Dev Blog: Research and Reference in Rise of the Tomb Raider
Note from Brian Horton, Game Director: “In light of the news about the bombings in Turkey today, my thoughts go out to the people affected by this tragedy.”
[Leading into the launch of Rise of the Tomb Raider, we’ll feature a variety of developer blogs that lift the curtain on the creation of Lara’s first great tomb raiding expedition.]
Creating believable worlds for Tomb Raider requires extensive reference gathering, and we take photos on location. For Rise of the Tomb Raider, our story begins in Syria in a hidden refuge carved into the mountainside.
Cappadocia is in central Turkey and has a similar climate to Syria with underground cities carved from rock. This was perfect reference for the Prophet’s Tomb, the scale and artistry was amazing and the quality of light was luminous. The photos above and below are a small sample of the hundreds taken.
Lara travels back to London, and we wanted to capture some of the local architecture to represent the location around Lara’s flat. King’s Cross was a cool location to shoot in, with a mix of businesses, the train station, and industrial brick living spaces.
The bulk of the adventure takes place in Siberia, and we chose to use online research for most of the mountains and abandoned Soviet Gulags, but the lush valley in the center of the hostile tundra was inspired by Yosemite. This location is very convenient for us to travel to and had amazing examples for mountains, trees, grasses, and rivers.
Byzantine architecture is a late Roman style, which is inspired by Greek architecture. One of our locations is inspired by a Greek Library from Ephesus in Turkey. The ruins here are very well preserved in places and are badly damaged in others. The library façade below was a perfect example of the architecture and carved detail and distress we were looking for.
The Mythical City of Kitezh is a Russian myth, but the Orthodox religious architecture in Russia has rich Byzantine influences. Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul would be the main inspiration behind the mythical city.
Hagia Sophia was the crown jewel of the Byzantine construction. The signature stacked dome design was an engineering marvel for its time, and the impression you feel going inside is simply breathtaking. The scale is massive and took my breath away to walk through the central chamber. The golden domes seem to float above, the walls are panels of various different marbles. Dozens of intricate Brass chandeliers hang low from the ceiling, detailed carvings decorate the capitals of each marble pillar and the meticulous detail of the mosaics glisten in the glancing light.
Byzantine Art and architecture has been a passion of mine for many years and it was an honor to capture thousands of pictures of these the amazing locations. Our artists are committed to bringing as much detail and authenticity to our worlds as possible, these reference trips are just one small example of how we do that.
Brian Horton
Game Director, Rise of the Tomb Raider
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