"There's definitely been a few significant female characters in the last decade, we've seen great things happening with Ellie from The Last of Us, and with the Horizon Zero Dawn franchise as well. We've seen a few more female protagonists coming out there, I think. But, [10 years ago] it was an unusual situation."
Rhianna Pratchett is talking to me about Tomb Raider, a game she wrote over a decade ago, to reboot the franchise. On 5th March, 2013, the world was reintroduced to Lara Croft, as she found herself washed up on the shores of Yamatai, a strange and storm-wracked island within the Dragon's Triangle. Unlike the Tomb Raider games that had come before, this version of Lara was young and inexperienced - she had not yet become the Tomb Raider synonymous with the series.
I talk to Pratchett over Zoom, with the idea that we'll take a quick look back at the game that ignited Tomb Raider's "Survivor" timeline. What I thought would be a half hour chat turns into something more, though: a brilliant, two-hour long dive into the games and Pratchett's relationship with them, covering everything from last minute story changes and a scrapped multiplayer experience, to the ways the games are shaped by her own memories and the importance of representation in media.