在即将到来的古墓丽影新作背后的工作室在游戏界拥有一段很长的历史，其拥有杰出人才的传统确立了水晶动力的良好声誉。
在1992年，你很难想象水晶动力会成为一个适合游戏设计者发展的理想之地。我们与Noah Hughes进行了交流，了解这个小工作室的早期岁月和它是如何在接近20年的时光中发展壮大为一个为超过30款游戏负责的3A级开发公司。Hughes 刚刚接手即将面世的古墓丽影作品的游戏体验总监。因为他从1993年开始就加入了工作室，所以他经历了许多公司历史上大型游戏的开发，并且见证了一些才华横溢的游戏设计者的加入与离开。
“公司是由Madeline Canepa， Judy Lang和Dave Morse建立的，”Hughes告诉我们。“当我加入时，Madeline正在经营着公司。她给了我第一份工作。Dave Morse——说起来有点意思——是Amiga公司的创建者之一。我是Amiga的铁杆粉丝，所以我始终对那心存敬畏。”作为一个刚刚起步的小开发公司，我们充满了信心，“Hughes继续说到。“我们同时作为自己公司的发行商，在那时，光是想到以后可能雇佣大的发行商和创建我们自己的IPs（图像处理系统）就让我们特别兴奋。”
在公司早期的日子里，对3DO平台（一个悲剧）游戏的开发是主要内容。《燃烧碰撞》和《激战M星云》都是值得纪念的著名作品，但令许多玩家们印象最深刻的是叫做Gex的像吉祥物一般的小东西。第一部Gex作品在1994年发布，并且登陆了土星和PS平台。“最早让我们出名的游戏之一就是Gex。那是一个设想，3DO平台的吉祥物游戏”Hughes解释道。“我们很想给予游戏角色人物个性。我们让Dana Gould为Gex配音，与在之前平台游戏角色相比，看到一个游戏角色充满了生气的感觉很酷。
在Gex等游戏取得成功的同时，公司经历了一些卓越的职员的加入和离开。“作为那时候工作团队的一部分，Mark Cerny是我们的固定程序员，一个超级天才。同时他也有非凡的设计方面的才华。他曾参与制作过《Marble Madness》和《Sonic 2》。事实上，早期工作团队里的很多人都来自世嘉公司。Madeline Canepa来自世嘉，Mark Cerny也在世嘉工作过。在创建用来设计那些3D世界的我们的早期引擎的工作中他起到了重要作用。《Crash n’Burn》，《Total Eclipse》和《Off-World Interceptor》这三款游戏都是基于那项核心技术。“离开水晶之后，Cerny参与了多想开发工程，一开始在Naughty Dog建立了像《Crash Bandicoot》和《Jak and Daxter》等系列，后来作为游戏《Ratchet & Clank》，《Uncharted：Drake’s Fortune》和《Heavenly Sword》的顾问。Cerny在2004年获得了IGDA的终身成就奖。
另一位重要人物在水晶动力度过了具有深远影响的几年。Jeronimo Barerra为《Off-Road Interceptor》和《Hoard》等作品做出了贡献，不过自那之后他跑去了Rockstar Games，而他现在已经是发展部的副主席。在Rockstar，Barrera在《Grand Theft Auto III》，《Bully》和《Red Dead Redemption》等众多作品的制作中起到了重要作用。
90年代中期到后期见证了水晶动力更多独特作品的出世，包括有趣的《Blazing Dragons》，2.5D 平台/动作游戏《pandemonium》的1和2代和Gex的两部出色的续作。不过这一时期水晶动力发布的最令人赞赏的作品之一是《Blood Omen：Legacy of Kain》（血兆：凯恩的遗物），一部有神秘气氛的作品，这部作品同时也将水晶动力与Denis Dyack和他的Silicon Knights工作室的合作关系展现出来。“第一部凯恩的遗物是与Silicon Knights合作的，与像他们那样一个杰出的团队合作是令人十分兴奋的。我们迸发了许多灵感，不仅仅源于我们自己的经历和体验，还来自于与其他开发公司的一起工作的这种感觉。但我们却只能算是发布他们的作品。”
凯恩的遗物系列有两个不同的分支，一个着重于凯恩，另一个着重于拉齐尔
水晶动力拥有超过30款游戏，其中包括有趣的作品例如《Mad Dash Racing》和《Whiplash》
