古墓丽影总监详解3D关卡设计三十年演进

Game Director at Crystal Dynamics

Interviewed by

21 October 2026

Tomb Raider Game Director Raul Siqueira discusses 30 years of 3D level design, preserving isolation, evolving camera technology, and Legacy of Atlantis’ optional guidance systems.

When the original Tomb Raider arrived in 1996, fully three-dimensional action-adventure games were still establishing their fundamental rules. Its environments were not simply backdrops or corridors connecting encounters. Players had to study their surroundings, understand how spaces connected, judge distances, and identify routes through architecture that initially appeared impassable. That was over 30 years ago.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is reimagining Lara’s first adventure for modern hardware, creating an unusual design challenge: how do you preserve the satisfaction of independently reading an environment while remaining approachable to players raised on objective markers, highlighted routes, and contextual hints? The developers’ answer is to let players decide how much assistance they receive.

We spoke with Crystal Dynamics Game Director Raul Siqueira about Tomb Raider’s contribution to 3D exploration, how camera technology changed the construction of environments and challenges, and why preserving the original game’s sense of isolation remains so important. Siqueira also discussed designing for several generations of players and using optional assistance to remove barriers without removing the thrill of discovery.

Legacy of Atlantis is being developed by Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog and will launch on February 12, 2027, for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

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The original Tomb Raider arrived when fully 3D environments were still relatively new. What did the game establish about movement, navigation, and spatial reasoning that influenced the wider industry?

Raul Siqueira, Game Director: I think the original Tomb Raider was a pioneer for what we currently know as a 3D action-adventure game. Some concepts from it obviously went through iteration as time went by; things like controls and combat have primarily changed a lot, however the core of exploration and navigation still holds up to this day.

Is anyone from that original team working on the newer games?

Raul Siqueira: We have a surprising number of people who have been working on this franchise for over 20 years, but unfortunately no one from the original six devs from the very first game.

Early Tomb Raider levels were often built around interconnected spaces that players had to observe and gradually understand. Why was learning the architecture itself such an important part of the experience?

Raul Siqueira: It speaks to the cerebral nature of the original game, asking players to slow down and pay attention to their surroundings as a way of finding the path forward. It helps put players in the shoes of an explorer; it serves the fantasy of playing as someone like Lara Croft.

Tomb Raider has traditionally provided relatively little direct guidance, asking players to identify routes through landmarks, lighting, geometry, and environmental clues. How has the series’ approach to spatial readability evolved as player expectations have changed?

Raul Siqueira: Different eras of Tomb Raider have carried different philosophies, largely reflecting what was expected from games of that genre at the time. But if you look at the arc of the series, you can see a clear evolution, from offering very little guidance in the early days, to guiding players more in later entries, to where we are now: giving players the ability to decide for themselves how much guidance they want.

The Tomb Raider franchise is celebrating its 30-year milestone this month, and that means our audience spans an incredibly wide range of gaming backgrounds. Some players grew up navigating the original games with nothing but their instincts, and others discovered the series through the Survivor trilogy and its more modern conventions. They're all looking for something different, and we want to honor that.

In Legacy of Atlantis, players can independently adjust settings across combat, puzzle hints, and exploration guidance, so you're never locked into a single, rigid difficulty tier. Want brutal encounters but gentle nudges on puzzles? That's your call. The goal is to remove barriers without removing the thrill of discovery.

Cameras have changed significantly across Tomb Raider’s history, from fixed or tightly controlled perspectives to modern third-person systems. How has camera technology influenced the kinds of environments, jumps, puzzles, and dramatic reveals the designers can create?

Raul Siqueira: The camera is an important part of any action-adventure game. Framing puzzle elements or the destination of a tricky jump can be what makes or breaks a specific challenge. So often in the past, layouts had to go through heavy iteration to circumvent camera limitations. Luckily, modern technology has made it possible for designers to quickly author different camera behaviors and create more interesting challenges because of it.

Modern players are accustomed to objective markers, highlighted ledges, survival vision, and other navigational assistance. How do you preserve the satisfaction of discovering a path while ensuring players understand the visual language of a level?

Raul Siqueira: It all comes down to player agency. For Legacy of Atlantis, we offer several options that allow players to tune the experience to their liking. If you want the old-school experience of working through challenges until you figure them out on your own, that option is absolutely there. But if you'd prefer a helping hand, you can turn on hints and guidance tools. For example, Lara can provide voice clues for puzzles, and she has a scanner that helps guide players along the way. Crucially though, you have the ability to turn off the voice cues for puzzles and choose not to use the scanner if you feel they detract from the exploration experience.

Beyond that, it really comes down to the UI and UX side of things, and how we communicate information so that players know exactly what they're signing up for before they begin. We think carefully about how our tutorials are presented, how text is displayed, and whether it all makes intuitive sense. When you pick up the scanner for the first time, for instance, we present clear screenshots, so players understand every nuance and option at their disposal. The way we present and communicate these tools is one of the key ways we balance these philosophies for all types of players. We can't do it for everything, but we focus on how much of it is important to surface before players even start their journey. That was a major focus during development: making sure we had a strong solution from a UI and UX perspective so that when a player boots up the game for the first time, they understand what those options offer and can feel satisfied with the gameplay experience they've customized for themselves.

Once you're in the game, we also rely on a visual language that moves away from traditional markers. Over the past couple of years, we've seen a lot of feedback pushing back against games that signpost where to go next too overtly or trigger voice cues too quickly. So how do you strike the right balance? For us, the answer is visual design. We want players to be able to read the environment and intuit where to go through the level design itself, without the game explicitly telling them.

Looking across 30 years of Tomb Raider, which aspects of its original level-design philosophy remain essential to the series, regardless of changes in technology and audience expectations?

Raul Siqueira: The original level design did a phenomenal job at giving players a sense of isolation, and that is something we very much wanted to preserve in Legacy of Atlantis.

What do you hope a new generation of developers takes from Tomb Raider’s contribution to 3D exploration and level design?

Raul Siqueira: My hope is that we have players who are now playing the Tomb Raider games that are coming out and will be the next generation of Tomb Raider developers, so we can continue something that is very special to the franchise, which is not just to have great game developers working on the games, but to have great developers that are also Tomb Raider fans.