托比·加德

2004 年 8 月，来自 Eidos 的消息令游戏界意外而又兴奋：托比-加德（Toby Gard）加入了美国晶体动力（Crystal Dynamics）工作室，成为下一代古墓丽影游戏的首席角色设计师！

托比是谁？

托比加入古墓丽影7的开发为什么引起如此轰动？

在游戏界沉寂多年，原本与晶体动力毫无瓜葛的他为什么能够立即成为古墓丽影这一重点项目的首席角色设计师？

劳拉之父

1996 年，3D 游戏还如在密林中寻找出路的孩子，直到由 Jeremy 和 Adrian Smith 创始的游戏制作小组 Core Design 的一次伟大尝试。位于不列颠土地上的 Core Design 团队大胆地把一位英国女性引入我们的世界。她就是 Laura Cruz，也就是后来的 Lara Croft 女士。

最初产生制作一个以女性为主角的动作冒险游戏念头的，是 Core Design 中一个年轻的成员托比-加德。他在纸上绘制出了一个女性形象，为了突出她的女性特征，他让她留了长发。一个背包则凸显了探险家的气质。大腿上的枪套则更加衬现了女性的线条。托比说：“我要她进入坟墓和金字塔。”在他提出自己的想法后，整个 Core Design 团队都被吓了一跳。由于无法预见玩家的反应，这个建议并没有被立刻采纳。直到风靡一时的《坦克女郎》漫画被制作成电影并取得巨大成功后，Core 终于下了决心……

古墓丽影和劳拉-克劳馥就此出现。冒险游戏也从此改变。劳拉这位游戏界的“第一女士”迅速风靡全球。大胆的托比被誉为“劳拉之父”。托比的很多意见事后被证明是相当正确的见解：他坚持让劳拉进入金字塔，1代中因此而安插了埃及的情节。在古墓丽影第 4 代——《最后的启示》中，重新回到金字塔的劳拉再次震撼了广大的玩家，在经历了古墓丽影2代、3代的下坡路之后，《最后的启示》被很多玩家奉为古墓系列的颠峰之作。同时，由于 1996 年游戏技术的缺陷，无法让游戏中的劳拉扎着辫子，但是托比坚持保留劳拉的辫子，于是我们就看到了游戏中劳拉盘发，而一到 FMV 的过场动画又成了麻花辫的“怪”现象。但是，后续作品中，我们可以看到，劳拉的辫子对这个形象而言是多么的重要。同时，托比在初代古墓丽影的制作中曾强烈反对在游戏进程中引进人类敌人。这一点并没有获得最终的采纳，皮埃尔和拉森最终还是出现了。而人类敌人的“扎堆”在2代、3代中越走越远，古墓丽影系列逐步走上动作化的轨道，直到《最后的启示》中才得以缓和，回归到初代的风格。古墓丽影初代和《最后的启示》也被普遍认为是最具古墓风味的作品。

可以肯定的是，托比在劳拉形象和古墓丽影创始阶段发挥了至关重要、乃至决定性的作用。

失去“女儿”

但是古墓丽影和劳拉引起的巨大轰动却和“劳拉之父”无关。

在劳拉风靡全球，古墓丽影受到热捧的时候，托比已经退出了古墓丽影的世界——古墓丽影发行之初，托比就离开了 Core Design，创立了自己的工作室 Confounding Factor。古墓丽影和他所创造的劳拉-克劳馥受到全球热捧的时候，托比或许正在设计自己的游戏大帆船（Galleon）。历经多年的开发，《大帆船》上市后反响平平，Confounding Factor 面临解散。

在谈到劳拉的时候，托比不无沮丧。离开 Core Design 的决定让他承受了不可估量的经济损失：“钱并不是最主要的问题，”2001 年左右，托比在接受 Discovery 的采访时，认为人们把劳拉带上了歧路。他在纸上绘制了当年绘制的劳拉形象草图，无奈地说道，“我已经放弃了保护她的想法，因为她已经不再属于我了。”

