Even though it has been around in one form or another since the early 80's, people still have room in their hearts for a good old point and click adventure game. In fact, some people (cough zoomer cough) are just discovering how rewarding it can be to patiently examine a myriad of pixels in the hopes of finding the precise one that matters, or how frustrating it can be to come to terms with developers' unique interpretation of human logic.
To learn more about bridging this generational gap between gamers, Editor-in-Chief Danielle Riendeau sat down with adventure game designer and Revolution Software co-founder Charles Cecil to discuss the upcoming 4K remake of Revolution Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars.
Produced by Jordan Mallory and featuring music by Mike Meehan, this is episode 46 of the Game Developer Podcast.
As was the case over 30 years ago, adventure game designers in 2024 have to walk a bit of a tightrope when it comes to difficulty management. Cecil's approach is to provide hints when needed, but sparingly. Too little help and you risk frustrating the player, but too much and you rob them and their all-important sense of accomplishment.
“It would be better to provide these little hints too rarely than too frequently, because if a player is close to a solution and is really excited about having worked [it] out, and then we give you a hint: They’re going to find it very, very frustrating,” Cecil explains. “Ultimately, people play these story games and they feel smart because they’re the ones driving it forward.”
For Cecil, writing a player-driven story is a separate but symbiotic process to designing the various puzzles that ultimately form the basis of the experience.
“I’ll come up with a two- or three-page story,” Cecil says, “which obviously figures out how the gameplay fits into that, and then in parallel, I’ll start designing the puzzles.” And while these two halves of the project “remain as separate documents,” they’re also in constant dialogue with each other since “the story is always informed and complemented by the puzzles. … We’re looking for big moments where the story and the puzzles come together in some kind of climax.”
In the specific case of Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: ReforgedThe remake not only offers younger gamers the chance to experience the magic of the 90s computer classic, but also gives Cecil the chance to right the wrongs of the past.
“In [a] particular scene, one thing that has annoyed me for almost 30 years is that there is a drain pipe,” Cecil says. If the player decides to pull the pipe, “it comes off the wall and [the protagonist] says “Well, the clown didn't run away that way.” But in the original 1996 artwork for this scene, the hose isn't actually connected to anything, meaning the clown Obviously He couldn't have used it to escape, even if he had somehow managed to get inside.
“It really bugged me for so long, so I went to the artist and said, ‘Please make me happy. Draw the exhaust pipe so it looks like it’s going up, over the top of the screen.’ There are so many little things like that.”
You too can experience the joy of finally finding the right pixel when Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged will launch on September 18. In the meantime, we recommend you listen to our delightful little podcast and then check out what's happening with the equally imminent GDC Showcase.