Brütal Legend

Brütal Legend is an action-adventure video game with real-time strategy game elements created by Double Fine and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America, Europe, and Australia. Though Brütal Legend was originally to be published by Vivendi Games prior to its merger with Activision, Activision dropped the game from its portfolio after the merger. It was later picked up by Electronic Arts, though Activision and Double Fine brought counter-lawsuits against each other over publishing issues. The issues were settled out of court. Later, Double Fine announced a port of the game for Microsoft Windows via Steam, which was released in February 2013. Mac OS X and Linux versions of the game were made available as part of the Humble Bundle in May 2013. A physical collector's edition for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux was released by IndieBox in October 2014.

Tim Schafer, the game's creative director, was inspired to create the game by his own past musical experiences. The game features the character of Eddie Riggs, voiced by and modeled after Jack Black, a roadie who is transported to a fantasy world inspired by the artwork of heavy metal album covers. Eddie becomes the world's savior, leading the down-trodden humans against a range of supernatural overlords using a battle axe, his Flying V guitar that can tap into the magical powers of the world, and a customizable hot rod.

The game, a hybrid of the action-adventure and real-time strategy genres, includes Stage Battles in both the single-player and multiplayer mode, where the player must command troops to defeat their foes while defending their own stage. In addition to Black, the game features voices of heavy metal musicians including Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford and other celebrities such as Tim Curry, as well as more than one hundred metal songs selected by Schafer for inclusion in the game.

Brütal Legend was generally well received by game reviewers, praising Schafer's vision and writing of the heavy metal-inspired world, and the performances of the voice cast, particularly Black and Osbourne. Some felt that the hybrid gameplay of action and real-time strategy games did not mix well, however, blaming console control limitations and missing features normally found in games of either genre.

## Gameplay

Brütal Legend is a third person action-adventure game incorporating real time strategy elements. The game uses an open world that Tim Schafer has described as being approximately 40 square miles (100 km2) in area. The player controls the protagonist Eddie Riggs, a roadie who one day finds himself transported into a heavy metal-themed fantasy world. Eddie acquires three tools that are used for combat and transportation: a broad axe called "The Separator", his Flying V guitar "Clementine" from his own world which has the ability to cast magic spells in the heavy metal world, and a hot rod that Eddie builds called "The Druid Plow", a.k.a. "The Deuce". Spells, referred to as "Solos", from Clementine are performed by playing a minigame akin to the note-matching aspect of Guitar Hero or Rock Band over a brief guitar riff; however, Eddie cannot use the metal generated by Clementine constantly, as prolonged usage of the guitar will cause it to overheat, and the player will have to wait for a cool-off period before using the guitar's power again. Eddie may also find more solos hidden throughout the world, ranging from support to offensive spells. The player can spend in-game currency called "Fire Tributes", earned from completing missions, at the Motor Forge to gain new abilities and upgrades for each tool. These tools can be used in combination with each other to take out Eddie's foes; for example, the player can use his guitar Clementine to create pyrotechnics to launch a foe into the air and follow up by attack it with the Separator axe. In a case of a specific boss fight, the player must use the Deuce hot rod to lure the boss to a spiked gate held up by counterweights, and then play the "Earthshaker" move on Clementine to destroy the weights and sever the creature's head.

Within the open world, the player can use a map and the Deuce's turn signals to guide them towards either story-advancing missions or side missions. Side missions include hot-rod races against a demon, defending Eddie's allies from a pending attack, or helping a cannon operator spot his targets. There are about 23 main missions in the story with 30 side missions that the player can optionally take. The player can also explore the game's world to find statues bound in leather or chains that can be freed to gain a health boost for Eddie or to reveal part of the game's backstory, and can look through special telescopes at vistas or complete certain jumps to earn additional Fire Tributes. The player can also find monuments they can raise that unlock an additional heavy metal song from the game's soundtrack that can be played on the Deuce's radio, "The Mouth of Metal"; the player can further customize its set list with songs they have been rewarded with or have collected.

Several main story missions of the game are Stage Battles based on real time strategy elements. The player, while still in control of Eddie, is required to defend a giant stage where new allies will spawn, holding out until a specific objective is completed. The player creates an army for attacks by building merchandise booths on "fan geysers" through Clementine's magic. Once enough fans are collected, the player can summon different allies, each consuming a specific number of fans, or upgrade their stage to allow them to produce more powerful allies. A character known as Mangus acts as the "sound guy" to help in the construction of these units and stage upgrades, and also warns the player of enemy attacks. Once the player has gathered their army, they can then seek out and attack their opponents. Eddie is able to control the entire army to follow, attack, or defend a point, and can use specialized squads of specific units to perform certain tasks, such as having a group of headbangers use their headbanging to destroy statues. The player can also use Eddie directly in combat during these battles. Ultimately, Eddie transforms into a winged demon who can fly above the battlefields to issue orders or lay out attacks. Spells in Eddie's arsenal can help control the performance of his armies, such as temporarily boosting their attack skills or creating a rally flag which troops will gather at, while others hinder the performance of the enemy faction by removing enemy buffs or preventing the creation of enemy units for a short time. Each of the different units, including special allies that Eddie meets in the game, has a special co-op move they can perform with Eddie; for example, Eddie's first ally, Ophelia, can be tossed at foes by Eddie in the style of the Fastball Special. These co-op moves are also available outside of Stage Battle missions.

The game has a multiplayer mode, described by Schafer as "your typical head-to-head, battle of the bands scenario. But with axes." The multiplayer modes are team-based and play in the same manner as the single-player Stage Battles, with team sizes from one-versus-one to four-versus-four. Each team selects from one of three factions which affect what resources and troops they can summon, and are tasked with defending their stage from attack by the other team. The three factions available are Ironheade, mostly human-based troops visually inspired by classic Heavy Metal led by Eddie Riggs; The Drowning Doom, with more Goth/Black Metal undead led by Drowned Ophelia; and The Tainted Coil, evil Industrial Metal BDSM/religion-themed demons controlled by Doviculus. Each player controls a single main avatar who has the same abilities as in the main game for combat and magic spells and can also fly about the map, but also is in control of troops that they may summon from the team's shared resources—fans as generated by fan geysers across the map. Different types of troops are available, costing various numbers of fans to summon, with the potential to upgrade to improved units through different routes. The number and types of troops that can be summoned is limited by a cap to prevent either team from becoming too overpowered. All of the troops can be engaged by the player to initiate various "Double Team" moves as with the single player game. The game can also be played by a single player with computer-controller opponents at one of five difficulty levels.

## Synopsis

### Characters

Brütal Legend follows the story of Eddie Riggs (voiced by Jack Black), who is "the world's best roadie" for "the world's worst 'heavy metal' band", Kabbage Boy. Much of the game takes place in an unnamed world inspired by heavy metal music, created by, according to the game's mythology, Ormagöden, The Eternal Firebeast, Cremator of the Sky, and Destroyer of the Ancient World. In this alternate world, the human race is enslaved by a race of demons, led by Doviculus, Emperor of the Tainted Coil, (voiced by Tim Curry). Doviculus is assisted by his glam metal human minion, General Lionwhyte (voiced by Rob Halford and based on David Bowie with the name being an allusion to glammetal band White Lion) whose hair is so big "and luscious" that he uses it to fly, flapping it like a pair of broad wings. Leading the fight against Doviculus are a small band of human resistance fighters with whom Eddie joins forces: Lars Halford (voiced by Zach Hanks), his sister Lita (voiced by Kath Soucie), and Ophelia (voiced by Jennifer Hale), whom Eddie takes a romantic interest in. Their group is later joined by the stage manager and tour bus driver Mangus (Alex Fernandez), the bass-playing healer Kill Master (voiced by, and patterned after Lemmy Kilmister), the motorcycle-riding Fire Baron (also voiced by Halford, as well as visually inspired by him too), and the Amazonian Rima (voiced by Lita Ford and based on KISS characters). Also supporting Eddie is the Guardian of Metal (voiced by Ozzy Osbourne, who also lent his appearance to the character) that assists in upgrading his equipment.

### Plot

During a gig for Kabbage Boy, Eddie is crushed by falling scenery while trying to save a member of the band; his blood lands on his belt buckle, in reality an amulet for Ormagöden. The stage is transformed into Ormagöden, who kills the band and takes the unconscious Eddie to the heavy metal world. Awaking in the Temple of Ormagöden, Eddie meets with Ophelia while fighting Doviculus' forces, developing a crush on her. They discover writings left by the Titans that Eddie is able to comprehend, and build a hot-rod, the "Deuce", that they use to escape the Temple (confronting a giant lamprey-like monster) and travel to Bladehenge, the base for the small human resistance force led by Lars and Lita. When they meet Eddie and learn he can understand the Titans' messages, they see him as a prophetical "Chosen One", though a 'dispute about the translation' leaves them unsure if he will be the savior or destroyer of the world. Ophelia also becomes concerned when Eddie, in the heat of battle, transforms into a winged creature, an effect Eddie decides to use to his advantage at the time.

