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What has it been like... only 3 years ?... Hello again, I'm incredibly sorry I did not come back to you for such a long time. To put it shortly, when trying to arrange the interview it took a lot of weeks before we were able to find an open spot in our agendas. I was still able to meet him just before I left, however we were unfortunately not able to find answers to all the questions. This hit my motivation to publish the few answers I got, and has ever since being popping in and out of my head. So sorry for the very, very delayed answer... How did the interview go: It went really well, the designer was very nice and really impressed that such a community existed around the theme and that people were still loving it so much. It had bee 20 years since he had worked on Rock Raiders so he couldn't remember everything. We talked about the theme and I briefly showed him some of the Game Remake projects that were going on, namely Manic Miners by @baraklava. He was very impressed and genuinely happy to see that so much effort was put into the Rock Raiders theme even today. In preparation of the meeting, the designer tried to dig up some old stuff he still had around hoping to find some Rock Raiders sketches. Unfortunately we couldn't find much, some old Bionicle sketches and one early concept art for Rock Raiders. It depicted an underground theme where vehicles were able to drive on the ceiling and walls of the cavern, and mini-figures seemed to race one another. To me, that spirit can still be found in some of the Rock Raiders comic books if I am not mistaking. Some other noticeable elements were already present, the large wheels on the vehicles and the cage-like cockpits seemed to already be a strong aspect of the Rock Raiders series, even at a very early stage. A little something maybe ? Despite not finding many documents in the designer's old box, we did find a little something. The following pictures show a pass that designers were using within the LEGO building to show that they were the Rock Raiders designers. It was just a fun little way for designers to have "Special Access" to the development space for LEGO Rock Raiders. I know this isn't much, but it adds a little detail to the Rock Raiders history The Answers: After 20 years, the designer gave his best to try and remember in order to answer the questions I had brought him. Answer to question 1: The Rock Raiders theme originated from the Loader Dozer and many different sketches. Even sets from the Star Wars theme provided some inspiration. Answer to question 2: When the designers collaborated with Data Design Interactive, they mainly gave ideas and suggestions of what could be in the game. Some buildings / vehicles only appeared in the video games because there was a limited amount of sets for each production, so they couldn't make a all the buildings / vehicles into actual sets. There didn't seem to be any unreleased builds planned or other monsters supposed to become sets. It was quite difficult to answer these questions with great detail due to the time that has gone by. Answer to question 3: We were not able to find much, the only very early concept art we found could be a document, however we were unsure whether we would be allowed to share it even if it was 20 years old. Answer to question 4: Couldn't remember... Answer to question 5: The change in choice of the crystals from blue to yellow/green was based on a design decision. Originally the crystals were blue because the marketing team expressed a need for more blue-ish colors and bricks. However it did not suit the theme colours very well and was therefore changed later in the design process. Hence why we can see some blue crystals on early documents. Answer to question 6: The colour of the vehicle cages changed from grey to brown in the latest stages of development. The cages were grey because they were 3D printed elements, they used 3D printing to make prototype bricks in the early stages of the development. Also the original idea was to have the cages grey however they changed to the colour brown as it suited the theme better. Answer to question 7: Couldn't remember... Well, this was it, I hope you were able to find some interesting information in this. I think we would have loved to know more about the Rock Raiders but I think it's up to us to continue writing the story Cheers, Colinou

