer listed it on its 2011 feature, "Greatest Point And Click Games (Not By LucasArts)". In 2012, it ranked eighth on GamesRadar's "Best point and click adventure games". Broken Sword and its remake are listed on Adventure Gamers' "Top Adventure Games" recommendations list. It is currently the third best reviewed adventure game on GameSpot. The game's Goat Puzzle appeared on Computer and Video Games 2011 feature, "Gaming's hardest puzzles". In 2012, it was listed on GameFront's "5 Crazy Difficult and Intricate Video Game Puzzles". Computer and Video Games also ranked Barrington's original intro theme 21st on its 2012 "Video game soundtracks: The 100 best themes of all time" list. The Telegraph listed Khan as one of "The 10 best video game assassins", while in 2013, Kotaku listed him as one of "The Scariest Clowns And Jesters In Video Games". The Director's Cut has been placed on top lists as well, particularly the iOS versions.

Cecil has said that the game's fanbase believes Dan Brown to have been influenced by Broken Sword when writing his novel, The Da Vinci Code, because of the parallels between the two works. Cecil claimed that he is flattered by this sentiment, but that he would never claim so himself due to the threat of Brown's "very serious" lawyers. In an article about Broken Sword, Computer and Video Games described the Knights Templar legend as a "great mythology to base a game on", and noted that Broken Sword "came out years before the Da Vinci Code made that sort of thing popular."

Broken Swords success led to it creating a series that would spawn four sequels. Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror was released in 1997, and retained the same engine, while expanding gameplay by allowing players to control both George and Nicole to solve puzzles. In 2003, Revolution released Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, which moved towards 3D graphics via the RenderWare engine and incorporating a direct control mechanism for its gameplay. In 2006, the company released Broken Sword: The Angel of Death (known as Secrets of the Ark: A Broken Sword Game in North America), which returned to the point and click system used in the first two games. The game was designed to use Sumo Digital's game engine, but released only for home computer. After the fourth title, Revolution initiated a Kickstarter project in August 2012 to raise capital for creating a fifth installment under the title Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse, releasing it in two episodes in 2013 and 2014. The game returned the series to 2D graphics, and it was released in September 2013. and a new game engine based on the original system used for The Shadow of the Templars. In 2009, Cecil decided to remake the original title for more updated platforms, such as Wii and Nintendo DS, and released between 2009 and 2012 Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars – The Director's Cut. The extended version created several new puzzles, reimagined the presentation with comic book styled approach for text and conversation, and incorporated new story elements concerning Nicole Collard's involvement in the original plot, while changing several puzzles and removing "death" sequences. After releasing the Director's Cut version of Broken Sword, Revolution released a remastered edition of the second game, titled Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror – Remastered, in 2010.

In June 2020, comedian Jason Manford conducted a lengthy retrospective interview with Charles Cecil and Rolf Saxon about the game's development and legacy. This followed Manford's live playthrough of the entire game over the course of several weeks on YouTube, during the first UK COVID 19 lockdown.

In May 2007, ComingSoon. net reported that Cecil, encouraged by the success of The Angel of Death, had begun work on a Broken Sword theatrical film adaptation. According to the website, producers Jay Douglas and Nav Guptatheir and their CastleBright Studios production company were involved. Justin Kaplan introduced Cecil to the company and was set to be one of the producers. Conversations had begun with directors and screenwriters from films such as Harry Potter, Casino Royale and X Men. In July 2008, Cecil said he was conversing with small studios from Los Angeles. Although he was interested in making a film, he believed that it was not necessary, since the series was already successful and a bad film could only "damage" its reputation. Cecil said that he was not prepared to "give somebody [he doesn]'t know the editorial control", and that, should the film be created, he would write it himself. He wanted any adaptation to be true to the source material, a film that "enhances [the game] rather than cashes in on it". In May 2009, Cecil stated that he was in discussion with the production company Radar Pictures, known for films such as The Last Samurai and The Chronicles of Riddick, and that he was re writing the game into a film. In August 2012, Cecil said that he and Revolution were trying to "find the right partner" to create the film. Cecil believed that "a lot of film makers now in their early 30s played Broken Sword the first time around, so they have a lot of affection, and a number of them know a lot about the brand as well." However, he restated his opinion that it "would be much better not to have a movie at all, than to have a bad movie." While Cecil said that Revolution's main focus was the upcoming Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse, he added that he was "sure there [would] be a film at some point". He also said that he was "sure it will be really good, because we'll do our utmost to make sure that it is."