Tomb Raider Corner: Tomb Raider Legend Fan Demake Interview - #infinitesummer23 (NEW SERIES!)

Main Article Written By @laraglasses - GiFriends MOD

We are excited to kick off our brand new Game Infinite Article Series "Tomb Raider Corner" written by Gi Mod @laraglasses who will be writting regular Tomb Raider themed discussion pieces, bringing the Tomb Raider community content here and our @tombraiderinfinite Gi Channel. If you are a fan of all things Tomb Raider, make sure to follow our dedicated TR themed Gi Channel and this new series for all things Tomb Raider!

@laraglasses is our Gi Mod who oversees this Tomb Raider centric Gi Channel of our greater Game Infinite community, and they deliver amazing Lara content. We are honored to have them on the team, and here now to head up this new article series. Kicking off this series, @laraglasses sat down with @delcatrle who is hard at work on a fan "demake" of Tomb Raider Legend. Watch the trailer below, and read the article interview as written by @laraglasses. Thank you to @delcatrle for their participation. Thank you to our creator partner @illyne_cosplay who's incredible art is the cover art for this new series, "Tomb Raider Corner"

INTERVIEW:

Delca’s “Tomb Raider Legend” Demake Has Captured My Attention For Months

Before starting today’s article, I would like to explain what the definition of a ‘De-make’ is exactly for those who may not know. A ‘De-make’ is the concept of taking a game and making it more like a game of an era before its time. Or even just an older or different engine that is less capable. People do this to breathe new life into titles and show them through a lens we have never seen, and I find it so interesting. It allows you to see what a game might have been had the concept been thought of earlier, something that as someone interested in game design myself, finds very intriguing. This specific demake is being created using TRLE, or Tomb Raider Level Editor. The version this project uses is a community patched version of the classic Tomb Raider engine. I had a lovely interview with @DelcaTRLE on twitter about his project and I would like to share that with you today. Thank you, Delca, for answering my questions! So excited to see more of this project.

Me:

So first off, I wanted to ask you if there was anything specific that inspired this project?

Delca:

I love the idea of 'de-making' video games - converting HD environments into classic/old school. It's something I've rarely seen in TRLE, and is what motivated me to start this project last year.

Me:

Me too! It's one of my favorite types of fan projects because it's always really interesting to see the more modern games through a classic lens.

What would you say has been the most difficult part of the project so far?

Delca:

Storytelling. The original cutscenes from Legend were animated by a professional team at Crystal Dynamics - they have great animations, camera angles and visual effects. It is realistically hard to compete with that in TRLE. There will be animated cutscenes in Legend Demake, definitely. However, the story will be streamlined a tiny bit to focus on Lara exploring the environments by herself, similar to the classic games!

Me:

I'm really glad to hear that, I've always loved how game focused the classic games are and i'm super excited to experience legend through that lens.

This is a question you don't have to answer if you don't want to or if you're not sure yet, but do you think you'll release a demo of the demake at any point before release?

Delca:

I have something very cool planned for later this summer, but I can't reveal what it is yet! It's a little more than a demo.

Me:

Ooh, Exciting!

Is there anything from legend that you made a conscious decision to change for the demake?

Delca:

Legend Demake will feel like a fresh experience, even if you know the original game by heart! All the levels are re-imagined through a classic lens, as you said, as well as my original ideas. Legend Demake does its own thing, and is meant to appeal both Legend nostalgics and those who only play the classics and TRLEs. Obviously some changes were forced due to the limits of the classic engine. As a level builder, it's important to know exactly what the classic engine is capable of, cause you don't want to run into too many bugs and game breaking issues. Too complex and detailed 3D models can make the game lag a lot, even on the most powerful machines. I've ran into such issues when demaking Paraíso [the Peruvian town at the beginning of the second level], cause I've wanted to make the area more open, less a "straight line", but the amount of details was giving the engine a hard time. It is fine now after having it optimized.

Me:

That's really interesting!! I'm so excited to play this when it comes out, you can tell how much passion you have for this :)

Getting to the end here, but which aspect of the demake are you most excited for people to see?

Delca:

I'm excited for people to see the new puzzles and mechanics I've implemented. I love trying unique things in TRLE and getting creative! When building a level, my mindset is always on "if this has to be my final work, I want it to be the best I've ever done" - and so I push myself to do better and learn from my previous mistakes. The classic engine really has a lot of possibilities, especially nowadays when it is heavily enhanced with patches, complex scripting, and plugins. Level builders can customize their levels in many ways. We've really came a long way since the first official level editor was published, in the early 2000's. I'm aware that many people, even among the TR fans, ignore the existence of TRLE, but hopefully my project will attract players that aren't familiar with it!

Me:

Yeah, I definitely think that people underrate how good the TRLE engine is now. There are also so many Tomb Raider fans who haven't ever played a TRLE and I think your project can change that :)

So last question, this is more about Tomb Raider itself than anything else but I wanted to ask because I always find this topic interesting. Do you have a favorite Tomb Raider game? And if you do, why is that one your favorite?

Delca:

For me it'll always be TR3 and its mini-expansion The Lost Artifact, which was the first Tomb Raider game I played as a kid. A lot of nostalgia so I'm a little biased. TR3 is super memorable with its fantastic environments and outfits. Also the best Lara's Home level of the franchise to me. Legend, TR2 and Shadow are close favorites of mine. I love all iterations of Lara.

That concludes the interview I had with Delca! It was lovely getting to find out so much about a project I am so excited for. The answers given gave me so much insight into the level of passion this creator had for their project, it’s very inspiring. Thank You so much to Delca for allowing me to conduct this interview. I had a lovely time doing it and I hope it was a good read for you all. Until next time! - - For more #InfiniteSummer23 Events, and even more Tomb Raider content, make sure to follow us on your preferred social media. We have developer interviews, cosplay, fan art, and gaming news coverage all month.