Hello everyone, I have this very cool opportunity to be in contact with one of the designers who created/worked on the theme "LEGO RockRaiders". I planned a meeting with him to talk about the theme, as I'm a very big fan myself, and I thought I would involve you by forwarding some questions you guys could have. When I organized the meeting with him he was very pleased to encounter someone who loves the theme and hear that there is a whole community around the game! I forwarded him the link of the forum so who knows, he might create an account! What is this post for: The idea of this post is to give you the opportunity to write the questions you have so I can forward then to the designer, I will update this post as we go along so you can see the list of questions I will bring to the "interview". So this post should eventually have a list of questions and later on a list of answers for each questions. I will eventually close this topic once we received all the answers (unless he accepts to answer more questions in which case I will update this post again). Please note the following: - I can not ensure that any of the questions will be answered as they might revolve around confidential information in which case I hope you can understand that the designer will not answer that question. - If many of you have questions and the list of questions becomes to long, I won't be able to take them all into account (I don't think he will accept to answer to many questions so I'll have to reject some...). - I'll do my best to get everyone involved, if you think any question should be changed or removed, we can discuss it - The list of questions might change when new questions are appearing. I hope we will get interesting answers and I look forward to read your questions! Cheers, Colinou Questions I will bring with me and ask the designer: Question 1: How and when did development of what would become the Rock Raiders theme originate, which sets did you work on? Question 2: How much collaboration was there, with respect to set design, between LEGO Futura and Data Design Interactive ? (A) why did some buildings/vehicles appear in the games but not as sets? B) were any of those unreleased builds planned to be released? C) how much input did you have on the game? D) aside from rock monsters, were there any other monsters designed by LEGO Futura or any of the creatures in the games that were meant to be in sets?) Question 3: What prototype or unused builds for the theme were there, is there any conceptual artwork or general design materials you might be able to share for the sake of research and archival? Question 4: A few sources have indicated a second wave of Rock Raiders sets was originally planned for the theme (not to be confused with the promotional Japanese Kabaya sets or the Mini Heroes Collection in 2000), is there any truth to these speculations? Question 5: There is an image from an early beta build depicting blue crystals in-game, a number of beta screenshots showed that the interface elements used blue crystals at some point as well. And we also know the red energy crystals seen in the PS1 version of the game were blue during development. Do you know why the crystals changed from blue to yellow/green? Question 6: What made the team choose to go from grey or silver roll cages on some vehicles to brown? Like the blue crystal, there's plenty of evidence that makes me think the decision happened later in development. Question 7: How did you create the various objects and animations in the game, did you use Lightwave? Some people in the community have tried Lightwave 5 but it doesn't seem to work very well. Textures don't like to appear and the interface seems extremely primitive. Version 8 works best for what we do now. Answers from the designer: Answers... after almost 3 years.. Answer to question 1: The Rock Raiders theme originated from the Loader Dozer and many different sketches. Even sets from the Star Wars theme provided some inspiration. Answer to question 2: When the designers collaborated with Data Design Interactive, they mainly gave ideas and suggestions of what could be in the game. Some buildings / vehicles only appeared in the video games because there was a limited amount of sets for each production, so they couldn't make a all the buildings / vehicles into actual sets. There didn't seem to be any unreleased builds planned or other monsters supposed to become sets. It was quite difficult to answer these questions with great detail due to the time that has gone by. Answer to question 3: We were not able to find much, the only very early concept art we found could be a document, however we were unsure whether we would be allowed to share it even if it was 20 years old. Answer to question 4: Couldn't remember... Answer to question 5: The change in choice of the crystals from blue to yellow/green was based on a design decision. Originally the crystals were blue because the marketing team expressed a need for more blue-ish colors and bricks. However it did not suit the theme colours very well and was therefore changed later in the design process. Hence why we can see some blue crystals on early documents. Answer to question 6: The colour of the vehicle cages changed from grey to brown in the latest stages of development. The cages were grey because they were 3D printed elements, they used 3D printing to make prototype bricks in the early stages of the development. Also the original idea was to have the cages grey however they changed to the colour brown as it suited the theme better. Answer to question 7: Couldn't remember...

Hi all, ..and you thought the chief was a rare minifig, this guy (linked below) as far as I know is unique. Lego made this prototype based on the in-game model that I designed. He originally had a chrome arm (like his helmet) in the game, but Lego were unable to use that more brittle plastic as arms, so he ended up with the distinctive turquoise colour. Lego's original plan was to bundle this fig with the game but that plan was dropped for reasons unknown to me, perhaps time or budget constraints. ..anyway, I trust you like that little history lesson, and hope you're still enjoying Rock Raiders as much as we did making it. https://imgur.com/ioTRPcR

Interesting, not sure I can shed any light on that, although could be for an early edit of the intro vid, our sound guy at the time John Saull may remember. The file name is curious, I don't recognize the format, although my real name is SIM I don't think it's one of mine. I wish I did, all the files would have been on the DDI severs, maybe backed up somewhere Stewart Green would be the one to ask. I remember the renders. The rock monster had a rocky texture originally and still has in some instances, although Lego made him a uniform brown. I definitely saw a Slimy Slug figure, and honestly thought they had produced a physical figure of that, Stewart Green would have it if anyone does. I had totally forgotten about the Lurker, I modelled that, but it never made it to a physical figure as far as I'm aware. I don't have any, but I think our original minifigs we had at DDI had leg prints, they're out there somewhere Yes, I designed and built an amazing ice monster (well I was pleased with it at the time), I wish I had an image I could show, I will have a look through some old sketch books and see if I can find a drawing. From what I remember the ice monster ended up as a re-textured rock monster, but you probably know more than me about that. Did that end up in the game?

