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 | Lego series |
| Parent | TT Games (2005–present) |
History
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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.[4] 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 Twinsanity, under the Vivendi label. The game has gained a cult following and is widely considered the best Crash Bandicoot game post-Naughty Dog era.
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.
The company was purchased by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment at the end of 8 November 2007,[5] but continued to operate independently with the development of Lego Batman: The Videogame, which was released in September 2008. Thereafter they continued their work on licensed titles such as Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7, Lego The Lord of the Rings, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Lego The Hobbit, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, Lego Jurassic World, Lego Marvel's Avengers, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, Lego The Incredibles, Lego DC Super-Villains and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
The company has also produced games based on existing and new Lego properties such as a trilogy of Lego games based on the Chima universe and Lego City Undercover, the first Lego game to be published by Nintendo for Wii U. The Lego Movie Videogame was released on 7 February 2014, together with The Lego Movie.
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 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]
Games developed
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.
- Burton, Jon; GameHut (30 August 2018). "Original TT Logo Painting Removed from Frame – GameHut is ONE YEAR OLD!". YouTube.
- "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.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/mitchwallace/2017/10/23/lego-dimensions-officially-cancelled/#4acd3cff9678
- "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.
- Santangelo, Nick (27 November 2018). "The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame Announced for 2019". IGN. Retrieved 27 November 2018.