adminTomb Raider Chronicles arrived on the original PlayStation in 2000, but its development was far from an enthusiastic next step for the team at Core Design. After finishing Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, many developers expected to move on to a PlayStation 2 project. Instead, publisher Eidos Interactive wanted another game ready for the following year, leaving the team to revisit a series they thought they had put behind them.
This account draws on The Making of Tomb Raider: 1997-2000 by Daryl Baxter, which examines a demanding period in the franchise’s history. The image credit for the book artwork is Pen and Sword.
Why Tomb Raider Chronicles was commissioned
By the end of 1999, Core Design had developed a production rhythm that could deliver a new Tomb Raider game in roughly nine months. The team had understood that The Last Revelation would be the final PlayStation entry, with the next major project designed for newer hardware.
Level designer Andrea Cordella recalled that the team expected to move on from the original PlayStation era. Animator Phil Chapman likewise said the developers were preparing to bring Lara Croft into a next-generation game. Eidos, however, relied heavily on Tomb Raider’s yearly sales and did not want a long gap between releases. The company therefore requested another PlayStation title before work continued on the next-generation project.
Image credit: Core Design/Crystal Dynamics
Some early ideas for the future game included skills that could improve through repeated use. Story and level designer Richard Morton described concepts involving stronger abilities and a branching narrative. The team also considered connecting The Last Revelation’s ending to the next game, with Lara recovering from her injuries and relearning familiar moves. Those plans were set aside when the developers were assigned to the fifth game.
The Tomb Raider Chronicles team resisted
Several team members said they were unhappy about being asked to make another PlayStation game. Programmer Del Gilchrist recalled that the response was broadly negative, while programmer Martin Gibbins described frustration at having to repeat a demanding production cycle. The developers wanted to work on the PlayStation 2 project instead.
Eidos insisted that the experienced Core Design team should make the new game, rather than handing it to another group, and that it needed to be finished the following year. Some staff members were asked individually whether they would take part. Executive director Jeremy Heath-Smith was involved in those discussions, which several developers remembered as intimidating at the time.
Money and the promise of moving on to next-generation work eventually helped secure agreement. The understanding was that the team would complete the fifth game and then work on the PlayStation 2 title. Story and level designer Andy Sandham later described the decision as a difficult compromise: the team wanted to stand together, but the offer persuaded them to proceed.
Image credit: Daryl Baxter
The agreement did not erase the team’s exhaustion. Developers described a quieter, more withdrawn workplace, after years of intense schedules and repeated releases. Morton said the story concept for the fifth game grew from the idea of Lara’s friends sharing memories of her. That framing allowed the team to tell separate adventures without overturning the plans they had made for the PlayStation 2 follow-up.
Plans for the PlayStation 2 project falter
While one group worked on Tomb Raider Chronicles, another began developing an early version of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, then referred to as Tomb Raider Next Generation. The developers working on the PlayStation game watched that project take shape and worried that its scope was becoming too large.
Programmer Martin Gibbins later recalled that an early version included a tree model with a thousand polygons and an engine that was ultimately discarded. The project restarted, adding years to development. Other team members said they were concerned about the technical ambition and felt that the original plan had become difficult to manage.
This contrast added to the frustration: the Chronicles team was still working within the constraints of the original PlayStation while the next-generation project struggled to find its direction. Some developers raised their concerns with Heath-Smith, though they later acknowledged that he may not have had the ability to resolve every issue.
Image credit: Pen and Sword
What the development story reveals
The history of Tomb Raider Chronicles is also a story about release schedules, team burnout and the challenge of managing a transition between console generations. Eidos wanted to keep a successful series visible in the market, while Core Design’s developers hoped to use their experience on a more ambitious new project. Those priorities did not align, and the resulting game was shaped by a compromise.
For readers exploring the series’ development, the key context is that Chronicles was not originally the team’s preferred next chapter. It was made to fill the release gap before the PlayStation 2 era, after the team had expected The Last Revelation to close its work on the original PlayStation. That background helps explain why the fifth game occupies a distinct place in Tomb Raider’s history.