“父女重逢”

就在全世界都淡忘了“劳拉之父”的时候，Eidos 却想起了他。他们将他重新召回。托比就此加入了古墓丽影新的开发小组晶体动力，成为开发团队的首席角色设计师。

他的工作却并不限于角色设计。在谈到托比的时候，晶体动力的同事们对他赞赏有加：“能让托比加入开发《传说》实在太棒了”，他“对劳拉明显了解很多”。大家一筹莫展，不知道如何设计的时候，托比总能让问题迎刃而解。他会告诉晶体动力的同事们，劳拉应当如何走路和奔跑。对于至关重要的劳拉模型，晶体动力原本只是基于前作《黑暗天使》的劳拉模型进行细微的修改，毕竟对这样一个角色动大手术很容易弄巧成拙。托比的到来却给劳拉形象带来了彻底的改革：“劳拉是我造出来的，我要她怎样就怎样。”八个月的形象设计最终给我们带来了《传说》中的劳拉，她已经不再是原来那个基于失败的前作《黑暗天使》的模型了。虽然仍有一些玩家怀念过去的劳拉形象，但是《传说》这一新的劳拉形象设计无疑获得了巨大的成功。

在《传说》开发中托比还做了很多不同的事情，包括为动画制作提供方向，合作编写剧情等等。来自英国的托比监督着晶体动力这个美国制作小组的工作，以保证游戏中能够维持劳拉的英国贵族风味。“托比做的首批事情之一就是切实帮助我们处理劳拉的整个外观。同我们的前期动画组合作，同我们的作家一起研究创作故事情节——虽然不是参与创作具体台词，但是他帮助我们英国化我们的美国腔。‘那句俗语不错，只是像15年前说的话了’，他就某句台词说。”

“对于那些他没有直接参与的一些工作他也总有很棒的反馈。他肯定会为未来的项目工作的。”

再度告别

托比在7代和周年纪念中主要负责剧情、动画以及人物设计。在8代中则主管过场动画。

2009年，晶体动力面临裁员和人事变动，在1月的第一轮裁员中，8代创意总监也被炒了鱿鱼，但他表示托比仍然留在了晶体。6月，网上显示的托比的简历中，称他现在的职务是首席设计师，“正在领导一个设计小组忙于一个尚未公开的项目”。玩家因此猜测托比是古墓丽影9的项目负责人。但在9月，托比更新的网上简历则显示他已经离开了晶体动力。在回复玩家的邮件中，他明确表示自己已经脱离了古墓丽影系列的制作，但具体原因并未公开。

透笔

托比的主页顶部图片中，曾经绘有一张自画像，右下角则是印章字体的两个字——“透笔”。

看来他在给自己挑选中文名方面也是很有眼界。

自我介绍

托比·加德曾经在个人网站发布一段视频，在这段视频中托比总结了在游戏界的作品和职位。

分别为：

古墓丽影的创意者
劳拉·克劳馥这一角色的创造者
古墓丽影初代首席设计师、首席动画师
《大帆船》创意总监、首席动画师、动画系统设计、首席设计师、剧情和故事脚本
《古墓丽影：传说》劳拉角色设计&创意顾问、角色设计、动画系统设计、过场动画指导
《古墓丽影：周年纪念》剧情设计、分镜顾问
《古墓丽影：地下世界》过场动画指导、运动捕捉指导、录音指导

