French – English
The MO5.COM association has the great pleasure of announcing that Gavin Rummery and Richard Morton, creators of Tomb Raider, have just joined the association as honorary members. They consider our initiative necessary and welcome, and thus offer us their support. There is no doubt that the support of such personalities from the world of video games will help us to make ourselves known and develop.
Born on January 23, 1969, Gavin Rummery graduated from a programming school when many others were still learning on the job at the time. He then tried his luck in the video game industry and was easily hired in 1995 at CORE Design where he was even asked what game he wanted to work on! Touring the titles in development, he came across a certain Toby Gard who had been trying in vain for months to create a game called Tomb Raider, with three other people. Initially worried about the ambition of the project, Rummery still decided to give it a try even if no one knew how to create 3D settings... It was by drawing inspiration from the pioneer in the field Ultima Underworld (1992) that he designed a level editor to facilitate the task of level designers. Subsequently, he will take care of all aspects of the game on the programming side, becoming the true pillar of the team. He also takes the reins of the second episode after the departure of Toby Gard and, in less than a year of hard work – he notably created the famous Venice boat in less than 48 hours! –, Tomb Raider 2 (1997) turns out to be even more successful than its predecessor. Tired, he then wanted to move on and learned almost by chance that a third part was in the works while he was working on Project Eden (2001), a more personal project. Probably just as good, it will unfortunately not experience the same commercial success, undoubtedly eclipsed by Lara Croft who has the priority of the publisher Eidos...
Born on February 23, 1973, Richard Morton, although passionate about video games, did not know which training to turn to to learn how to create them and first undertook studies... in masonry. However, when he did not find a place for his end-of-studies internship, a guidance counselor suggested that he spend it at Wise Owl Software, a company supposed to create educational games but which actually makes video games, and where Morton learned the basics of pixelart in three weeks. Gifted in the field, he completed a year's training then obtained a position as a graphic designer at CORE Design in 1993, in Derby, where he worked notably on Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck (1993). Following some internal turmoil, Morton was catapulted into creative director of the studio at the beginning of 1996. Having seen the first sketches of a certain "Laura Cruz" by Toby Gard for his Tomb Raider, he became passionate about this project and participated in both the creation of the levels and the balancing of the game. And following the departure of Toby Gard, he was even more involved in Tomb Raider 2 (1997) of which he created the Temple of Xian of his own. alone! For Tomb Raider 3 (1998), he even chose to demote himself to the rank of simple level designer in order to keep his hands dirty, and it was he who decided the sudden disappearance of Lara Croft at the end of Tomb Raider: The Final Revelation (1999)! Considered “the second father” of the adventurer, he has become a simple spectator of the series since it was entrusted to the Crystal Dynamics studio in 2005, but Morton still works in video games; he notably worked on the social platform PlayStation Home and was creative director on LittleBigPlanet PS Vita (2012) at Double Eleven.
Important!
A huge thank you to Alexandre Serel for his valuable help.
Tomb Raider (Saturn/PlayStation/MS-DOS, 1996)
Tomb Raider II (PlayStation, Windows, Mac OS, 1997)
And you, why not become a member of MO5.COM too?