“Sometimes you need fresh perspectives” – How external development helped Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis

A hands-off demonstration of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis at Gamescom last week showed that the game is far from a simple remaster of the 1996 original; it’s a complete reworking of Lara Croft’s first adventure.

Crystal Dynamics has handed over the development reins to Polish studio Flying Wild Hog, which has added much to the Tomb Raider formula. Notably, the first-aid kits are gone, replaced by Lara crafting health-giving tinctures and stat-boosting meals from collectable ingredients. Lara now also has a skill tree: the demo showed the use of skill points to boost the range of Lara’s iconic dual pistols.

At a round-table Q&A after the demo, Raul Siqueira, game director at Crystal Dynamics, and Flying Wild Hog art director Arek Tomaszewski shed light on how the external development partnership worked, the studios’ relationship with Amazon, and why we won’t be seeing the return of tank controls in Legacy of Atlantis when it launches on February 12.

Team effort

Legacy of Atlantis is being developed by both California-based Crystal Dynamics and Poland’s Flying Wild Hog, although Siqueira says everyone working on the game is one team, referred to internally as ‘Team Atlantis’.

“We are really good at breaking down the invisible walls that we can build between studios during development,” he says. “It became very clear when we first started talking to each other that both studios saw game development in the same way. We were very good about being honest about what’s needed and how we want to do it. It was just one of those things that came very naturally.

“Obviously, Crystal comes from a background of a lot of Tomb Raider games, and there’s a lot of history here, but sometimes you need fresh perspectives. Sometimes you need someone new to come in and look at what you have so you can create something unique. I feel like that collaboration has been one of the best parts of this project.”

Of course, Flying Wild Hog isn’t the only relationship that Crystal Dynamics is having to manage with Legacy of Atlantis. Tech and retail giant Amazon is publishing both this project and the upcoming Tomb Raider: Catalyst, as well as producing a TV series based on the IP starring Sophie Turner.

Siqueira says that his studio is working “pretty closely” with Amazon on all fronts,

“We share a commitment to the franchise and to the character that goes past the walls of the studio and beyond,” he says. “We do have an internal franchise team at Crystal Dynamics. They’re masterminds, responsible people who have worked on the franchise for 20-plus years. Then they’re engaged across the board in all projects. There’s a great collaboration between everyone.”

He continues, laughing: “But I think if I start talking more about other projects, some people might tackle me from the stage.”

No tanks

At the outset, the team replayed the 1996 original as well as the 2007 remake, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, which emphasised how the memory can play tricks. “We all have that memory of what that game looks like in our brain, and then we play it, and we’re like, ‘Ah, that’s different’,” says Siqueira. “And in doing so, we were able to identify, OK, what are some of the key moments, key locations, things that we have to preserve, that have to stay exactly as they are, then where can we kind of colour outside the lines?”

As noted above, Team Atlantis has added things like crafting and weapon upgrades. But one distinctive aspect of the original game has been dropped: tank controls.

“The control scheme has been adapted to fit the modern audience,” Siqueira says. “Of course, the original games are always available to you: We just did Tomb Raider 1 Remastered. If you want to go back to tank controls, I applaud your enthusiasm. I tried it many times, and man, it’s hard.”

Tomaszewski adds: “That’s one of those things about remembering a game. I remember [thinking it was] awesome, but when I played it after 20 years, it’s like: What is going on? It’s so hard.”

When it was first revealed, Legacy of Atlantis made its debut alongside Tomb Raider: Catalyst, where the latter is a sequel set years after the events of 2008’s Tomb Raider: Underworld. Asked how much synergy there is between the two projects, Siqueira says that there is “definitely collaboration” between the two games, and that there are not multiple versions of the main character.

“Obviously, we are making the games together,” he says. “However, it is very important for us to distinguish that Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is completely its own project and we are making sure that we are staying faithful to the original game. When it comes to specifics of where Lara is in her journey moving forward, we want to be respectful to both the games that came before and the games that came after. The Lara you see here is the same Lara from the Survivor era [Tomb Raider 2013, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which tell Lara’s origin story], and it will be the same Lara in our projects moving forward.”

Disclosure: Alex Forbes-Calvin has previously worked with Crystal Dynamics on the book Chronicles of the Tomb Raider.