REVBOOK Hardback (Option 1)

Written by Tony Warriner, employee number one and co-founder of Revolution Software, with a foreword by Charles Cecil, this epic book tells the untold behind-the-scenes story of this much-loved game developer.

(please note - print run limited to 1000 numbered copies - these will not be available much longer!)

Includes free PDF/EPUB download versions.

The story begins in the mid-1980s when high-school dropout Tony Warriner wrote a game – Obsidian, for the Amstrad CPC – and sent it to Artic Computing, a local game publisher. There he met Charles Cecil, who was looking for cool new games to try and save the now-struggling publisher. The two hit it off, and four years later they – along with Dave Sykes and Noirin Carmody – got back together to found Revolution Software.

From the very start, Revolution’s goal was to write the best narrative-based adventure games. It did this to critical acclaim, with Beneath a Steel Sky and Broken Sword becoming much-loved classics whose popularity continues to soar.

However, behind the scenes, the company had to chart its way through the video game industry’s shark-infested waters, where malign corporate forces constantly sought to trick and connive for their own short-term gain.

This book tells two important stories. First, how the games were made, and second, how the external forces acting on the company threatened to destroy it at every step along the way.

This is a book about the creativity and the artistry of making proper games. This is a story about independence and following your own path, and of rejecting the dead hands of corporatism.

Whether you are a fan of Revolution’s games or wish to learn how the video game industry really works, this book is a must-have.

No compromises! At 600+ pages, this is a big book.

The text itself is approximately 400 pages, but we wanted to include as many archive photos from across the journey as we could.

A traditional book publisher would have said: Cut the photos down! Save on print costs! Spreadsheet says no! Needless to say, this will be an expensive book to print, but it is the book we wanted.

We have not compromised on the quality of the book to keep costs down. Featuring hundreds of full-colour images alongside the text, it will be a stitch-bound hardback printed on high-quality paper.

Foreword by Charles Cecil

Introduction by Martin Mulrooney

This is an uncompromised first edition of the book. There are no plans to print more hardbacks after this. Potentially, there may be a paperback version in future, but we would not expect the extensive visual elements of this edition to make it through. This is very much the collector’s edition and this campaign will likely be the only chance to own it.

• 400+ photos spanning from the mid-1980s to the present day, including studio photos, original line drawings, box art and magazine advertisements
• Learn about the contracts from hell and the underhand tricks of the corporate games industry
•  Read the original Beneath a Steel Sky design document in all its handwritten glory 
• Uncover the origins of Revolution Software in deepest, darkest North Wales
• Gain invaluable insight into Tony’s ‘Script’ system, which underpinned all of Revolution’s games
•  Get the full backstory on a wealth of adventure classics including Lure of the Temptress, Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword and In Cold Blood 
• Follow the highs and lows as the team repeatedly lurched from crisis to euphoria
• Get the lowdown on collaborations with incredible talents such as Eoghan Cahill, Dave Gibbons, Barrington Pheloung and Rolf Saxon
•  Discover how two CDs’ worth of data was shrunk down to fit on an 8 MB cartridge for the Game Boy Advance version of Broken Sword 1 (it was a miracle) 
•  Learn about the projects that never were, including Good Cop Bad Cop and Blood Harvest