![]() "It's a very characterful image, there's a lot going on, you know, the character is clearly thinking deeply about what's happening," Pratchett explains. Pratchett stresses "there is no shade towards classic Lara", but this reboot cover was just very different to what had gone before. "I was like, 'Oh, this is really different' than when you think about the Lara covers of old." "If you think about the art for the first game where she's sort of holding her arm, she's got the bow, and she's kind of looking downward and pensive," Pratchett recalls. Pratchett was particularly drawn to the reboot after seeing its cover. ![]() "It felt like working, in particular on female protagonists in interesting scenarios and worlds, was something I was quite familiar with doing," Pratchett reflects. Rather it "felt right in terms of the trajectory of my career", with Pratchett noting she had worked on both Nariko in Heavenly Sword and Faith in Mirror's Edge before coming to Tomb Raider. "Crystal had an idea of what wanted to do, I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and it kind of naturally merged quite well."Īs for the project itself, Pratchett says it didn't feel "too daunting" to take on. Pratchett says rebooting the series was somewhat a blank slate for everyone involved. And I don't think the games reflected that marketing." I think I missed out because of that marketing. But it was certainly the wrong way of marketing Lara to me. "I think it was the wrong way of marketing Lara. "And, I think I missed out because of this," she reflects. Pratchett says her younger self "just couldn't be doing with it" and so instead went off to play other things. And you know, she was very much marketed to the guys and that your girlfriend will be jealous and that sort of thing." "It was all sort of like, nudge, nudge, wink, wink to the guy. But I was actually put off as a younger female gamer by the way was advertised," she admits. ![]() Pratchett tells me she played a couple of the classic games, but she wasn't a "massive Tomb Raider fan" before working on the reboot. Rhianna Pratchett on rebooting Lara Croft and Tomb Raider The Tomb Raider 2013 artwork that drew Rhianna Pratchett to the project. I tell Pratchett that line also made it into the 2018 Tomb Raider film adaptation. But I was just kind of playing around with something that spoke to a possible wider story."Īfter that, Pratchett had some follow-up interviews before landing the job, with her audition piece eventually evolving and making its way into the final release. "I wrote it not really knowing what Lara's character was going to be, or what the other Crofts were going to be. "And it was like, I didn't know what this Croft to be," Pratchett laughs, thinking about the first time she wrote those words. Turns out, she is that sort of Croft, she just hasn't realised it yet. In reply, Lara admits she is not sure she is "that kind of Croft". When her injured mentor, Roth, asks for her help, Lara doubts herself. This is a moment in 2013's reboot where we really get to see how vulnerable Lara is, and how different she is to Lara in previous games. In Pratchett's Tomb Raider audition, she wrote "the bones" of the 'I don't think I'm that kind of Croft' scene. However, Pratchett enlightens me, explaining during these "auditions" or "tests", developers often give writers a scenario to create (for example, a scene between two characters or diary entries to help build the world). In my mind, an audition is for actors, not writers. Pratchett takes me back to the very beginning - her audition for Tomb Raider. Rhianna Pratchett on her Tomb Raider audition Tomb Raider 2013 writer Rhianna Pratchett. What I thought would be a half hour chat turns into something more, though: a brilliant, two-hour long dive into the games and Pratchett's relationship with them, covering everything from last minute story changes and a scrapped multiplayer experience, to the ways the games are shaped by her own memories and the importance of representation in media. ![]() I talk to Pratchett over Zoom, with the idea that we'll take a quick look back at the game that ignited Tomb Raider's "Survivor" timeline. Watch on YouTube "A famous explorer once said, that the extrodinary is in what we do, not who we are."
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