Thanks Cirevam, that's ideal. I did all the textures for the dirt/ground and rocks, there were some stock soil and rock images used but my method for the various types of walls, was to make a 3D scene with a pile of boulders/minerals and render that out to an image, then take into photoshop and make it into a repeating tile. That way the lighting would be consistent across all the textures. I'm pretty sure we had to use existing Lego pieces for anything made out of Lego, they did of course make us some bespoke pieces like the rock monster and openable boulder, but Lego designed those without any input from us. I only worked on the cut scenes for Lego Racers not the game itself, we did have a Rocket Racer minifig with his car in the studio, but I think he was a standard production version. Lego had already made the other characters/minifigs, when we realized we need a captain/leader, I had an idea for him and we tried him out. I had an issue back then with all the disabled or scarred characters, always being the 'bad' guys, I felt they were being demonized just for being different, so I gave chief the 'robot' arm to try and address that balance... it made me feel better anyway I know that we did make up some sets that were needed in-game, drilling machines and apparatus etc., out of existing Lego parts, and some of these may have made it to physical Lego sets. I remember doing the Lego Chess cutscenes, lot of fun. I think we had a fair amount of free rein to do the scenes we wanted, the only restriction I recall was, NO FIRE! Lego being rather paranoid about the flammable nature of their product.

Were there ever topics on this stuff? I can't find one but I remember discussing it with some people. Anyway. This piece from the Xtreme Tower set has actual printing on it: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=30161pb01&idColor=20#T=C&C=20 While I don't own the set, I once saw a picture of the piece (in a MOC) clear enough to make out the text. While looking for it again today I came across this topic on a Swedish LEGO forum about exactly this: http://www.swebrick.se/index.php?topic=10027.0 As you can see there, the text on the computer reads: Bjarke is a Danish name, my guess is whoever designed the print put it in as some sort of joke about somebody at LEGO. It's also slightly odd as in Denmark, the Brickster was named Kim Cool: You'd think they'd say "aka Kim Cool" on that computer piece, especially given the reference to Denmark immediately after, but ah well. Speaking of Danish names... There's an often repeated trivia fact on misc websites (and I think a DK book or two) saying "1997 saw the minifig’s official entry into the digital realm, starring in the videogame Panic on Lego Island". It seems that was the name in Denmark, for at least some copies... But in Danish of course. The game was also going to be named "Adventures on LEGO Island" in English before they decided to shorten it, IIRC it was advertised by that name in a LEGO Mania Magazine or two and it was also alluded to in-game by Dr Clickitt (he makes a joke about being so busy they could have their own game, "Adventures in LEGO Hospital" or something). I've heard it was still called by that name in other languages, but I don't remember if it was verified or not. Doesn't seem unlikely though, given the Danish name.

