Traveller's Tales

Travellers Tales (UK) Limited, doing business as Traveller's Tales, is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games.

Traveller's Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton. Initially a small company focused on its own content, it grew in profile through developing games with larger companies such as Sega and Disney Interactive Studios. In 1996, the company incorporated under the name Currentclass, but changed its name to Travellers Tales (UK), doing business as Traveller's Tales, two months later. In 2004, development on Lego Star Wars: The Video Game started with publisher Giant Interactive Entertainment, and, the following year Traveller's Tales purchased and merged with Giant Interactive Entertainment, forming TT Games. From that point, Traveller's Tales served as the company's development branch, while Giant Interactive Entertainment became TT Games Publishing, the publishing branch. In 2007, the company acquired another developer and an animation studio, which became TT Fusion and TT Animation.

On 8 November 2007, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced that they had purchased TT Games for an undisclosed amount as part of their expansion into the video game industry.

History
Traveller's Tales started developing games with Psygnosis, which were most notable for creating 3D effects. Their first game was Leander, also known as The Legend of Galahad. With Psygnosis they developed a video game adaption of Bram Stoker's Dracula, as well as other original productions like Puggsy. Thanks to an agreement between Psygnosis, Sony Imagesoft and Disney Interactive Studios, Traveller's Tales could produce several games based on Disney's properties, such as the Mickey Mouse game Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse and other games based on Pixar movies like Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue and Finding Nemo (the latter two thanks to agreements with Activision and THQ). In addition to Pixar, they also developed video games based on Universal Feature Animation's first three feature films Ama and the Mysterious Crystal, Paint World and Mistress Masham's Repose.

However, Traveller's Tales was best known in the 1990s for their second-party collaboration with Sega to develop games based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, resulting in Sonic 3D Blast and Sonic R, which were produced in close effort with Sega's Sonic Team. Both games were regarded as technical achievements in the Mega Drive (Sonic 3D Blast) and the Sega Saturn (Sonic R), adding to the high-tech development status they already had with games like Puggsy, Mickey Mania and Toy Story. They were also responsible for Crash Twinsanity, under the Vivendi label. The game has gained a cult following and is widely considered the best Crash Bandicoot game post-Naughty Dog era.

They developed Lego Star Wars: The Video Game as well as its follow-ups. Outside of the Lego games, their work includes the franchise Crash Bandicoot, Planetokio, The Chronicles of Narnia, Super Monkey Ball Adventure, and World Rally Championship and F1 Grand Prix for the PlayStation Portable.

The company was purchased by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment at the end of 8 November 2007, but continued to operate independently with the development of Lego Batman: The Videogame, which was released in September 2008. Thereafter they continued their work on licensed titles such as Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7, Lego The Lord of the Rings, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, and Lego Marvel Super Heroes. It was also announced during the Star Wars Celebration VI that a Lego Star Wars IV was in production, though no in-game image or released date were shown.

The company has also produced games based on existing and new Lego properties such as a trilogy of Lego games based on the Chima universe and Lego City Undercover, the first Lego game to be published by Nintendo for Wii U. The Lego Movie Videogame was released on 7 February 2014, together with The Lego Movie.

Traveller's Tales has won two BAFTAs, one for Gameplay with Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, and one for Children's Videogame of the Year for Lego Batman: The Videogame. The company was originally located in a small office in Southport, Lancashire, but later moved to larger offices in Knutsford, in Cheshire. Since 2015 the company has its head office in Warner House, London, although development is still based in Cheshire.