Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons plans to make new original adventure with Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword developer
"Yes it will look like a Dave Gibbons game."
Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons plans to make a new, original adventure game with Beneath a Steel Sky and Broken Sword developer Revolution Software, Eurogamer can reveal.
The comic book artist will be involved in the creation of the game "from the ground up", and will direct the look of it, Gibbons told Eurogamer in an exclusive interview at the GameCityNights event in Nottingham last week.
Gibbons declined to reveal any solid information on the game, but he promised "it will look like a Dave Gibbons game".
"It'll have a strong graphic identity," he said. "It's strange - when you get the germ for an idea for something, you can almost touch it. It's like you can almost hold it.
"It's going to be something that combines a lot of the things I'm perhaps best known for, which are a design sense and a sense of symbolism and maybe an obsessive attention to background detail.
"If you're asking, will it look like a Dave Gibbons game, yes it will look like a Dave Gibbons game. There would be no point in Charles [Cecil, Revolution founder] collaborating with me if it was going to look like a Joe Blow game."
Gibbons is no stranger to video games. He consulted on the Watchmen: The End Is Nigh downloadable video game, worked on updated art and a prequel digital comic for Broken Sword: Director's Cut and had a heavy involvement in cult classic adventure game Beneath a Steel Sky.
Now, he plans to once again collaborate with Revolution's Charles Cecil.
"We're developing something - I really shouldn't say anything more about it - but it's something I'm quite excited about and it's in an area I don't think has been explored, and it isn't France, and it isn't Paris and it isn't catacombs," Gibbons revealed.
"With the new game I'm going to be involved from the ground up. I have had story input and the whole thing will have my imprint on it. Even if I don't hands-on do every bit of artwork, I certainly will direct the look of the whole thing."
Gibbons said the pair will begin work on the game once their current projects are complete. For Gibbons, this is the comic book Secret Service, which he is working on with Mark Miller. For Cecil, this is a hush hush new original game in the Broken Sword series - yet to be announced.
While platforms remain undecided upon, likely candidates are mobile devices such as the iPad and iPhone - where Revolution has seen a good deal of recent success with updates of its back catalogue of titles.
"Charles and I have been talking for a while about doing an original game," Gibbons said. "We've got a really good idea. He's been very busy doing these very successful reboots of Broken Sword. I don't know but I think there might even be another one of those on the way. And I'm busy at the moment working with Mark Miller on Secret Service. But when our works there are finished, something we really want to do is get back together.
"With ideas if you talk about them too early you kill them, you let the air out of the balloon. You say with Batman, I've got this great idea for this character called Batman. Oh yeah? What happens? This kid's parents get killed and then he decides to fight crime. People go, oh. Really?
"Or even with Watchmen: you go, it's these old superheroes who've all retired and one of them gets murdered. It's sort of intriguing…"
