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Gard On Tomb Raider, Galleon, Delays

Thanks to The UK Independent for its article-based interview with Confounding Factor's Toby Gard, best known as the creator of Tomb Raider while at Core Design. The article discusses the genesis of Lara Croft, with Gard arguing: "I thought that what was interesting about her was she was this unattainable, austere, dangerous sort of person." Of the hideously delayed Galleon, finally due out this summer, the article suggests: "It's not too silly an exaggeration to say that, in the computer-games industry, Galleon is the equivalent of Donna Tartt's The Little Friend or the Stone Roses's The Second Coming", and Gard clarifies his impressions of the game's intriguing influences: "I wanted to have a visual language that was quite comic book... I realised the Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films were the way to go."

24 comments

  1. Mozilla is better. by GregChant · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Good, it was a terrible browser anyway.

  2. Second Coming? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    ... Galleon is the equivalent of Donna Tartt's The Little Friend or the Stone Roses's The Second Coming

    The Stone Roses' "Second Coming"? He's saying his own game is gonna suck after all this time?!

  3. No change there, then by Weirdofreak · · Score: 3, Funny

    If I'd have stayed I might have become rich. But I'd have been so arrogant.
    [Galleon is an] earth-shatteringly cool game


    So, if he'd stayed, there'd be no difference apart form the money? Seems like a good deal to me.

    1. Re:No change there, then by JFMulder · · Score: 1

      I don't think being proud of your achievements is being arrogant.

    2. Re:No change there, then by Weirdofreak · · Score: 1

      It's not, boasting about them is.

      It's the difference between saying 'This thing I made is much better than that thing you made', and 'I reckon this thing I made is more appropriate to the task at hand because of X, Y and Z features that your thing doesn't implement'.

    3. Re:No change there, then by AndrewHowe · · Score: 1

      What are you like?! We made something cool, it's finally finished and we want to big it up a bit. Where's the harm in that?
      Disclaimer: Toby's my boss. But cut him some slack!

    4. Re:No change there, then by Weirdofreak · · Score: 1

      Well for one thing I was only semi-serious, and for another, arrogancy is still arrogancy whether or not you just want to 'big something up a bit'.

      I'm not saying it's inherently a bad thing, I'm just saying it's there.

    5. Re:No change there, then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, so was Toby...

  4. Sure, toby... by b0r0din · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I thought that what was interesting about her was she was this unattainable, austere, dangerous sort of person."

    "That, and her huge breasts sort of kept the team together during a difficult coding process. We all knew none of us could get a real girl like that, so when Bob suggested making her British with perfect teeth, we implemented it, but it was a stretch."

    1. Re:Sure, toby... by Sv-Manowar · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Bob suggested making her British with perfect teeth, we implemented it, but it was a stretch" Has someone been watching a bit too much Austin Powers?

    2. Re:Sure, toby... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      "That, and her huge breasts sort of kept the team together during a difficult coding process. We all knew none of us could get a real girl like that, so when Bob suggested making her British with perfect teeth, we implemented it, but it was a stretch."

      Um, Core Design is a British company, and Gard is a Briton. We don't share your stereotypes about our nation. We don't even find them funny.

    3. Re:Sure, toby... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We don't even find them funny.

      Which is why everyone is laughing but you.

    4. Re:Sure, toby... by Merkuri22 · · Score: 1

      We don't share your stereotypes about our nation. We don't even find them funny.

      I'm sure you Brits have stereotypes about Americans that aren't remotely true. We all find reasons to laugh at each other. Life would be so boring if we didn't. ;)

      --from a gal who never really got the joke with Austin Powers' teeth until now...

  5. There's nothing wrong with British girls... by empaler · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ... that can't be explained with two world wars.
    More than two generations of their best genes are pushing up the daisies all around Europe.

    God, I'm glad I'm a Scandinavian.

