TT Games

Background

Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer that was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and was fully established a year later. In 2005, it has established it's publishing division, "TT Games". In 2007, it was acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and is now a development division since then and is currently known for the Lego games. It's first game was Leander (known as Legend of Galahad for Sega Genesis) and was known for games such as Puggsy, Mickey Mania, and Rascal, and was known on video games based on movies such as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Finding Nemo.

1st Logo (November 1991)

Nicknames: "TT", "The Desk"

Logo: On a black background, we see a brown desk outlined in the shape of a shield that is containing sheet music, an old flute, a candle wax, a bottle of ink and its tip, a scroll, a paint set, and an old journal having the Traveller's Tales symbol (which shows two "T"s facing each other) on it. The words "TRAVELLERS TALES" is above on the shield.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the game.

Availability: Can be found on Leander for Amiga.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (September 1993-1995)

Nicknames: "TT II", "Puggsy's Ship"

Logo: Over a black background, we see two dark blue, stylized "T's" spinning and slowly zooming away from us. Suddenly, a meteor appears in the background and flies straight at the screen and blows up, thus turning the screen orange. The orange screen fades out and the "T's" are in flames, with "Travellers" at the top and "Tales" at the bottom.

Variants:

On Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse, the copyright stamp is at the top of the screen and the words "DEVELOPED BY" are at the bottom. A second later, one of the ghosts from the Mickey Mouse short, "Lonesome Ghosts" (who also play roles as enemies) appears and zaps the words "DEVELOPED BY", which turns them into a grayish, stone crested version of the Traveller's Tales "TT" logo, with what would be Puggsy's ship wedged inside. The ghost then rolls up like a blind and disappears. The words "TRAVELLERS TALES" use the same font as the previous logo. On the SNES version, the logo is already there and is shifted to the right with the words, "DEVELOPED BY" next to it. Above it is the Skeleton enemy, who drops down at first, then spins it's head with it's foot causing it to come off and fly away. A second later, it's body explodes into pieces.
There's a still version in which the "TT" is golden and is inside of a border decorated with purple marble-like texture. Plus, "TRAVELLERS" and the "TT" are underlined and "TALES" is in spaced-out letters. "A" is above the logo, while "PRODUCTION" is below.

FX/SFX: CGI animation. The character's animations on the Mickey Mania variants.

Music/Sounds: We hear a loud "BANG" sound when the meteor explodes, followed by the sound of fire. The Mickey Mania variant had a 16-bit sparkling noise when the ghost appears and a 16-bit warping noise when it disappears. The SNES version has the exploding effect when the Skeleton explodes into pieces; both sound effects were also used in the game. The still version has silence or the opening theme of the game.

Availability: Can be found on Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse and Puggsy for Sega Genesis. The standard variant is seen on Puggsy for Sega CD as well.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (November 1995-2006)

Nicknames: "Raccoon on the Cliff", "Traveller's Tales Raccoon"

Logo: On a black background, we see a CGI raccoon with big eyes, long, stripy ears, a jovial look on his face, a lion like tail, and a farmer's outfit with bracelets on his wrists and ankles lying on an edge of a cliff resting on the tip of the edge holding a red handkerchief with white polka-dots and his other hand is on the gravestone with a left arrow and the initials, "TT" on it. The raccoon nods his head while the logo rotates. A yellow-orange moon appears rising behind him and the cliff. The words: "Traveller's Tales" in a Medieval-style font with the yellow outline, later fade in.

Trivia:

The still logo was designed by Rodney Matthews, who also did the original version of the 1996 Bizarre Creations logo (see here).

The raccoon that appears in the logo was supposed to be the protagonist of Haven: The Call of the King, but had to be changed to a human character due to the raccoon looking very similar to Ratchet from Ratchet & Clank.

Variants:

