Eight Films That Helped Influence Rise Of The Tomb Raider
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Early in the production of Rise of the Tomb Raider, Crystal Dynamics put together something called a rippomatic to help set an emotional tone for the rest of development. A rippomatic is basically an faux trailer for the game, created before any assets or even a game’s story has been fully fleshed out. It’s a common practice in the development of video games, and is built out of a collection of scenes from movies that help set the mood of the game and give something the team (and those financing the game) can see early on to get an idea of the ultimate goal of the game.
“We look at media as a place to start and give us ideas and inspire us to make something better,” says the Rise of the Tomb Raider’s director Brian Horton. It’s not necessarily that the plot of these films will mirror that of Rise of the Tomb Raider, or in some cases are even particularly good films, they just all feature specific scenes of emotional resonance, or cool visuals that the team hopes to emulate for their own purposes. “It informs the gestalt of what ultimately becomes our own idea. It’s basically a sketch,” says Horton.
A Breakdown Of Lara's Gear In Rise Of The Tomb Raider
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Want to know what Lara is really made of? Check out our handy gear guide for a closer look at the gear Lara will be bringing with her to Siberia for her next expedition in Rise of the Tomb Raider.
In Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara has moved well beyond the rookie explorer she was in the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. While she still has a lot to learn, at least this time she's heading off well-equipped. Check out the images below to get a closer look at the gear and clothing Lara will take with her in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Click on each image below for an expanded view of each image:
The Business Decisions Behind Rise Of The Tomb Raider
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After four years in the making, the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider was released and impressed both critics and fans of the classic franchise. While visiting Crystal Dynamics, we spoke with head of western studios Darrell Gallagher about the struggle to create a fresh take on Lara Croft and the immediate news from Square Enix that the title commercially "underperformed." We also speak about the ramp up to creating the sequel and the history of Microsoft's involvement with the project. To learn more about the gameplay for Rise of the Tomb Raider, watch our earlier video feature or read the extensive cover story in the latest issue of the magazine.
Watch the video interview below to learn more about the production behind the new Tomb Raider and the limits of its exclusivity on the Xbox One.
Balancing Survival Vs. Action In Rise Of The Tomb Raider
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Leading up to the release of the Tomb Raider reboot in 2013, Crystal Dynamics pushed the theme that Lara Croft was a survivor. While the survival aspects certainly were a large part of the story, the game didn't cross the line of becoming a systems-driven "survival game." While visiting Crystal Dynamics for our March cover story on Rise of the Tomb Raider, we spoke with creative director Noah Hughes about finding that balance, which the team dubbed "survival-action." We also discuss how things are changing for Rise of the Tomb Raider, including surviving in larger hubs and the incentives for hunting.
Camilla Luddington On Playing Lara Croft And The Difficulties Of Pretending To Drown
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Many will recognize Camilla Luddington from her recurring roles on shows like Grey's Anatomy, Californication, or True Blood, but gamers know her as Lara Croft.
Luddington provided Lara's voice and motion capture performance for the 2013 reboot, and lent a new level of grounded believability to a character that had previously fought dinosaurs and skateboarders in underground caverns. As part of our ongoing Rise of the Tomb Raider coverage, we had a chance to speak with Luddington about how her and how Lara's life has changed since their experience on Yamatai.
Interview With Camilla Luddington
Game Informer: This time around, Lara is a more prepared, more confident adventurer. Are you playing a much different Lara than who you played in the first game?
Camilla Luddington: I think so. One of the things I think is really interesting about her is she is wounded by her experiences in the first game. She feels as if she has gone into a secret world and that normal life is now impossible for her. Now she is consumed in a way to chase artifacts and uncover mysteries even more so than the first game. There is this drive behind her in this game to let the world know that she is not lying. She didn’t make these things up, and she doesn’t have to feel like she imagined something. That drive behind her and the place she is coming from is a little bit different and I think it makes her more than just a survivor like she was in the first game. She realizes that being a tomb raider is who she is meant to be.
Were you familiar with Lara Croft and Tomb Raider prior to the 2013 reboot? Are you a fan?
