Ask Eric

[Eddie Haskell]

I have another question, one that really cuts to the chase of one of the largest schisms in all of Tomb Raider land.

Does/did the design team see and create this game in a manner that attempts to facilitate the gamer to play inside of Lara as themselves, or is it for them to move Lara through an interactive story?

[arthanytez]

I am so sorry for your loss, Eric... and i salute you for your bravery and consideration in posting... Despite other critics constantly talking about the bad things in Tomb Raider Underworld, I personally think that it was, by far, the best TR game in the world... it was a huge breakthrough in the gaming industry and one of the only games that piqued my interest since Assassins Creed of Ubisoft (I hope i dont get into trouble for saying that )... Mind you TRL and TRA were really good games, but this game is the start of the next generation gaming in TR (for me)... however, i am very dissapointed that you, one of the creators of the game, will no more be able to continue developing TR games in the future... But i am not only going to praise your success in Tomb Raider Underworld... my question is:
Does CD have any plans on producing TRU for PSP consoles? (sorry if this question has already been asked)

Thanks you for your time and patience...

[RichardC]

will you still have something to to with future tomb raider games
i hope u do

[larafan25]

Originally Posted by RichardC

will you still have something to to with future tomb raider games
i hope u do

If ubisoft or square enix buy over eidos,then Eric gets a job at ubi soft or on the square enix team....then maybe

How do you go about getting jobs in the video game industry????

^don't answer that question as the other question is wayyyy more important

[Camera Obscura]

Thanks for the response Eric, it was worth the read. And I must applause you for your patience with the TRF community after all these years - even now, it seems you're truly putting a lot of thought into every question asked to you. Thanks for your time and good luck to you!

[larafan25]

you are very good at answering questions

[Tihocan9]

Whoa! Sorry but I never expected someone like you to get fired, I am really sorry that this happened, but i hope for the best for you in the future. And I would also like to thank you for all the work you have put into the Tomb Raider games you worked on, they have been great fun and I am very appreciative.

Anyway now that my jaw is off the ground out of shock I will get to a Q or 2 (that was really corny)

(sorry if its been asked already)

How difficult is it to make a Tomb Raider game? I mean you have a rather unique formula to work with and the main aspects of it go against a lot of popular gaming concepts. Obviously we know games nowadays are not as challenging in the critical thinking aspect but Tomb Raider has always been about that so how hard is it to go against a lot of casual gamers tastes and try to appeal to hardcore old fans and while also trying to appeal to the gaming masses.

Not much of a personal secret question but just a question I am interested in. Thanks

[Emmo]

Hi Eric, sorry about your situation...

My questions:

1. Why did you choose Prince of Persia as a game-play model?

2. Do you really likes games? (What are your favorites?) Or are they only part of your job?

3. Did you have any interest about Tomb Raider before it wasn't part of your job?

4. After completed your games, do you really play them again?

[Squamula]

Moon-Safari: The Microsoft DLC deal was made very late in development, and that's a fact. It was told to the team relatively quickly -- no more than days or weeks. The bold type you are asking about...I actually don't know what it means. "this defined the whole Underworld experience the moment it was told to us." is a sentence I don't understand. And anything about it stalling, well I don't know what happened Friday afternoon after I left. I thought it was all still on course just fine. As for the rest, it is absolutely true that part of the DLC came from elements cut from Underworld, and it is absolutely false that this was done because the DLC was looking thin. I am the one who proposed and decided the cuts, and it was unrelated to DLC. But I am not saying that SacreficialLamb is lying, they were just misinformed by someone who didn't know the truth themselves. And the decision I made was only to cut the content from Underworld. The decision to make a deal with Microsoft for exclusive content was Eidos and Studio Production, and the decision to use some things cut from Underworld was made by the DLC team. Does that clear it up better? And what I would give that Eidos was paying me to spend my Sunday answering your questions! I'm sure they would prefer that I was not saying what I am saying today, but they can take solace in the fact that I am being fair and balanced.

Kittypower: I don't know anything about whether WB plans on continuing to buy more stock or the company outright. If I did, I couldn't say, but I don't.

Rivendell: Tomb Raider and Stargate? Ugh. Well, we kind of opened ourselves for that one with the shape of the portal in Legend, which we knew at the time was pushing it but I couldn't do anything about it. But Stargate's mix of sci-fi, myth, and truth behind the myth came after Tomb Raider, not before. If it helps, I enjoyed the movie but never saw any of the TV episodes.

lacryjr: I think Underworld was a much better tomb raider experience than Uncharted, but Uncharted succeeded very well at what they were trying to do. The games were just very different with only a slight connection in their high concept.

Angelus: EPIC!

Anarae: I really can't say what future stories will bring, or what "book" they will come from, not only because it would be telling secrets, but I just don't know.

Larapink: Good ideas are good ideas, whether they come from designers or 3D artists or testers. Good teams listen to everyone and know goodness when they hear it. I hope you find a good team someday.

