RICHARD PAU REVEALS TOMB DEVELOPMENT DETAILS FOR TOMB RAIDER CATALYST
[ 19 October 2026 ]
Level designer and environment artist Richard Pau has updated his online portfolio with information about tomb development in Tomb Raider Catalyst, the upcoming title being developed by Crystal Dynamics, Flying Wild Hog and Eidos-Montreal.
Pau, who lists more than 12 years of AAA development experience at Crystal Dynamics, states that a five-person team brought five tombs to Alpha quality within one year and more than 20 tombs to first-functional stage within two years.
His contributions included establishing production standards for asset placement, collision-safe geometry and player navigation, which Pau reports reduced gameplay bugs by 50%. He also designed more than 10 modular puzzle object types, including doors, movable carts and collectible-triggered mechanisms, with over 30 behaviour variations to support diverse puzzle combinations across the tombs.
Beyond level and puzzle design, Pau developed production tracking and documentation systems using Confluence to coordinate tomb themes, difficulty, puzzle dependencies and quality assurance. He also led weekly team discussions and collaborated with engineering, art and animation teams on trap designs and gameplay functionality. His responsibilities encompassed Blueprint visual scripting, level layouts, combat encounter pacing, puzzle design and traversal.
The update provides information about the scale of development and the systems used to create environments for the game. Pau traces his work on modular level design from a hex-based prototype developed for Rise of the Tomb Raider to the mission architecture used in Marvel's Avengers, before discussing its application to Tomb Raider Catalyst.
Tomb Raider Catalyst is the next mainline instalment in the series and follows Lara Croft to Northern India, where a mythical cataclysm has exposed ancient secrets and awakened dormant guardian forces. Developed using Unreal Engine 5, the game will include exploration, environmental puzzles and tombs across its interconnected environments.