She is such an iconic character that I assume everyone is familiar with the character. Also, for me when the first game came out, I was probably like 12 or 13 or something like that and my older brother actually had the game. I remember that he rarely let me play, but I would sneak on sometimes. I was familiar with the game really through him because he was a gamer. I grew up with the games being played around my household and admittedly I’m really bad at my own games, which is really depressing. I’m slowly inching towards the end even now. I’ve seen it played the entire way through. But yeah I kind of grew up around her, so I do think she iconic. I kind of assume everyone knows who she is.
If you went back in time and told that 12 year old version of you that one day you would be Lara Croft, what do you think she would say?
I think she would say, I need to play the game more because I was never allowed to play it [laughs]. I think I would use that as an excuse to grab the controls from my brother and say, "Actually I’m going to be Lara Croft, so you need to have me play the game."
How much has your role changed between the 2013 Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider?
It’s very similar. It was facial capture the last time around, except there really weren’t dots on my face. I think there might have been at one point – maybe for the trailer. Obviously they took facial capture, they just probably did it in a different way. This time around we are using something called Mova which is really exciting because it just captures so much more of what you are doing in a scene and makes it just so much more realistic.
I’ve kind of spoken about it before, but just to put it in terms for people to understand, facial capture is usually 90 points of reference on a face and what Mova is a fluorescent paint that gets airbrushed on your face and you can see it under a fluorescent light. It actually captures 7,000 points of reference. For me, like I said, it’s just constantly so exciting to see that because when I get to see a little a bit of what we captured it just looks incredible. It blows my mind; you can really feel the mass effect. More of your performance is in the game than ever. Not everything is motion captured, but Mova is just something that makes it just a little extra exciting.
Lara is a very physical character. Do you have to train to be Lara Croft?
I don’t technically have to train, but I have someone on set who will show me, kind of like I did in the first game, the way to hold certain weapons so that I’m not holding them wrong. I realized very quickly from the last game that it was a lot more physical than I thought it was going to be and so for myself, I did things like circuit training or even biking or running. Those are things that just help me maintain the endurance through an eight hour shoot of motion capture. Where things get really technical or kind of aggressive, they will have stunt people in and kind of go over that because it needs to be choreographed in a way that they feel like stunts are properly performed and better. It is taxing and exhausting, but it’s fun and I want to do as much of it as I personally can.
Bretty_boy: How much will the environment effect Lara? Will Lara's clothes rip and get dirty like in the previous game? Will snow stick to her hair and clothes, and melt in warmer environments?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director):Yes, we have a lot of that stuff. We have story specific progression, as we did last time. Referencing Game Informer as an example, Lara manages to survive her encounter with the bear but not without taking a shredded jacket and a wound to show for it.
We also have system-based reflection of damage on Lara. So if you are hurt, that will show on her character in certain ways. Then, we have the wet and dry states, so when you get in the water, Lara will get wet and then progressively dry off. We also have a dirty state, so she’ll go through situations that leave mud or other dirt on her character and that will clean off. And we have areas where snow might stick to her hair and then melt away indoors.
In addition to that, we try to go even one step farther to have it affect Lara’s animations, so when she steps near a source of heat, she might warm her hands on it. When she steps back out into the cold, she might shiver for a moment as she adjusts to the temperature. We try to go past the visual layer and add a behavioral layer.
We’ve tried to do as much as we can to connect Lara with the world, so a lot of this is the team enjoying adding details to the character because it supports her, grounding her in the moment. In the context of the story, they almost become reminders of everything you’ve been through, and how far you’ve come since the beginning of the game. They reinforce the systems on the moment-to-moment basis, and reinforce the journey on a game basis.
Tihocan: Will Lara have any further hand-to-hand/close quarters combat skills (not as "weapon contextual" as in TR2013)
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): Lara will have some new close quarters combat opportunities based on gear items. It’s a little bit different than the weapon contextual ones in 2013 – those were the ranged weapons. Adding melee finishers with things like the knife is a new type of melee skill that we give Lara. Beyond that, we give finishers from specific stealth opportunities. We’ve seen things like stealth kills from a bush in a number of games, but it starts to feel more Lara-like and survival-y when you’re doing take downs from the trees, or one of my favorites is the stealth kill from the water. These are all ways we have enhanced her core abilities to finish guys up close, especially as an extension of our new enhancements to stealth gameplay.
