Core Design
Core Design is a now-defunct game development studio once owned by Eidos Interactive. Among other games, Core Design launched the Tomb Raider series in 1996. They got dissolved after the non-success of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and are now a part of Rebellion Derby.
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History
Core Design was founded in July 1988 by Chris Shrigley, Andy Green, Rob Toone, Terry Lloyd, Simon Phipps, Dave Pridmore, Jeremy Smith and Greg Holmes, most of whom were ex-employees of Gremlin Graphics Software. Based in Derby, England, it was set up with just £16,000. Core Design were part of CentreGold, a partnership between the publishers U.S. Gold, CentreSoft and the developer Core Design.
In 1989 Core Design released their first game titled Rick Dangerous. A platform game inspired by the movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Atari ST, MS-DOS and the Commodore 64 and published by Rainbird Software. It was well-received, and Core Design soon aquired a name for themselves.
In April 1996 CentreGold was acquired by Eidos Interactive. U.S Gold and CentreSoft were sold to Activision under the name CenterSoft while Core Design was retained by Eidos as a developer studio.
Tomb Raider
In 1993, Core Design analysed ideas for a new video game. One idea was chosen: A mix of action, platforming, puzzle-solving and exploration with a 3rd person view was conceived by developer Toby Gard. The game originally starred a male adventurer with a hat and whip but the idea was scrapped due to similarities with Indiana Jones and changed to a South American woman named Laura Cruz. "Laura Cruz" was later dropped when Eidos decided that the game should be more "British-friendly". As a result, the character was changed to an English female named Laura Cruise and after a period of time was changed again, this time to Lara Croft as "Croft" sounded more English than "Cruise".
The game, originally called "Tomb Raiders"', was announced in 1995 for the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, DOS and Mac to be released in 1996, published by U.S Gold. It was released in November 1996 under the name Tomb Raider and published by Eidos Interactive soon becoming a cultural icon.
The Angel of Darkness and later history
After four Tomb Raider games, and one more to be released, Core Design started to develop the first "new generation Tomb Raider" for the recently released PlayStation 2 under the working title Tomb Raider: Next Generation. The first trailer showed Lara Croft escaping from the police in France and jumping to the Seine river.
After three years of development and several delays, the game was released in June 2003 for the PlayStation 2 and PC as Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. Although the storyline and soundtrack were well received, the game was criticized by its numerous bugs, difficult controls, the lack of actual tombs in the game (despite the fact that the second half of the game features plenty of tombs), and the fact it was still incompleted when it was released.
Because of the very bad reception and the amount of criticism the game received, Eidos replaced Core Design as the Tomb Raider series developer with the American company Crystal Dynamics. Additionally, Jeremy Heath-Smith, one of the founders of Core Design, was asked to leave the company by Eidos shortly after the game was released. He did so and shortly founded another company, Circle Studio, later in 2003. Many members of Core Design joined the company, although a few rejoined Core Design shortly afterwards.
In 2006, after releasing just one title for the PlayStation Portable after Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Smart Bomb, all of Core Design's physical assets and staff were sold to the independent company Rebellion Derby. Upon this, a few members also left Rebellion Derby, either joining other companies or simply doing something else.
Other Games
As well as those from the Tomb Raider series, Core Design developed plenty of other video games during it's lifetime. 1997 saw the release of Swagman, a well-received adventure game for the PlayStation, among other formats. Also during the 90s, Core Design developed and released Fighting Force and Fighting Force 2, generally successful action games for various different consoles. They also made a sequel to the popular ThunderHawk, as well as another adventure game called Ninja: Shadow of Darkness. Even whilst developing Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Core Design were still busy with plenty of other titles, including Project Eden, Herdy Gerdy, and a PS2 update of ThunderHawk, all of which were well-received by most critics and players.
Gallery
Core Design Logo (2003)
Core Design Logo (1996)
Core Design's HQ in Derby, United Kingdom
