Then a voice piped up behind him.
“This is where Revolution are based.”
Cecil had stumbled across an annual pilgrimage to the site where British point-and-click adventures are made.
From the sounds of it, this young woman was not alone in making the journey.
“We love our interaction with them.”
Yet Cecil does not take his relationship with Revolutions fans for granted.
At times in his long career, he has lost touch with his audience.
And at others, hes feared they might turn their back on him.
“There was this real camaraderie.
And then through the ’80s, publishers and retailers came to prominence.
And we got pushed further and further away from the relationship with our fans.
“Being an independent developer was a pretty miserable place to be,” Cecil says.
“It felt like Revolution was over,” Cecil says.
“But there were always going to be new opportunities emerging.
It was challenging and exciting.
So you know, I have no regrets whatsoever.”
“And all the jobs that the publisher would otherwise have done, we had to do.
With crowdfunding, the fans had come to Revolutions rescue.
Launching the Kickstarter forBroken Sword 5: The Serpents Cursewas a euphoric experience.
As Cecil says: “Its a niche audience, but by God, it’s passionate.”
Cecil and I have come into contact just once before.
Speaking on the phone from Germany, his voice quavered as he explained the decision.
“I was nervous,” Cecil says now.
“I was nervous that our fans were going to turn against us.”
Earlier that year, a number of high profile Kickstarter projects had gone off the rails.
“He gave loads of reasons,” Cecil says.
“But there was absolutely no sense of humility, no sense of an apology.
It was like, Ive taken the money, it hasnt worked.
And to an extent,Broken Agewas doing the same.”
Double Fine Adventure, as it was initially known, had opened the floodgates for gaming Kickstarter campaigns.
“I think that the American developers had a very different attitude towards [Kickstarter] than the British.
From my perspective, this was our community, who put their full trust in us.
And to let them down would have been absolutely awful.”
Revolution had reason to fear a fan backlash.
“And one of the stretch goals was an extra section,” he says.
“How can I expect to finish the game in six months if we have new sections?
It was very naive.”
Having already delayed launch once, Revolution was approaching the end of 2013 and running out of money.
“It really, really scared me, and that was where we took the decision to split.
“Hed come a cropper, which was a shocking moment as a developer,” Cecil says.
“It was, There but for the grace of God go us all.”
For Cecil, it was a moment of realisation about the power of social media.
“And the power of the audience suddenly emerged.
And I would imagine that is something he probably regrets now.”
Today, Cecil regrets splitting The Serpents Curse into two parts.
He believes that the staggered release impacted its sales and reception.
“But it was a pragmatic decision that we had to make at the time,” he says.
Just this year, the developer Kickstarted the collectors edition of Broken Sword: Reforged.
“Im not at all scared to change things that were illogical,” Cecil says.
It makes no sense.
Very few people, if anybody, will notice.
But subliminally they will know that something is wrong.”
Minor details like these have irritated Cecil for 25 years.
“Theres a drain pipe.
George pulls it, and he says, I guess the clown didnt escape that way.
“Our wonderful, passionate fans are probably quite forgiving of these continuity errors,” Cecil says.
“And I would imagine that a new audience would be less forgiving.”