As a bit of an expenditure into LEGO modding, I've been working on a mod for LSW:TCS that expands the character roster. It adds many characters that can't be freely selected and played as in the original game, as well as some that aren't even present in the original game, to the roster. This first release adds 16 characters and 7 vehicles to the roster. You can download the mod here. Note: Sadly, this mod is not compatible with existing saves made before installation of the mod. Any characters that unlock through clearing levels cannot be unlocked if those levels are already cleared, and if characters have been purchased in the shop in a save prior to installing this mod, the shop will break on that save. If you have any existing saves that you wish to keep intact but wish to try out this mod, it is advised that you back up your saves (They can be found in C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\LucasArts\LEGO Star Wars - The Complete Saga\SavedGames\.You can put %localappdata% in the address bar to instantly jump to the Local folder, then navigate from there). However, as long as you don't select those saves with the mod installed, they should remain intact. Characters Story. These are characters that can be unlocked by playing the levels they appear in. Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) Description: Darth Vader, but with the animations of Anakin Skywalker and a scarred gray head under his helmet. Gameplay: Anakin Skywalker (Jedi) with Dark Force, Force Choke, and Imperial Access. Also can wear hats! Unlock Criteria: Clear the A New Hope bonus level. Shop. These characters appear in the shop after clearing their associated levels, and can be bought for a certain amount of studs. Anakin Skywalker (Scarred) Description: Anakin Skywalker after being burned in the lava but before being put in his signature Darth Vader outfit. He has no hair and a scarred face. Gameplay: Anakin Skywalker (Jedi) with Dark Force. Unlock Criteria: Clear Darth Vader (Episode III, Chapter 6) or use the cheat code BRN555, then buy in the shop for 125,000 studs. Luke Skywalker (Ceremony) Description: Luke Skywalker as seen during the Episode IV outro. Gameplay: Luke Skywalker (Tatooine) Unlock Criteria: Clear Rebel Attack (Episode IV, Chapter 6) or use the cheat code LGG466, then buy in the shop for 25,000 studs. Luke Skywalker (Pyjamas) Description: Luke Skywalker in his pyjamas, as seen in the Episode V outro. Gameplay: Luke Skywalker (Jedi) Unlock Criteria: Clear Cloud City Trap (Episode V, Chapter 6) or use the cheat code LPJ522, then buy in the shop for 30,000 studs. Lando (Waistcoat) Description: Lando Calrissian wearing Han Solo's waistcoat. Gameplay: Lando Calrissian Unlock Criteria: Clear Into the Death Star (Episode VI, Chapter 6) or use the cheat code LCS328, then buy in the shop for 33,000 studs. Jedi Description: A random generic Jedi, as seen in Jedi Battle (Episode II, Chapter 4) Gameplay: Obi-Wan Kenobi Unlock Criteria: Clear Jedi Battle (Episode II, Chapter 4) or use the cheat code UTF066, then buy in the shop for 25,000 studs. Mos Eisley Citizen Description: A random generic citizen of Mos Eisley, as commonly seen in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Gameplay: Han Solo, but without a combat roll, dodge, or the ability to fire at enemies behind or to the side of them. Unlock Criteria: Clear Mos Eisley Spaceport (Episode IV, Chapter 3) or use the cheat code DEN808, then buy in the shop for 15,000 studs. Cantina Alien Description: A random generic alien, as commonly seen in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Gameplay: Han Solo, but without a combat roll, dodge, or the ability to fire at enemies behind or to the side of them. Unlock Criteria: Clear Mos Eisley Spaceport (Episode IV, Chapter 3) or use the cheat code ZEN042, then buy in the shop for 15,000 studs. Cloud City Citizen Description: A random generic citizen of Cloud City, as commonly seen in Betrayal Over Bespin (Episode V, Chapter 5). Gameplay: Han Solo, but without a combat roll, dodge, or the ability to fire at enemies behind or to the side of them. Unlock Criteria: Clear Betrayal Over Bespin (Episode V, Chapter 5) or use the cheat code IHS010, then buy in the shop for 15,000 studs. Bonus. These characters unlock like Story characters, but aren't present in the levels they're unlocked through. Surprise! Battle Droid (Pilot) Description: Similar to Battle Droid (Commander), but with blue markings that are slightly different in shape to Commander's. Gameplay: Battle Droid Gungan Warrior Description: A generic character of the Gungan species. They appear running across the opening area of Invasion of Naboo. Gameplay: Captain Tarpals Kaminoan Description: A generic character of the Kaminoan species. One is seen at the beginning of Discovery on Kamino, next to the broken light that you repair. Gameplay: Taun We and Lama Su, but can't dance when the special button is held (s a d). Padmé (Mustafar) Description: Padmé when pregnant, as seen in the opening cutscene of Darth Vader (Episode III, Chapter 6). Gameplay: Padmé, but with 75% run speed and half jump height. Padmé (Hospital Gown) Description: Padmé when pregnant and in a solid white hospital gown, as seen in the Episode III Outro. Gameplay: Padmé, but with 75% run speed and half jump height. Wuher Description: The man behind the bar at the Mos Eisley Cantina. Gameplay: Ambles along slowly, doesn't jump high, and throws punches. Mon Calamari Description: A generic character of the Mon Calamari species, seen with Admiral Ackbar in the cutscenes of Into the Death Star . Gameplay: Admiral Ackbar Vehicles Story Anakin's Pod (Green) Description: The green variant of Anakin's Pod that player 2 plays as in story mode. Gameplay: Anakin's Pod Unlock Criteria: Clear Mos Espa Pod Race (Episode I, Chapter 4). Naboo Starfighter (Green) Description: The green variant of the Naboo Starfighter that player 2 plays as in story mode. Gameplay: Naboo Starfighter Unlock Criteria: Clear the Anakin's Flight bonus level. Naboo Starfighter (Blue) Description: The blue variant of the Naboo Starfighter that player 2 would have played as in story mode in the scrapped Anakin's Flight level from LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game. Gameplay: Naboo Starfighter Unlock Criteria: Clear the Anakin's Flight bonus level. Anakin's Speeder (Green) Description: The green variant of Anakin's Speeder that player 2 plays as in story mode, piloted by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Gameplay: Anakin's Speeder Unlock Criteria: Clear Bounty Hunter Pursuit (Episode II, Chapter 1). Republic Gunship (Green) Description: The green variant of the Republic Gunship that player 2 plays as in story mode. Gameplay: Republic Gunship Unlock Criteria: Clear Gunship Cavalry (Episode II, Chapter 5). Snowspeeder (Green) Description: A green variant of the Snowspeeder that player 2 now plays as in story mode. Gameplay: Snowspeeder Unlock Criteria: Clear Hoth Battle (Episode V, Chapter 1). Shop None... yet. Bonus Imperial Probe Droid Description: The droids in Hoth Battle (Episode V, Chapter 1) that fly around and try to pull on your tow bombs. Gameplay: Tight but slow movement, and the ability to drag tow bombs. Other changes General The Mos Eisley Citizens and Cantina Aliens in the Mos Eisley Cantina hub are taggable. You now play as Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) instead of Darth Vader in the A New Hope bonus level. Player 2 now plays as Snowspeeder (Green) instead of Snowspeeder in Hoth Battle (Episode V, Chapter 1). Anakin's Pod, Republic Gunship, and their green variants now also unlock when beating the bonus Original variants of their levels. Color variants of vehicles now use the same icon as the normal vehicle. The game is limited in how many icons it can load, so this was done to make room for less redundant icons. Bug Fixes Han Solo's icon now shows white on his shirt's folds instead of a beige, skin-like color. Han Solo (frozen in carbonite) can no longer ride vehicles. Known bugs Icons for added characters frequently fail to load in the shop and the character select screen. As of now, this is nigh unfixable. The four random characters (Jedi, Mos Eisley Citizen, Cantina Alien, and Cloud City Citizen) all turn into a different variant when riding something. This is an inherent problem with these types of characters and was actually worse before I worked on them, as they had random parts instead of looking like a proper random character. You can get a Mos Eisley Citizen or Cantina Alien into a Freeplay level without unlocking them by tagging one and keeping them as your AI partner as you enter a level. I plan to do another release some time in the future (no guarantees when), so if any of you are willing to contribute, that'd be greatly appreciated. Things such as technical restrictions or techniques I may not know about, or a good way to get proper character icons (thus far, I've been doing edits, and the Lukes don't even have unique icons), are what I'm looking for. I'm thinking editing a texture and camera positioning in a level would work well for the icons, using a green screen effect with in-game lighting to get good-looking icons, but any better methods that you guys can get working would be great! A way to extend a GSC file, either through proper creation of a new file or through hex editing, would also be great, as that'd allow me to add icons to STARWARS_ICONS_ALL_PC.GSC, therefore fixing the first Known Bug I have listed. If you're newer to modding and just want to check out the mod, here's how to install it: Step 1: Follow this tutorial (starts with "Alright, I owe it to you guys to teach you how to mod these games. Here's how you do it". You'll need to scroll down a bit to see it) to get your game to a state where it can be modded. For step 4 in the tutorial, "Select one of the .dat files from either game," make sure you extract all the .dat files for TCS, not just one. Step 2: Download the mod Step 3: Extract "The Complete Roster.zip" to the copy of the game folder that has the extracted .dat files

