LEGO Creator Racer

[jhuyser]

In my research on LEGO Kidpad I ran into this unreleased game: http://chrisschmidtdesign.com/toys/LEGO/LEGO_01.html

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As Creative Director, led ideation and creation of LEGO Creator Racer. This intelegent toy lets kids build LEGO cars that through play control a 3D Racing Game on the computer.

And here is some info about the game from the site (http://chrisschmidtdesign.com/background/background_01.html ) I found the image on:

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LEGO                                                                                                             03/2000 to 1/2001

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

 Following LEGO’s purchase of Zowie, led game design and production of LEGO CREATOR real time 3D, a networked PC game controlled though manipulation of a physical, user-created LEGO car.

 

• Worked with Zowie and LEGO staff to merge our corporate cultures, creating cross continent US/ Denmark team that was used as model for future LEGO acquisitions.

This looks cooler than LEGO Kidpad as it uses system elements (Though sadly Jack Stone type figures) Also I've emailed the guy whos site it was on.

EDIT: Here is his reply

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Hi Jeremy, yes, LEGO was an amazing place to work. I came to LEGO when they bought Zowie Intertainment, a company that I was part of that spun out of Paul Allen's think tank Interval Research. At Zowie we built some kids play sets (Redbeards Pirate Adventure and Ellies Enchanted Garden) that used RF id's in the toys so that as you played they controlled a CD Rom adventure that augmented the physical play.

LEGO took this technology and incorporated RF ID's into a set of bricks so that as you assembled the set the the computer would know what you built. We also worked on an interesting gimbal mechanism so that as you 'flew' the racer in your hand the computer would sense what you where doing and drive the game. 

All that was great, however LEGO has a big shake up and slowly started to back away from their 'smart toy' effort, our work, and Mindstorms, which continues on, but it a limited capacity. 

I absolutely loved the company and culture. On my first trip to Denmark when they found out my grandparents where Danish they gave me a LEGO branded car for the day and told me to drive two hours down through Denmark to go visit my grandparents town. I did, and have never felt such a welcome into a company. 

 

Thats about all of it! Play Well!

 

Edited June 16, 2017 by jhuyser

[TalonCard]

Wow, thanks for investigating this! The Zowie game Redbeard's Pirate Adventure had been on my radar since it was first announced, because LEGO also had a pirate character named Redbeard. Do you know if there's any connection there at all, or is it just a massive coincidence?

TC

[jhuyser]

9 hours ago, TalonCard said:

Wow, thanks for investigating this! The Zowie game Redbeard's Pirate Adventure had been on my radar since it was first announced, because LEGO also had a pirate character named Redbeard. Do you know if there's any connection there at all, or is it just a massive coincidence?

TC

I doubt it. It was designed before LEGO bought out Zowie.