Interviews// Tomb Raider

Posted 25 Jun 2011 11:00 by
Companies:
Games: Tomb Raider
SPOnG: The climbing axe that we see in the demo. Is that something that you keep throughout the game?

Noah Hughes: Yes, that’s an example of one of our gear upgrades, and for the most part you’ll get to keep these items for the rest of the game and take advantage of its functions. One of the things we wanted to do is make sure that when we give you an object like that, it really is multi-functional. There’s some obvious functions for a climbing axe for example, but we really play with other things that you can do with it later on in the game.


SPOnG: I find it interesting that Crystal Dynamics is rebooting the Tomb Raider series, given that you guys have essentially done it once before with Tomb Raider Legend. Were you surprised by the negative reaction from fans for Underworld, given that it was grounded in a philosophy that was critically acclaimed two games prior?

Noah Hughes: Well, I think that one of the things that’s particularly exciting about this opportunity is doing things fresh each time out. Sure, we were surprised by certain things, but ultimately we feel what the fans feel when we hear them talk, right? We really felt that, since everyone was asking for something fresh, we wanted to give them just that.

Now the trick in that is to also give something that’s very true to the roots of the franchise. As much as we were willing to hit that reboot button, we brought it back to Lara Croft and showed that it’s still very much Lara’s story and the journey we can put her through that can grow her into the Tomb Raider.


SPOnG: So did you feel, even as you brought out Underworld, a sense that maybe it was time to change things up a bit?

Noah Hughes: With Underworld, we were committed to... (pause) we were talking long before Underworld shipped about how we were going to evolve the franchise, and do so in a meaningful and noticeable way. So ultimately we had started out down that path as developers from our own instincts and feelings.

But when we really took a step back and decided that that this game wasn’t going to just be an incremental evolution, that we were going to start the whole story from scratch again... that was our real commitment to making something that is absolutely nothing like any other Tomb Raider ever seen, but absolutely feels like a game that belongs in that universe. And that’s been such a wonderful challenge.


SPOnG: Is this a chance to directly establish Lara as more of a serious heroine? Before it was all about the big-chest, shades, tight costumes and things like that. Now she’s sensitive, maturing herself against the elements. Are you aiming to set her down that path?

Noah Hughes: Kind of, but not necessarily in that particular way. In telling her origins story, we wanted to make her relatable. So rather than change her for change’s sake, we started with that goal of just making her real, and then everything sort of fell out of that.

Her character design, the story that we were telling, the themes we were after... we were really just trying to ground that in. A human experience - that was the starting point, rather than focusing on changing X, Y or Z. But you can see how, once you take that sense of bringing her to life, those changes can influence the audio and the animation and the visuals too.


SPOnG: It was really great to see all the different interactions that you could have, like using the triggers to crawl out of the Scavenger’s Den. How difficult is it to make those dynamic scenes interactive without making it all feel too scripted?

Noah Hughes: I’ll be very clear that we probably have a denser expression of some of those more scripted sequences that is representative of the broader game, but we play with all kinds of tools to blend cinematic and emotional experiences with gameplay.

Some of the scenes, for example, could really just be a case of using a quick time event to really put the player close to Lara on an emotional level, but at the same time you sacrifice some of the playability aspects of the game, right? This is why we balance out our cinematic toolset with ways to deliver compelling action and excitement during gameplay.

The point for us is not to separate gameplay as the ‘fun part’ and the cinematics as the ‘story part’ - we want to really smash those two together and use all the tools we have for the appropriate situation. The opening sequence in particular is very much an on-ramp to the gameplay experience, and really rooted in that emotional introduction to Lara Croft.

My hope is that people will take away the idea that Lara is performing throughout this game, but not at the expense of the controls, the gameplay and the fun.


SPOnG: One of the things that was really obvious in the demo was the use of camera viewpoints throughout the game to increase the sense of claustrophobia. Have you looked outside of games or used broader influences to introduce these elements into the game?

Noah Hughes: Yeah, definitely. We have cinematographer talent within our cinematics, as well as cinematographic talent specifically for the gameplay experiences. They share, communicate and draw inspiration from similar sources - but again it’s back to the idea that if camera is important in cinematics for emotion, then it’s important in the game. And we try to think of ways we can achieve this that doesn’t conflict with the playability of that experience.


SPOnG: Clearly, this Tomb Raider, in terms of visual content, goes further than any that we’ve seen before. It’s very visceral and gritty - there’s a bit where Lara’s falling and ends up impaling herself. You’re obviously going for a bit of a shock angle to drill home this emotional experience, but was there a danger of crossing a line at all in terms of how far you were willing to push Lara’s pain threshold?

Noah Hughes: Yeah, I guess. We felt that it was very important to make her real, and forge her into the heroine that she’ll become. Both of those really required her to go through an intense ordeal, to transition from the young and naive archaeologist and become the Tomb Raider. You have to assume that there’s some trials and tribulations over the course of that.

So we started with that, and ultimately the boundary was ‘what delivers on those needs, of making her feel a human and forging her into a hero without being gratuitous.’ So that’s where the line is. Come at it from the goal space and stop at gratuitous.


SPOnG: Thank you for your time.

Noah Hughes: Thank you!
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