Eddie helps Lars, Lita, and Ophelia create an army, named "Ironheade" to fight against General Lionwhyte. They successfully raid Lionwhyte's "Pleasure Tower" and defeat him. However, as they celebrate, Doviculus arrives, sending the group into hiding. Doviculus is aware of the presence of his spy "Succoria" by the smell of her blood as it was at the Temple; Eddie and his allies come to believe Ophelia is Doviculus' spy. Lars leaves his hiding spot to face Doviculus, but is quickly killed. As the Tainted Coil destroy the tower, Ironheade escapes into the nearby mountains; Eddie is forced to leave with Lita leaving Ophelia behind despite their shared love. Heartbroken, Ophelia is drawn toward the Sea of Black Tears, cursed waters that grant humans supernatural abilities at the cost of humanity. After leaping into the black waters, the Sea creates Drowned Ophelia, a dark doppelganger of Ophelia, who raises an army of other Black Tear-corrupted humans, the goth "Drowning Doom". After three months, she leads an attack on Ironheade's mountain camp. Though Ironheade defeats the assault, Eddie determines they must destroy the Sea to end her threat. As they travel through exotic lands and find more allies out of the pyromanical Fire Barons and the amazonian Zaulia tribe, they come across evidence of Eddie's father, the hero known as Riggnarok in this time. It tells that Riggnarok traveled to the future to attempt to learn the secrets of the Titans to bring back to the past in the humans' ongoing fight against the demons, but never returned.

With their new allies, Ironheade manages to push the Drowning Doom back towards the Sea of Black Tears; defeated, Ophelia denies Eddie's belief that she is Doviculus' spy, again claiming that Eddie's the traitor. As they argue, Doviculus arrives and confirms that Succoria is not Ophelia, but Eddie's mother. In the past, Succoria, an even more vicious demon empress, also sought the Titans' secrets in the future. However, after discovering that humans eventually become the dominant species, Succoria fell into a deep despair. Riggnarok, who had followed Succoria through time to assassinate her, took pity on her in her misery, and the two fell in love and bore Eddie. Now in the past, Eddie's demon nature has borne out, and has also inadvertently revealed the Titans' secrets to Doviculus as well. Having no more use for Ophelia, Doviculus rips out her heart, taking her powers alongside his own and causing Ophelia to dissipate. While Ironheade battles Doviculus' forces headed by a massive monster made from the Sea, Eddie engages Doviculus in a one-on-one confrontation, which ends with the demon emperor's decapitation. As Eddie escapes the Sea, he recovers Ophelia's heart from Doviculus, containing his mother's necklace he gave her when they first met, and then proceeds to rescue the real Ophelia from the ocean floor. Ashore, they rekindle their love as Ironheade celebrates their victory over Doviculus and the Tainted Coil. Back at Bladehenge, a statue to Lars is erected, while Lita continues to lead the troops against the remaining demons. Eddie insists on maintaining his "roadie" presence, staying behind the scenes and making others look good. After he promises he is not leaving to his assembled friends, Eddie takes off to complete a few errands, with Ophelia watching as he drives off into the sunset, shedding a single black tear.

## Development

Creator Tim Schafer has said that he has been a heavy metal music fan since high school, and roadies have long fascinated him. As Schafer said in 2007, "The name was one of the very first things I thought of, over fifteen years ago. I was riding a bus, thinking about a game that would be the complete opposite of what we were working on, The Secret of Monkey Island [a Lucasfilm Games title released in 1990]. And Brütal Legend leapt into my head. I've been hanging on to that name ever since." The title, which he describes as sounding "like the hardest core fantasy thing out there", makes use of the metal umlaut. The idea behind the game first came to Schafer about fifteen years prior to its release, but its core concepts did not completely come together until after the completion of Psychonauts (2005); when he presented his idea for the game to the team, they became excited at the concept and decided to make that their next title.

Part of the game's inspiration came from the fantasy worlds that the lyrics and album covers of metal bands implied but rarely made it to music videos, thus allowing Brütal Legend to "fulfill the promise" of such lore. Schafer also credits a Megadeth roadie named Tony he once met as having given him the idea to make a game about a roadie, with the character of Eddie Riggs becoming a re-imagined version of him. Schafer had previously explored the idea of a roadie sent back in time with the character of Hoagie from Day of the Tentacle, but Brütal Legend represented an opportunity to expand on it further. The 2003 movie School of Rock also reminded Schafer of his idea for Brütal Legend, and made him more excited to publish it. Double Fine's philosophy on game development was also another reason for Brütal Legends creation, as Schafer has stated that his team attempts to make each game radically different from the company's previous release, contrasting Brütal Legend to Psychonauts. Schafer stated that the commercial tie-ins of Brütal Legend, such as "hot babes and Jack Black", is due to this philosophy and not due to market pressures. Schafer was not concerned about the commercial success of Brütal Legend, as despite poor sales of Psychonauts, "as long as you make a cool game, publishers want to talk to you". When Schafer was pitching the game before 2006, he received feedback about changing the game's style to hip hop or country. He credits Harmonix Music Systems for influencing the rhythm game market through the release of the widely successful Guitar Hero with a soundtrack that heavily emphasized metal music; with the popularity of Guitar Hero, the metal approach in Brütal Legend was readily accepted.

Schafer has pointed out that there are music term inspired attacks, such as a "Face-Melting" guitar solo, which literally will melt the foe's faces off. The metal/motorcyclist lifestyles and Norse mythology also inspired the game's open-world environments, such as amps carved into the face of a mountain, a forest where tires replace leaves, giant axes and swords piercing the ground, spandex covered temples, and mining facilities where human slaves excavated car and motorcycle parts. However, Schafer noted that they attempted to make sure that non-metal fans would be able to get the jokes as well.

### Art design

The art style for the game was based on the work of Frank Frazetta and inspired by heavy metal and rock album covers. The team only considered the addition of elements to the artwork if they felt it would be something that could be seen on such covers. The setting includes hot rod-like engines that grow from the earth like a "V8 Truffle Of Speed", with design inspired by the designs of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. The art team wanted to avoid creating "another brown-gray game", and strove to use the wide color palettes that are associated with heavy metal art. Cutscenes in the game use the game's engine, though some pre-recorded scenes from the engine have also been prepared with the help of Tasha Harris, a former Pixar employee who helped to animate character's faces during cutscenes.

The game features over 80 unique characters in addition to the main protagonist, Eddie Riggs. Initial designs for Riggs was modeled after Lemmy Kilmister, and though the model was changed, the signature vest, tour pass and cigarette of the character remained part of the character design. As the character continued to develop, they began to add more aspects of Black's character, an "enthusiastic fan" of music, from School of Rock. Ultimately, Riggs' design came to become half Jack Black and half Glenn Danzig. The art team was able to use videos of Black's performances to add additional features to the character, such as "all his crazy eyebrow stuff he does". General Lionwhyte, who has "fabulous hair", and his minions are based on the glam metal fad of the 1980s which displaced heavy metal to the disappointment of Schafer and other development team members, and became the opponents of the game. To help create a more mature game with concepts that could be used to pitch the game, the art team created several factions that represented different parts of the heavy metal experience. Each faction had their own "exaggerated, simplified shapes and strong silhouettes" as to help distinguish each faction while also reducing the development costs. Inspirations for such factions include Nordic imagery, goth metal, and the artwork of Hieronymus Bosch. Additional characters include headbangers, "gravediggers", and "battle nuns". As the game features over two hours of spoken dialog, the art team wants to make the characters' faces and performances stand out, creating "clean, easy-to-read faces". The team had to change from their initial cartoony textures into more detailed ones that stood out on high-definition displays while exaggerating other features of the characters.

The user interface and menus were created by Joe Kowalski, who had previously worked on similar game elements for Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, and the Rock Band series. Much of the game's interface elements used a medieval woodcut art style, and were designed to contrast well against the world's graphics. The introductory menu is presented as an interactive movie created from live action clips of Jack Black manipulating a prop gatefold vinyl record album, using Adobe After Effects to provide the on-screen text, controls handling, and stitching of separate scenes into a seamless movie.