《Blood Omen》建立了一个独特的世界Nosgoth，然而在1999年发布的《Legacy of Kain： Soul Reave》中，水晶动力将那个世界向新的方向拓展了。就是在那部作品里许多玩家第一次见识到了Amy Hennig无与伦比的故事展示能力。“Amy Hennig为Nosgoth世界的拓展和《Soul Reaver》的制作做了巨大的贡献，《Soul Reaver》是凯恩的遗物系列的附加作品，”Hughes说。“她是一个出色的设计者，同时是无与伦比的说故事的人。《Soul Reaver》里我最爱的是那个游戏世界的丰富和它的游戏角色。她后俩去了Naughty Dog。我们有很多同事最后都到了那个公司。Evan Wells，现在和Christophe Balestra一同经营着Naughty Dog，就是其中之一。他最初是Gex项目的一个设计师，Richard Lemarchand也属于那个群体。”
有一段时间，Noah Hughes在其他地方工作，而正是另一位知名的游戏开发者将他拉回了轨道。“曾经有一段时间我去了洛杉矶，但是几年后Glen Schofield将我带回了水晶，”Hughes描述到。“我和他一起为《Mad Dash》工作，当他离开的时候我接手了后来被叫做《Whiplash》的工作。但是Glen离开去制作了《Dead Space》，他现在是Sledgehammer Games的头儿。
在回到水晶后的几年内，Hughes和许多有才华的开发者一同工作，但他对Cory Stockton印象深刻，因为他后来成为了一个有趣的角色。Stockton最终去了Blizzard（暴雪），在那里他成为了世界上最大的大型多人在线游戏的主开发者之一，不断的为提升游戏的体验而努力。最近，Stockton成为了《魔兽世界：大灾变》的首席内容设计师。
尽管90年代末21世纪初依旧不断有天才的游戏设计者来到水晶，但水晶本身却经历了大型的基础结构的变化。1998年，水晶动力同时作为一个独立的开发者和发行商的日子到了头。工作室的规模戏剧性的在两年间不断缩小。在1998年，Eidos Interactive收购了水晶动力，为水晶在接下来的10年中的角色定位打下了基础。“Eidos同样注重于角色基础类的游戏。而我们也已经在角色基础游戏的发展中证明过自己，同时大体上是动作/冒险类，”Hughes说。“当他们将古墓丽影系列交给我们时，我们之间的关系得到了真正的加强。此举对于他们来说是为该系列注入新活力的机会，对于我们来说这是一个将我们成熟的技术应用于一款具有历史意义的作品的机会。”从2006年开始，水晶开始发布古墓丽影系列的新作品，三部曲不仅纪念了原系列的作品，同时为新世纪注入了新生命。“《古墓丽影：传奇》是一个与之前人们所见过的东西相比展示这个系列一些新元素的好机会，”Hughes说。“《古墓丽影：周年纪念》也同样令人兴奋，因为它让我们回到了这个系列的源头，同时让我们更好的理解这个系列成功的原因。”
《古墓丽影：周年纪念》继承了原作品的剧情，为新玩家重新设计了关卡和视觉效果
最近的几年见证了Doug Church为《古墓丽影：传奇》完成了大规模的设计工作，为新三部曲打下了基础。在来到水晶的时候Church已经在开发界小有名气，他曾经在《Ultima Underworld》，《System Shock》和《Thief》等作品的开发中起到了重要作用。Church在完成传奇的工作后将很快离开水晶加入EA公司。
古墓丽影新三部曲的开发工作也让水晶有机会和Toby Gard这位劳拉克劳馥之父一同工作。“在每一部我们负责的古墓丽影作品中我们都和Toby Gard一起工作，”Hughes说。“他以劳拉这个角色和她的世界为角度出发所提出的意见是很有价值的。除了这个，整体来看，他极具天赋而且是一个令人难以置信的对策提供者。”
尽管近年来水晶动力为古墓丽影系列不断工作，但显然随着时间的流逝一个更重要的“重生”对于水晶来说是必须的。正是怀着这个想法，工作室与这个系列的重塑一同前进。当工作室进入最新作品的工作中，很明显许多有才华的设计师和程序员留在了水晶，新古墓丽影作品令人印象深刻的基础工作就是证明。这部作品将会记入另一个发行商的名下，因为水晶动力的母公司Eidos在2009年被Square Enix收购了。“最后，很多人已经离开去为其他事情努力，但还有无数的才华横溢的人依旧在工作室里，”Hughes说。“继续努力，他们会因包括这部游戏在内的事物而出名。我们都认为这是一个让水晶在一个全新的方向上成名的机会。
原文：
The History Of Crystal Dynamics
Feature by Matt Miller on December 14, 2010 at 03:30 PM 15,652 Views 39 1
The studio behind the upcoming Tomb Raider game has a long history in the games business, but its lineage of luminary alums cements Crystal Dynamics' stellar reputation.
