How Charles Cecil survived crowdfunding: “I was nervous our fans were going to turn against us”

Despite missteps and the pitiful profits of the late 90s, Revolution Software keeps on turning

Image credit:Revolution Software

A few months ago, Broken Sword creator Charles Cecil walked out of the office of Revolution Software and onto the Shambles, the Diagon Alley-esque street that has survived since York’s days as a medieval trade hub. He closed the door behind him, somewhat grumpily - he’d had to work late, and it was already past eight o’clock. Then a voice piped up behind him.

“And one day, when you get older, you will play Broken Sword,” said a young woman to her toddler. “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. Cecil registered Revolution’s office address on Google a year ago - and received an email to say that 40,000 people have checked it out since.

“We’re incredibly blessed to have a really positive and lovely collection of people who want us to succeed and love the games that we write,” Cecil says. “We love our interaction with them.”

These might read like the words of a good community manager, rather than a man expressing a deeply-held sentiment. Yet Cecil does not take his relationship with Revolution’s fans for granted. At times in his long career, he has lost touch with his audience. And at others, he’s feared they might turn their back on him.

In the early ’80s, when Cecil was writing text adventures for Artic Computing, he would go to microfairs. “We would meet fans, and it was wonderful, because they would tell us what they liked and what they didn’t,” he says. “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. So by the time of Revolution, in 1990, there was really no way that we could have any direct interaction.”

By the end of that decade, despite Revolution’s successes with Broken Sword and Beneath a Steel Sky , publishers and retailers had squeezed the developer’s profits to the point of - quite literally - no return. When Broken Sword 3 was making THQ millions, Revolution had to go to the local bank and borrow £200,000. “Being an independent developer was a pretty miserable place to be,” Cecil says.

The early noughties were dark times, particularly for point-and-click developers looking to fund their projects in the age of 3D. “It felt like Revolution was over,” Cecil says. “But there were always going to be new opportunities emerging. And I guess I hoped that my experience of interactive narrative would carry me through, which is why I then worked on Doctor Who: The Adventure Games and The Da Vinci Code and various other projects, which I really enjoyed. It was challenging and exciting. So you know, I have no regrets whatsoever.”

The situation only really changed with the rise of Steam and the App Store, when Revolution’s profit share shifted from 7% to 70%. “Obviously, we needed to fund the games ourselves, which is why Kickstarter was so effective,” Cecil says. “And all the jobs that the publisher would otherwise have done, we had to do. But the revenues we got were so substantially higher than we had previously, that we were in this sort of nirvana.”

“I think that the American developers had a very different attitude towards [Kickstarter] than the British.”

With crowdfunding, the fans had come to Revolution’s rescue. Launching the Kickstarter for Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse was a euphoric experience. As Cecil says: “It’s a niche audience, but by God, it’s passionate.” The thing about passion, though, is that it’s strong and volatile - and if you’re not careful, love can turn to hate.

Cecil and I have come into contact just once before. Back in 2013, at the height of the Kickstarter revolution, I spoke to him on behalf of a media outlet to ask why The Serpent’s Curse had been split into two parts. 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.”

Image credit:Revolution Software

Earlier that year, a number of high profile Kickstarter projects had gone off the rails. Snow Crash author Neal Stephenson had raised over $526K to make a sword fighting game named Clang , before putting the project on hold - citing a lack of publisher financing and a risk-averse games industry. “He gave loads of reasons,” Cecil says. “But there was absolutely no sense of humility, no sense of an apology. It was like, ‘I’ve taken the money, it hasn’t worked’. And to an extent, Broken Age was doing the same.”

Double Fine Adventure, as it was initially known, had opened the floodgates for gaming Kickstarter campaigns. But it became controversial when designer Tim Schafer announced that he had “designed too much game, as I pretty much always do”, and that Broken Age would be released in two separate parts in order to fund the remainder of the game.

“It was, ‘There but for the grace of God go us all.’”

“He said, ‘We’re going to produce a second half,’ as if Tim Schafer was doing the fans a favour,” Cecil recalls. “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. During their own Kickstarter campaign for The Serpent’s Curse, Cecil had “for some stupid reason” told backers to expect a development time of six months. “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. “The mood had turned because of Clank and Broken Age and Godus, and a number of other very high profile [crowdfunding controversies],” Cecil says. “It really, really scared me, and that was where we took the decision to split. Because I did not want to go into 2014 making more promises, when there would be this real risk that our fans would actually stop trusting anything that we said.” Revolution delivered the first half of the game to backers before Christmas, and didn’t ask fans for any more money.

Compounding Cecil’s fears was Rock Paper Shotgun’s interview with Peter Molyneux - a very public reckoning on the subject of Godus and unfulfilled promises, after which the Populous designer swore off press contact for a spell. “He’d 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.’”

Image credit:Revolution Software

For Cecil, it was a moment of realisation about the power of social media. “The publishers would always stick with national treasures and support them through thick and thin, and I guess broadly the magazines would too,” he says. “And the power of the audience suddenly emerged. I really admire Peter, I think he’s written some fantastic games - my criticism of him would be that he will have seen this upswell of anger amongst his community, and he chose not to do anything about it at that time. And I would imagine that is something he probably regrets now.”

Today, Cecil regrets splitting The Serpent’s 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. “I was absolutely delighted when we were able to release the full game, and it was well received.”

Revolution managed to retain the goodwill of its loyal audience, and the experience hasn’t scared the studio away from crowdfunding. Just this year, the developer Kickstarted the collector’s edition of Broken Sword: Reforged. The enhanced remaster, which released in September, has allowed Cecil to correct some nagging goofs in the original adventures of American tourist George Stobbart and Parisian photo-journalist Nico Collard.

“I’m not at all scared to change things that were illogical,” Cecil says. “In the very opening, in the cafe, we see a clown put an accordion with a bomb in it on a stool. And yet the bomb blast is actually in the middle of the room, and the stool is standing there as if nothing had happened. 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. “There’s a drain pipe. George pulls it, and he says, ‘I guess the clown didn’t escape that way’. You can see that the pipe doesn’t go to the top of the screen, so of course he didn’t escape that way, so why is George saying that?”

Moving stools and lengthening pipes are two of the ways in which Revolution has prepared Broken Sword for a new generation - beyond the diehards who have stuck with the studio through genre downturns and Kickstarter crises. “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.”

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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