Lara Croft creator launches Focal Point Games
Toby Gard, creator of road-worthy Tomb Raider (anti-) heroine Lara Croft, has recently launched the official website for his consultancy business, now called Focal Point Games.
Toby Gard posts un-released sketches of Lara Croft poses for the marketing visuals of Tomb Raider: Legend. More through the Gard jump.
Team Lara: You can be our new Lead Designer — with a catch
Toby Gard’s short-lived tenure as Lead Designer at Crystal Dynamics has sent the team hunting for a new guy to take helm. This time though, Team Lara prefers someone who can contribute something entirely new and different to the Tomb Raider franchise.
Toby Gard on marketing Lara Croft: Body language is key. “It’s incredible how much you can communicate through pose.”
Toby Gard talks marketing Lara Croft through body language
Toby Gard may have already left Lara Croft for good, but that doesn’t mean he’s completely gotten over her. In his latest blog entry, Toby Gard gives a behind-the-scenes look at the conceptual stage of the promotional images for Tomb Raider Legend and Anniversary. He says there’s a unifying factor to all of them, and it’s this.
It’s been said that a mouse slip led to Lara having an above-average breast size, increasing the original intended pair by 150%. Here’s how they would look like had Toby Gard slid the mouse across his desk. As deviously posted by batwolverine.
The Art of Tomb Raider is the first book to present every signifcant piece of Tomb Raider art from all the games and adventures of Lara Croft. This gallery of art is presented in a two volume, 568 page book. Volume 1 chronicles Tomb Raider through Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. Volume 2 chronicles Tomb Raider: Legend through Tomb Raider: Underworld. The two volume set is house in a slipcase. Who’s ordered it?
Pillars of Lara Croft. Post-Toby Gard, before Crystal Dynamics.
In lieu of the Laura Cruz prototype, Core Design searched the phonebook for a more British name to go with the character. And then, there was magic.
Laura Cruz, the original incarnation of Lara Croft, as seen in Toby Gard Games show reel
There’s a constant influx of young people bursting with ideas, willing to give them away just for the chance to make what they want to make.
- Toby Gard, on owning your ideas
Left to right: Forest Swartout Large, Eric Lindstrom and Toby Gard at Crystal Dynamics HQ. Picture-break from brainstroming on Tomb Raider Underworld cinematics. Photo courtesy of Keir Edmonds, Eidos community manager.
Toby Gard talks freelance work and sequel development
Lara Croft creator Toby Gard has decided to go freelance after sticking it out with Lara a second time. While not easy, the decision, says Toby, has its up-sides: “I will be able to enjoy her as a consumer again and I can now fall in love with a bunch of new characters, without feeling like I’m cheating.”
Now with his very own consultancy business in tow, Toby Gard was kind enough to answer some of our questions, specifically on his take on freelance work in the games industry and the heart that has to go with developing a franchise sequel (hint, hint) year after year. Quick question-and-answer follows:
What particular genres do you think you will most gravitate towards? Do you have any preferences as to the genre of games you will be involved in?
Action adventure is where almost all my work experience lies, although as a games player RPG are more my bread and butter.
In games development, basing on your past involvements, is it better to have a one-man team for creative vision (thus having a more focused one) or is it always the case that brainstorming and compromises be made?
Brainstorming is essential. To limit the source of ideas that belong in the project to one person’s mind would never result in a better game than a collaboration. Compromise is also an necessary reality due to fixed variables such as technology, manpower, time and money limitations. However, the purpose of a creative director is to hold, communicate and rally the whole team towards a coherent vision. Some creative directors can sell the team on that vision and are able to see what ideas fit with it (regardless of their source); to lead the team into making a game that is coherent. Other creative directors let the team design the game and then rely on feedback to organically ‘grow’ a game. It is debatable which will make the ‘better’ game.
You have said that the games industry should somehow adopt a freelance-based business model, citing Fireproof and Darkside as examples. Does moving towards this framework necessarily make “set” development teams (i.e. Crystal Dynamics, Rocksteady, etc.) redundant? Would Eidos for example hiring different freelance teams (one for AI, one for environmental graphics, one for character modelling, etc.) and putting them together for a specific game be a better choice?
As I said in my blog, I am talking about an ideal that cannot truly come to pass until there are developer agnostic game platforms, that enable people to freely move from team to team without the ridiculously steep learning curve of encountering completely different processes and tools. Some studios manage to avoid the cycles of hires and layoffs by layering multiple projects and having good roll-off plans. Not all studios can do that though.
In light of this freelance framework, is there a chance that a creative vision set for Game X will not be carried out in its sequel Game X 2 thus losing consistency and long-term focus? This query is based on the idea that the freelance framework might not ensure that the same set of teams will be around for sequel development — which then would be the main point of having a fixed dev team such as IO Interactive, Eidos Montreal, etc.
I think that creating sequels can quickly become very wearying for teams. Development takes two years at least, so two games in a franchise is at least four years of a person’s life. A certain loss of enthusiasm is inevitable. I think if you want to refine a game in it’s sequel then by all means keep it with the same team, but if you want to revitalize it, then it needs new blood, overlooked by someone or some people who really know the heart of the franchise.
Asked about what he thinks of the next Lara Croft game (currently, supposedly in development at Crystal Dynamics), Toby thought it wise to keep mum on the goings-on in Redwood. After all, he’s under NDA. Whatever he contributed to the game during his tenure as Lead Designer, we’ll have to wait and see. And hopefully the wait won’t be too long now. Should be a treat to see whether those leaks did get to the actual prod-phase.
The people who have made Lara possible. They’re her bosses, both past and current. They deserve thanks (or do they?).
What Lara could have looked like. Unused concept arts for Tomb Raider Underworld, as seen on official Gard page.