All of those play into your ability to approach combat and take advantage of these different tools and locational opportunities that the player has. In characterizing Lara, it’s important that we promote her mobility and her agility and use of the environment and a lot of other things that set her apart as a character, and we dont want to make her melees so effective that she essentially brawls her way through the game.
NSW_pride: Will Lara be able to sprint in ROTTR?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): One of the things we really do try to promote is a world that’s dense with traversal and platforming opportunities and try to make it as interesting as possible, especially using Lara’s traversal skills and even traversal gear as you gain it in the game. Oftentimes, we try to create areas that are denser more so than vast and expansive. We speed up your traversal in the world through skill and platforming rather than strictly running.
We try to tune Lara’s speed such that it’s effective in combat and promotes that mobility. Like I said, you can run fast enough to create distance and things like that, but we really promote interesting traversal more than sprinting across open terrain. The truth is we get requests for it still. But I guess the way we respond to those requests is we try to make those areas more fun to traverse rather than to simply get you through quicker.
-Rai--: How limited is the team in developing a new theme for Tomb Raider considering survival action is the new main concept? (as opposed to action adventure TR used to have).
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): It’s important to recognize that we very much see Tomb Raider as an action adventure game and that survival action isn’t “instead of” an action adventure. It’s really informed sort of the flavors that we bring to the action adventure experience.
When you come out of the reboot and talk about hostile wilderness and ancient spaces guarded by inhabitants like bears or wild wolves, the reality is the original Tomb Raider had wolves and bears. A lot of the things that have been wrapped into a survival theme have always been there as part of the franchise. The hostile environment, the treacherous terrain being one of the greatest opponents, and the wildlife in those spaces is informed by the original.
In some ways we’ve pushed survival feeling different than it did before. We go that extra step to try to make sure she’s not relying too heavily on her gear and equipment that she brings with her, and that may be a bit differentiated from the previous games where being well-equipped and rich is very much a part of it. There is sort of this commitment to create situations where Lara has to face these hostile wildernesses in a more one-on-one, stripped of her gear situation, and has to use her wits and her resourcefulness and what she can find in the environment in order to survive. So that’s where it starts to take on that survival tone and experience but again, I feel like those are really a fictional formalization of a lot of the ingredients that were always a part of Tomb Raider.
We talk about not relying too heavily on the gear and trying to recreate this almost David and Goliath story, where Lara has to take on this daunting wilderness in order to unlock its secrets. Part of that is to bring out her character, to recognize her determination and her wit and resourcefulness. And then, as she starts to get immersed in the myth and the culture, her book learning and intellect and intelligence all come into play. It really is that package together that makes her the Tomb Raider.
zackdollars: I hated the combat QTE's in TR9 (ie, mash button escape from wolf bite). I loved the open crate/door QTE's though (not sure if that's a QTE). Is there internal debate regarding implementation of QTE's?
Noah Hughes (Franchise Creative Director): We do hotly debate the subject of QTE’s and we have taken a different approach in this game than in the last. Having said that, we haven’t removed all the combat related QTE’s. However, we do trigger them much more sparingly. What we try to focus on is the consistent responses to gameplay. In the case of prying, we use that to equal an intense and concerted effort from Lara. Occasionally we will use that same concept in a combat context, but you will see that much less than in the last game. I don’t know if dodges and counters fit into QTE’s, but we also still use those more player-driven windows in combat where players have the B button prompt but they’re more systemically triggered rather than exotic moments.
