With a franchise as seasoned and celebrated as Tomb Raider, fandom is vital. For nearly three decades our community has expressed their love for Lara Croft and her ongoing adventures through every imaginable creative outlet.  

“We aim to celebrate and reward members of the Tomb Raider community whenever possible,” said Meagan Marie, Director of Community & Social Media at Crystal Dynamics. “When it comes to creators, fans innovate and expand the franchise through their works, making it their own in powerful ways. In addition to showcasing their creations across social media, we often hire fans for official collaborations, including enlisting Lara Croft cosplay ambassadors for events, selecting community members as lead contributors for official publications, or commissioning artists for special occasion art.”   

Aspyr, who developed the recently released Tomb Raider I-III Remastered in collaboration with Crystal Dynamics, also recognizes the importance of community creators. Aspyr came to the table already experts on all things Tomb Raider - they were even founded the same year that Core Design introduced Tomb Raider to the world (1996). Aspyr first collaborated with the franchise by launching Tomb Raider II (1997) on Macintosh computers. They continued to work with the legendary adventurer all the way through Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003). Aspyr knows what makes the franchise fun, and how to introduce the groundbreaking games developed by Core Design to an entirely new generation through remastered classics.   

Aspyr has a history of bringing talented and knowledgeable fans onto their development teams. They recognize that some of the most hardcore blur the lines between hobbyists and professionals with impressive technical or artistic skills, many of which were self-taught as an outlet to express their fandom. But first, research.  

“When we’re bringing back a classic game, we spend a lot of time researching and testing assumptions," began Chris Bashaar, Director of Product at Aspyr. “We try to watch and read as much fan feedback as we can before, during, and after launch to make sure we’re on the right track. For example, folks like Zelgadis115 and Jayoneta have put out great analysis and feedback videos. So many creators continue to put out their feedback and content, and we do our best to take it all into consideration.” 

“Fans are our editors," he continued. “They give us feedback and help shape the direction of every piece of the project. We always encourage people to share their thoughts in reviews, forums, videos, streams—anywhere. We try to take in all that feedback and look for patterns to deliver the best games possible.” 

The Tomb Raider community recognized nearly a dozen names from their ranks when the credits rolled on Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, including Timur Gagiev (aka XProger) as Technical Director, Giovanni Lucca as Art Lead, Konrad Majewski on Lara’s remastered models, Jason Chester & Raina Audron on environment art, and more! You can see the full credits below. 

 The blended team of Aspyr developers and community contributors resulted in a love letter to the Tomb Raider community. 

“The key with bringing on community members is passion," said Bashaar. There’s a clear correlation between passion and project success. Since we license the most beloved IPs, we’ll always find incredibly passionate fans both in the community and on our staff.” 

“We don’t think you need to be an industry professional to be an expert on a game,” he concluded. “In fact, fans often know more details! Think about fan wikis, retrospectives, emulation, mods, and the list goes on. If that passion for a game drives them to learn software development kits (SDKs), mod tools, art foundations, they could find themselves on a career path with a really powerful portfolio.” 

Looking at reception to Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, this strategy is clearly a success. “When fans contribute to the franchise in meaningful ways like with Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, everybody wins,” ended Marie.  

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered is available now: 

• Steam

• Nintendo Switch

• PlayStation

• Xbox

• Epic Games Store

• GOG

Share this post

Video Games

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered

Tomb Raider II

Tomb Raider III

Community Spotlight

Tomb Raider (1996)