Toby Gard

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Toby Gard is a computer game character designer and consultant.

He was originally employed at Core Design, the company that developed the popular Tomb Raider video game series, where he conceived the idea of Tomb Raider and designed the lead character, Lara Croft. Gard left Core Design during the development of Tomb Raider II, because he was opposed to the marketing of Lara's sex appeal, and felt he did not have as much creative control over the game as he originally had^[1].

Later, he developed the Xbox game Galleon at Confounding Factor, a game development studio he and co-developer Paul Douglas founded in April 1997.

After finishing Galleon in 2004, he was hired by Eidos (publisher and copyright holder of the Tomb Raider series) to work with Crystal Dynamics on Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend. His role within Legend was limited to an advisor/consultant, rather than a designer of the game.

His expertise was again used in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary when he was given the role of lead designer. He also contributed to the audio commentary that accompanied Anniversary.