Heather Gibson (game developer)

Did You Know?

• Stevens grew up in the United Kingdom and described herself as a tomboy, which helped her integrate into male-dominated development teams.
• She came from a working-class background and recalled that as a girl she ran around with the boys and never saw gender as 'them and us.'
• After the first two Tomb Raider games, Stevens worked on Project Eden (2001) before leaving Core Design in the early 2000s to start a family.

Rare

Stevens entered the gaming industry in the late 1980s working for Rare, where she spent nearly six years as a graphic artist and designer. She gained experience in game art and level design before being laid off during a downsizing at Rare in the mid-1990s. In 1995, she saw a job advertisement for a design position at Core Design in Derby, England, applied, and was hired almost immediately.

Tomb Raider

Stevens's first assignment at Core Design was Skeleton Krew (1995) for the Sega Genesis and Amiga, where she worked on graphics and level design. After that project, she joined the design discussions for a 3D action-adventure game about a female archaeologist, initially centered on a character named Laura Cruz. On the original Tomb Raider, Stevens was credited as a graphic artist and became one of the two main level designers alongside Neal Boyd. She designed 8 of the 15 levels, including the Croft Manor training level and the first level, Caves. Other levels she designed were City of Vilcabamba, St. Francis' Folly, The Cistern, Tomb of Tihocan, City of Khamoon, and Obelisk of Khamoon. Stevens used Core's in-house Room Editor to build areas and apply textures in real-time. She designed the cave setting of the opening levels to hide the engine's inability to draw a distant sky or horizon, working within 1996 hardware limits. She also created most of the environmental textures for the game's levels.

Tomb Raider II

For Tomb Raider II, Heather Gibson again worked as a level designer, crafting 11 of the game's 18 stages. Her levels included Bartoli's Hideout, Opera House, Floating Islands, and Dragon's Lair. She also designed the Tibetan Monastery catacomb levels—Barkhang Monastery, Catacombs, and Ice Palace—sometimes completing or polishing work another designer had begun. Beyond level design, Gibson helped shape the story and themes. She introduced the team to a real-world legend that inspired the Dagger of Xian. After seeing a TV documentary about Qin Shi Huang's tomb, with its Terracotta Army and mercury rivers, she discussed it with colleagues, leading to the game's Chinese setting and dragon storyline.

Impact and legacy

Heather Gibson, alongside other women, helped shape Lara Croft from the start, though this was not always acknowledged. Gibson has argued that Lara can serve as a positive role model, with much of the character's sexualisation coming from outside influences. A March 2024 feature on the official Tomb Raider site celebrated Gibson and her work, noting she was also one of Lara's first voice actresses.