### Characters and voice acting

Brütal Legend includes over 35,000 lines of spoken dialog, mostly written by Schafer. In addition to Black, Lemmy, Judas Priest's Rob Halford, The Runaways' Lita Ford, and Ozzy Osbourne provide character voices for these lines.

Schafer's original vision for the game had not anticipated a celebrity cast. In particular, though Eddie came to resemble Black, the team had not planned on having Jack Black voice the character. After learning that Black was a fan of Schafer's previous game, Psychonauts, they met with the actor/musician and recognized he was an avid gamer and metal fan and understood all the choices the team made in the game, and subsequently signed on for the voice work. Black also performed live-action sequences as himself used for the in-game menu screens and additional promotional material. Once Black had signed up for the project, Schafer found that other artists and people involved in the heavy metal scene became very interested in participating through a domino effect and word of mouth, allowing Schafer to sign them on as voice talent or as part of the game's soundtrack.

Lemmy was brought on board to play The Kill Master after Schafer and his team had developed the character's role in the story who assists Eddie by healing his allies through a giant bass harp on the back of a chopper. The original character, a man with a top hat and beard, was considered out of place by Schafer, leading him to consider famous bass guitar players and quickly recognizing the need to have Lemmy play that role. Halford plays two characters, General Lionwhyte and The Baron. Schafer had selected Lionwhyte to capture Halford's ability to scream, and found his abilities in the studio beyond what they expected. They created The Baron character specifically for Halford, as while Lionwhyte was considered a "heavy metal Stewie [from Family Guy]", that character was the complete opposite of Halford, while The Baron captures both Halford and Judas Priest's attitude. Lita Ford voices Rima, queen of a group of "Amazon-like jungle women"; Schafer considered the similarities between the lack of clothing that Rima was designed with and Ford's outfits from the 1980s, staying true to the development teams' memories of her. Osbourne plays The Guardian of Metal who helps the player upgrade their equipment; Schafer commented that both the character and Osbourne, while dark and brooding, are "really upbeat" and "optimistic".

Though Ronnie James Dio of the band Dio had performed parts for the game, his role was replaced with voice work from Tim Curry. While the change was speculated to be due to tense issues between Osbourne and Dio, Schafer noted that as Dio's intended character, "Doviculus, Emperor of the Tainted Coil", grew, they found that Curry fit the role better for the part, citing Curry's role of the Lord of Darkness in the film Legend as a key factor; Schafer would also later state that Dio's part was cut due to a combination of "really complicated reasons" and other circumstances outside their control. Curry considered the role "perfect" for him when Schafer described Doviculus to him as "big and tough, but also has this kinky side who, when hit with an ax, might scream in pain or squeal with delight".

Similar to their experience with bringing Black onto the project, obtaining the voicework of the metal artists were also unexpected but beneficial. This led to some confusion during voice recording sessions; both Lita Ford and Rob Halford had difficulties with lines involving a character named "Lita Halford". Furthermore, both Black and Osbourne frequently injected profanity into their scripted lines during recording sessions. Instead of rerecording these, the development left these in the game, but included the option for a profanity content filter to be enabled by the player to "bleep" out these words and mask such word on screen using the Parents Music Resource Center "Parental Advisory" label, an icon that Schafer considered to be part of the history of heavy metal. A similar filter exists for gore in the game, preventing any dismemberment and disabling blood in the game. Schafer stated the filters were added to the game in consideration of older players that may not wish to see such aspects, or for parents who opt to play the game with younger children. During development, Schafer stated that while he could not confirm what other musicians and bands would be in the game, there would be more than already stated, and that these musicians were "especially conducive to character creation" due to the amount of theatrics used in their concert shows.

Kyle Gass, Black's collaborator with Tenacious D, voices and lends his facial likeness to a neurotic cannon operator in the game. Comedians David Cross, Steve Agee, Brian Posehn, and actor Wil Wheaton have also provided voice work for the game; Posehn had previously worked with Schafer on their high school newspaper. David Sobolov was also confirmed as a voice actor for other roles in the game; Sobolov noted that he recorded his lines separate from Black's despite his characters' having direct interaction with Riggs. Richard Horvitz, who voiced protagonist Raz in Schafer's previous game, Psychonauts, cameos as the lead guitarist of Kabbage Boy and as a car-lift operator that assigns Eddie certain side missions. Further voice acting work has been provided by veteran video game actors such as Zach Hanks, Kath Soucie, Dino Andrade and Jennifer Hale.

### Development history

According to Schafer, Brütal Legend had been in development since 2007, prior to the completion of Psychonauts. Schafer noted that in Psychonauts, they attempted to bring together a lot of assets, including characters and environments, but were not able to successfully integrate them on their first attempt and had to start over on the development of some. In several cases for Psychonauts, changes made in gameplay required them to return and redesign levels to account for the new features. The company decided at the start to use the scrum development approach for Brütal Legend, which they found worked well with their company's culture, allowing them to quickly arrive at playable targets at every milestone. For example, the team was able to bring about their terrain engine, renderer, and a playable Eddie Riggs within a month of development, and by the third month, the ability for Eddie to drive about the terrain, running over hordes of enemies.

Schafer stated that they began the development with the character of Eddie, and recognizing what he should be doing in the game—specifically, swinging around his axe, playing his guitar, and driving his hot rod. Once they found this combination of elements to work well in combat and general gameplay, they were able to expand out the rest of the game from there, as these elements provided a means of testing the game to make sure it remained enjoyable. The first major feature developed for the game was the multiplayer element, given that no previous game from Double Fine had included this feature, and was the highest risk element to the game. The multiplayer gameplay itself was inspired by older strategy games, in particular, 1989's Herzog Zwei; in this game, the player controlled a transforming aircraft mecha that would normally fly about the field to issue orders for constructing new units, airlifting units to other areas, and directing combat, but the player could opt to transform the craft into a giant robot and engage directly in combat. For Brütal Legend, Schafer kept the same concept of a split-mode RTS, but wanted more focus on the ground combat; instead of spending 90% of the time controlling units as in Zwei, the player would only spend about 30% in this fashion within Brütal Legend. This subsequently led to much of the action and combat-driven gameplay outside of the stage battles. In a 2015 interview, Schafer said that much of the gameplay outside of stage battles were to provide tutorials for the Stage Battles, and to make the game more of an action-adventure than an RTS to avoid the stigma that impacts sales of RTS games. This caused the production to expand considerably around the merger of Vivendi-Activision, and Double Fine had difficulties convincing the new publishers to fund the expanded game.

The team used Unreal Engine 2.5 to build and test prototypes of the real-time strategy elements, allowing the designers and gameplay programmers to commence work while another team focused on creating a new game engine. Having completed the multiplayer stage battle portion of the game first, Double Fine found it easy to gradually introduce the player to its more advanced aspects during the single-player campaign. The game-world's large size and varied content necessitated a game engine with streaming capabilities, allowing the game to seamlessly load and unload content as needed — this was also something the team had no prior experience with. Double Fine developed several in-house tools to help streamline the content-creation process for the game's world: an automated testing bot, RoBert (so named after one of the test engineers), was created to put daily builds of the game through continuous and rigorous testing, automatically reporting any errors to developers, while the Multi-User-Editor allowed the game's artists to simultaneously work on the game-world without fear of overwriting each other's work. The team ran into content management issues late in the game's development as more of the game's assets neared completion. Within the span of a few months the combined asset size tripled, endangering the game's ability to fit on a DVD and causing performance problems throughout the company's development systems. With the help of the engineering team, they were eventually able to overcome the performance issues and re-optimize the content for space.

With the popularity of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, many wondered if Brütal Legend would take advantage of these games' guitar-themed controllers. Schafer mentioned that while he had entertained the idea, he could not find an acceptable way for players to repeatedly switch between standard and guitar controllers, so he abandoned it. Players who preordered the game through GameStop were able to unlock a special promotional in-game guitar designed in conjunction with Jack Black's band Tenacious D, and includes voices provided by both Black and Kyle Gass.

While Brütal Legend's fate was unclear, Schafer was not able to talk about the project to avoid causing problems with any potential business deals, until EA Partners picked up the game in December 2008. However, even when the fate of the publication of the game was unsure, the team continued to work on its development. Schafer reflected that the time spent during development without a publisher was beneficial, allowing them to design the game without pressure from the publisher's goals. EA CEO John Riccitiello, when asked about EA picking up Brütal Legend for distribution prior to December 2008, commented that "Sometimes significant creative risks end up being some of the world’s best products".

