[目录] [Building the Myths of Rise of the Tomb Raider] [Finding Inspiration for Rise of the Tomb Raider] [Research and Reference in Rise of the Tomb Raider] [Building from Life] [Creating Believable Hair and Fur] [Creating Believable Materials] [Creating Believable Skin and Character Material Effects] [Creating Motion and Emotion with Animation] [Bringing Lara to Life with Blendshapes] [Physically Based Rendering and Post Effects] [Building Larger Worlds with More Fidelity] [Snow Tech and Houdini Simulations] [Scoring Dynamic Combat with Procedural Music] [“I Must Not Fear”] [The Bear Chase] [Rise of the Tomb Raider for Stealth Gamers] [Rise of the Tomb Raider for Puzzle Gamers] [The Evolution of Tomb Raider Hubs] [Expedition Modes] [A Little Thing About A Little Thing]
Dev Blog: Building the Myths of Rise of the Tomb Raider
John Stafford: Senior Narrative Designer
Cameron Suey: Narrative Designer
[Leading into the launch of Rise of the Tomb Raider, we’ll feature a variety of developer blogs that lift the curtain on the creation of Lara’s first great tomb raiding expedition.]
Building the world and mythology of Rise of the Tomb Raider started with Lara Croft. After surviving the events of Tomb Raider (2013), Lara was filled with questions about what she had experienced. She emphatically states in her final monologue of the first game, “I need to find answers… I must understand.” We wanted to be true to her character and create a sense of continuity in the overall story of the franchise. With her motivation in mind, we thought about it from her perspective. What exactly did Lara see? What would that experience drive her to seek out next?
On Yamatai, Lara encountered what she could only describe as “evidence of the immortal soul.” With that concept as our starting point, we began a phase of research into myths concerning immortality and the human soul. To create a compelling and unique story with roots in reality, we borrow from real myths and legends, but then add our own twist – perhaps a different interpretation, or a way of looking at it that is missing from the records. This allows us some freedom to come up with fresh ideas and play in our own space, as well as allow Lara to use her academic knowledge and intuition to put pieces of a new puzzle together.
We like to think that if elements of our game entice players to explore real mythology and history, we’ve done our job! Many of us here at Crystal Dynamics are history nerds, and on the narrative team specifically, our goal is to weave a connected tapestry of layered history and mythology across the entire game - from the environment, to the collectibles, and through the main storyline.
Armed with the findings of our research, and avoiding previously explored territory from the extended Tomb Raider universe, we began a process of elimination that involved a number of factors.
Was it already explored in popular media? Then it’s probably something we wanted to steer away from. We looked at movies, TV shows, and other games… and soon enough, we distilled our ideas to a solid initial list.
Survival is also a central theme in Lara’s journey, so we wanted to make sure she found herself in the most remote and dangerous locations - places that could have remained hidden for many years, and that she was uniquely capable of discovering. Additionally, the art team was drawn to a cold environment in order to contrast with the lush, tropical setting of the first game. This narrowed the focus even more until we were left with our strongest concepts.
In the end, we examined two intriguing stories, both based in Russian mythology: The Lost City of Kitezh and Koschei the Deathless.
In the original story, Kitezh was a mythical city that rested on an island within Lake Svetloyar in Central Russia. The legend says that on the eve of an invasion by the Mongol Horde, Kitezh sank beneath the waters of the lake, never to be seen again. As a destination, Kitezh seemed like a fantastic setting for us to build the signature “tombs” of Tomb Raider and to create a rich blend of myth and history.
But we also needed a reason for her to go there. This is where the myth of Koschei the Deathless comes in. Though we don’t specifically name this myth in our story, it’s absolutely the inspiration for the artifact that both Lara and Trinity are racing to find. In the myth, Koschei is a dark figure who achieved immortality by hiding his soul within a series of objects akin to a nesting doll. We took inspiration from this myth when creating the mythical object at the heart of Lara’s adventure: The Divine Source.
Once we had found a compelling way to merge the two myths, we had a framework that could be feasibly inserted into existing history. Next, we set about creating connections to real history, specifically the Byzantine Empire, which, like the myth of Kitezh, is also largely unexplored in popular culture.
Merged with real history, and the lines between fact and fantasy blurred; our version of the myth began to feel mysterious, fresh, and totally plausible. We hope that you get as much enjoyment uncovering the history and legends of Kitezh and the Deathless Prophet as we did in interpreting them.
- John Stafford and Cameron Suey
