Interviews// Ian Livingstone Interview: Edinburgh Interactive Festival 07

SPOnG And what does the future have in store for Lara?

Ian Livingstone Well the next Tomb Raider is well in development now. It was a very bold move for us to move the development from [developer] Core over to Crystal Dynamics in the US. It was a difficult decision, but we had to do it, because of Angel of Darkness not meeting our expectations.

Clearly Crystal have extraordinary technology and they took a lot of time and effort going back to basics and examining what the world actually wanted from Lara Croft. Rather than what somebody thought they wanted.

So they sorted out issues with the camera and control and took the game back to the roots of what Lara should be. Not wandering around empty streets of Paris or Prague, but actually adventuring and exploring, particularly in tombs! Also making her very athletic and easy to control, in a sort of trapeze-like-way, through the environments. They executed brilliantly on that.


SPOnG And what about the movies, what’s the latest plans there?

Ian Livingstone Well we’re talking to Paramount, who have an option to do a third one - as has Angelina Jolie. But it hasn’t been green lit yet. They’re talking at the moment about who to get in as a scriptwriter, so it’s a fair way from the green light stage. I think they are also watching how well the latest two games are doing – Legend and Anniversary – which prove the fact that there is still this huge fanbase for Lara Croft. So, hopefully, ultimately, that will trigger their commitment to green light the next movie.


SPOnG How was it meeting Angelina Jolie for the first time?

Ian Livingstone I’m still recovering from that first experience of meeting her [laughs]. You just turn into a gibbering wreck in her presence! We’d been up to Pinewood studios to watch her doing a few moves and being filmed. She walked over and said, “Hi, I’m Angelina.” I said, “Hi, I’m Ian” and after that I was lost for words. It was all over! [laughs]


SPOnG Lara appeals to boys, for fairly obvious reasons, because she’s sexy. Yet she also appeals to girls. She’s often cited as some kind of modern feminist icon. How’s this?

Ian Livingstone Well look at her – she’s strong, intelligent, independent, athletic, sexy, adventurous… all the qualities that men like in a woman. And guess what? Women like those qualities too! Plus, the fact that Lara doesn’t actually appear to need men is a further bonus for women to like her.


SPOnG Back to this ‘X factor’ you mentioned that makes a good game character. What is it? What gives audiences this emotional involvement with the character?

Ian Livingstone Well it’s a mixture of things. Physical appearance, personality, the name – is it descriptive or jokey? – the character’s background, the dialogue and voice – both increasingly importance as conversations in games become increasingly realistic. Humour also, for me, is important. Not overdone, but people always relate to and connect with an element of humour. Facial expressions are also becoming more important. Then there are the character's signatory moves, catch-phrases and then of course the overall story, all of these things contribute towards the creation of a character that has presence and lasting appeal.


SPOnG You mention facial expressions. One of the ongoing problems developers seem to have with this in games is what they refer to as the ‘uncanny valley’.

Ian Livingstone You mean where the facial expression is not quite real enough, because you can’t get the nuances of the expression?


SPOnG Yes.

Ian Livingstone Well, in time that will happen. We’re struggling with it now and in fact it’s probably easier for people to connect with stylised or cult cartoon characters than it is a nearly realistic person, because without those types of nuances you don’t actually get a strong emotional connection.

Sometimes game characters that suffer from this problem seem slightly deranged, because of that lack of nuance in the facial expressions. We’ll get there in time though, technology has not stopped advancing quite yet.


SPOnG Moving on to other Eidos games-into-movies, when is the Hitman movie coming out?

Ian Livingstone It’s going to be sometime in October I think, but no date has been officially announced yet. It’s based on the Hitman [Agent 47] character, but not directly on any of the Hitman games.


SPOnG Kane and Lynch is your big game for Christmas 2007.

Ian Livingstone Yes, also from IO. I think they demonstrate more than anybody else the importance of character. They really work hard at establishing their characters to resonate with the audience. Though obviously they go for ‘bad men’ [chuckles].


SPOnG Yeah, they are fairly nasty criminally insane characters…

Ian Livingstone Yep. And you’re not supposed to like them but you do.


SPOnG Exactly! But with the current climate and the recent Manhunt 2 ban, isn’t there this slight culture of fear about creating those types of games? Is that fair to say?

Ian Livingstone Well, no. I don’t think that’s fair to say really. A mature audience should be able to make mature choices about what they do for entertainment. And judging the whole of the games industry on the back of one banned title is rather like judging the whole of the film industry on the back of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

There’s a wide variety of games out there applicable to all ages, young and old, male and female. If people do want to watch mature films or play mature games then they should be entitled to.


SPOnG You mentioned at the Develop conference last month, in the Room 101 session, that one of your pet videogame hates was Nazi characters in games. Why was this?

Ian Livingstone Ha! Well, it was just a bit of a joke really. I was just making the point that people should just think a bit more originally about adversaries in games. Don’t let it always be the usual bad guys. Let’s have a few more shades of grey – you know, let’s see games where we ask ourselves, “Are these characters bad or are they good?” Instead of just saying, “You’re bad and I’m going to kill you” we should encourage more original approaches to creating adversaries.