There's a still artwork version of the logo that exists on a white background or a black background.
There's a version with logo in isometric view floating in the water and swaying on it.
There's the animated version of the water variant where the logo rises up from the water. The website URL appears below the logo.
On a demo for the PS1 version of the A Bug's Life video game, the raccoon (with a slightly different appearance and is also motionless) and the cliff rotate from the right while zooming in. The text fades in and moon rises shortly afterwards.
On the PS1 and PC versions of the A Bug's Life video game, the camera pans from an exotic valley with some rocks, flowers and a bridge and reaches a cliff, where the raccoon is. He gives us a friendly look as we see the moon behind him. The text then appears next to him and the logo ends with a zooming iris effect.
On European pressings of the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command video game, the raccoon has a noticably different appearance, as he has a different, canine-like face, slightly bigger ears that are flopped down, a lankier body, an uninterested look on his face, and pink pads on his feet.
Starting in 2000, the studio's website URL: www.t-tales.com was added below the logo.
On Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, the logo (with the raccoon from the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command variant) takes place on the opening space background, with the moon part of the background and the cliff (the initials and the arrow on the gravestone are now facing the opposite direction) floating past it.
On Haven: The Call of the King, the logo (with the raccoon from the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and The Wrath of Cortex variants) takes place in outer space like in the Wrath of Cortex variant, except the moon is replaced with the planet Earth. Shortly after, the camera zooms past the raccoon's head and the game's title screen appears shortly afterwards.
On Crash: Twinsanity, the raccoon from the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and The Wrath of Cortex variants (except his ears are now perked up) appears on a white background. The cliff and raccoon move to the right to leave room for the Traveller's Tales text to fade, but spread out and having "O X F O R D S T U D I O" under it. Above it appears a silhouette of Oxford's skyline.

FX/SFX: The raccoon nodding his head, the logo turning, the moon appearing, the words fading. The water variant has the logo floating on the water along with the words appearing. Sometimes, it's a still logo.

Music/Sounds: The normal standard version and the Oxford version has a camp-like theme. The water variant has sounds of the ocean with waves crashing. The A Bug's Life variant has birds chirping followed by a whimsical musical composition. The still variant has silence or the opening theme of the game. The Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex variant has Dr. Cortex (voiced by Clancy Brown) saying "Developed by Traveller's Tales".

Availability: The still version can be found on Toy Story for Genesis and SNES, Mickey's Wild Adventure for PS and Sonic 3D Blast for Genesis and Saturn. The still water version was used in Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life for N64, Rascal for PS, and Sonic R for Saturn and PC (although in a rare case of video game logo plastering, the last one is replaced by the current logo on the port included in Sonic Gems Collection for GameCube and PS2 despite the rest of the port being left untouched). The animated water version was used in Finding Nemo for GameCube, PS2 and Xbox. The animated version is seen on many PS and PS2 games including Toy Story 2. The URL variant of the standard logo can be found on Muppet Race Mania for the PS.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (March 29, 2005- )

Nicknames: "TT III", "The New TT", "The T's Child"

Logo: In a white space, a capital orange "T" looks around the space, but then jumps in a startled fashion as a lowercase cyan "t" leaps into view. It stops by the large "T" as it gets a rub on it's "head" as "Traveller's" and "tales" appear in grey on the top and bottom of the screen respectively, both spaced out to fit each other, and the "t" leans to the side of the orange "T".

Variants:

On the copyright screens of the Lego games starting with the GameCube version of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game, as well as Nintendo DS games, the logo is still on black background. The name is replaced with "GAMES".
On Transformers: The Game, 2 cars, both in a similar size and color to the T's race along the ground before transforming into the letters.
On Bionicle Heroes, after the Piraka show up, they look over to see the T's shaking with fear, with the smaller one hiding behind the large one, only to be crushed by Avak's foot. All of them then look at his markings, and then decides to stamp it into the screen, fading to the still variant's logo as a sinister laugh is heard.
On a cartoon called ''What's Your News?'', it is same as the still variant, but with ''GAMES'' replaced by ''animation''.
At the end of the credits of console Lego games, a variant of the logo is used. The logo starts off with two LEGO minifigure construction workers looking at blueprints, while a forklift and some yellow blocks in the background. The logo then goes into timelapse mode of them building the TT logo up, though it does stop once for a break where some of them also play with a ball. When the timelapse finishes, one of the men leans on the blue "t", causing it to lean, and they run away rather quickly as the logo fades to it's normal self, name included.
On Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 for DS, the logo appears as a sketch on a piece of parchment.
On the trailer for Lego Harry Potter, it is gray-blue and placed over the thundering background.
On the Sonic Gems Collection port of Sonic R, the logo is still on a white background.

FX/SFX: The moving letters.

Music/Sounds:

The sounds of jumping letters and various squeaks for the normal vesion.
The sounds of running cars and metal conversion for Transformers variant.
On the Lego variant, we hear the construction workers build. At the end, after the one worker pushes the lowercase "t", we hear a timpani roll. At the end of the roll, just faintly, a sound like Legos falling apart can be heard.

Availability: Common and current for the still variant, as it's seen on every Lego game since the GameCube version of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game. The Lego variant appears after the end of the credits of most Lego game since Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. The normal variant, however, is extremely rare, as it only seems to appear on Super Monkey Ball Adventure and the video game adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.

Editor's Note: None.