Traveller's Tales
Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games. Traveller's Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and Andy Ingram. Initially a small company focused on its own content, it grew in profile through developing games with larger companies such as Sega and Disney Interactive Studios. In 2004, development on Lego Star Wars: The Video Game started with Giant Interactive Entertainment, the exclusive rights holder to Lego video games. Traveller's Tales bought the company in 2005, and the two merged to create TT Games, with Traveller's Tales becoming the new company's development arm.[1][2]
| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1989 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | , England |
Key people | David Dootson (studio manager) |
| Products |
|
| Parent | TT Games (2005–present) |
History
Founding and work with Sega and Disney (1995–2007)
Traveller's Tales started developing games with Psygnosis, which were most notable for creating 3D effects. Their first game was Leander, also known as The Legend of Galahad.[3] With Psygnosis they developed a video game adaption of Bram Stoker's Dracula, as well as other original productions like Puggsy. Thanks to an agreement between Psygnosis, Sony Imagesoft and Disney Interactive Studios, Traveller's Tales could produce several games based on Disney's properties, such as the Mickey Mouse game Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse and other games based on Pixar movies like Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue and Finding Nemo (the latter two thanks to agreements with Activision and THQ).
However, Traveller's Tales was best known in the 1990s and early 2000s for their second-party collaboration with Sega to develop games based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, resulting in Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R, which were produced in close effort with Sega's Sonic Team. Both games were regarded as technical achievements in the Mega Drive (Sonic 3D Blast) and the Sega Saturn (Sonic R), adding to the high-tech development status they already had with games like Puggsy, Mickey Mania and Toy Story. They were also responsible for Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Crash Twinsanity, under the Vivendi label.
They developed Lego Star Wars: The Video Game as well as its follow-ups. Outside of the Lego games, their work includes the franchise Crash Bandicoot, The Chronicles of Narnia, Super Monkey Ball Adventure, and World Rally Championship and F1 Grand Prix for the PlayStation Portable.
Warner Bros. acquisition and Lego titles (2007–present)
The company was purchased by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment at the end of 8 November 2007,[4] but continued to operate independently. Following the release of Prince Caspian (2008), Traveller's Tales would work exclusively on Lego titles – though other TT subsidiaries such as TT Fusion continued to use other IP until the early 2010s. While some of the early Lego titles would be published by LucasArts, from 2011 Warner would also act as the studio's exclusive publisher.[5]
In 2015, Traveller's Tales entered the toys-to-life business with Lego Dimensions, which used a toy pad to enter physical Lego minifigures and Lego models into the game, as well as interact with gameplay. The game included existing Lego themes like DC Comics, The Lego Movie and The Lord of the Rings, as well as completely new properties such as Portal 2 and Wizard of Oz. The game was discontinued in October 2017.[6]
Traveller's Tales has won two BAFTAs, one for Gameplay with Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, and one for Children's Videogame of the Year for Lego Batman: The Videogame.[7][8]
On 20 January 2022, a report published by Polygon detailed the amount of crunch that occurred at the studio during the development of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, including dozens inside the company being at odds with management, due to expressing frustration over tight development schedules, the company's crunch culture, and outdated development tools. In addition, the use of NTT (a new in-house engine that was being developed to replace Traveller's Tales' previous engine in attempt to avoid paying royalties for using a third-party engine like Unreal Engine or Unity) was extremely controversial within the company, as many employees had been pushing to instead use Unreal Engine. NTT turned out to be incredibly difficult to use, with some animations taking hours more to produce than they would on the old engine. As a result, The Skywalker Saga would end up being the only game developed by Traveller's Tales to use NTT, with the company deciding to use Unreal Engine going forward for their future projects.[9]
Games developed
| Year | Title | Publisher(s) | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Leander | Psygnosis | Amiga, Atari ST, Sega Genesis |
| 1993 | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Sony Imagesoft | SNES, Sega Genesis |
| Puggsy | Psygnosis | Amiga, Sega Genesis, Sega CD | |
| 1994 | Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse | Sony Imagesoft/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe | SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, PlayStation |
| 1995 | Toy Story | Disney Interactive | Sega Genesis, SNES, Windows |
| 1996 | Sonic 3D Blast | Sega | Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn |
| 1997 | Sonic R | Sega Saturn, Windows | |
| 1998 | Rascal | Psygnosis | PlayStation |
| A Bug's Life | Activision | PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Windows | |
| 1999 | Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue | Activision | PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Windows, Mac |