In 1992 it would have been hard to imagine that Crystal Dynamics would become a hotbed for game creators. We spoke with Noah Hughes about the early days of that small studio, and how it grew and changed over nearly two decades, evolving into a triple-A development house responsible for over 30 games. Hughes currently fills the role of experience director on the upcoming Tomb Raider title. Having begun at the studio way back in 1993, he’s been present during the creation of many major games in the company’s history, and he has seen some brilliant gaming minds come and go from the studio.
“The company was founded by Madeline Canepa, Judy Lang, and Dave Morse,” Hughes tells us. “Madeline was running the company when I started here. She gave me my first job. Dave Morse – it’s interesting – was a co-founder of the Amiga. I was a huge fan of the Amiga, so I was always in awe of that.” Even in those early days, Crystal Dynamics established itself with a reputation for tackling unique projects that set it apart from other development houses. “As a small, start-up developer, we had a lot of heart,” Hughes continues. “We were our own publisher as well, and that idea of taking on the big publishers and creating our own IPs was super exciting to us at the time. “
Those early days were dominated by the development of games for the ill-fated 3DO. Games like Crash n’ Burn and Star Control II were notable entries for the console, but the most memorable for many gamers was a little would-be mascot named Gex. The first Gex title released in 1994, and crossed over to other systems like the Saturn and PlayStation. “One of the first games that put us on the map was Gex. That was sort of envisioned as a mascot game for the 3DO platform,” Hughes explains. “We really wanted to give a character personality. We had Dana Gould voicing Gex, and it was really cool to see a character come to life more than you’d seen in previous platformers. There was that idea of creating a strong intellectual property built on characters that people fell in love with. People wanted to come back there.”
At the same time that games like Gex were hitting it big, the studio saw some remarkable personalities come and go. “As part of the crew back then, we had Mark Cerny as our resident super genius programmer. Even then, he had brilliant design insights. He had done Marble Madness and Sonic 2; in fact, a lot of the early crew came from Sega. Madeline Canepa came from Sega. Mark Cerny had come from Sega. He was really instrumental in creating our early engines that were able to draw these 3D streaming worlds. Crash n’ Burn, Total Eclipse, and Off-World Interceptor were all based on that core technology.” After his time at Crystal, later years would find Cerny dipping his hand into any number of development projects, first through his time at Naughty Dog establishing franchises like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter, and later as a consultant on games like Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and Heavenly Sword. Cerny was awarded the IGDA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
Another major voice in development spent formative years at Crystal Dynamics. Jeronimo Barerra worked on titles like Off-Road Interceptor and Hoard, but he has since moved over to Rockstar Games, where he presently serves as vice president of development. In his role at Rockstar, Barrera has been instrumental in the creation of titles like Grand Theft Auto III, Bully, and Red Dead Redemption, among many others.
The mid to late '90s saw more unique hits rolling out of Crystal Dynamics, including the amusing Blazing Dragons, 2.5D platform/action games Pandemonium 1 and 2, as well as two excellent sequels to Gex. But one of the most compelling new properties published by Crystal Dynamics was Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, a moody and atmospheric project that emerged out of a partnership with Denis Dyack and his Silicon Knights studio. “The first Legacy of Kain game was a partnership with Silicon Knights. It was incredibly exciting to work with another talented group like that. We drew a lot of our inspiration, not just from our own experiences, but working with other people that were essentially another developer, just like us. But we were publishing their titles.”
