Reestablishing an Icon:
The Peaks and Pitfalls of Developing
Tomb Raider: Legend

1. Carefully Selected Goals. Early on, the design team decided they wanted "fluid movement," a change from the previous Tomb Raider titles, as well as myriad other improvements and enhancements. The team, developing new technology to achieve their goals, experienced their share of setbacks and unconvincing results, but stuck to their goals through adversity and succeeded.
2. True Partnership with Marketing. Far "selling out", the Tomb Raider: Legend team devoted considerable time to ensuring that everyone - marketers, reviewers, advertisers - was on the same page as to what the title would become. With the pervasive attitude of "I hate Tomb Raider" to overcome, Crystal Dynamics decided it was important to ensure that the information released was consistent with the features and elements being developed.
3. Intense Focus Testing. Working at the well-known 10,000 foot level, the development team spent a great deal of time working with focus testers, people brought in to play through levels so that the designers could identify all the valleys where a player would get stuck, not knowing what to do. As a result, the team had firsthand knowledge of what could be improved to eliminate these valleys, ensuring that players of Legend would spend more time at the peaks of enjoyable play.
4. Commitment to Story. A character as iconic as Lara Croft demands more than a second-rate storyline; she cries out "Give me my story!" Considering well-crafted plot and character dialog second only to fun gameplay, the team assigned writers to full-time story work, with an emphasis on ensuring the story formed a cohesive whole.
5. Experienced and Vocal Team. Everyone on the Legend team was a part of the project, contributing ideas and adjustments, making suggestions on how to turn a good title into a great title. Naturally, not every suggestion was included, particularly those which would improve one section of the game, but hurt others. Fresh perspectives were also important - new team members who brought a new look at the project were valued additions.

1. Content Without Engine. A pervasive fact of the industry, the development team launched into the creation of the final assets - models, textures, level designs and layouts - before the team had a good idea of the features and physics of the final product. Creating final art before full play of the game was possible led to many problems, among them the demoralizing effect of having to change completed assets because of a change in the way they would be used.
2. Divided Designers. While it may seem a good idea to have one group working on system design while another works on level design, such a division of effort can also lead to an efficiency-destroying situation. For example, the Legend team experienced a host of communication problems, such as the ever-popular "What are the rules for my level?" Because the teams were working on parallel aspects of the title, but not entirely in tandem, designers often needed to know rules for the various levels and the puzzles therein, from a system which was not always in a complete enough state to supply those rules.
3. Huge Initial Team. Having an enormous number of people for a project means both enormous talent and an enormous number of people to manage. The team found itself in a situation where there were too many design groups ("pods"), and not enough design leads, with everyone developing ideas. They often found that different pods were not on the same page, and in some cases, were developing ideas which overlapped with other pods, due to the lack of established boundaries. From this, the Tomb Raider team learned to add people to projects when needed, and to create an organizational framework that could handle larger numbers of people.
4. Last Minute Schedule Extensions. With only 18 months to create the game at start, the team had difficulty meeting deadlines, particularly in light of the new technologies they were developing. Coupled with various issues related to efficiency and the most effective use of time, the Tomb Raider team found the final date approaching quickly; fortunately, the buy-out with SCi Entertainment Group gave the team an additional six months to improve the title.
5. Late and Under-Resourced Features. The final problem Wendler discussed was that of the waffling experienced by the team on whether or not particular features should be included, and if there was enough time to complete those features. Ultimately, the Legend team resolved to develop the features to 100%, or to leave them out entirely; a feature 50% realized will only hurt the overall title.