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The beginning of the game is kind of a metaphor for her birth she struggles out of the darkness of the caverns and emerges to the light of the cliff side. How did you reflect the "Survivor is Born" theme visually? These influences were the foundation of bringing personality to the island of Yamatai.
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They created some of the most amazing natural wonders that look beautiful but ominous showing how nature can be scary. The John Martin painting is amazing and while not an immediate reference, it was in line with the paintings we were inspired by from Turner, Bierstadt, and Church. They have a dark beauty to them that we wanted to capture in Tomb Raider. In terms of visual reference points what were your inspirations, either in terms of other games or in terms of artworks? I thought I detected a touch of John Martin apocalyptica in the opening sections.įor inspiration we looked at movies like Apocalypse Now and The Descent. Our interpretation is in line with what we like to see in our heroes today, flaws are as important as strengths. We feel Lara is one of the most influential female heroes in all media, but we knew the 90s represented different values for a hero. I do think this happens in our culture, where themes emerge from different places and seem to connect. We weren't even aware of The Hunger Games when we finalized Lara's look and the bow as her new signature weapon. Do you think they both tap into a how we are trying to portray women at the moment or is it something else entirely? There were hints of The Hunger Games and Katniss Everdeen in Lara's look too although I gather that was coincidental. We did a focus test on the final concept and it tested very well, most people were more drawn to her face than they were to her body. We retained some iconic elements, like her brown eyes, her "M" shaped upper lip and the ponytail. We made her body frame more petite, her face less chiseled, and her clothes are practical, with dual tank tops, cargo pants, and boots. We wanted this young Lara to look like a girl you knew while retaining some of the iconic qualities of Lara Croft. They get hurt and express emotion, but find the inner strength to keep moving and prevail. All of these heroes relate to a common theme they are real people in a horrible survival situation. We were inspired by characters in films and TV, like Ellen Ripley from Aliens, Kate from Lost, John Rambo from First Blood, and even John McClane from Die Hard. Lara went through many incarnations, at one point she had a more classic look with a young girl as a companion-she even had a monkey as a helper in one version!īrenoch Adams (Art Director) and I went through the design process together. Lara's look took a lot of exploration and iteration. OK, so in terms of Lara herself, how did her look progress and how did you know when you'd got it right? It was exciting and scary at the same time, we knew it would be a bold change for Tomb Raider and we were happy with the positive reception when we announced the reboot in 2009. These changes gave us room to allow her to grow as a character. We removed Lara's experience and confidence but we retained her intelligence, curiosity, and determination. To believe in this survival story, we grounded Lara, and her world, making both as realistic as we could. Our concept was a simple one that allowed us to rework Lara's look and abilities an inexperienced Lara Croft on her first expedition, her ship crashes on an island and she must do whatever it takes to survive. Lara Croft was a confident and totally capable anti-hero, but she didn't have much room to grow in ability or characterization.
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The Tomb Raider games are iconic-how do you even get started reworking a game with such a strong visual legacy?Īs a fan of the classic games, I played Tomb Raider 1 and 2 again to remember why I loved them so much. To redress the balance, .uk quizzed Brian Horton, Senior Art Director at Crystal Dynamics, on all of the above and then a little bit more. Rather fewer were given over to the use of apocalyptic artwork, invisible cameramen, birth metaphors, and emotional color palettes. When Tomb Raider-the reboot of the game franchise with which it shares a name-came out earlier in March, many a column inch was devoted to Lara Croft's evolution from archaeological adventurer to concerningly capable killer.