I arrived at the office on Monday 27th of May at 8.15 to find 20 very tired game developers. The Republic: The Revolution team had worked 21 straight days prior to E3, culminating in a final all nighter. Demis and I went to Heathrow and caught a flight to LA. Demis had also stayed up all night so he crashed out on the plane whilst I played Advance Tactics on my Game Boy.

Demis and I go to E3 every year to show our games to the world's press. We hire a small room in one of the smaller halls and give back-to-back presentations to small groups of six or fewer journalists. Being in a smaller hall is cool as the main rooms at the show are an assault on the senses, a fusion of sound, bright lights, bimbos and sweaty geeks. This year we did over 30 presentations across the three days. It's an endurance marathon.

Gamespot wrote the following description of what they saw of the game:

"Elixir demonstrated a sequence where the player, in an effort to gain more prestige within the city, decided to make a martyr for his cause. The first order of business was to coerce a journalist into subservience - a bunch of armed thugs, trained up from a fight club, made the man join the cause. Next, a particularly spirited individual was selected to be the martyr - a young, zealous student. He was then ordered to stand in protest of Novistrana's military regime. We saw him standing in the way of a military tank on patrol. The tank kept pushing him forward, but then the man was ordered to stand his ground. He was crushed under the tank's treads - and the journalist would be available to report on the issue"

The feedback we got from the journalists was tremendous. The influential Tal Blevin of IGN PC said it was the game he was most looking forward to playing this year. People loved the Cause Martyr Action, in which a tank crushes a student. The tank, which was modelled by Misja Baas, one of the RTR artists, looks awesome. The music, created by James Hannigan and Richard Joseph, is incredibly beautiful. They've even written a Novistranan national anthem, which has been sung by the professional opera singer Miranda Keys.

Republic: The Revolution is unlike any game ever made. More than anything people want Republic: The Revolution to succeed because it's one of the very few original games in production at the moment. A walk round E3 on my first day depressed me. My guess is that something like 80% of the games are either sequels or franchises. The industry seems to be trapped in a creative cul-de-sac.

The most original game I saw was Ghost Master by Empire Interactive, a game where you control ghosts and attempt to haunt the inhabitants of a house. The guy who did Hungry Horace on the Spectrum is making it. It looks pretty cool. The talk of the show was Doom III, which looked amazing. If we were making an FPS, I'd be very afraid. There were other highlights to E3, namely the parties that are organised by publishers. Eidos organised a party at the Sky Bar, which is one of the coolest places in LA. It's an open-air bar set in the hills on Sunset Boulevard, which offers some of the most spectacular views of LA. The view was improved considerably by Eidos's thoughtful decision to hire twenty of the most beautiful women you've ever seen to hang around the swimming pool.

The show was a great success and we're now on the home straight. Congratulations to the team for their hard work in the run up to E3. Thanks to everyone who came and saw it at the show.

© 1998-2000 Elixir Studios Ltd. All rights reserved.