jamesster

Here's a topic on Castle Kids from earlier this year: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=78925 Are the kids named Alma, Ralph, and Will - or at least, could their German names translate to that? I'm also rather curious about the other characters in the stories, as Wolfpack never got any named characters as far as I know (unless there are some in these audio dramas), the Royal King was sometimes called King Richard in some magazines, the Black Knight was apparently involved in both the Black Falcons and Black Knights factions (but the exact story behind it was never really specified), etc... There's a lot of loose ends and gaps, and I'm wondering how much the audio dramas might clear up. I know you won't be transcribing the other audio dramas, but do you at least have a rough idea of what happens and what characters are involved?

Two Castle dramas, eh? I wonder if they might have any sort of connection to the Castle Kids comic... I understand not wanting to translate everything, there's a heck of a lot of stuff here and it certainly does look like a lot of work. We really do appreciate it though, you've done great work here. Thank you.

Perhaps "Prototype" isn't entirely accurate here, as it WAS going to be the real thing and was close to completion, and only became what it eventually did because of a last minute decision at LEGO. Still, "Prototype" seems more attention-grabbing so I'm using that in the title. For those who don't know, the Alpha Team theme that lasted from 2001 to 2004 (with a hiatus in 2003) wasn't primarily created by LEGO - the whole thing was an adaption of the video game LEGO Alpha Team, developed by Digital Domain and released in 2000, the year before the sets based on the game hit store shelves. The characters, locations, story, etc were all created by Digital Domain for use in the game, LEGO then adapted what Digital Domain had created and turned it into a proper theme, with real sets and minifigures. As such, I'm not exactly sure if this topic belongs in LEGO Action Themes or Culture and Multimedia, as it's more to do with the development of the original video game, but the game is what the sets were based on. So I'm gonna post it here for now, please move it if needed. Anyway, back in October of last year I was digging around YouTube and noticed this video: (Skip to 1:25 for the relevant bit) Confused yet? The animator, Doug Wolf, was kind enough to reply to some of the comments on the video asking about what the LEGO bit was. Here's the comment chain, copypasta'd from YouTube: jamessterV2 = myself, VezonWireless = PeabodySam. Later, while digging through the Alpha Team video game files, I found asset lists and files and other evidence that the game was intended to have two more zones than the final game. Details can be found here (along with more things posted later in this topic), but in short, Alpha Team at one point had Mountain and Moon (Space) zones, in addition to the four zones in the final game (Tropical Island, Subterranean, Undersea, and Arctic - all but Subterranean were turned into real LEGO sub-themes). I also found object listings for a "Cyberia" zone, and a "Neandert" listing under the section for enemies (more on that later). So it's pretty apparent that Alpha Team went through some heavy changes throughout its development. To get more information, I emailed Tom Mott, the lead game designer. The result was pretty surprising. Whoa. So we talked some more. I sent him links to this and this as examples of what fans have done with the theme, which he loved. Some other highlights: Bill Benecke, the concept artist for the game, also got involved: More from Tom: And finally: Wow. Just wow. So what do you think about this? Should LEGO have let Digital Domain stay with the original, more playful concept? Would it have transferred as well into a real play theme? Would LEGO have actually made a rubber minifigure? Would you have liked minifigures and sets based on this original, more surreal concept? Or was the switch to a "spy" theme a good thing? What about the Mountain and Moon zones that didn't make it in time? We could have had LEGO Alpha Team Space sets! Ah man, I would have gone completely bonkers over those... Personally, I dunno what to think, as I like both concepts. I LOVED Alpha Team back when it was new on the shelves, and bought every set I could get my hands on. But I also like the idea of a video game taking place inside a house, but viewed from the wacky perspective of the minifigures inside of it. Ah well.

Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Y'know, these do indeed seem darker than you'd expect for classic LEGO Pirates stuff, but it's interesting to see these characters really come to life. Will looks like such a generic LEGO minifigure at first glance, but to have so much backstory and emotion tied to the character... Never would have expected it. So, how many audio dramas are left to find/translate now? I know this topic focuses on the ones involving Pirates, but I'm also quite interested in the Adventurers audio dramas - how many of those are there, and are there other themes with audio dramas as well? I think I saw images of some Western drama covers, but I didn't look into it that much. Any Space episodes?

Yeah, I'm gonna go with this. The theme itself doesn't interest me in the slightest (then again, it's not intended to), but I like the new ball joint stuff and whatnot.

Alright, I've been staring at this for a few minutes and have no idea what to make of it, so I'm just gonna dump my initial reaction as expressed on Skype: [3:51:37 PM] jamesster: it's like somebody dumped ben10 and creator into a blender and activated the "awkward theme" setting

This site has two screenshots not on the IGN link: http://www.shacknews.com/game/the-lego-movie-videogame/screenshots?gallery_id=26490 On one hand, this looks like yet another TT game based on the same fun-but-milked-to-death gameplay mechanics we've had for eight years now. On the other hand, it's (mostly) non-licensed (though still technically a movie game, hah!), and I love the style of it - all-LEGO environments, stiff minifigures, etc, really feels like a LEGO game. Seeing as the movie makes use of classic well-loved characters like Johnny Thunder and a spaceman, I imagine that the game will at least include some of them in its 90+ character roster, which is also a big plus for me (hey, I'm getting tired of the gameplay, but being able to run around as a spaceman in an all-LEGO space level would make it well worth the purchase for me ). I'll certainly be buying it.

Thanks so much for posting all these, they're quite fun. Heh, Paradisa is a smuggler's hideout...

Excellent! As others have also said, the use of treads is very good.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/lego-legends-chima-online-blends-base-building-exploration-and-combat ^ This site says that open beta begins in July.