### Other platforms

When rumors of a possible Wii port arose in March 2009, Schafer stated that "We are making an Xbox 360 and a PS3 version of Brütal Legend." However, according to Ben Fritz at Variety, another studio has been engaged by Electronic Arts to bring the game to the Wii, albeit at a later date than the other console versions, suggesting that it may follow the same model as Dead Space: Extraction, a Wii title scheduled to be released about a year after Dead Space'''s first release. However, further industry rumors, which claimed that the Wii version was being done by Electronic Arts in-house, have stated that the effort to port the game to the Wii has been canceled due to quality and technical concerns.

Initially after its release, Double Fine had not planned on a PC version of the game, as Schafer has stated that the game is primarily an action game and "meant to be on a console". However, in February 2013, Double Fine announced that a Windows version of the game will be released on February 26, 2013. The Windows port has been updated for higher resolutions of modern computers, and includes both DLC packs released for consoles. The multiplayer aspects of the PC version include a number of tweaks that Double Fine had tracked that they wanted to have made to the console version but could not do; while the full list of changes are not expected to be present in the initial PC release, Schafer has stated that if sales of the PC version are successful, they will look at adding new units, factions, and gameplay modes that they had originally scoped out for the console version. Mac and Linux ports were released in May 2013, premiering as part of the Humble Double Fine Bundle.

### Sequel

Double Fine believed they were given the go-ahead to develop a sequel to Brütal Legend after the game's release, and had invested a great deal of development time towards this, but were later told by EA that it was cancelled. Schafer stated that the sequel would likely incorporate much of what they had to drop prior to the game's release. This game world would have been three times larger than what Brütal Legend contained. The sequel would have likely included a fourth faction that was cut from the original game which would have been the last major group the player would have to fight through, including a major boss character, before the final battles with Doviculus. Schafer further noted that at the end of the original game, Doviculus' head falls into the Sea of Black Tears, and implied that the same effect that the Sea had on Ophelia could happen to Doviculus. Schafer also had ideas for a plot using a character voiced by Ronnie James Dio, but will not likely be used due to Dio's death.

The cancellation of the sequel nearly ruined Double Fine, as they had invested all current efforts toward the title. Instead of a sequel, Double Fine began work on four smaller projects, Costume Quest, Stacking, Iron Brigade (formerly titled Trenched) and Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, based on prototypes they had created from "Amnesia Fortnights" during the development period where they had lacked a publisher. In these two-weeks sessions, the Double Fine team was split into four groups and each tasked with creating a small prototype game to share with the rest of the company; all four mini-games were well received internally. Upon hearing of the cancellation of the sequel, Schafer and his team began to promote these games around, and were able to obtain publishing deals for all four titles. The games will be able to take advantage of the custom game world engine and other assets they had created for Brütal Legend. The titles were considered financial successes, allowing Double Fine to recover and pursue further game development though steering away from major AAA releases.

As of 2013, Schafer is still interested in a sequel to Brütal Legend, but would require appropriate funding and resources to make it happen as an independent developer. Since then, Double Fine launched a successful crowd-funded drive for Psychonauts 2 in December 2015; Schafer said that if that game does well, there is a good chance that a sequel to Brütal Legend would be possible. Tim Schafer said June 13 during an appearance at E3 2017 that Brütal Legend will eventually get a sequel.

### Publishing issues

Brütal Legend was originally to be published by Vivendi Games' subsidiary Sierra Entertainment. In 2008, Activision merged with Vivendi's game division (which included Blizzard Entertainment) to become Activision Blizzard, gaining the rights to publication of Brütal Legend. Upon evaluation of their assets, Activision Blizzard chose to drop Brütal Legend along with several other games, leaving the project in limbo. Activision CEO Robert Kotick later claimed the reason for dropping the project was due to: the project running late; missing milestones; overspending the budget and not looking like a good game. Double Fine themselves were unaware that Activision had chosen to drop the game, having been informed through an Activision press release that omitted the game from their upcoming release schedule, according to studio producer Caroline Esmurdoc. Industry rumors suggested that Electronic Arts was interested in publishing the property, and it was confirmed in December 2008 that Electronic Arts would publish the game. During the period when Brütal Legend's fate was unclear, Schafer was not able to talk about the project to avoid causing problems with any potential business deals.

In February 2009, Activision Blizzard had asserted that the Electronic Arts deal was invalid, believing that they were still in negotiations with Double Fine to publish the game. It was believed that Activision was seeking monetary compensation in a similar manner as it received from Atari for Ghostbusters: The Video Game and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, games that were dropped when Activision Blizzard re-evaluated their assets. On June 4, 2009, Activision filed suit to prevent publishing of the game, claiming that they had invested \$15 million in the title and still had a valid contract to release the game. Activision's suit also contends that Double Fine had missed a deadline for the game last year, requesting more time and an additional \$7 million in development fees. Activision's considers both the loss of the money they spent on the game as well as potential sales and Brütal Legend-related merchandise as part of the harm done in the lawsuit.

In July 2009, Double Fine issued a countersuit against Activision, citing that the latter company had abandoned the project before, and was trying to harm Brütal Legend during its critical marketing phase, as well as trying to protect its Guitar Hero franchise. The countersuit stated that Activision had dropped the game after its merger with Vivendi and a failed attempt to convert the game into a Guitar Hero sequel. Schafer was infamously quoted as saying, in commenting on their actions, "Hey, if Activision liked it, then they should have put a ring on it. Oh great, now Beyonce is going to sue me too."

In late July, the presiding judge, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan, reported that a preliminary ruling that could have affected the game's release would have been given on August 6, 2009, with Karlan tentatively ready to deny Activision's motion to delay the game. However, prior to the ruling, the companies announced they had reached an out-of-court settlement on the lawsuits, though details were not available.

Though most of the developers involved in the game were shielded from the effects of the lawsuit, Double Fine's Caroline Esmurdoc noted that it took a significant toll on Schafer and the other lead executives at the company. Activision's lawsuit had been filed at the time the game had reached the alpha release state, and would need to be concluded prior to the game's final release; this required the executives to dedicate their time towards information gathering, interviewing, and other legal matters "during the crunchiest, most critical time of development". As such, while they ultimately were able to settle the legal matter, Esmurdoc believed that the impact of the effort in settling the lawsuit impacted the quality of the final product. Schafer wrote more than 50% of the game's dialog in the few months following the completion of the lawsuit and prior to release, a "big crunch" for him.

### Downloadable content

Schafer, prior to the game's release, stated that Double Fine had "something awesome" planned for downloadable content to further support the game after release. Two downloadable packs have since been released. The first, "Tears of the Hextadon", was released in early November 2009, containing two new multiplayer maps and a new single-player weapon. The pack was initially free on the PlayStation Network for the first two weeks of release. The second pack, "The Hammer of Infinite Fate", was released in mid-December 2009, and in addition to new multiplayer maps, expands the single-player experience by incorporating new weaponry for the Deuce, outfits for Eddie, a GPS system to track collectibles in the game's world, and other additional content, including figureheads of Razputin, the lead character from Psychonauts, and Schafer himself.

## Marketing

Brütal Legend was announced in October 2007 through a feature article in Game Informer; gaming journalists had received a vinyl record from Activision that contained a backwards message alluding to the game's story. The game's release in October 2009 was promoted as "Rocktober" in official literature about the game from Electronic Arts. At the 2009 Download Festival in Donington Park in England, Electronic Arts arranged for 440 fans of Brütal Legend to help to break the Guinness World Record for the largest number of air guitar players, all simultaneously playing to "Ace of Spades" by Motörhead. A series of short online videos featuring Black (and Schafer in two instances), entitled "Brutal Thoughts with Jack Black", have been used to promote the game since May 2009. At the 2009 Video Music Awards, Black appeared in cosplay as Eddie to promote the game.

A promotional concert for the game was held at the 2009 Comic-Con International Convention in July 2009, and featured the metal artists Gwar, 3 Inches of Blood, Unholy Pink, and Keith Morris. It has also been announced that Brutal Legend was the official sponsor of the 2009 Mastodon/Dethklok tour. Schafer appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on October 2, 2009 to promote the game. Black appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 14, 2009, dressed as Eddie Riggs and staying in character during his interview.

A demo version of the game was made available on the Xbox 360 Marketplace and PlayStation Network Store; it was available for a limited time on September 17, 2009 for North American users who had pre-ordered the product through GameStop. The demo became available to all Xbox Live Gold users on September 24, 2009, and to Xbox Live Silver users and all PlayStation 3 users the following week. The demo is based on the game's beginning, showing Eddie's arrival and his encounters up until the first boss character fight.

