“Generally you need fresh views” – How external development helped Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis

A hands-off demonstration of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis at Gamescom final week confirmed that the sport is way from a easy remaster of the 1996 authentic; it is a full transforming of Lara Croft’s first journey.

Crystal Dynamics has handed over the development reins to Polish studio Flying Wild Hog, which has added a lot to the Tomb Raider system. Notably, the first-aid kits are gone, changed by Lara crafting health-giving tinctures and stat-boosting meals from collectable substances. Lara now additionally has a ability tree: the demo confirmed the use of ability factors to spice up the vary of Lara’s iconic twin pistols.

At a round-table Q&A after the demo, Raul Siqueira, sport director at Crystal Dynamics, and Flying Wild Hog artwork director Arek Tomaszewski make clear how the external development partnership labored, the studios’ relationship with Amazon, and why we can’t be seeing the return of tank controls in Legacy of Atlantis when it launches on February 12.

Workforce effort

Legacy of Atlantis is being developed by each California-based Crystal Dynamics and Poland’s Flying Wild Hog, though Siqueira says everybody engaged on the sport is one group, referred to internally as ‘Workforce Atlantis’.

“We’re actually good at breaking down the invisible partitions that we will construct between studios throughout development,” he says. “It grew to become very clear after we first began speaking to one another that each studios noticed sport development in the identical manner. We had been superb about being trustworthy about what’s wanted and the way we wish to do it. It was only one of these issues that got here very naturally.

“Clearly, Crystal comes from a background of rather a lot of Tomb Raider video games, and there is a lot of historical past right here, however generally you need fresh views. Generally you need somebody new to come back in and have a look at what you have so you can create one thing distinctive. I really feel like that collaboration has been one of the perfect components of this challenge.”

After all, Flying Wild Hog is not the one relationship that Crystal Dynamics is having to handle with Legacy of Atlantis. Tech and retail big Amazon is publishing each this challenge and the upcoming Tomb Raider: Catalyst, in addition to producing a TV sequence primarily based on the IP starring Sophie Turner.

Siqueira says that his studio is working “fairly intently” with Amazon on all fronts,

“We share a dedication to the franchise and to the character that goes previous the partitions of the studio and past,” he says. “We do have an inner franchise group at Crystal Dynamics. They’re masterminds, accountable individuals who have labored on the franchise for 20-plus years. Then they’re engaged throughout the board in all initiatives. There’s an excellent collaboration between everybody.”

He continues, laughing: “However I feel if I begin speaking extra about different initiatives, some individuals may deal with me from the stage.”

No tanks

On the outset, the group replayed the 1996 authentic in addition to the 2007 remake, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which emphasised how the reminiscence can play tips. “All of us have that reminiscence of what that sport appears like in our mind, after which we play it, and we’re like, ‘Ah, that is completely different’,” says Siqueira. “And in doing so, we had been capable of determine, OK, what are some of the important thing moments, key places, issues that we now have to protect, which have to remain precisely as they’re, then the place can we type of color exterior the strains?”

As famous above, Workforce Atlantis has added issues like crafting and weapon upgrades. However one distinctive side of the unique sport has been dropped: tank controls.

“The management scheme has been tailored to suit the trendy viewers,” Siqueira says. “After all, the unique video games are at all times out there to you: We simply did Tomb Raider 1 Remastered. If you wish to return to tank controls, I applaud your enthusiasm. I attempted it many occasions, and man, it is onerous.”

Tomaszewski provides: “That is one of these issues about remembering a sport. I bear in mind [thinking it was] superior, however once I performed it after 20 years, it is like: What’s going on? It is so onerous.”

When it was first revealed, Legacy of Atlantis made its debut alongside Tomb Raider: Catalyst, the place the latter is a sequel set years after the events of 2008’s Tomb Raider: Underworld. Requested how a lot synergy there may be between the 2 initiatives, Siqueira says that there’s “positively collaboration” between the 2 video games, and that there should not a number of variations of the primary character.

“Clearly, we’re making the video games collectively,” he says. “Nonetheless, it is extremely necessary for us to differentiate that Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is totally its personal challenge and we’re ensuring that we’re staying devoted to the unique sport. In the case of specifics of the place Lara is in her journey transferring ahead, we wish to be respectful to each the video games that got here earlier than and the video games that got here after. The Lara you see right here is identical Lara from the Survivor period [Tomb Raider 2013, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which tell Lara’s origin story], and will probably be the identical Lara in our initiatives transferring ahead.”

Disclosure: Alex Forbes-Calvin has beforehand labored with Crystal Dynamics on the e-book Chronicles of the Tomb Raider.