Few people are better positioned to reflect on three decades of Lara Croft than Meagan Marie. A longtime member of the Tomb Raider team at Crystal Dynamics, author of 20 Years of Tomb Raider, and a fan who has cosplayed the character more than a dozen times, she has spent her career at the intersection of Lara’s past and her future. With Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis on the horizon, the anniversary is a chance to look at how one adventurer has been carried forward across thirty years.
It began in 1996 with Core Design, a small studio in Derby, England. A tiny team of six primary developers, with additional art and audio support, built the original Tomb Raider and, in the process, created one of gaming’s most enduring icons. “They changed the face of the industry, and they changed the face of what we expect from our protagonists,” Marie says. “They are responsible for creating the franchise that we all love thirty years later.”
Lara was the vision of designer Toby Gard, conceived as a heroine defined by intelligence and athleticism, and her impact reached far beyond the screen almost immediately. By the late nineties she was appearing in magazines dressed by Alexander McQueen and Gucci, effectively the first virtual model. “Lara Croft has always been a curious and complex figure,” Marie says. “She’s an academic who values reason yet is willing to accept the seemingly impossible. She’s effortlessly cool and witty but will geek out when unearthing history.
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