Update: https://brickset.com/sets/designer-Bjarke-Lykke-Madsen The set was designed by Bjarke Lykke Madsen, and according to him on that bricklist, the decorations were done by Henrik Andersen. Mystery solved?

Cause there's been some chatter about this on Twitter and Discord but not everybody uses those... For context, Toothdominoes is a designer at LEGO: And, being one of the designers at LEGO who regularly discusses older LEGO stuff on Twitter, it seemed a safe assumption he had something to do with this, haha - and indeed he did: If you haven't heard about the new Hidden Side theme yet, here's the rundown: https://www.slashgear.com/lego-hidden-side-combines-ar-game-with-physical-building-sets-14565846/ https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/hidden-side https://news.toyark.com/2019/02/16/toy-fair-2019-lego-hidden-side-333586

I was strolling through a Eurobricks thread on unreleased sets and came to this curious post. So I thought to myself "yeah, okay, big talk. Did you read that on Brickipedia?" But then they went on to say this: Suddenly the post is sounding a lot more credible. So I look back up at the post and what really strikes me is that he says that wave 2 would have had "other underground creatures." And then I remembered this guy! It's a slimy slug that was on the cover of a catalog packaged with big box LEGO games in 1999. It's not a model from the Rock Raiders game, though - in fact, it looks like it's design to be produced as a buildable figure, with a single-piece rigid body that has some eyestalks and studs stuck on. Seems a little excessive to design all of that just for promotional renders, no? So yeah, I think this guy may have been designed for that 2nd wave. What else could have been in it? There are at least a couple models in the PC game that would have worked as sets if they had chosen to produce them...