I developed games and other less serious things. Co-created Tomb Raider half a lifetime ago.
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Joined February 2018
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I started at Core Design 30 years ago😳
Initially working on a 3D engine for the new 32-bit consoles and also as tech/support programmer on a golf game. That led into working full-time on the initial design and prototype of Tomb Raider with Toby Gard towards the end of 1994.
ALT Snippet from a Tomb Raider game design document from late 1994. Showing a mockup ancillary screen with an 'accuracy stat' gauge and a rectilinear level map. Text describes the viewpoint of the game 'from above and behind, and to the right of the character' and in cinematic terms as an 'over the shoulder shot'. The character is named Lara Cruz.
30 years.
We're all old now.
Or six feet under (RIP Neal).
Not Lara though, she's timeless.
ALT From Prima's Tomb Raider Strategy Guide by Nick Roberts. 1996. https://archive.org/details/tombraidergamese00robe
All because 30 years ago a bunch of us wide-eyed youngsters wanted to make a groovy 3d game that we hoped other gamers might also enjoy playing.
That legacy has employed hundreds of like-minded people across different creative media and has entertained millions. Groovy, indeed.
Tomb Raider franchise tops 100 million sold copies
The action-adventure franchise hits a new milestone as new remasters are announced and Netflix's Tomb Raider anime has just hit the streamer.
gamedeveloper.com/business/t…
Paul Douglas retweeted
Vicky worked in consultation with the team, not just Toby, and other Core staffers like Susie Hamilton.
Within those constraints the backstory and bio are her work.
I suggest you read Llewella Chapman's article on Vicky (and Heather) if you havent already.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
Chuffed to see Vicky get a mention by Hayley Atwell in this interview for the anime series. She didn't have to do that, but she did...❤️
Hayley Atwell on Lara Croft and why she 'never feels 100% prepared'
radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/ha…
ALT Hayley Atwell at an event, wearing a red outfit. An "RT Exclusive" watermark is in the lower right corner.
It was huge, and still tickles me pink that Sony US (SCEA) rejected the initial concept.
Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider were the biggest Western series on PS1. Shame Core Design couldn't step up and make the next-gen leap like Naughty Dog did...
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Tomb Raider Allosaurus concept sketch (Toby Gard, early 1995).
We made a prototype with Lara and the dino running around in game engine on PC. Which got us the go-ahead to move into production and build a team.
People always thought it was a T.Rex so that is what it became...
ALT Sketch of an Allosaurus for Tomb Raider by Toby Gard. From around early 1995.
What a cute cameo.
Congrats to @TeamAsobi for making such a great game.
(Love the dino too - Lara Croft and dinosaurs go all the way back to her creation some 30 years ago when we were prototyping the original game with an Allosaurus chasing Lara around a big boxy room.)
What a cute cameo.
Congrats to @TeamAsobi for making such a great game.
(Love the dino too - Lara Croft and dinosaurs go all the way back to her creation some 30 years ago when we were prototyping the original game with an Allosaurus chasing Lara around a big boxy room.)
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Ah yes the dino warrior...
That Natla line "you can't bump off me and my brood so easy Lara" hints at the planned finale being more epic than the underwhelming 1v1 it turned out.
The Atlantis levels were heavily curtailed as we had to wrap a month early. C'est la guerre.
Cant recall a 'war machine' beyond the pyramid itself.
Before we ran out of time the final boss battle with Natla was planned to happen outside after Lara had battled her way out of the collapsing pyramid and the player was led to believe it was all over (that old trope...😁).
@cnhyv is it true that in the original Tomb Raider there was supposed to be an additional final level where Lara escapes an Atlantean war machine?
The doppelganger in Tomb Raider was a clear homage to Prince of Persia and the shadowman.
We had planned a section with a lengthier introduction to her with reflected rooms and corridors and concluding in a Tardis like geometrical puzzle-based battle. But we ran out of time...
Paul Douglas retweeted
I spent a delightful couple of hours this afternoon talking to #RickDangerous superfan and record-breaking #speedrunner Daniel ("Ditlew") about my career in #videogames and a deep dive onto the intricacies of my #c64 & #atarist #retrogames.
Enjoy!
youtu.be/wW1v2GRHkIY?si=Uu7f…
I remember playing Super Mario 64 and Quake in the summer of 1996 whilst at work waiting for builds to complete. Both games raised the bar so much in their respective ways. Spurred us on to work even harder to finish our game and glad we werent directly competing with either...
Enjoyed this doc, some fab contextualisation.
🚨NEW DOC ALERT🕹️
Wipeout is one of the most fondly remembered video games of the 90's Playstation era, and a large part of that was its iconic soundtrack.
Danny talks to @CoLDSToRAGE about Psygnosis, Amiga demos, PS1 Games, dance music & more.
WATCH: youtu.be/-nwWpQJFGp8
'which is a lady's gun, and not a very nice lady at that' 🤨
#OnThisDay 1908: James Bond author Ian Fleming was born.
Geoffrey Boothroyd was a gun aficionado who wrote to Fleming asking him to change Bond's signature gun – a Beretta – to one more powerful. In this clip, Boothroyd shows why he thought Bond needed a gun with more oomph.
Tomb Raider was developed on one of these devkits - 2 full-length ISA boards that slot in a PC. Had a whopping 8 MB(!) of sys ram compared to 2 MB on the PlayStation which made development and debugging slightly easier. Our testers used the blue debug stations that played CD-Rs.