## Soundtrack

Brütal Legend features 107 heavy metal tracks from 75 different bands, selected by Schafer and Music Director Emily Ridgway, each song being a "completely sincere choice" by Schafer and Ridgway, with the whole track list being "designed to be loved by Metal fans." Schafer sought to include songs from most main subgenres of metal, including classic heavy metal, industrial metal, black metal, and doom metal, with each faction in the game favoring a specific type. Though Schafer and others on the Double Fine team had vast knowledge of specific types of metal, Ridgway turned to a used-CD store owner named Allan from Aquarius Records who had "encyclopedic knowledge" of the entire genre, and who provided the team with sample CDs to help them discover some of the more obscure metal bands. Schafer had identified many of the more well-known songs on the list, while Ridgway was able to locate mission-appropriate, more obscure titles for inclusion; for example, one mission, given by the Killmaster (voiced by Lemmy Kilmister), involves rescuing female troops for Ironheade's army; Ridgway had been able to locate a cover of "Bomber", originally recorded by Motörhead (Kilmister's band) and performed by the all-female metal band Girlschool, recorded in their 1981 split EP St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Schafer also credits Black with some of the music selections for the game. Instead of relying on labels or bands to provide them with a list of possible songs to select from, the development team sought permission to use specific songs they wanted in the game. In some cases, obtaining appropriate licensing proved difficult, as for songs from bands that had long split up, Double Fine needed to contact each band member to gain permission. This proved to be valuable, as some original bands were excited about their music being used in the game; in one case, Lita Ford was able to provide the game with a song with slight modifications to the lyrics from a version that she was about to release. One song is from the in-game band "Kabbage Boy" for which Eddie is a roadie at the start of the game.

Schafer had tried to get music from groups like Metallica and AC/DC, but their licensing fees were too high. He further tried to work with Iron Maiden, but the group was hesitant to participate after recognizing that the character name "Eddie Riggs" suggested an attachment with the band's mascot, named "Eddie" and designed by Derek Riggs; the band's marketing group pointed out that this could imply that Iron Maiden had endorsed the game.

In addition to licensed music, the game includes over 70 minutes of original score by Tim Schafer's long-term collaborator Peter McConnell. McConnell composed pieces for orchestra and Metal band to tie in with the licensed music in the game. Also, the in-game soundtrack contains an instrumental drum track played by Slough Feg drummer Harry Cantwell, all other "real" drums (6 tracks) were played by Y&T drummer Mike Vanderhule and recorded by Jory Prum. The solos triggered by the player during the game were composed and recorded by Judas Priest guitarists Glenn Tipton (Eddie's solos) and K.K. Downing (Ophelia's and Doviculus' solos). While Schafer would like to have a soundtrack album for the game, he stated that there were already difficulties in securing the licenses for songs within the game and was not sure if it would be possible to extend them to a soundtrack. Schafer helped to select three songs—"We Are The Road Crew" by Motörhead, "The Metal" by Tenacious D, and "More Than Meets The Eye" by Testament—to appear in a pack of Rock Band downloadable songs that was made available the same day as Brütal Legends release.

The full soundtrack remained intact for Brütal Legend's addition to the Xbox One backwards compatibility catalog in September 2018; Double Fine had assured all music licensing rights had remains in place for this release.

## Reception

Brütal Legend received positive response from gaming journalists, with reviewers praising the story and characters of the game, and driven vocal performances of the voice actors, particularly Black and Osbourne. Daemon Hatfield of IGN felt Black was "completely committed" to the role of Riggs, while Giant Bomb's Ryan Davis found it relieving that Black reined in his typical "loud-talking heavy-metal goofball" act that he is known for and instead performed well, "bringing just the right amount of working-man's matter-of-fact-ness to the role". Osbourne's role was considered "amazing (and surprisingly coherent)" by GameSpot's Giancarlo Varanini and "played brilliantly" by Computer and Video Games' Andrew Kelly. The full cast was commended for their roles; the heavy metal musicians were effective at playing themselves in the game, while the other voice talent performed well and "[did] their part to balance out the star power" in the game. The strength of the characters was considered to be enhanced by the quality of writing of the story, and the use of facial animation. Eurogamer's Christian Donlan considered the characters of Brütal Legend to be the strongest aspect to the game, distancing the title from other video games due to "rounded, personable leads who are distinctly superior to the usual throngs of cybermen and super-vixens", and a facet of Schafer's signature work. Wired's Chris Kohler further attested the strength of the game's story to Schafer's skill, considering that "After Brütal Legend, he should be considered one of the best storytellers in gaming, period." 1UP.com's Justin Haywald noted that the game lacks the ability to review cutscenes, forcing the player to restart the story if they wanted to see these again.

The heavy metal-inspired world of Brütal Legend was also well received, and considered to show a clear reverence for the genre. Gerald Villoria of GameSpy considered the game to be "dedicated to an unabashed love of metal" and "heavy metal fan-service to the highest degree". Davis believed that the juxtaposition of all the elements that made up the heavy metal fantasy world were the game's greatest strength, often being "both giddily ridiculous and fist-pumpingly badass" at the same time. Critics found that while the graphics for the game may not be the most sophisticated for the current console generation, the detailed art aspects of the world were impressive; Varanini considered that "no matter where you are in the world, there's always some cool object to look at", while Donlan considered the world to be a "constant unfolding delight". The incorporation of heavy metal music into the game also benefited the game. Both Kelly and Villoria considered the soundtrack essential to the game, and praised the moments where specific songs, such as Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames" would be used as background music during specific game sequences. Kelly further praised the game for using the songs to define the action of the game instead of relegated to random background music. Villoria also considered the soundtrack to have "enormous breadth of sound and diversity", introducing the player to heavy metal genres they may not have known even existed. G4TV's Jake Gaskill considered listening to the soundtrack to be the equivalent of "taking a class in heavy metal appreciation."

The actual gameplay was seen as Brütal Legend's largest weakness. Many reviewers were critical of the incorporation of real-time strategy (RTS) elements into the game, a fact that was not well advertised prior to the game's release and does not become apparent to the player in the first hours of the game. Though Schafer had set out to make the console-based game like an RTS from the start, they were warned by both Vivendi and Electronic Arts that "RTS" was "a naughty word in the console space", and instead marketed it as an action game. Despite this, reviewers found that the game was still difficult to play on a console due to the selected controls that made it difficult to target objectives or troops, the lack of a mini-map to track friends and foes, and the frantic pace of battle.

Critics did appreciate the slow introduction to the various aspects of the game as part of the single player game, but felt the game did not adequately introduce or explain all of the game's RTS features, such as the ability to mount a final stand on one's stage. Some also considered the single-player campaign Stage Battles to be too easy, winnable by brute force, and that more advanced tactics would only become apparent as one played in multiplayer games, including learning the abilities and advantages of the other units of the factions other than Ironheade. The mix of gaming genres between the RTS and third-person action was found particularly confusing; Kohler commented that the handling of the individual genres was accomplished well, leading to "an astoundingly complex design instead of a simple one" that diminished the enjoyment of the game, while Davis considered that "perhaps there wasn't enough confidence in any one piece to let it carry the whole game". However, some felt that the various genres helped to create "a variety of gameplay opportunities", and made for "rather elegant" Stage Battles. In retrospect, Schafer lamented that they did not include enough tutorials in the game to guide the player as to "naturally how to play the strategy part a bit better", as they had come to accept over the years of development, and tried to use the Double Fine blog to explain some of these aspects. Though some critics argued that stripping out the RTS elements and leaving an action combat game wrapped in the metal-themed world would have been a better game, Schafer countered that this would have not been true to the vision that he had from the start. Schafer would later jokingly refer to the RTS elements of Brütal Legend; during the fundraising for Broken Age, Schafer teasingly threatened to add RTS elements to the point-and-click if the funding had reached certain levels.

Gameplay outside of the Stage Battles was also met with mixed impressions. Most considered the side missions highly repetitive, which included mission types that are generally disliked by gamers, such as escort missions. The lack of a mini-map, replaced by either following a glowing light from the sky illuminating the player's target or by navigating based on the Deuce's turn signals, was criticized for making it difficult to explore the game's world. The information about the world that players can access in the game's pause menu was also found to be lacking, neither showing the collectible elements of the game on the main map, nor easily identifying the alliance of the various troops in the in-game guidebook. Though Eddie gains the ability to fly during Stage Battles, the inability to use this or to make the character jump led to reviewers getting the character stuck on the landscape at times when exploring. Some reviewers found the number of progress checkpoints in the game to be lacking, requiring the player to repeat a long mission if they should die before reaching one. The single-player game was also considered to be short, lasting as little as four hours if one only completed the main story missions. In 2011, readers of Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition voted Eddie Riggs as the 48th-top video game character of all time.

