Broken Sword creator chose human artists over AI for all 55,000 new frames of animation in the upcoming 2 remake — 'People are going to seek out human-crafted art'

Charles Cecil wants to make one thing clear: “I'm not anti-AI.” The veteran British developer behind the legendary 1996 point-and-click game Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars speaks to TechRadar about AI's divisive role in modern game development - and, in particular, how it was used in the upcoming remake of the sequel, Broken Sword - The Smoking Mirror: Reforged , due out in 2027.

The original, a commercial success selling 759,000 copies, sees American tourist George Stobbart team up with freelance journalist Nicole Collard to track a mysterious Mayan stone across Paris, London, and Central America.

This remake doesn't use AI , and, according to Cecil, there's a very good reason for that.

AI don’t think so (Image credit: Revolution Software Ltd) “I think AI has its place,” Cecil says.

“It's just not relevant in our games because we want human animation, human characterization and human expression, and that's much better done by humans.” A perfect example of that lies in the game's hand-drawn art, all of it redone for Broken Sword - The Smoking Mirror: Reforged .

This hugely labor-intensive process encompassed roughly 55,000 frames of animation, more than the 30,000 of Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars ’ 2024 remake.

“George opens the newspaper and kind of just glances at the screen,” says Cecil, referring to the actions of the game's protagonist in an early scene.

“He's looking at the viewer, and that's what human beings do.

That is not something that AI can do.” In low-res, eyes were just dots on a face.

In high-res, eyes are windows to the soul and therefore have to be animated with precision and intent.

Where applicable, artists were free to add flourishes, using their own interpretation to fill in the gaps.

For instance, the painting of Professor Oubier hanging on the wall in the rapidly burning study was always too pixelated to see clearly.

Now, however, you can make out exactly what he looks like in 4K, at 36 times the original resolution, all while a visibly uncomfortable George jostles his rope bindings.

Developer Revolution Software didn't stop there.