以下则是2009-2010年托比在自己的主页张贴的职业生涯说明。

托比·加德2009年左右主页
托比·加德2010年左右主页
托比·加德2012年左右主页

个人网站自我介绍
自我介绍 I was born in Chelmsford, in England, which makes me an Essex boy. I like tea, trees and macs, which might make me a hippy. I work in the games industry while secretly working to become a published author. I'm living LA where it never rains and everyone is eternally happy and young. I'm married and have a tiny son who may or may not want to be a ninja when he grows up. 职业生涯 I have had experience across almost all aspects of game development, from character, game and level design, through technical design of animation systems, story writing, cinematic direction and marketing. I received a couple of awards for outstanding contribution to the games industry as the creation of Lara Croft; from BAFTA (1999) and ELSPA (2003). My recent work co-writing Tomb Raider Underworld was nominated for best writing in a video game by the Writers Guild of America. While I worked as cinematics director, Lara Croft's performance was nominated in the outstanding character performance category by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science at the DICE summit. Experience Lead Designer at Crystal Dynamics January 2009 – September 2009 ( 8 months) Leading a design group for an unannounced project. Responsibilities included: Helping define the product vision with the creative director. Supporting and mentoring the design department. Implementing new design procedures to improve and streamline level design. Story writing and character design. Director of Cinematics at Crystal Dynamics April 2007 – January 2009 (1 year 10 months) I Co-wrote the story for Tomb Raider Underworld and directed the 50 or more cutscenes. My work included voice direction, motion capture direction along with camera setup and managing the animators and lighters. I also directed the european TV advert for Underworld. Responsibilities included: Working with marketing to define marketing materials and the key promotional videos. Designing the cinematic pipeline. Responsible for R&D to increase studio cinematic quality including such techniques as the use of mirrors and per shot lighting. Publishing Designer at Eidos May 2006 – March 2007 ( 11 months) I worked in the Eidos design department, which oversaw third party game projects giving feedback to developers on game design. Responsibilities included: Design and story consultation for Tomb Raider Anniversary Design feedback on the Wii and DS game Monster Lab Story work for the mobile version of TR Legend. Game Consultant at Eidos August 2004 – May 2006 (1 year 10 months) I worked directly with Crystal Dynamics on the reboot of the franchise that began with Legend. My work became hands on during the production and eventually included Lara's visual redesign, overseeing character design and creation, co writing the story, designing and helping implement parts of the character movement system, and directing the cinematics. Responsibilities included: Feedback to creative director on overall design vision. Level design feedback and concept work. Story and script work. I helped develop several key parts of the animation system including the IK foot locking system, the predictive in air animation blending system and the combat weapon aiming and blending methods. Helped design the cast of characters and Lara’s costumes with the character lead. Story boarded and directed 45 minutes of cinematics in the last three months of development. Studio Director at Confounding Factor January 1998 – June 2004 (6 years 6 months) I was the owner of the game studio Confounding Factor, based in Bristol UK. The company had 14 employees working on the XBox game Galleon. Responsibilities included: Managing the finances and day to day running of the business. Communication and liaising with the publisher. Writing of design documents including the story and script. I had deep involvement with the fundamental design of the Galleon animation system; a footstep based animation technique unique to the games industry. Oversight of the level designs. Cinematic and in-game animation. Character modelling and texturing. Box cover and marketing art. Game Designer at Core Design June 1994 – November 1997 (3 years 6 months) I designed the original Tomb Raider game in 1995 along with the character Lara Croft. I managed the level designers, and built and animated most of the characters including Lara herself. I animated the in-game cutscenes and story boarded the FMV's. Responsibilities included: All art assets for the sprite based game BC Racers Initial pitch for the game Tomb Raider I wrote the game design document for Tomb Raider. Character design, modelling and animation for Lara Croft along with most in game enemies. I helped design the animation system and move set for the main character and the enemies. Design and art assets for all menu systems including inventory Overall level flow design for the level designers. I Built two of the in game levels. Setup puzzles, combat and pickups in several of the levels Co-wrote the story, and story boarded the cinematics Designed and rendered the box cover and various pieces of promotional art. Education Foundation Art at University of South East Essex Skills Proficient with: Photoshop, Word, Excel, Powerpoint and their equivalents on Mac. Foundational knowledge with: 3DS Max, Maya, Final Cut, and Premiere Specialties: Character animation systems, cinematics and storytelling. Game flow, progression and overall systems design. Creative Direction.