Traveller’s Tales / TT Games

Traveller’s Tales / TT Games is a developer and publisher.

Traveller’s Tales / TT Games Webpage

Traveller’s Tales is a British game development studio founded in 1989, best known for its many titles under the popular Danish LEGO brand. Since 2005, Traveller’s Tales has been part of the TT Games development group, which is owned by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The studio is based in Knutsford, Cheshire, UK, while the TT Games group is headquartered in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

In its early years, Traveller’s Tales focused mainly on platformers for Nintendo, SEGA, and Sony consoles. Alongside a few lesser-known titles, the British developers also worked on popular series like Sonic and Crash. In later years, the studio shifted its focus to family games based on popular Walt Disney and Pixar licenses. In 2005, the company’s portfolio also featured two racing games for the PlayStation Portable. That same year, the first game based on the popular Danish LEGO license, LEGO Star Wars, was released. From that point on, the studio focused primarily on LEGO-based games, fully dedicating itself to them by 2009. Since then, Traveller’s Tales, either independently or in collaboration with TT Fusion, has developed at least two new titles per year, blending the world of LEGO bricks with popular film and comic book licenses.

History

Traveller’s Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and initially focused on small, original projects. The studio’s debut was the platformer Leander (also known as The Legend of Galahad), released in 1991 for Commodore Amiga and Atari ST. In 1993–94, in collaboration with Psygnosis and Sony Imagesoft, Traveller’s Tales developed titles such as Puggsy, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse. The latter title also marked the beginning of a collaboration with Disney Interactive Studios, leading the studio to create a series of games based on popular Walt Disney and Pixar franchises in the following years, including Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2: The Action Game (1999), Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000), Toy Story Racer (2001), and Finding Nemo (2003).

A major milestone in Traveller’s Tales’ history was the start of its partnership with SEGA. In close collaboration with Sonic Team, the studio developed two installments of the popular series: Sonic 3D (1996) and Sonic R (1997). Both games, released on SEGA consoles and PCs and praised for their technical achievements, cemented the studio’s reputation and opened the door to collaborations with major publishers such as Midway Games, THQ, Activision, and Vivendi Universal Games (later merged with Activision). For the latter, Traveller’s Tales developed two entries in the renowned Crash series: Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (2001) and Crash Twinsanity (also known as Crash Bandicoot: Unlimited, 2004).

In 2004, in collaboration with Giant Interactive Entertainment, the studio began work on LEGO Star Wars, blending the world of the popular Danish building blocks with the universe of the iconic Star Wars franchise. The following year, Traveller’s Tales merged with Giant Interactive Entertainment to form the TT Games group, with one company handling development and the other (renamed TT Games Publishing) managing publishing and distribution. In 2007, the group acquired the British Embryonic Studios, which was rebranded as TT Fusion. In November of that same year, TT Games was acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for L100 million.

Between 2005 and 2008, Traveller’s Tales developed two racing games for the PlayStation Portable: F1 Grand Prix and WRC. They also developed Transformers: The Game, based on the popular toy franchise, as well as two installments in a series based on C.S. Lewis’s popular fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia. Released in 2008, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was the last Traveller’s Tales title not tied to the LEGO brand.

The success of LEGO Star Wars led the studio to develop a sequel, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, as well as Bionicle Heroes in the following years. In 2008, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures and LEGO Batman: The Game were released, launching two new LEGO-based series. A year later, Traveller’s Tales shifted entirely to games combining the LEGO brand with popular film and comic book licenses, including Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, as well as titles featuring Marvel characters. Most of these games are developed collaboratively by Traveller’s Tales and TT Fusion, which initially focused on mobile platforms but gradually expanded to develop an increasing number of standalone, multiplatform titles.