### Sales

According to the NPD Group, Brütal Legend sold approximately 215,000 copies in the United States in October 2009, with about 150,000 copies being for the Xbox 360 platform, making it the 12th-top-selling game in that month. These numbers were not considered to be strong, and were attributed to the difficult marketing of the game, which emphasized Jack Black's involvement and the heavy metal nature of the game, but did not assert what the gameplay would actually be like, with the possibility that the mention of the RTS elements of the game would have possibly driven more players away from the game. In an interview in February 2011, Schafer claimed that the game had sold over 1.4 million copies.

According to data collected through Nielsen SoundScan, some songs contained within Brütal Legend's soundtrack saw digital sales increases of up to 700% following the game's release, similar to the effects of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, though impact on overall sales of these songs was rather small.

### Awards

Black was given the Best Voice award at the Spike Video Game Awards 2009. During the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded Brütal Legend with "Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack"; it also received nominations for "Outstanding Character Performance" (for Eddie Riggs), "Outstanding Achievement in Original Story", and "Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction".

The game was also nominated for the Game Developers Choice Awards for "Best Writing" and "Best Audio".

## See also

- Full Throttle'', an earlier Tim Schafer game featuring bikers and heavy metal music

2009 video game

D.I.C.E. Award for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year winners

Lua (programming language)-scripted video games

Multiplayer and single-player video games

Video games developed in the United States


William Speirs Bruce

William Speirs Bruce FRSE (1 August 1867 – 28 October 1921) was a British naturalist, polar scientist and oceanographer who organized and led the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (SNAE, 1902–04) to the South Orkney Islands and the Weddell Sea. Among other achievements, the expedition established the first permanent weather station in Antarctica. Bruce later founded the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory in Edinburgh, but his plans for a transcontinental Antarctic march via the South Pole were abandoned because of lack of public and financial support.

In 1892 Bruce gave up his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh and joined the Dundee Whaling Expedition to Antarctica as a scientific assistant. This was followed by Arctic voyages to Novaya Zemlya, Spitsbergen and Franz Josef Land. In 1899 Bruce, by then Britain's most experienced polar scientist, applied for a post on Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Expedition, but delays over this appointment and clashes with Royal Geographical Society (RGS) president Sir Clements Markham led him instead to organise his own expedition, and earned him the permanent enmity of the geographical establishment in London. Although Bruce received various awards for his polar work, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen, neither he nor any of his SNAE colleagues were recommended by the RGS for the prestigious Polar Medal.

Between 1907 and 1920 Bruce made many journeys to the Arctic regions, both for scientific and for commercial purposes. His failure to mount any major exploration ventures after the SNAE is usually attributed to his lack of public relations skills, powerful enemies, and his Scottish nationalism. By 1919 his health was failing, and he experienced several spells in hospital before his death in 1921, after which he was almost totally forgotten. In recent years, following the centenary of the Scottish Expedition, efforts have been made to give fuller recognition to his role in the history of scientific polar exploration.

## Early life

### Home and school

William Speirs Bruce was born at 43 Kensington Gardens Square in London, the fourth child of Samuel Noble Bruce, a Scottish physician, and his Welsh wife Mary, née Lloyd. His middle name came from another branch of the family; its unusual spelling, as distinct from the more common "Spiers", tended to cause problems for reporters, reviewers and biographers. William passed his early childhood in the family's London home at 18 Royal Crescent, Holland Park, under the tutelage of his grandfather, the Revd William Bruce. There were regular visits to nearby Kensington Gardens, and sometimes to the Natural History Museum; according to Samuel Bruce these outings first ignited young William's interest in life and nature.

In 1879, at the age of 12, William was sent to a progressive boarding school, Norfolk County School (later Watts Naval School) in the village of North Elmham, Norfolk. He remained there until 1885, and then spent two further years at University College School, Hampstead, preparing for the matriculation examination that would admit him to the medical school at University College London (UCL). He succeeded at his third attempt, and was ready to start his medical studies in the autumn of 1887.

### Edinburgh

During mid-1887, Bruce travelled north to Edinburgh to attend a pair of vacation courses in natural sciences. The six-week courses, at the recently established Scottish Marine Station at Granton on the Firth of Forth, were under the direction of Patrick Geddes and John Arthur Thomson, and included sections on botany and practical zoology. The experience of Granton, and the contact with some of the foremost contemporary natural scientists, convinced Bruce to stay in Scotland. He abandoned his place at UCL, and enrolled instead in the medical school at the University of Edinburgh. This enabled him to maintain contact with mentors such as Geddes and Thomson, and also gave him the opportunity to work during his free time in the Edinburgh laboratories where specimens brought back from the Challenger expedition were being examined and classified. Here he worked under Dr John Murray and his assistant John Young Buchanan, and gained a deeper understanding of oceanography and invaluable experience in the principles of scientific investigation.

## First voyages

### Dundee Whaling Expedition

The Dundee Whaling Expedition, 1892–93, was an attempt to investigate the commercial possibilities of whaling in Antarctic waters by locating a source of right whales in the region. Scientific observations and oceanographic research would also be carried out in the four whaling ships: Balaena, Active, Diana and Polar Star. Bruce was recommended to the expedition by Hugh Robert Mill, an acquaintance from Granton who was now librarian to the Royal Geographical Society in London. Although it would finally curtail his medical studies, Bruce did not hesitate; with William Gordon Burn Murdoch as an assistant he took up his duties on Balaena under Capt. Alexander Fairweather. The four ships sailed from Dundee on 6 September 1892.

The relatively short expedition—Bruce was back in Scotland in May 1893—failed in its main purpose, and gave only limited opportunities for scientific work. No right whales were found, and to cut the expedition's losses a mass slaughter of seals was ordered, to secure skins, oil and blubber. Bruce found this distasteful, especially as he was expected to share in the killing. The scientific output from the voyage was, in Bruce's words "a miserable show". In a letter to the Royal Geographical Society he wrote: "The general bearing of the master (Captain Fairweather) was far from being favourable to scientific work". Bruce was denied access to charts, so was unable to establish the accurate location of phenomena. He was required to work "in the boats" when he should have been making meteorological and other observations, and no facilities were allowed him for the preparation of specimens, many of which were lost through careless handling by the crew. Nevertheless, his letter to the RGS ends: "I have to thank the Society for assisting me in what has been, despite all drawbacks, an instructive and delightful experience." In a further letter to Mill he outlined his wishes to go South again, adding: "the taste I have had has made me ravenous".

Within months he was making proposals for a scientific expedition to South Georgia, but the RGS would not support his plans. In early 1896 he considered collaboration with the Norwegians Henryk Bull and Carsten Borchgrevink in an attempt to reach the South Magnetic Pole. This, too, failed to materialise.

### Jackson–Harmsworth Expedition

From September 1895 to June 1896 Bruce worked at the Ben Nevis summit meteorological station, where he gained further experience in scientific procedures and with meteorological instruments. In June 1896, again on the recommendation of Mill, he left this post to join the Jackson–Harmsworth Expedition, then in its third year in the Arctic on Franz Josef Land. This expedition, led by Frederick George Jackson and financed by newspaper magnate Alfred Harmsworth, had left London in 1894. It was engaged in a detailed survey of the Franz Josef archipelago, which had been discovered, though not properly mapped, during an Austrian expedition 20 years earlier. Jackson's party was based at Cape Flora on Northbrook Island, the southernmost island of the archipelago. It was supplied through regular visits from its expedition ship Windward, on which Bruce sailed from London on 9 June 1896.

Windward arrived at Cape Flora on 25 July where Bruce found that Jackson's expedition party had been joined by Fridtjof Nansen and his companion Hjalmar Johansen. The two Norwegians had been living on the ice for more than a year since leaving their ship Fram for a dash to the North Pole, and it was pure chance that had brought them to the one inhabited spot among thousands of square miles of Arctic wastes. Bruce mentions meeting Nansen in a letter to Mill, and his acquaintance with the celebrated Norwegian would be a future source of much advice and encouragement.

During his year at Cape Flora Bruce collected around 700 zoological specimens, in often very disagreeable conditions. According to Jackson: "It is no pleasant job to dabble in icy-cold water, with the thermometer some degrees below zero, or to plod in the summer through snow, slush and mud many miles in search of animal life, as I have known Mr Bruce frequently to do". Jackson named Cape Bruce after him, on the northern edge of Northbrook Island, at 80°55′N. Jackson was less pleased with Bruce's proprietorial attitude to his personal specimens, which he refused to entrust to the British Museum with the expedition's other finds. This "tendency towards scientific conceit", and lack of tact in interpersonal dealings, were early demonstrations of character flaws that in later life would be held against him.

