STACK #133 Nov 2016

GAMES

FEATURE

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Crystal Dynamics has a relatively low staff count. What this means is that everybody is required to, in his words, “wear more than one hat”. This extends to the writing team, too. Although

Lara's back!We chat to senior designer at Crystal Dynamics, Mike Brinker. The TOMB RAIDER

Rhianna Pratchett writes the bulk of the narrative, the overall story arc is very much a collaborative effort, and this all begins with researching history. “We start with an overall look at our research for a history and what the story is that we want to tell,” Brinker says. “So, we look at what some of the myths that surround immortality are and start with that layer of history, and then we start to broaden it from there. “We then write sections of the story and present it back to the team, and we also do a lot of focus stuff, so we have people come in who have never seen the game before and we bounce ideas off of them, saying, 'Hey, what do you think about this?' “We very quickly get a clear picture of what people understand, are going to understand, what they like, what they don’t like, and that starts to formulate not just our team in-house but also what comes from the external writers.” Crystal Dynamics have been in charge of the Tomb Raider legacy now for almost a decade, replacing franchise progenitors Core Design in 2006. Just what is it about Lara Croft that appeals to so many gamers? “She is absolutely driven to go and uncover the mysteries of the world,” Brinker says. “if you look at the evolution of the franchise, look who Lara is, what appeals to people is that sense of adventure and that sense of purpose. She’s always been about uncovering those truths and the risks and sacrifices that she has to make in order to do that. I believe that's what really appeals to people.”

how we build our puzzles, how we build our mechanics to speak to Lara’s character, and how she tackles situations in a smart, resourceful way. “When we start to build puzzles, we go back to what our layers of history are and what our narrative is. You start to structure things around that, and then, when you find those myths and those stories that play along with the main story,

W e can’t remember how the conversation headed in this direction, but when it’s revealed to Mike Brinker, senior designer at Crystal Dynamics, that we struggle with the puzzles in the Uncharted franchise because of colour blindness, he’s over the moon. “I’m so glad you brought that up. We have several people in the team who are colour blind and we always run through tests with people to make sure it works,” he replies. “When we do our colour layering, we run it past the game director who is also colour blind. Ironically, quite a few members of our art team are colour blind, so we try to stay away from colour palette shifts and more in tunnel shifts, so you have a big contrast.“ From colour blindness we move to puzzles; the conversation is lurching like a container ship in the midst of a storm. So intrinsic to the Tomb Raider experience, puzzles are back – bigger and better – in Rise of the Tomb Raider ; and we're keen to learn how they come together. “We have a team

She is absolutely driven to uncover the mysteries of the world

we start to work on the puzzles and how they would feel in the specified time period. “What’s cool about how we build puzzles is that it’s not just about, ‘hey, go build one’. It’s about, ‘hey, let’s start with a micro set of concepts and then build up this beautiful ramp where we have all these options’, and that becomes a very diverse and very cool puzzle.” Brinker reveals that for a triple-A studio,

called the SRL team, which stands for the Smart Resources Lara team,” he explains. “What that basically means is we spend all of our time working out

Tomb Raider Developer, Crystal Dynamics

Crystal Dynamics was actually founded way back in 1992. Remember the 3DO? Well, Crystal Dynamics was the first licensed developer for the console back in 1993. By 1996, the 3DO was nothing but a memory.

The studio’s first game was the racer Crash N Burn in 1993; a launch title for the 3DO. The critically acclaimed platformer Gex , one of the best selling titles on the 3DO, was a Crystal Dynamics game.

Crystal Dynamics took control of the Tomb Raider franchise in 2003. Tomb Raider: Legend , released in 2006, became the fastest selling game in the series.

• Rise of the Tomb Raider is out Nov 10.

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