Neteru: sorry to be keeping you up late...I know I'm on PST and not GMT, but people seem to be going to bed because I'm gaining ground on the posts!
Awestruck: changing the braide to a ponytail was a style decision in Legend that I wasn't a part of and also didn't understand, but I didn't feel the same attachment many of you did. It was also believed that the braid would not behave properly with the new level of realism and outr physics and collision, I recall. Same on Underworld, and we had established the pony tail. I don't know if people will like or hate me for this, but I specifically made sure that the doppelganger had a braid as a nod to this debate among the fans. That and a way of saying that the ponytail was not a reinvention, because the doppleganger having a braid means that Lara still had one at the time the Doppleganger for imaged from Lara during the events of TR1.

Immortalis08: Enemy AI is really hard. MIT issues PhD's on this sort of thing. The only way we could have done better on this would have taken a lot away from the rest of the game, we we felt that Underworld the games before it, should be more about climb and find that combat, so we allocated resources appropriately.

Matrix54: I'll talk about the story arc of the three games later, and how it affected Underworld. I don't think I agree that Mexico got all cartoony, though. The ful screen effects softened things a bit, and that edge can go against realism somewhat, but I didn't feel it was dramatically off.

Sblade: Even though the PC version was in my perview, I don't know tech details and stuck to creative elements and expression, so I don't know about the patches.

Evan C.: I have a great many Most Memorables with respect to Tomb Raider. Here's one at random that makes me look bad. On Legend I flew to London to direct Keeley doing cinematics and other in-game VO, and while all the important cut scene stuff was settled, I still had a lot of bits of in-game dialog to write, random comments about puzzles, ruins, stuff for the in-binoculars help, etc. I stayed up all night typing furiously (rather like I'm doing now) and finished ten minutes before going down to ride the tube to the studio, having been up for 40 hours straight...yikes. And we still got a BAFTA nomination for Best Videogame Screenplay! As for you fans, I often went to the forums to read posts when I was tired or depressed, because the enthusiasm and opinions strongly held always made me feel better, that these little things that consumed me at work really did matter to people. Even when it was all gripes and complaints, often about stuff that wasn't true, I took it all as energy and care about what I was working on. The fans helped a lot, on many levels. Even ole ben Croft could cheer me up, sometimes with flames, other times with unexpected sanity.
Quasimodo: What am I most proud of? Even where I think the story didn't express itself as well as I wanted, I am proud of that in both Legend and Underworld (I was only tangentially a part of the Aniversary story and script). Help on Demand was another, as small as it was...and you'd be surprised, but this feature more than all the others was what interested publications like Newsweek and Gamasutra. More will come to me...

croft94: "Epic Lindstrom" always made me laugh. It also reminded me of how we had a sign up that read "Epic Exploration Puzzles!" on the wall, and my Lead Level Designer KLyle Mannerberg used a ball point pen to change the "Epic" into "Eric" shortly before he died. The word Epic means everything to me that it means to you and more so because of it's association with Kyle, who we still dearly miss.

passing by: The reason I said that I suspected that some of the people claiming to be Crystal employees were possibly true is because I didn't really see much that was clearly wrong in what they were saying, within the boundaries of personal opinion anyway. I don't know who you are (if you believe I can keep your secret, send me a PM) but it sounds like you are legit, too. I did not realize that anyone was claiming that none of the DLC was cuts from Underworld, and if they are, then yeah, we have a truth issue here. (I haven't really read threads about DLC at all...) Without going out and looking at those threads, I'll just say that I stand behind what I've said, and if anyone wants to ask me directly to agree or disagree with claims of the prior CD posters, please do so. I didn't mean to say (reality is so complicated) that we had never spoken to Microsoft about DLC prior to the cuts I made -- these kinds of talks happen all the time -- but no deal was forged at the time. And thanks for the comment about my talents being noticed...I know that there are people on the East side of the building who are frustrated by mistakes they believe were made by me, but they don't know the whole story. I did make mistakes, but many of the complaints they have would lessen or vanish if they knew the circumstances. Rather than get mad or complain about me, I wish they'd just ask. The truth is available.

amiro1989: Can't talk about the future, but here's a polarizing comment...I never liked Kurtis. Don't hate him, either, just didn't see the need or value in him. To those who like him, I'm glad you got something you cherish. Will he ever come back in the future? Who knows? I don't.

Alister's Brain: We trimmed different transitional moves and whatnot but didn't really cut much wholesale. That screenshot is funny -- it's just that the collision on the boat is wrong so she is acting like it's a solid wall and not an unbraced ledge...

Megalith: When Microsoft approached us about exclusive content, they didn't know what we would want to do. It just so happened that we had a head start with assets in progress, so we could get going sooner and finish earlier. I think they approached us, but it might have happened the other way round...it happens at a higher level than I travel. I don't know what efforts were made to make similar deals with Sony or Nitendo, etc. I also don't know why there was no PS3 Demo. One could say that we were rushed in making these Tomb Raider games, but you can also say that we tried to do too much in the time we were given. Who's right? Well, it does come down to expectations. If the publisher expects something of certain size and quality in a certain time frame, it can lead to rushing that is unavoidable, but if we were better at our jobs could we have done it? Maybe. The real world is a murky place, and I try to avoid accusations I don't 100% believe in or can prove.