### Arctic voyages

On his return from Franz Josef Land in 1897, Bruce worked in Edinburgh as an assistant to his former mentor John Arthur Thomson, and resumed his duties at the Ben Nevis observatory. In March 1898 he received an offer to join Major Andrew Coats on a hunting voyage to the Arctic waters around Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen, in the private yacht Blencathra. This offer had originally been made to Mill, who was unable to obtain leave from the Royal Geographical Society, and once again suggested Bruce as a replacement. Andrew Coats was a member of the prosperous Coats family of thread manufacturers, who had founded the Coats Observatory at Paisley. Bruce joined Blencathra at Tromsø, Norway in May 1898, for a cruise which explored the Barents Sea, the dual islands of Novaya Zemlya, and the island of Kolguyev, before a retreat to Vardø in north-eastern Norway to re-provision for the voyage to Spitsbergen. In a letter to Mill, Bruce reported: "This is a pure yachting cruise and life is luxurious". But his scientific work was unabated: "I have been taking 4-hourly observations in meteorology and temperature of the sea surface [...] have tested salinity with Buchanan's hydrometer; my tow-nets [...] have been going almost constantly".

Blencathra sailed for Spitsbergen, but was stopped by ice, so she returned to Tromsø. Here she encountered the research ship Princesse Alice, purpose-built for Prince Albert I of Monaco, a leading oceanographer. Bruce was delighted when the Prince invited him to join Princesse Alice on a hydrographic survey around Spitsbergen. The ship sailed up the west coast of the main island of the Spitsbergen group, and visited Adventfjorden and Smeerenburg in the north. During the latter stages of the voyage Bruce was placed in charge of the voyage's scientific observations.

The following year Bruce was invited to join Prince Albert on another oceanographic cruise to Spitsbergen. At Red Bay, latitude 80°N, Bruce ascended the highest peak in the area, which the prince named "Ben Nevis" in his honour. When Princesse Alice ran aground on a submerged rock and appeared stranded, Prince Albert instructed Bruce to begin preparations for a winter camp, in the belief that it might be impossible for the ship to escape. Fortunately she floated free, and was able to return to Tromsø for repairs.

## Marriage and family life

It is uncertain how Bruce was employed after his return from Spitsbergen in late 1899. In his whole life he rarely had settled salaried work, and usually relied on patronage or on influential acquaintances to find him temporary posts. Early in 1901 he evidently felt sufficiently confident of his prospects to get married. His bride was Jessie Mackenzie, who had worked as a nurse in Samuel Bruce's London surgery. Bruce's marriage took place in the United Free Church of Scotland, in Chapelhill within the Parish of Nigg on 20 January 1901, being attended and witnessed by their parents. Perhaps, due to Bruce's secretive nature presenting limited details even among his circle of close friends and colleagues, little information about the wedding has been recorded by his biographers.

In 1907 the Bruces settled in a house at South Morton Street in Joppa near the coastal Edinburgh suburb of Portobello, in the first of a series of addresses in that area. They named their house "Antarctica". A son, Eillium Alastair, was born in April 1902, and a daughter, Sheila Mackenzie, was born seven years later. During these years Bruce founded the Scottish Ski Club and became its first president. He was also a co-founder of Edinburgh Zoo.

Bruce's chosen life as an explorer, his unreliable sources of income and his frequent extended absences, all placed severe strains on the marriage, and the couple became estranged around 1916. They continued to live in the same house until Bruce's death. Eillium became a Merchant Navy officer, eventually captaining a Fisheries Research Ship which, by chance, bore the name Scotia.

## Scottish National Antarctic Expedition

### Dispute with Markham

On 15 March 1899 Bruce wrote to Sir Clements Markham at the RGS, offering himself for the scientific staff of the National Antarctic Expedition, then in its early planning stages. Markham's reply was a non-committal one-line acknowledgement, after which Bruce heard nothing for a year. He was then told, indirectly, to apply for a scientific assistant's post.

On 21 March 1900 Bruce reminded Markham that he had applied a year earlier, and went on to reveal that he "was not without hopes of being able to raise sufficient capital whereby I could take out a second British ship". He followed this up a few days later, and reported that the funding for a second ship was now assured, making his first explicit references to a "Scottish Expedition". This alarmed Markham, who replied with some anger: "Such a course will be most prejudicial to the Expedition [...] A second ship is not in the least required [...] I do not know why this mischievous rivalry should have been started".

Bruce replied by return, denying rivalry, and asserting: "If my friends are prepared to give me money to carry out my plans I do not see why I should not accept it [...] there are several who maintain that a second ship is highly desirable". Unappeased, Markham wrote back: "As I was doing my best to get you appointed (to the National Antarctic Expedition) I had a right to think you would not take such a step [...] without at least consulting me". He continued: "You will cripple the National Expedition [...] in order to get up a scheme for yourself".

Bruce replied formally, saying that the funds he had raised in Scotland would not have been forthcoming for any other project. There was no further correspondence between the two, beyond a short conciliatory note from Markham, in February 1901, which read "I can now see things from your point of view, and wish you success"—a sentiment apparently not reflected in Markham's subsequent attitude towards the Scottish expedition.

### Voyage of the Scotia

With financial support from the Coats family, Bruce had acquired a Norwegian whaler, Hekla, which he transformed into a fully equipped Antarctic research ship, renamed Scotia. He then appointed an all-Scottish crew and scientific team. Scotia left Troon on 2 November 1902, and headed south towards Antarctica, where Bruce intended to set up winter quarters in the Weddell Sea quadrant, "as near to the South Pole as is practicable". On 22 February the ship reached 70°25′S, but could proceed no further because of heavy ice. She retreated to Laurie Island in the South Orkneys chain, and wintered there in a bay he named Scotia Bay. A meteorological station, Omond House (named after Robert Traill Omond), was established as part of a full programme of scientific work.

In November 1903 Scotia retreated to Buenos Aires for repair and reprovisioning. While in Argentina, Bruce negotiated an agreement with the government whereby Omond House became a permanent weather station, under Argentinian control. Renamed Orcadas Base, the site has been continuously in operation since then, and provides the longest historical meteorological series of Antarctica. In January 1904 Scotia sailed south again, to explore the Weddell Sea. On 6 March, new land was sighted, part of the sea's eastern boundary; Bruce named this Coats Land after the expedition's chief backers. On 14 March, at 74°01′S and in danger of becoming icebound, Scotia turned north. The long voyage back to Scotland, via Cape Town, was completed on 21 July 1904.

This expedition assembled a large collection of animal, marine and plant specimens, and carried out extensive hydrographic, magnetic and meteorological observations. One hundred years later it was recognised that the expedition's work had "laid the foundation of modern climate change studies", and that its experimental work had showed this part of the globe to be crucially important to the world's climate. According to the oceanographer Tony Rice, it fulfilled a more comprehensive programme than any other Antarctic expedition of its day. At the time its reception in Britain was relatively muted; although its work was highly praised within sections of the scientific community, Bruce struggled to raise the funding to publish his scientific results, and blamed Markham for the lack of national recognition.

## Post-expedition years

### Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory

Bruce's collection of specimens, gathered from more than a decade of Arctic and Antarctic travel, required a permanent home. Bruce himself needed a base from which the detailed scientific reports of the Scotia voyage could be prepared for publication. He obtained premises in Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, in which he established a laboratory and museum, naming it the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory, with the ultimate ambition that it should become the Scottish National Oceanographic Institute. It was officially opened by Prince Albert of Monaco in 1906.

Within these premises Bruce housed his meteorological and oceanographic equipment, in preparation for future expeditions. He also met there with fellow-explorers, including Nansen, Shackleton, and Roald Amundsen. His main task was masterminding the preparation of the SNAE scientific reports. These, at considerable cost and much delay, were published between 1907 and 1920, except for one volume—Bruce's own log—that remained unpublished until 1992, after its rediscovery. Bruce maintained a wide correspondence with experts, including Sir Joseph Hooker, who had travelled to the Antarctic with James Clark Ross in 1839–43, and to whom Bruce dedicated his short book Polar Exploration.

In 1914 discussions began toward finding more permanent homes, both for Bruce's collection and, following the death that year of oceanographer Sir John Murray, for the specimens and library of the Challenger expedition. Bruce proposed that a new centre should be created as a memorial to Murray. There was unanimous agreement to proceed, but the project was curtailed by the outbreak of war, and not revived. The Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory continued until 1919, when Bruce, in poor health, was forced to close it, dispersing its contents to the Royal Scottish Museum, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS), and the University of Edinburgh.