| 2000 | Muppet RaceMania | Midway Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe | PlayStation |
| Buzz Lightyear of Star Command | Activision | PlayStation, Dreamcast, Windows, Game Boy Color | |
| 2001 | Toy Story Racer | PlayStation | |
| Weakest Link | PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Windows | ||
| Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex | Vivendi Universal Games | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube | |
| 2002 | Haven: Call of the King | Midway Games | PlayStation 2 |
| 2003 | Finding Nemo | THQ | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube |
| 2004 | Crash Twinsanity | Vivendi Universal Games | PlayStation 2, Xbox |
| 2005 | Lego Star Wars: The Video Game | Eidos Interactive/Giant Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Windows) Feral Interactive (OS X) | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Windows, OS X |
| F1 Grand Prix | Sony Computer Entertainment | PlayStation Portable | |
| The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Buena Vista Games | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Windows | |
| World Rally Championship | Sony Computer Entertainment | PlayStation Portable | |
| 2006 | Super Monkey Ball Adventure | Sega | PlayStation 2, Gamecube, PlayStation Portable |
| Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy | LucasArts (PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Windows) Feral Interactive (OS X) | PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube, Windows, OS X | |
| Bionicle Heroes | Eidos Interactive | PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Gamecube, Windows, Wii | |
| 2007 | Transformers: The Game | Activision | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii, PlayStation 2 |
| Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga | LucasArts (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii) Feral Interactive (OS X) Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (iOS, Android) | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, OS X, Wii, iOS, Android | |
| 2008 | Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures | LucasArts (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable) Feral Interactive (OS X) | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, OS X, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable |
| Lego Batman: The Videogame | Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable) Feral Interactive (OS X) | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable | |
| The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | Disney Interactive Studios | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS | |
| 2009 | Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues | LucasArts | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii |
| 2010 | Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4 | Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii) Feral Interactive (OS X) | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, OS X, Wii |
| 2011 | Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars | LucasArts | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii |
| Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game | Disney Interactive Studios | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii | |
| Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7 | Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii | |
| 2012 | Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Windows, Wii | |
| Lego The Lord of the Rings | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows, Wii | ||
| 2013 | Lego Marvel Super Heroes | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows | |
| 2014 | Lego The Hobbit | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows | |
| Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows | ||
| 2015 | Lego Dimensions | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
| 2016 | Lego Marvel's Avengers | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows | |
| 2017 | Lego Worlds | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows | |
| Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows | ||
| 2018 | Lego DC Super-Villains | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows | |
| 2019 | The Lego Movie 2 Videogame[10] | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows | |
| 2022 | Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows |
References
- ^ Wallis, Alistair (9 November 2006). "Playing Catch Up: Traveller's Tales' Jon Burton". Gamasutra. UBM TechWeb. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
- ^ Feddy, Kevin (18 January 2013). "The £100m 'geek'". Manchester Evening News. M.E.N Media. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
- ^ "Travellers Tales: Sonic R Programmer Speaks!". Sega Saturn Magazine. No. 24. Emap International Limited. October 1997. p. 25. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
- ^ Martin, Matt (8 November 2007). "Warner Bros. swoops for Traveller's Tales". GamesIndustry.biz. Gamer Network. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ "Games – TT Games".
- ^ "'Lego Dimensions' Officially Cancelled".
- ^ "LEGO Batman: The Videogame". gamesindustry.biz. 1 December 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
- ^ "GRAW grabs BAFTA top award". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. 6 October 2006. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
- ^ Yarwood, Jack (20 January 2022). "Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has led to extensive crunch at TT Games". Polygon. from the original on 20 January 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- ^ Santangelo, Nick (27 November 2018). "The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame Announced for 2019". IGN. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
External links
- Official website