[aussie500]

Originally Posted by Squamula

Hey everybody, this is Eric Lindstrom.

Yes, my secret lurker account name is Squamula. Justin can confirm this if he is so inclined. You can see that I joined about the time I started as Creative Director on Underworld, three years ago, and have never posted until now. This is mostly because I was told not to -- PR is a tightly controlled element -- but there were other reasons, too.

Because I am no longer an employee of Crystal Dynamics (yes, I was one of the 30) I am now free to post. as long as I don't break any of the usual confidentiality agreements, which I won't. I wasn't going to post, but there is too much being said that I don't feel is right to go unanswered. Although I haven't read anything bad about me personally, some of the misinformation out there can lead to conclusions that I have lied about one thing or another, and I don't want that impression to stand.

A number of people here on TRF are claiming to be employees or ex-employees of Crystal. I do not know who any of them are or if any of them are legit. I suspect some of them are. But even those who might be authentic are posting incorrect information. I don't think they are doing it maliciously...it's just that in any office you can ask someone what the story is about something and part of what they tell you is wrong, often just because info gets garbled as it gets passed around.

The main thing I wanted to clear up is about DLC. Everything I have ever said about this is true. I don't work for Crystal anymore so I have no reason to lie, nor does my severance agreement tell me to do so. I can tell you without doubt that the content of DLC was absolutely not held back from Underworld for the purpose of selling later down the road. I am one of only three people who knows this for sure because not only were there only three of us in the room at the time the decision was made, I was the one who made it. We had a production issue that was going to make us miss our ship date -- which we could not do -- and I needed to find a way to cut enough days from the schedule in a manner that would not rip a hole in the game that would take time to sew up. It was my idea to cut what was cut, and I did hope that it would one day be made available as a download mission, because there was great content already conceived and half completed, but on the day we made the cut, it was made purely for Underworld production reasons. Even if I was told on that day that we would never ever make a downloabable level, I still would have had to cut it. Anyone who says otherwise is speculating or heard someone else speculating, and is incorrect.

I am willing to answer other questions about my five years on Tomb Raider, now that I am free to post on TRF, but don't expect any gossip. I'll answer anything I can that doesn't violate anyone's privacy -- including the company's -- or my confidentiality agreements, which all employees and ex-employees are bound by whether they get riffed or quit. But that still leaves plenty -- magazines tend to ask the same basic questions -- they aren't interested or aware of the level of detail fans are.

For those who think that I'm going to lie and shuffle and whatnot because I want to keep my relationships with Crystal intact, all I can say is that there's no convincing people like that. They don't believe in anonymous sources, because they might be fake, and anyone who reveals their name must not be telling the truth because of fear of retribution...Catch-22. But this deoesn't apply to me because I don't lie (though, like any human, I can be accused of unintential exaggeration) and if there is something I can't reveal for some reason, I say nothing. I don't make up lies; I just don't answer. That's how I've been since you all first heard from me, and that's how I'll continue to be.

So, fire away. But don't ask me about any future plans of the company or the franchise, and keep it clean, folks.

Cheers,

Eric

Welcome to the forum Eric, its nice of you to come out of hiding at last.

Sorry to hear you were one of the ones Crystal Dynamics let go Eric, l hope you quickly find something a job just as good or better else where. Thanks for all the work on Underworld, as a fan of the franchise it was certainly an enjoyable experience if not as challenging as l would have liked. Although l have lots of questions they are mainly about things that might be explored in future games. Thanks for giving us the name of the first ship though, Megaera named after yet another of the Erinyes.

l have often wondered in Legend the wraith stone we see in the opening movie, in the manual and as the curser on the PC seemed to be quite important, was made of the same material as the swords and yet never appeared in the games. Was it changed to the stone from the Queens tomb that Amanda now has, or is it yet to be found?

How much of the epic adventure for Underworld ended up not being in the final game, from the theme and the build up l was expecting a more personal adventure for Lara. l suspect there was probably still more to it, but it does not seem obvious. l know games are not the best format for telling a story, especially with a limit on cutscene usage, but was expecting more help with the art used in the game. Those runes really do not help that much, despite them being plastered all over the place and some being more obviously pictographs. Are we to read anything into the Thailand murals, my imagination could certainly go to work on some of the characters in them, especially the golden one with the interesting jewellery, but figured it was just coincidence, something the art department thought looked good.

Thor's helmet was quite interesting, l was sort of expecting wings or horns and seem to have got neither. What are the side bits that stick out meant to be? And is it coincidence that it sort of looks like the ears of Anubis or even Seth, the little back horns remind me a bit of Qualopecs helmet. Can you actually tell us anything about the style of the helmet? Is it based on anything in particular in mythology or is it just another artifact for generating electricity and lightening?

Is Thor anyone we have already seen in the games?

Who were the three women shown initially on the door to Helheim? And was it coincidence that the final one seemingly Hel herself looked somewhat like Amelia as a thrall?

Thanks for taking the time to answer some of our questions, hopefully you can give us some clues about the story.