Lara's creator speaks

作者 TombCrow, 2006 四月 21, 17:03:25

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TombCrow

Last week I chatted to Toby Gard, the artist who designed the look of Lara Croft. A decade on and back working with Lara it was time to see what had changed and how he felt about the character he created. Oh, and how he was mobbed by French Tomb Raider fans, but that's for another day.

How do you feel Legend turned out? How has it been for you?


It's been a really enjoyable experience. Crystal Dynamics are strong and professional studio and it's been an experience for me seeing how a studio like that is run. The game has turned out so well because there is so much attention to detail from the guys. I came in at pre-production when they had all the game setup and I was bought into redefine Lara's look and then the other characters and the story. I worked closely with the story team too, to help define who Lara actually is. It's a question of adding details to her personality and not just physically.


What are the difference between working on Lara now and when you did originally?

It's all about detail now. The gameplay is fairly similar to what it was in the original game. So you have combat, exploration and puzzles. But it's the fidelity that is the difference now. Big basic blocks don't cut it anymore - you need swaying grass and butterflies now. Also the team for Legend is ten times as big the original team. It's gone from 6 to 60.


Do you think character design is underappreciated in these days of FPS and online RPGs?

I don't think so. FPS games don't need a strong character as that would get in the way of you. Look at Half Life - it worked brilliantly that Gordon didn't say anything. Also people really enjoy creating their own character in a game. The advantage of doing something like Lara is that it helps focus a story and narrative design.

Why do you think Lara captured the mid-90s zeitgeist in the way she did?

She had a real difference to the games characters of the time. Compared to the burly men shooting guns she had a real appeal. She was mysterious and had a danger about her this gave her a real difference to other female game characters that were basically sex objects. Lara had a mystery about her. Also I was very keen to get Lara to animate properly, which no one else at the time was doing. This made her move slowly but look realistic which helped player empathise with her.

How was Galleon?
I learnt a lot about the industry, let's put it that way.


You left Core originally over concerns that Lara was getting "sexed" up. She still seems that way in Legend - how do you feel about that?

It wasn't about her boobs getting bigger. She was always designed to look good - people's psychology is that they like attractive characters on both sexes. What I objected to was the marketing which represented Lara in a way that was nothing like the character. At the time I didn't like that and it prompted me to want to retain control of characters I created in the future, so that's why I left.

How many designs did you scrap before Lara
About four or five. My initial design was a guy in some tombs. But when I started doing proper designs the female character just worked better.

Can Lara become an icon again for the next-gen?

Yes, I think she can. She's a really interesting character and Legend digs below the surface and gives a much clearer idea of her depth. But whether another gaming icon will replace her? I don't know.

This was supposed to be a return to raiding tombs, and yet a lot of the levels in Legend have urban settings?

The previous game wasnt about archaeology and the new one is, so tombs are important. But when you write a story it needs to have some modern day relevance. Lara does have a place in other locations rather than just underground. Especially now we can do it. One of the main reasons the original game was set underground was because we couldn't really do a convincing outside.

Any parts of the world that you haven't used that you'd like to?
That's tough, we're running out of ancient cultures!

Any chance of a re-release of earlier games as a directors cut with Legend quality graphics?
Good idea. It would certainly be an interesting nostalgia trip.

Reviews have mentioned the brevity of the game, how important is the length?

There's a finite amount of development time which obviously limits how you present the game. Legend was designed to be Tomb Raider amped-up. There is a real emphasis on action, even though it is still a fairly relaxed game. We can't make a game that goes on forever and would rather not spread it too thin. It's good that people enjoy the game so much that they want more.

How long can Lara go on for? Will she still be raiding tombs in ten years time?

Tomb Raider is essentially about solving mysteries and exploration and these will always be interesting. So I don't see why she shouldn't be relevant in years to come.

Why are you still using block-moving puzzles?
We've moved along away from switch based puzzles but the real puzzle focus now is on the physics. The goal was to modernise the puzzle elements from before. You really have to think physically now to solve a puzzle.

Do you get annoyed that people only want to talk to you about Lara even though you have worked on other projects?

It doesn't bother me too much at all. Lara is a great character to be associated with.


http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2006/04/18/laras_creator_speaks.html