Tomb Raider: Anniversary
"Tomb Raider" is the first game in the titular franchise, and introduced the series' gameplay standards and its protagonist Lara Croft. Developed by British studio Core Design, "Tomb Raider" was a commercial and critical success, and was followed by five successive games between 1996 and 2000. Their sixth "Tomb Raider" game "" was beset by developmental problems and rushed to release, resulting in low sales and mixed critical reception. The game's failure and Core Design's fatigue with the series prompted franchise publisher Eidos Interactive to move development of "Tomb Raider" to the American studio Crystal Dynamics, who rebooted the franchise with "". "Legend" released in 2006 to critical and commercial success.
Tomb Raider II
While two key members of the original team had left – most notably Lara's creator Toby Gard – most of them remained on board for the sequel. Graphic artist/level designer Heather Stevens recounted, "We had invested so much time and creativity into "Tomb Raider" that it would have been unthinkable to just walk away from it. It was action stations again for most of the team, and time to get our heads down again." Developing the original "Tomb Raider" had been an arduous task requiring the team to put in long hours to get the game out on time, and the sequel was assigned a much tighter deadline, less than a year for development. The design team for "Tomb Raider II" was expanded to more than double its original size. A decision was made early on to keep the engine from the first "Tomb Raider", adopting a tweak-and-improve approach, rather than starting over from scratch. This, combined with the larger development team, allowed the team to meet the deadline. Minor camera issues and polygon glitches were fixed, while new features were added, such as dynamic lighting and a more flexible control system. With the improvements to the graphics engine, a larger number of polygons could be rendered on screen, allowing large outdoors areas.