### Further Antarctic plans

On 17 March 1910 Bruce presented proposals to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) for a new Scottish Antarctic expedition. His plan envisaged a party wintering in or near Coats Land, while the ship took another group to the Ross Sea, on the opposite side of the continent. During the second season the Coats Land party would cross the continent on foot, via the South Pole, while the Ross Sea party pushed south to meet them and assist them home. The expedition would also carry out extensive oceanographical and other scientific work. Bruce estimated that the total cost would be about £50,000 (2023 value about £).

The RSGS supported these proposals, as did the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh, and other Scottish organisations, but the timing was wrong; the Royal Geographical Society in London was fully occupied with Robert Scott's Terra Nova Expedition, and showed no interest in Bruce's plans. No rich private benefactors came forward, and persistent and intensive lobbying of the government for financial backing failed. Bruce suspected that his efforts were, as usual, being undermined by the aged but still influential Markham. Finally accepting that his venture would not take place, he gave generous support and advice to Ernest Shackleton, who in 1913 announced plans, similar to Bruce's, for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Shackleton not only received £10,000 from the government, but raised large sums from private sources, including £24,000 from Scottish industrialist Sir James Caird of Dundee.

Shackleton's expedition was an epic adventure, but failed completely in its main endeavour of a transcontinental crossing. Bruce was not consulted by the Shackleton relief committee about that expedition's rescue, when the need arose in 1916. "Myself, I suppose," he wrote, "because of being north of the Tweed, they think dead".

### Scottish Spitsbergen syndicate

During his Spitsbergen visits with Prince Albert in 1898 and 1899, Bruce had detected the presence of coal, gypsum and possibly oil. In the summers of 1906 and 1907 he again accompanied the Prince to the archipelago, with the primary purpose of surveying and mapping Prince Charles Foreland, an island unvisited during the earlier voyages. Here Bruce found further deposits of coal, and indications of iron. On the basis of these finds, Bruce set up a mineral prospecting company, the Scottish Spitsbergen Syndicate, in July 1909.

At that time, in international law Spitsbergen was regarded as terra nullius—rights to mine and extract could be established simply by registering a claim. Bruce's syndicate registered claims on Prince Charles Foreland and on the islands of Barentsøya and Edgeøya, among other areas. A sum of £4,000 (out of a target of £6,000) was subscribed to finance the costs of a detailed prospecting expedition in 1909, in a chartered vessel with a full scientific team. The results were "disappointing", and the voyage absorbed almost all of the syndicate's funds.

Bruce paid two further visits to Spitsbergen, in 1912 and 1914, but the outbreak of war prevented further immediate developments. Early in 1919 the old syndicate was replaced by a larger and better-financed company. Bruce had now fixed his main hopes on the discovery of oil, but scientific expeditions in 1919 and 1920 failed to provide evidence of its presence; substantial new deposits of coal and iron ore were discovered. Thereafter Bruce was too ill to continue with his involvement. The new company had expended most of its capital on these prospecting ventures, and although it continued to exist, under various ownerships, until 1952, there is no record of profitable extraction. Its assets and claims were finally acquired by a rival concern.

## Later life

### Polar Medals withheld

During his lifetime Bruce received many awards: the Gold Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in 1904; the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1910; the Neill prize and Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1913, and the Livingstone Medal of the American Geographical Society in 1920. He also received an honorary LLD degree from the University of Aberdeen. The honour that eluded him was the Polar Medal, awarded by the Sovereign on the recommendation of the Royal Geographical Society. The Medal was awarded to the members of every other British or Commonwealth Antarctic expedition during the early 20th century, but the SNAE was the exception; the medal was withheld.

Bruce, and those close to him, blamed Markham for this omission. The matter was raised, repeatedly, with anyone thought to have influence. Robert Rudmose Brown, chronicler of the Scotia voyage and later Bruce's first biographer, wrote in a 1913 letter to the President of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society that this neglect was "a slight to Scotland and to Scottish endeavour". Bruce wrote in March 1915 to the President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, who agreed in his reply that "Markham had much to answer for". After Markham's death in 1916 Bruce sent a long letter to his Member of Parliament, Charles Price, detailing Sir Clements's malice towards him and the Scottish expedition, ending with a heartfelt cry on behalf of his old comrades: "Robertson is dying without his well won white ribbon! The Mate is dead!! The Chief Engineer is dead!!! Everyone as good men as have ever served on any Polar Expedition, yet they did not receive the white ribbon." No action followed this plea.

No award had been made nearly a century later, when the matter was raised in the Scottish Parliament. On 4 November 2002 MSP Michael Russell tabled a motion relating to the SNAE centenary, which concluded: "The Polar Medal Advisory Committee should recommend the posthumous award of the Polar Medal to Dr William Speirs Bruce, in recognition of his status as one of the key figures in early 20th century polar scientific exploration".

### Last years

After the outbreak of war in 1914, Bruce's prospecting ventures were on hold. He offered his services to the Admiralty, but failed to obtain an appointment. In 1915 he accepted a post as director and manager of a whaling company based in the Seychelles, and spent four months there, but the venture failed. On his return to Britain he finally secured a minor post at the Admiralty.

Bruce continued to lobby for recognition, highlighting the distinctions between the treatment of SNAE and that of English expeditions. When the war finished he attempted to revive his various interests, but his health was failing, forcing him to close his laboratory. On the 1920 voyage to Spitsbergen he travelled in an advisory role, unable to participate in the detailed work. On return, he was confined in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and later in the Liberton Hospital, Edinburgh, where he died on 28 October 1921. In accordance with his wishes he was cremated, and the ashes taken to South Georgia to be scattered on the southern sea. Despite his irregular income and general lack of funds, his estate realised £7,000 (2023 value about £).

## Assessment

After Bruce's death his long-time friend and colleague Robert Rudmose Brown wrote, in a letter to Bruce's father: "His name is imperishably enrolled among the world's great explorers, and the martyrs to unselfish scientific devotion." Rudmose Brown's biography was published in 1923, and in the same year a joint committee of Edinburgh's learned societies instituted the Bruce Memorial Prize, an award for young polar scientists. Thereafter his name continued to be respected in scientific circles, but Bruce and his achievements were forgotten by the general public. Occasional mentions of him, in polar histories and biographies of major figures such as Scott and Shackleton, tended to be dismissive and inaccurate.

The early years of the 21st century have seen a reassessment of Bruce's work. Contributory factors have been the SNAE centenary, and Scotland's renewed sense of national identity. A 2003 expedition, in a modern research ship "Scotia", used information collected by Bruce as a basis for examining climate change in South Georgia. This expedition predicted "dramatic conclusions" relating to global warming from its research, and saw this contribution as a "fitting tribute to Britain's forgotten polar hero, William Speirs Bruce".

An hour-long BBC television documentary on Bruce presented by Neil Oliver in 2011 contrasted his meticulous science with his rivals' aim of enhancing imperial prestige. A new biographer, Peter Speak (2003), claims that the SNAE was "by far the most cost-effective and carefully planned scientific expedition of the Heroic Age".

The same author considers reasons why Bruce's efforts to capitalise on this success met with failure, and suggests a combination of his shy, solitary, uncharismatic nature and his "fervent" Scottish nationalism. Bruce seemingly lacked public relations skills and the ability to promote his work, after the fashion of Scott and Shackleton; a lifelong friend described him as being "as prickly as the Scottish thistle itself". On occasion he behaved tactlessly, as with Jackson over the question of the specimens brought back from Franz Josef Land, and on another occasion with the Royal Geographical Society, over the question of a minor expense claim.

As to his nationalism, he wished to see Scotland on an equal footing with other nations. His national pride was intense; in a Preparatory Note to The Voyage of the Scotia he wrote: "While 'Science' was the talisman of the Expedition, 'Scotland' was emblazoned on its flag". This insistence on emphasising the Scottish character of his enterprises could be irksome to those who did not share his passion. He retained the respect and devotion of those whom he led, and of those who had known him longest. John Arthur Thomson, who had known Bruce since Granton, wrote of him when reviewing Rudmose Brown's 1923 biography: "We never heard him once grumble about himself, though he was neither to hold or bend when he thought some injustice was being done to, or slight cast on, his men, on his colleagues, on his laboratory, on his Scotland. Then one got glimpses of the volcano which his gentle spirit usually kept sleeping."

## See also

- List of recipients of the W. S. Bruce Medal

Scottish marine biologist and polar explorer

Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

People educated at University College School