The other thing we try to do with QTE’s is always make the interface consistent. Rather than mash a random button, you will have an exotic version of a core mechanic. So melee, for example - if you’re in a situation where you’re trapped but your hands are free, you might be swinging your axe with the Y button. That’s a normal mechanic done in an exotic situation. This is trying to get away from not knowing what you’re supposed to do until you see the button prompt. The button prompt should really reinforce the mechanics that you’re familiar with, so, whenever possible, we take and create intense moments where you may have to use one of these core mechanics like pry or melee or shoot, but trying to avoid the situation where you’re waiting to see what button it tells you to push. That’s the main changes – to get rid of all button paired, “Simon says” versions of QTE’s and to use exotic expressions of core mechanics whenever possible.
Sorry, I have not had time to update this thread, but here is an E3 announcement and a new Q&A from the official Tomb Raider Forums.
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E3 is just around the corner! With our exciting slate of games coming out in 2015 and beyond, Square Enix will be hosting a dedicated E3 conference in Downtown LA on Tuesday, June 16, at 9AM PDT/ 5PM BST/ 1AM JST. Start E3 right with a dose of some exciting news before the show officially kicks off later in the day.
We will for sure be getting gameplay!!
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April 2015 Official TR Forum Q&A
sonecaboss: I would love to know if you're planning to make adjustments to the amount of ammo that you can gather. In the last game I didn't like the fact that I could find lots of ammo everywhere I go. I don't remember ever being out of ammo. In a game with a theme and a setting like this, where there're few resources, we should feel the need to save ammo and think about smart ways to finish the enemy, like stealth kills. I think at least the hard mode should have something like that and not just tougher enemies.
Brian Horton (Game Director): We’re balancing ammo placements throughout the game as we develop, so we try to find the right balance of where to put ammo boxes. We’ve tended to stray away from dedicated ammo boxes and we’re relying more on enemies dropping ammo. So if you search an enemy you’ve killed, you can get more ammo that way, more often. We’re also balancing all the different modes, as ammo scarcity becomes a factor and you get less ammo as you move into the hard modes.
LaraCroftRox: Is Lara's character model the same as in 2013 Tomb Raider, If not, why did it change?
Brian Horton (Game Director): The model you’re seeing in Rise of the Tomb Raider is completely brand new, built from the ground up. We haven’t utilized anything from Definitive Edition or Tomb Raider 2013, but we’ve evolved from those as a foundation. We did early prototypes of the Definitive Edition model and reconstructed a new character model with Kam Yu as our Principal Character Artist. It definitely has upgraded tremendously - everything from its surface quality to materials to the way the facial animation works. We have a brand new facial animation system driving her facial breakages. We’re going to do a full “Making of Lara” feature in the future and we will go into a lot of details on every aspect of her character creation.
A) Adobe Artist: Will ROTTR feature multiple outfit options for Lara to be included in the core game design (so NOT DLC), either as mission/level start up options, or unlockables for replay?
B) Chriss_02: Will there be any more outfits excluding the 2 ones already shown?
Brian Horton (Game Director): We debuted two outfits so far - one is her Alpine Outfit and the other is the improvised jacket that she wears. There’s going to be multiple outfits that you will see throughout the story adventure, and that you will be able to choose after you acquire them.
Peritvs: Can 360 users expect the hub areas to be as large, dense, and/or interactive as the Xbox One counterpart? Due to the increased size of hubs, can we expect collectible and secret items to be more plentiful? Not that they weren't in the previous installment?
Brian Horton (Game Director): The game will play very much the same, as we’re going to maximize the most we can out of the 360.
As for the second question, with three times the size for a hub, we had to increase the challenges, collectibles, and rewards that you would get from exploring those hubs. You’re going to be able to do a whole lot more in a hub space.
Hubs will also be the house for our challenge tombs – which we had in 2013 – and some of them are extremely difficult to find unless you go off the beaten path. In general they are going to be more plentiful, and I can’t wait for you guys to play them because they’re super, super cool.
MagnaBass18: How closely are you watching Nixxes in terms of the development of the game for X360 ?
Brian Horton (Game Director): We get code updates from them often and do evaluations. It’s amazing how much they’re able to keep up with our development. They’re right behind us on the way we’ve developed the game. It’s something I’ve witnessed, and I’m amazed at what they’re able to accomplish on the 360.