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Rolf Saxon's Interview to Broken Sword Planet
An exclusive interview we conducted with Rolf Saxon post-Broken Sword 3.
Submitted on 2007-01-21 16:27:51



Perhaps we could start with you telling us a bit about yourself and your career?
I am an American and I moved to England to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduating I decided to stay on for awhile and see how work would progress for me over here. I have been based here ever since. I do film, TV, theatre and some radio. This is the only CD Rom game I have ever voiced.

How did you originally come to voice George? Auditioned? Approached?
A little bit of both. The first Nico - Hazel Ellerby - and I went to drama school together and she had worked for the director of the first game - Alan Drury - in the past. He mentioned he was looking for an American and Hazel suggested me. I met him in a coffee shop in Covent Garden, we spoke for about a 10 minutes and I got the job.

When voicing George, did you do a lot of improvising or just read straight from a set script? If you did do some improvising, could you give some examples of parts of the games that you did?
All of the scripts were set and pretty much in stone. There was no improvising at all. The only changes made from the original texts would have been extremely minor and had to do with American vernacular as opposed to English. Before we started the voicing for the games, the graphics were well on their way and therefore we had to work to very strict time guidelines. So, although it would have been a lot of fun to improvise, we were unable to.

Is it your actualvoice we hear through George, or do you put on an accent?
It is my own voice more or less. In the first game we toyed with the idea of accents or pitch variations but the script was huge. In fact it was the biggest game script that had ever been created to that point I believe. It eventually took two weeks at six days a week and 8-10 hour a days to finish it. So we decided it would probably be best if we kept it as simple as possible vocally.

Did you play through any areas of the game yourself to give yourself an idea of the emotional tone of voice? For example, in The Sleeping Dragon where Bruno sacrifices himself so George and Nico can get away- did you play that area and decide, right, George needs to sound sad and upset here?
We all had a go at the first game particularly to give us an idea of the themes of the story and how it actually worked. This was the first game like this that I had ever come across. But the game graphics were not finished at that point (I think they were being worked on in Germany) and there were only a couple of segments available to us and only one was visually complete if I remember correctly. I'm afraid I don't really remember which segments they were now. But on the whole we simply read the scripts and decided what was needed emotionally - pretty much as you would with any script.

What is it like working for Revolution, and how do you feel the company has changed, if at all, over the years between the first 2 games and the latest?
I like working for them very much. Charles Cecil is the boss there and one of the originators of the game - among other things, he creates most if not all of the traps and problems for George and Nico. He has been involved with Revolution and Broken Sword from the outset. He's a good guy and I think that's one of the reasons for Revolution's and Broken Sword's success. I think the major change that has taken place is that they are much bigger now and they have a number of projects they work on at any given time. I only deal with Revolution when they do Broken Sword, so it's difficult for me to really give a complete answer to that question. They have been a great company to work for. They care about what they produce and work hard to make it the best they can.

Any funny stories you want to share with us?!
I'm afraid none that are printable really spring to mind.

Were your fellow cast the same for any of the 3 games?
I think there has only been one actor to have done more than one and he was involved with I and III. I think Charles and I are the only ones who have done all three together. On the 'creative' side I mean. I believe there are a number of people from Revolution who have been involved in all three.

What was it like working with them, and in particular the 3 different woman who played Nico?
There have been so many actors involved with the three games over the years, it's difficult for me to remember. You have to remember we were working on BSI in 1996! Charles always had a solid idea on the type of voice/character he wanted for the different roles so they were all pretty well cast. If a play/TV show/film is well cast, the actors will, for the most part, have a good time on the project and that was the case on all three. As I mentioned above, the first Nico was a friend of mine. She was my favourite and we certainly had the most fun working together (I think Hazel did a couple of the voices on the first game). The other two were good actresses but our working relationship was obviously different. The second and third games also only took a single 5 day week to voice instead of the two 6 day weeks the first game took. So there wasn't so much time together either. I think the first Broken Sword was the most fun to do simply because it was the first. A lot of us had never done voicing of this nature before and it was a new experience. It certainly was for me. We didn't know if it would be a success or not. So we did our best and had fun along the way. I suppose my favourite section of all the games was voicing the denouement for the first game. We had about 8 actors gathered around doing a variety of voices for a variety of characters and sometimes they would get confused. It was the last day and we were all a little tired and a little silly.

Did you voice any other characters in any of the games?
In the first and second I did small little cameos - I remember a talking goat in one of the games. In the third game, time was much more of an issue as I was also doing another job during that week of voicing. So I had very little extra time. I had to go in and work and then shoot off to the other job. Shame really but there you go.

Have you ever played through any of the 3 games for pleasure? If so what are your favourite parts?
When the first one came out my son and I played it together for awhile. He went on to finish it but I'm afraid with work commitments I was unable to continue. I have never played the other two. In fact I haven't seen the completed third one at all yet. But Charles is taking care of that for me. I should have a copy in the next week or so.

Can you give us your frank opinion of Mr Stobbart in a paragraph and give us opinions on some of the other characters in the games?
I think George and indeed all of the characters are there for the player to decide what they think. That's part of the fun. There are certain traits I tried to give him, a sense of humour and irony, I tried not to make him take things too seriously for the most part. I think he's basically honest and loyal - your basic hero but with foibles, like most of us (well, the foible part anyway). If I try to define what I think of him as I portray him or what I want others to think of him, it takes away from the fun of the game. Players should make their own minds up as to what they think of him and the others.

Are you based in England or America?
I am based in London.

Did you voice the talking goat in bs2?
Ah yes. It was the second game the goat appeared was it? How did you know I had done it?

Rumour! How do you think Broken Sword made the giant leap from point n click 2-d gaming to full-blown 3-d adventure?
Apparently there was great deal of concern from hard core point and click folks - both players but also creatives inside the company about the move. I've spoken with Charles about this and it was a really difficult decision for him and his team (something I never knew to be honest. I thought it was just a natural progression for the game). The result of that decision being that Broken Sword III was nominated for 3 BAFTA's; best design, best adventure and best PC game as well as a nomination from GDC (Game Development Conference) in New York for best writing. So, critically at least, it was a success. It's release date unfortunately coincided with Lord of the Rings and the new James Bond games, so sales have been a little slower than had been hoped for. Time will tell.

Did you know anything of the Knights Templar before Broken Sword? Do you find them interesting?
Yes and yes. It's a fascinating area of history - one of those times where truth is stranger and bloodier than fiction.

Were there many lines that you recorded that didnt make the final games? If you are allowed, is there any that you can remember that you can share with us?
As I said before, most of the dialogue was pretty much set and whatever was edited or deleted was minor. Those adjustments - if there were any - would have been a time issue more than anything else. There were no scenes cut or changed and no new endings that were added on at the last minute or anything like that.

Have you any interesting projects lined up for the future?
I have just finished a play here in London and have started on another. I am in rehearsal for another couple of weeks.

If a new Broken Sword game was made and you were asked back to voice George, would you?
There are plans for a BS IV but that will be sometime in the future. It would be a pleasure if they want to use me again.

20. And finally Rolf, are you available for dinner tonight? :-)
It would be a pleasure :-)

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