MAKING OF: SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER
Take a look at the incredible process of making Shadow Of The Tomb Raider with British actress, Camilla Luddington.
Modern games we have in 2020, such as the latest in the Tomb Raider lineup: Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, have a lot more that goes into their cinematic and realistic production than ever before, and the process the video game designers take is incredible.
Rewind back to 1996, and Eidos Interactive video game makers released an action-adventure game which was available for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation. It was called Tomb Raider, which would later become a multi-million dollar gaming franchise which turned into several movies as well.
But, obviously, each game that comes out has to be better than the last one and, in the gaming world, this means several things. Not only does the adventure game have to have a completely different storyline, but the graphics and gameplay physics have to be improved each and every time. Furthermore, gamers want realism and, as we currently stand with game design technology, fully rendering games in software simply isn't enough to achieve the graphics and effects that are needed to put a new game on top of the chart.
The Tomb Raider franchise took a bit of a knock around the time of 2008s Tomb Raider: Underworld, not necessarily because the game itself was a letdown, but rather that it was quite predictable. The gameplay physics were outdated and far too similar to the previous game, and the graphics were mediocre for its time. However, the game developers decided to take things up a bit.
As opposed to game developer, Crystal Dynamics, taking up the challenge of developing a brand new game, a decision was made to work with a few more developers, such as Eidos-Montréal and Feral Interactive, on a brand new Tomb Raider with a fresh new creative approach to what a Tomb Raider game could be.
It took five years of development to release a whole new Tomb Rader, simply called Tomb Rader. But, for those of you who have played the game will know that the new approach was all about incredible graphics, physics, storyline and cinematics. Two years later a sequel got released called Rise Of The Tomb Raider, which was incredibly interactive and partially open world, then, lastly, at the end of 2019 the latest Tomb Rader game was released, titled: Shadow Of The Tomb Raider.
Tomb Raider character, Lara Croft, got a completely new and realistic look in the last three games, and her physics were so realistic that some might say is quite spooky!
How this was done in the game studios was by having an actor simulate all her movements and gestures with the help of 3D tracking sensors and clever development software. Lara Croft was played by British actress, Camilla Luddington, who you might recognise from TV series such as Greys Anatomy and Californication.
Take a look at the incredible video below by YouTube channel, NeoGamer, called The Video Game Archive on Behind the Scenes - Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.