Set in a reproduction of the Tower of London, it follows the story of Raven, an American special agent trying to steal and replace the Crown Jewels of England to safeguard them from a rogue operative.

Its puzzles and recreation of the Tower of London were lauded by many critics—the latter was praised by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts—but the title's bugs, pacing, large interface and use of mazes drew mixed reactions.

[1] Using a point-and-click interface, the player explores a reproduction of the Tower of London and evades guards while solving puzzles, such as determining the combination to a safe by examining a coat of arms.

[2] The player character is equipped with gear such as a crossbow, grappling hooks, lock picks, a motorized zip-line,[3] explosives and tools to hijack security cameras.

Traitors Gate was conceived in November 1996, when designer Nigel Papworth of Sweden's Daydream Software began to explore possibilities for the company's next title after Safecracker.

[9] Coming across an article about the Tower of London in an issue of National Geographic, Papworth realized that the structure contained "everything a good game needed", including a cleanly circumscribed playing area and an obvious gameplay objective.

Their plan was to capture "the feel of the weathered stonework and mixed architectural styles with as near to photographic quality as time and technology would allow",[9] and they hoped to make a game that entertained players while informing them about the real-world Tower.

[11] The decision to make the protagonist an American agent came early, as the country's alliance with Britain precluded violent gameplay approaches by the player and shifted the focus to stealth and puzzle-solving.

[17] President Jan Phersson-Broburg argued that self-funding Daydream's future games with money from Swedish investors—instead of opting for publisher financing "linked to specific projects"—would offer the developer more stability, flexibility and room for growth.

[16] In its November 1996 prospectus,[19] the company had told investors that a game with the working title "Project II" was under development, with an estimated 18-month production cycle and 7-10 million kr budget.

[14] Daydream began Traitors Gate with around one year of research,[10][12] starting with a trip of eight team members to the Tower of London to photograph the entire structure over two days.

Before full production of the game began, Papworth plotted its narrative in storyboard form, and Daydream planned the majority of Traitors Gate's design on "a huge magnetic white board with a logic flow chart".

[22] In January 1998, Daydream Software announced "Project II" as Traitors Gate and scheduled its public unveiling for the following month, at the Milia festival in Cannes.

[23] Employment agency Octagon Entertainment, with which Daydream had signed after buying back Safecracker's rights from GT Interactive in November 1997,[24] was set to begin locating distribution partners for Traitors Gate in February.

[25][13] Jan Phersson-Broberg reported interest from distributors after Milia, but reiterated to investors that no deals would be signed before May, when a playable game demo was planned to appear at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

[30] Despite the focus on realism, the team modified sections of the Jewel House at the request of the Tower of London's management, who were concerned that the game's accuracy could pose a security risk for the building.

The team began by drawing building plans on transparent vellum, based on information obtained from second-hand books, the Internet, the Royal Archives and Daydream's personal reference photographs.

[33] Papworth explained that the techniques Daydream developed while working on Safecracker, a game created with QuickTime VR,[16][29] had since been incorporated into the newer RealVR software suite.

The decision to move to RealVR was heavily inspired by the software's ability to display spherical 360° panoramas, a necessity given the tall structures modeled in Traitors Gate.

Eklund and Kjellberg used the programs WaveLab and Cubase VST to compose Traitors Gate's music, which was made with a combination of sampled, synthesized and live instrumentation.

[34] The soundtrack was purposely limited in-game to build atmosphere,[29] and, according to Toontrack, was written in the style of "sixties and seventies" spy films to match the theme of Traitors Gate.

[48] Before Traitors Gate's release, Nigel Papworth noted his "hope that this title gets the crack it deserves at the American Market", following Safecracker's failure to penetrate the region.

[11] Thanks to DreamCatcher's partnership network, Traitors Gate was initially set to appear in 15 North American retail chains, including Best Buy, Virgin Megastores and CompUSA.

[11] The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) traced Traitors Gate's country-by-country success rate to the quality of Daydream's distribution partners in each region.

[59] Writing for Adventure Gamers, Marek Bronstring noted that "slow" initial sales for Traitors Gate gave way to significant success, beginning around one year into its shelf life.

[70] However, while David Ryan Hunt agreed in Computer Games Magazine that "too many flaws ... detract from the fun" in Traitors Gate, he sided with Dulin and Jones on the quality of the graphics and puzzles, which he felt were largely solid.

[71] Audrey Wells of Computer Gaming World continued Hunt's, Dulin's and Jones' praise for the puzzles, and again cited the visual representation of the Tower as a high point.

In contrast to Hill's and Tim Cant's dismissals of Traitors Gate as boring, he labeled the proceedings "breathlessly exciting" and "indecently fun", and praised the mazes' execution outright.

[60] Daydream Software told investors that a deal with "an internationally recognized publisher" to develop the game was reached in April 2002, and that it was funded ahead of time by this outside party.

[82][83] Inspired by his "reading an article on cryptography technique at the same time as a book on Babylonian history", Papworth combined these two ideas to create the game concept for Traitors Gate 2.