Toby Gard English computer character designer Date of Birth: 01.01.1972 Country: Great Britain

1. Toby Gard: The Visionary Behind Lara Croft
2. Tomb Raider and Lara's Legacy
3. Leaving Core Design and Confounding Factor
4. Reworking the Tomb Raider Franchise
5. Anniversary and Underworld
6. Current Projects

Toby Gard: The Visionary Behind Lara Croft

Toby Gard, an English video game character designer, consultant, and creator of the iconic English archaeologist Lara Croft, made his mark on the gaming industry. Lara Croft was named "The Most Successful Female Video Game Heroine" by Guinness World Records.

Tomb Raider and Lara's Legacy

Initiated at Core Design, Gard developed the video game Tomb Raider and its protagonist, Lara Croft, in 1995. His contributions to the game included the design and animation of most characters (including Lara), in-game cutscene animation, FMV cutscene direction, and supervision of level designers.

Core Design granted Gard creative control over the game, though it became apparent that they desired to expand Lara's sex appeal market. They even asked Gard to implement a nudity code into the game, a request he declined. His vision for Lara was "a female character, a heroine, you know, cool, collected under pressure, that sort of thing" and that he "never intended for her to be just a booby babe Tomb Raider."

Leaving Core Design and Confounding Factor

Gard's departure from Core Design in 1997 occurred amidst the game's popularity, as the company restricted his creative freedom. He ultimately had to choose between porting Tomb Raider to the Nintendo 64 or working on Tomb Raider II. Unsatisfied with either option, he left the company.

Together with co-developer Paul Douglas, who previously collaborated with Gard on Tomb Raider, he founded the company Confounding Factor in late 1997. They announced the video game Galleon shortly after its inception, which was eventually released on Microsoft's Xbox console in 2004, almost seven years after its announcement.

Reworking the Tomb Raider Franchise

After Galleon, Gard was employed by Eidos, the publisher and copyright holder of the Tomb Raider franchise, to collaborate with Crystal Dynamics on the reboot of the series, beginning with Tomb Raider: Legend.

Though initially hired as a creative consultant, his role grew into a "hands-on" involvement in the production process, ultimately including Lara's visual redesign, overseeing the character's design and creation, co-writing the story, developing and implementing the elements of the movement system, and directing the creation of the game's cinematic trailers.

Anniversary and Underworld

The following game in the series, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, was a remake of the original Tomb Raider. It was co-developed by Crystal Dynamics and Buzz Monkey Software. Gard's involvement in Anniversary was limited to historical consulting and providing his voice for the audio commentary featured in the game.

In Tomb Raider: Underworld, Gard's contributions included co-writing the story, directing the in-game cinematics, overseeing the voice work, guiding the motion capture (alongside setting up cameras and directing the animators and lighting), and directing the game's European television advertising. Gard and Eric Lindstrom received a WGA nomination for "Best Video Game Writing" for their work on Underworld.

Current Projects

In January 2009, Toby Gard indicated that he was directing a team on an unannounced project. However, he later left the project team and is now a consultant for video game company Focal Point Games LLC.