My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

Charles Cecil MBE, gamemaker (Broken Sword, Beneath a Steel Sky).

My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

My guest today is a legendary British video game designer. While a student at Manchester University, a friend invited him to write a text adventure which led him to work for the video game publishers US Gold and, later, Activision. In 1990 he co-founded Revolution Software in the North of England.


After releasing Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky, he began work on Broken Sword, a world-spanning adventure game starring the American patent lawyer, George Stobbart and his French girlfriend, Nicole Collard, a freelance journalist. The game had a witty script, was beautifully illustrated, and featured a soundtrack by Barrington Pheloung, the composer of the Inspector Morse TV series, who my guest first met over a game of cricket.


After Sony reluctantly brought the game to PlayStation, it became a smash hit, leading to a string of successful sequels. But the course has not always been easy. β€œThe audience for adventure games is limited,” he once told me. β€œBut that audience is incredibly loyal.”


Play the console:



Thank you for listening to My Perfect Console. Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter; your small monthly subscription will help to make the podcast sustainable for the long term, and you'll receive bonus content, and access to the My Perfect Console community: https://www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole


Be attitude for gains. https://plus.acast.com/s/my-perfect-console.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episodes

My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

Grace Curtis, science fiction author. @ My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

πŸ“† 2023-04-13 07:00 / βŒ› 01:03:22


My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

Erik Wolpaw, writer Portal 1 & 2. @ My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

πŸ“† 2023-04-10 07:00 / βŒ› 01:12:32