Karl Stewart of Crystal Dynamics has revealed the studio has made huge efforts to give Lara Croft a much richer personality, aided largely by a cast much bigger htan than of previous titles.
“One of the key learnings that we’ve had from Tomb Raiders in the past is that Lara’s never really had a personality. She’s kind of been a caricature of herself,” Stewart explained in a pre-E3 event in May.
“When you look at examples of successful franchises – and namely you look at Lost as a great example – Lost thrust these seven, 10, 12 people, whatever it was, onto an island and they had to interact with each other, and as a result you got to know them more.
“You got their personalities. What we find is that by [having a large supporting cart] each one has their own trait, and Lara has to interact with them, and as a result she talks with them differently and you start to learn more about her. So it’s a great way for us to show more about a character who up until now has always been one-dimensional.”
Stewart dons the crown of Tomb Raider global brand director and works closely with the game devs involved in making Lara who she is. He says Crystal Dynamics are fully putting their “balls to the wall” in a bid to re-imagine Lara.
“We’ve tried to set the foundation for the future of our franchise by going in and telling a story in the first hour or two that helps ground it,” came Stewart.
“I think, given how iconic Lara Croft is and how she’s been around for 15 years, to re-imagine it, there’s a lot of cynicism [about that]. To re-imagine it really well, you have to put your balls to the wall and take that chance of, you know, let’s take the first 90 minutes and break her down, but then build her back up in a way where people will go, ‘Now you’ve just set the foundation for who she is for the rest of her days.'”
Tomb Raider will be released on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in Q1 2013. While the title was originally planned for a holiday 2012 release it’s since been put back in a bid to make sure it’s as polished as possible.
“Our focus is on making sure we deliver this experience from start to finish at the quality from start to finish,” Stewart explained post-E3 2012 demo reveal. “Setting it up in the first hour and a half is no good if you don’t see it all the way through.”
Check out the Tomb Raider “Crossroads” E3 trailer below:
