At the time I didn’t like that and it prompted me to want to retain control of characters I created in the future, so that’s why I left.” – Toby Gard ( The Guardian, 2006) An icon is bornĪny whiff of trouble at developer Core Design was quickly extinguished by the sweet smell of Tomb Raider’s success. “What I objected to was the marketing which represented Lara in a way that was nothing like the character. It was a move that didn’t sit well with Gard, who had to watch as a character he’d initially envisioned as challenging gender-stereotypes quickly succumbed to them. What followed was an aggressive marketing campaign, featuring ever provocative ads, pushing Lara as the PlayStation’s mascot of choice, and introducing 3D gaming to an alternative crowd too adult for Super Mario 64 (which debuted just six weeks before).
Tomb raider series full#
Along with an overall polishing of the game that included a cinematic musical score, voice acting and full motion video cutscenes to further the story (a rarity at the time), Eidos’ second attempt as wooing Sony was more successful. It provided an easy angle from which to market the game: here was a larger than life character who would easily appeal to male gamers, hooked into the belief that “sex sells”. Before the changes could be reverted, an almost unanimous decision from Core Design’s six-person project team meant the new, buxom Lara was set to stay. Lara was always supposed to have exaggerated features, more from a game design standpoint than anything, but while making final tweaks to the character’s curvy wire-frame model, a slip of Gard’s mouse increased a planned breast enlargement by 150%. When Eidos showed off an early build to Sony, the PlayStation heavyweights were originally less than impressed, and even decided to pass on the title, so it was back to the drawing board for the Core Design team, tightening up features for a second round.
There was still some tweaking to be done though, and initially Tomb Raider’s hero was to be of South American decent, and named ‘Laura Cruz’.Īfter Eidos’ management argued for a more “UK friendly” name, Gard took to the phone book and settled on Lara Croft as a compromise. Lara’s initial designs included a muscular woman, a Nazi-like militant and a sociopathic blonde, before the final design was settled upon. “The idea was to create a female character who was a heroine, you know, cool, collected, in control, that sort of thing.” – Toby Gard ( Gamasutra, 1998) He was keen to provide a counterpoint to the stereotypical depiction of women in video games at the time, who were often portrayed simply as eye-candy and sex objects, and set about designing a character based on the unlikely reference points of Neneh Cherry and comic book character Tank Girl.
It was at this point that Gard decided “the female character just worked better”, and started shifting to early designs for Lara. These similarities to Indiana Jones didn’t go unnoticed by Core Design co-founder Jeremy Smith, who requested that the character be redesigned along more original lines.
Initially, Gard’s idea was of a male protagonist with a whip and a hat, an image that should be instantly familiar to many film fans. The inception of gaming’s most famous leading lady is one riddled with interesting tidbits of information, many of which will be unknown to casual players.ĭevelopment for the original PlayStation title started way back in 1993, with Toby Gard – lead graphic artist of Eidos subsidiary Core Design – being charged with the design of the game’s lead character.
Tomb raider series series#
Tomb Raider series Group Description Tomb Raider is a series of action games with platforming and puzzle-solving elements, featuring a recurrent heroine, an archaeologist named Lara Croft.
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