Core Design

Core Design was a British video game developer founded in 1988 in Derby, England by Jeremy Heath-Smith and Chris Shrigley, both former Gremlin Graphics employees. From a small studio in the English Midlands, they built one of the most distinctive action-adventure catalogues of the 8-bit and 16-bit era.

Their first breakthrough came in 1989 with Rick Dangerous - a trap-filled platformer inspired by Indiana Jones, published by Firebird. The game's brutal difficulty, inventive level design, and Simon Phipps’ memorable “Waaaahh” death cry made it an immediate hit across Amiga, Atari ST, C64, and DOS platforms.

Through the early 1990s Core Design built a reputation for technically accomplished, humour-driven games: Chuck Rock (1991), Heimdall (1991), Wolfchild (1992), and Bubba ’n’ Stix (1994). They became a subsidiary of CentreGold, later acquired by Eidos Interactive.

In 1996 Core Design released Tomb Raider - a landmark PlayStation and Saturn adventure featuring Lara Croft, designed by Toby Gard. The game transformed Eidos and produced six sequels. Following the troubled Angel of Darkness (2003), Lara Croft development was transferred to Crystal Dynamics. Core Design continued with minor projects before being closed by Eidos in 2006.

Core Design’s output defies easy categorisation. Rick Dangerous (1989) and its 1990 sequel were brutal trap-platformers owing as much to arcade punishment as to adventure design. Chuck Rock (1991) pivoted hard into broad comedy, while Heimdall the same year explored Norse mythology through isometric RPG mechanics. Within three years, the same studio had covered three distinct genres across seven platforms.

The mid-1990s brought further range: Jaguar XJ220 (1992) was a licensed racing title with Matt Furniss’s memorable soundtrack; Bubba ’n’ Stix (1994) was a puzzle-platformer built specifically for the Amiga CD32; Corporation (1990) was an early first-person shooter for Amiga and Atari ST. Core Design ported, licensed, and originated in equal measure across their eighteen-year history.

Tomb Raider (1996) arrived as something none of it predicted: a third-person 3D action-adventure that defined the PlayStation era and built one of gaming’s most recognised fictional characters. The complete catalogue - more than thirty-five titles - is documented in the Games Catalogue. For editorial deep-dives into the five most significant games, see Flagship Titles.