GameStop is giving out 10,000 beta codes:

Absolutely love this. Supported.

Blockland is sort of a multiplayer game/building program hybrid thing, comparable to the building areas in LEGO Universe or Minecraft (though it came over five years before both of those). It started as freeware, and LEGO almost bought it and made it official, but then they dropped communications with the developer and contacted NetDevil instead (and LEGO Universe was born). The developer wanted to sell it, but he couldn't due to the LEGO studs and minifigures included, so he overhauled the visual style of the game to make it different enough from LEGO to avoid a lawsuit. LEGO Universe came and went, but Blockland is still around today, still being updated with new features and stuff... Perhaps a bad move, LEGO? :P Anyway, Blockland v0002 is the original LEGO freeware version of it: And this is what it looks like today, now that it's gone commercial: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockland http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=95710780 Blockland v0002 is no longer officially "supported" but you can still legally download it and play it and stuff from various other websites, as it's freeware. There's also an add-on modification for v0002 called Return to Blockland v1.045, which adds more bricks and minifigure pieces and maps and stuff.

Oh, it has both windows. Yeah, nothing weird here, they're both accurate to the real life pieces.

Oh cool, somebody else who likes Blockland v0002! :D I haven't played it a lot but it is pretty fun with friends. I've tried the demo of the commercial version, and it's got some cool new features, but I like the LEGO style of the original freeware version better than the revamped style (though I do understand it had to be changed for legal reasons). LEGO does make window frame pieces in both six brick and five brick heights, but there's more differences between them than just that: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?pg=2&catString=113&catType=P Which ones does Blockland 0002 use? Or does it merge them?

Sorry The Magic Portal, it turns out you aren't the oldest brickfilm. This 1973 animation was first shown 40 years ago today! http://news.lugnet.com/animation/?n=954 Pretty incredible. Edit: Topic title got cut off... Here's some more videos he uploaded:

LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval's Journey is being released for DS, 3DS, and PS Vita, so I don't see why this game couldn't be released for DS if that one is. Edit: Press release confirms DS version.

Hellbent Games, the developers of LEGO Battles and LEGO Battles: Ninjago, are doing a third LEGO game based on Friends. The LEGO site says it's for 3DS, other sites say it's for both DS and 3DS. Anyway, it comes out this autumn. http://videogames.lego.com/en-us/lego-friends/about/screenshots/ http://videogames.lego.com/en-us/lego-friends/about/features/ http://www.nintendo-insider.com/2013/05/14/lego-friends-announced-as-nintendo-exclusive/ http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a481468/lego-friends-announced-for-nintendo-handhelds-this-autumn.html Personally, I don't really give a darn about it, Friends isn't exactly my thing. ;P But eh, there's not a topic for it yet as far as I can see, so why not.

http://patmancrew.co...ilmy-video.html Their website seems to show that this video has started a partnership with LEGO. The video ends with "To be continued..." so I think we'll be seeing more of this. It also seems to be pretty successful on their channel, with 58 likes and 2 dislikes at the moment, while the video LEGO uploaded has 22 likes and 32 dislikes. Huh.

Uh, please excuse me if this has been posted before, but this video was just uploaded to LEGO's official channel (it's been on the channel of the dance group for about a month now)... ... what.

Those screenshots... Holy crud, this looks great. And the last page of the file... FUTURON MONORAIL. HECK YES. I'm really looking forward to this. Thanks for posting! Edit: Interesting, the pirate shacks on the beach there . I wonder what other LU models might turn up in this game?

First trailer is out.

Glad to see the LEGO Universe Wiki is being put to good use, PeabodySam and I have put a lot of work into it (especially PeabodySam for those character pages you linked to). Also, I've seen Captain Click mentioned here, but only that he first appeared in LEGO Island (though you never saw him, he just talked to you from behind a door in his cave), and that he later appeared in Soccer Mania: (Also thanks to PeabodySam for that image.) What I haven't seen mentioned is that he also appeared between those two games in the Game Boy Color version of LEGO Island 2. Inside the pirate cave ( ), there's a statue of a skeleton conquistador you can knock down, which opens door to a room that has a treasure chest containing his character card: He looks a fair bit different from his later appearance in Soccer Mania, but I'm quite certain they're the same character. Soccer Mania was developed by Silicon Dreams (who were also the developers for LEGO Island 2 and Island Xtreme Stunts), and Captain Click isn't the only LEGO Island character to appear in Soccer Mania - the Brickster and Brickster-Bots are the main villains of the game. Plus, Soccer Mania's character designs for the Brickster and Brickster-Bots were also different from their designs in the main LEGO Island series, so I think it just comes down to the Soccer Mania character artists tweaking them a bit.

Why didn't I see this sooner? Great stuff, thanks so much for posting!

I don't have a problem with the gameplay itself, it's quite fun for the first few times. The problem is that they've been doing the same thing for eight years. There's been a couple exceptions, but for the most part it's all been licensed titles with the same core gameplay mechanics (even most basic visual and audio elements have remained the same since 2005), and it's really just feeling like the same game over and over again with a new roster of characters and levels. Sure, they've been gradually adding new features (custom levels, open worlds, etc), but it's always been the same basic gameplay. There are occasional exceptions (Bionicle Heroes, LEGO City Undercover... LEGO Rock Band...?), but aside from those, the only real innovation has come from other developers like Hellbent Games (LEGO Battles) and NetDevil/Play Well Studios (LEGO Universe). The reason I'm not so keen on Laval's Journey from what has been revealed so far is that it appears to be just another TT LEGO game, except this time with a Chima themed set of characters and levels. It's especially underwhelming after LEGO City Undercover, which did so much to break out of the TT mold and really impressed me.