Blood Omen established the unique world of Nosgoth, and Crystal Dynamics took that universe in new directions with the 1999 release of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. It was there that many gamers first encountered the brilliant storytelling of Amy Hennig. “Amy Hennig did an amazing job of expanding the world of Nosgoth, and creating Soul Reaver, as an additional brand within the Legacy of Kain franchise,” Hughes says. “She was an amazing designer, and really an incredible storyteller. One of the things I love about Soul Reaver is the richness of the world and the characters. She went on to Naughty Dog. We actually had a group of guys and girls that ended up going down there. We had Evan Wells, who is now running Naughty Dog along with Christophe Balestra. He had worked on Gex as a designer, initially, and Richard Lemarchand was on that team as well.”
The Legacy of Kain series had two distinct branches, one focusing on Kain and the other on Raziel
Crystal Dynamics has over 30 games, including interesting character-driven titles like Mad Dash Racing and Whiplash
For a time, Noah Hughes worked outside of Crystal, but it was another well-known video game developer who drew him back into the fold. “There was a little time that I went down to LA, but it was Glen Schofield who dragged me back to Crystal a few years later,” Hughes describes. “He and I worked on Mad Dash together, and I had taken over what became Whiplash when he left. But Glen went on to create Dead Space, and is now heading up Sledgehammer Games.”
During the coming years after his return to the studio, Hughes worked with any number of talented developers, but he remembers Cory Stockton as one person who moved on into another interesting role. Stockton ended up at Blizzard, where he became one of the chief developers continually working to improve the feel of the world’s biggest MMO. Most recently, Stockton served as lead content designer for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Even as the late '90s and early 2000s saw a constant flow of talented creators coming through the studio, the studio itself experienced major infrastructure changes. By 1998, Crystal Dynamics’ time as an independent developer and publisher of games was drawing to a close. The studio had been dramatically downsized over the two prior years. In 1998, Eidos Interactive purchased Crystal Dynamics, laying the groundwork for the franchise that would eventually define Crystal in the following decade. “Eidos had a focus on character-based games as well. And we had proven ourselves in the context of character heavy games, and the action/adventure genre in general,” Hughes says. “Our relationship with them was really strengthened when they gave us Tomb Raider. For them, it was a chance to breathe new life into the franchise. And for us, it was an opportunity to leverage our more mature technologies and apply them to something historically significant.” Starting in 2006, Crystal began releasing new installments of the Tomb Raider franchise, a project that resulted in a brand new trilogy that would simultaneously do honor to the original games but inject new life for the 21st century. “Tomb Raider Legend was a great opportunity to show something fresh for the franchise in the context of what people had seen before,” Hughes says. “But then Anniversary edition was super exciting as well, because it kind of allowed us to go back to the roots of the franchise and understand even better what made the franchise tick.”
Tomb Raider: Anniversary took the events of the original game and redesigned the levels and visuals for the modern player
Those more recent years found Doug Church completing extensive design work on Tomb Raider: Legend, laying the groundwork for that new trilogy. Church was already a well known name in the development world by the time he came to Crystal, having been instrumental in the creation of games like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief. Church would depart soon after his work on Legend to join Electronic Arts.
The recent Tomb Raider trilogy also afforded Crystal the opportunity to work with Toby Gard, the man behind the creation of Lara Croft in the first place. “We’ve worked with Toby Gard on each of the Tomb Raiders we’ve done,” Hughes says. “His perspective on Lara as a character and her world has been great. And beyond that, he’s just super talented and an incredible resource for the property as a whole.”
Despite Crystal Dynamics' work on the recent Tomb Raider games, it was clear as the years passed that a more dramatic reinvention was required. It’s with that idea in mind that the studio is now moving forward with the complete recreation of the series. As the studio rolls into its latest new project, it’s clear that many talented designers and programmers have remained in-house with the studio, as evidenced by the impressive groundwork for this new Tomb Raider title. This effort will fall under a new publishing banner, as Crystal’s parent company, Eidos, was purchased by Square Enix in 2009. “Ultimately, a lot of the people have gone on to do other things, but we have a ton of talented people who are still in the studio,” Hughes says. “Going forward, they will be known for things including this game. We all think this is an opportunity to put Crystal on the map in an all-new way.”
For more information on Crystal Dynamics and its work on the new Tomb Raider game, check out our cover story hub by clicking on the image below.