  6. Oh ... that's not right ... by obsidianpreacher · · Score: 4, Funny
    "Lara was based on elements of Indiana Jones, Tank Girl and, people always say, my sister," says Gard. "Maybe subconsciously she was my sister."
    *shudders* There's something wrong with this guy ...
    --
    topreacher@signature.slashdot.org 1% rm -rf sig
  7. Well, look on the bright side. by GaimeGuy · · Score: 2, Funny

    At least it's not as bad as Duke Nukem Forever! :)

  8. and i bet her boobs get even bigger once agien by cyrax777 · · Score: 1

    what are they going to be this time QQQ sized or something since it seems like tradition to make Lara Crofts breasts bigger in every game

  9. In other words... by MMaestro · · Score: 4, Insightful
    she was this unattainable, austere, dangerous sort of person

    In other words : "she was this boobalishous gal, was perfectly postured and formed, and armed with dual pistols with supernatural aim and strength with unlimited ammo."

    1. Re:In other words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Insightful? RTFA. Core changed the original design to increase sex appeal. Toby didn't intend or want that, but since Core owned her, there was nothing he could do. Nothing except refuse to keep working for the people who'd ruined his creation.

  10. Galleon by Shakey_Jake33 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I remember reading previews of Galleon waaaaaay back when it was due to be a second generation Dreamcast title.

    Back then, the game looked stunning from the images.... from the images I saw, it looked somewhat like a more 'mature' version of Skies Of Arcadia (I'd not know that at the time of course, I'm talking retrospectively)... the gameplay was nothing like it, but it's a good way of explaining the graphical style of the game. We were all impressed, and Dreamcast owners saw it as their own Tomb Raider.

    We waited.... and waited.... and it never appeared... we were used to that on the Dreamcast, but it was still saddening.

    3 years after I initially saw the preview, I find out it's finally appearing. I headed over to GameSpot to check out some of their movies of the game, and I gotta admit, I was underwhelmed... it didn't look anything particularly new or special. Final judgement is reserved until release of course, but my fears are that it may get average reviews.

    Problem is, as you'd expect from a game that has been in developement for 4 years, it looks 4 years old.

    And this truely is a great shame because for Toby to turn down big cash for what he believed was right, that really is pretty admirable... it's easy to say it happens all the time, but I doubt I'd bail out of a company in that position.

    So I wish him luck with this title... but I do suspect that many people will be buying this title mainly because they wanted it 4 years ago, and they may be disappointed.

    Just my probably-jibberish prediction.

    1. Re:Galleon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sad to know of another canned DC game. I hope it gets leaked someday, just like Half-Life was. Sure, Half-Life for DC was almost done, but even an early beta would be cool!

    2. Re:Galleon by phaze3000 · · Score: 1
      I really hope you're wrong about this, but I have to say these are pretty much my feelings about Galleon too.

      Prince of Persia Sands of Time is pretty much the Galleon was going to be, which leaves Galleon itself rather out in the cold..

      --
      Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
    3. Re:Galleon by iainl · · Score: 1

      The leaked Half-Life is pretty playable, and the main reason why it only counts as a beta was that the loading times were terrifyingly bad.

      Galleon DC, however, got nowhere near as done - don't expect anything even vaguely playable to ever appear. You'd honestly be better off wishing for a Propellor Arena release.

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
    4. Re:Galleon by AndrewHowe · · Score: 1

      I haven't played POPSoT yet (must buy it) except for a demo at ECTS (it was pretty much finished). They're quite different games. Our control system is fundamentally different. But you're not the first to point out the similarity...
      I do have genuine respect for Ubisoft. I've just completed Beyond Good and Evil. It's a wonderful game, sadly overlooked by the buying public. It's now selling for half price and you'd have to be mad not to snap up a copy.
      In the current arena of tired sequels and franchises, I don't see that we're so much in competition with Ubi etc. We're all trying to use a game to tell a story. There's room for more than one story, and there are different ways of telling them.
      The problem at the moment is this: When asked, punters say they want more imaginative stuff. More exploration. More thinking, etc. But they go out and buy the most awful stuff. Because it's been marketed to the max by the publishers, and because there's bugger all else on the shelves. And that's because publishers have become so risk-averse, their bread and butter is the sequelfest you see before you.
      To their credit, our publisher SCi took a chance on us. But it's an absolute nightmare trying to get original stuff published these days.
      Oops, sorry for the rant ;-)