Out Now!

We’re excited to tell you that The 39 Steps is now available on Steam for Mac and PC users! And there are 20 Steam achievements to be had over the course of the adventure.

Want to know more? Click here

Not a Steam user? We’re also available via the AppStore and MacAppStore, as well as a number of other quality outlets (see them all here).

Be transported back to 1914 London, where Richard Hannay finds himself framed for a murder he didn’t commit.

Android release coming to Google Play very soon.

Thanks for all your support, and please do tell us what you think of our remake of John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps.

Author: Simon Meek

Click image to go direct to our Amazon product page

At long last, our digital adaptation of The 39 Steps (aka The Thirty-NIne Steps) is available for you PC, Mac and Linux users out there!

If you’re after the shiny boxed product, you can get it on Amazon.

Or, if the digital version is more your thing, you could try Gamersgate or Gameolith (incl. Linux) or MacGameStore.

Oh, and the product will be available for download on Steam next week! And on via the AppStore the week after (iOS and OSX), then Google Play! Exciting times.

You might also see the product in WHSmith and Morrisons – so make sure to make big noises when you do.

And please do let us (and everyone else!) know what you think. Hope you enjoy it!

Author: Simon Meek

Onwards to part 3 of our secrets of… series. This time, we wanted to give a little insight into the pre-production process and show off some of our initial storyboarding of The Thirty Nine Steps.

Part 3: Storyboards

Our digital adaptation of John Buchan’s novel is intended to be, above all, faithful to the original story – which is incredible – and faithful to the world in which it is set.

The whole experience is also delivered using location as our storytelling canvas – the only thing that remains from the book is the text that’s written in it. And when you come down to it, it’s the words and the story they tell that we all really love. So, there’s no page turning in a digital adaptation, unless you’re examining a newspaper or book within the story!

The idea of having location as our primary visual focus threw up a few interesting challenges – which we will tackle in more depth over the coming weeks – but primarily it meant we needed to deconstruct the story, map out its geographies and design a collection of visual images to support the action that takes place throughout. In other words, we storyboarded the book… from a reader’s point of view.

Our lead environment artist, Paul Scott Canavan, took up the challenge with great gusto, taking text-descriptions straight from the book and transforming them into cinematic masterpieces. This storyboarding was developed alongside the text – making sure we never had too many words over-relying on just one shot, and that the framing worked to emphasise the emotional resonance of the text that would be displayed on the screen.

The shots we were working up also had to have enough scope to be moved about within, and contain enough depth to allow for our vfx artists to break the images up into layers, and have them react to camera movements as if they weren’t static images. (That last bit deserves a secrets post in itself – look out for part 4!)

So without further ado, here’s a selection of storyboards from Event 6, which we call Sanctuary of the Inn. (There’s 19 Events in the final product, btw – that’s around 6 hours of story!) 

Author: Simon Meek

Continuing on with our secrets series, in this post we will reveal our approach to character stories in The Thirty Nine Steps; something we call Recalls.

Part 2: Recalls

For those of you who have been following closely, you may already know that in our digital adaptations we don’t explicitly show characters – instead allowing the fusion of words and location art / audio to bring the story to life. However, there are moments where we break our own rules…

Occasionally, Richard Hannay, Franklin P. Scudder and a few other characters in the story embark on self-contained stories about themselves – digging into past events, which might be true, semi-true or just plain made-up. We feel these moments are actually projections from the characters’ minds – not necessarily the reader’s – and as such, we thought it would be right (and fun!) to depict these in a way that reflects the media of the time (ie 1914).

So, for The Thirty Nine Steps, we decided that we would use an early stop-frame animation approach. Stylistically, this also allows us to match the tone of the book, which never quite takes itself seriously – never being afraid of using a touch of humour to keep reader interest and the pace going.

The composite for our 1914-styled animation of Royer’s Close Shave

The composite for God’s Truth (the story of Ned Ainsley)

With the help of the incredible Silje Eirin Aure, we created – out of card, pen and ink – sets, characters and objects that we then took to bring alive (huge thanks to the very talented Thomas Pollock!). We also commissioned original silent film music from Duncan Hendy, which sounds amazing, and really helps to make these interludes shine.

If you think these images look great, we can’t wait for you to see them in their full animated glory! We’ll get a snippet of the soundtrack up on our Soundcloud soon and let you know when that’s there – and we might even share a snippet of one of YouTube.

Thanks, as ever, for your support – and keep spreading the word! A mere 6 weeks until you can get your hands on a copy…

Author: Simon Meek

With less than 2 months now before everyone can get their hands on a copy of our digital adaptation of The Thirty Nine Steps, we wanted to let you in on a few of the secrets about the product, the book and the new format that we’re bringing to market.

Every ‘secrets’ post will come with exclusives – first-look pictures, audio-tracks, video snippets etc – so you may want to double check you’re signed up to our blog so don’t miss out! (You just need to plug your email address into that box in the top right corner – and fear not, we only post when there’s something interesting to say.)

Part One: The British Informer

We have taken every effort to bring the the words of the novel to life in the world in which they were written. The Thirty Nine Steps is set in 1914 Britain – and does an incredible job of weaving its fiction in with the reality of the time. At this point in history, there was a number of important events that would have filled the broadsheets – the rising tension in Europe and the Near East; the plight of the Suffragettes; and who was going to win the Epsom Derby.

This has allowed us the opportunity to work with newspapers and their archive to infuse our retelling of the story with actual stories of the day. So, you will see The Observer, The Scotsman and even the Peebleshire News within our version of John Buchan’s story (so huge thanks to all of those for letting us use and adapt their archives).

Of course, there are points at which the fiction needs to distance itself from reality, and to handle such moments we have created a fictional newspaper of the British Empire, called The British Informer. We are particularly proud of our creation, and the articles are crafted with love and precision (and all extrapolated from the book and the time). Here’s a first look:

First look: The British Informer

If you’re liking what you’re seeing, please do start spreading the word! We’re totally passionate about this product, and really want everyone to have a chance to play it!

As ever, we’re always happy to hear your comments

Author: Simon Meek