Q&A: The man who made Lara

Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft

By BBC News Online's Dave Gibbon

While working for Core Design in Derby, a young man called Toby Gard brought to life a phenomenon using nothing but pencil and paper.

His creation, the curvaceous Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider games is a series which has now generated more than £650m in worldwide sales.

Angelina Jolie at the US premiere of the movie

The Tomb Raider movie has broken all box office records for a film with a female lead.

After signing a deal that would give Toby a paltry one per cent royalty from sales of the Tomb Raider games, he received a cheque for £50,000.

Having fallen foul of big business, Toby left to launch his own company.

He tells BBC News Online more about Lara Croft and what he has in store for video gamers.

What influences helped you create Lara Croft?

I was a fan of movies such as Tank Girl, Indiana Jones and Hard Boiled - the John Woo film. These helped give me the idea for Lara.

How did Lara's creation first come to you?

I was a big fan of an old first person game called Ultima Underworld and I wanted to mix that type of game with the sort of polygon characters that were just being showcased in Virtua Fighter.

I thought by mixing that up we could make it a sort of real-time interactive movie and that was basically the concept for Tomb Raider.

How quickly did the first sketches of Lara appear on paper after your initial idea?

The Lara Croft character had a slow development process of sketching and re-sketching over several months and the same is true of my new character Rhama.

Tomb Raider: More than £650m in worldwide sales

During this time I was actually in between projects and pitching the idea of Tomb Raider to Core Design's management when I came up with the first draft of Lara. The game concept had come much earlier.

When creating Lara, what materials did you use?

When I'm designing I tend to just use pencils and paper. Then if I make a sketch worth pursuing, I'll scan it into a computer to add colour.

When you created her, did you think she would become a fantasy model for men? No, I thought that men would become, er, attached to her, but not perhaps to this extent.

Why did you provide Lara with larger than life physical attributes?

I think exaggeration is the key to making clearer, more recognisable characters. Caricature, for instance can often communicate an idea faster and more clearly than a realistic representation can. Lara is a caricature of a feisty attractive women.

What is your favourite movie?

Probably the Dark Crystal is still my favourite film of all time.

I didn't ever imagine that Tomb Raider would make it back onto the big screen since it's clearly entirely inspired by Indiana Jones, and that's quite a legacy to live up to.

How suitable is Angelina Jolie for playing Lara Croft on the big screen?

Although I haven't met her, she definitely looks the part and her attitude looks to be spot on.

When did you launch your new company, Confounding Factor?

Lara as most fans see her - in the Tomb Raider game

I started the firm in 1997. I was 25 at the time and set this up so that I could have greater control over the new characters and games I wanted to design.

What is your new game all about?

The Galleon idea has been kicked around for a while but it didn't really take shape for a while. The game is based on old Ray Harryhausen Sinbad movies and things like Jason and the Argonaughts. It's a sort of over-the-top big voyage, Sunday afternoon TV adventure thing.

You get to play a captain called Rhama Sabrier and you get involved in stories and adventures on each of the islands you go to and along the way, you meet two girls who are vying for your attentions.

There will be lots of Kung Fu action, giant monsters and amazing situations and we are developing it for the Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft X-Box and PC.