| LEGO → Video Games → Island Xtreme Stunts | 14556
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- This article is about a video game. For the theme of the same name, see Island Xtreme Stunts.
| Island Xtreme Stunts | |
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| Item №: |
14556 |
| LEGO Theme: | |
| Price: |
US $19.95 |
| Developer(s): | |
| Publisher(s): |
Electronic Arts |
| Date Released: | |
| Genre: |
Action, Adventure |
| Mode(s): |
Singleplayer |
| Rating: |
ESRB: E |
| Platforms: |
PC |
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14556 Island Xtreme Stunts is the third and final video game in the LEGO Island series, released in 2002 and available on PC. It was a crossover between two themes, Island Xtreme Stunts and Studios.
LEGO.com Description[]
 This is a description taken from LEGO.com. Please do not modify it. (See an archive of the product’s page)
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Pepper is back for extreme action! Pepper's been hired to do the stunts in a brand new movie -- if the Brickster doesn't ruin all the scenes! Help Pepper drive, fly, jump, and skate through five extreme stunt games, while keeping the Brickster at bay. Plus there are puzzles to solve, cool trading cards to collect, and exciting sub-games to unlock in Pepper's awesome new adventure! |
Synopsis[]
LEGO Studios has come to LEGO Island, and Pepper Roni has been cast the lead role in the upcoming/latest movie, Xtreme Stunts. However, once again, The Brickster has been released from jail somehow, and has also been given a role as the movie's villain. The Brickster-Bots are also now used as assistants in the movie sets, though they still cause trouble around the island. Most of the game is spent filming the scenes for the movie in minigames (side activities with other characters can be done in between filming events or after all of them have been completed as part of the game's progress; a few of them are essential for achieving things, like a road vehicle license). However, after the filming for the movie is finished, the Brickster reveals that he was using the movie as a cover for his latest scheme, and that the Brickster-Bots have built him a super computer-powered tower on top of Space Mountain that will destroy the island. The Brickster then tells everyone that he has kidnapped the Infomaniac and taken him to the top of the tower, warning that if anybody tries to stop him, "the old man gets it."
After Pepper borrows the Brickster's car and drives it across the island to the tower while being bombarded by falling objects, he climbs the mountain and tower. Pepper faces off against the Brickster and the Brickster-Bots at the top while Sky Lane tries to hack into the tower's computer to stop the impending explosion. Pepper defeats the Brickster, and Sky arrives in a helicopter, saying she wasn't able to stop the program, but was able to change its effect. Pepper and the Infomaniac escape with Sky on the helicopter, leaving the Brickster on top of his tower, which then self-destructs and he is left behind and falls down. Back on the island, the Brickster is arrested and put back in jail, but escapes once more, and Xtreme Stunts is shown at the theater.
Development[]
Island Xtreme Stunts, initially known as LEGO Island 3 went through many different renditions during its development, with the earliest going back to at least July 2000.
Early Technical Work[]
Shorty after Silicon Dreams' Team 3 finished Dogs of War and knew it wasn't getting a sequel they began to look into concepts for LEGO Island 3. The earliest concept went no further than a technical design[1] and prototype that included a terrain system that could deform in real time. Additionally, card trading card, multiplayer, and camera systems were planned.
| This is a description taken from the lead designer and associate producer of Island Xtreme Stunts, Dean Roskell. Please do not modify it.
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In one of the earliest instances of prototyping LI3 Matt Richie wrote a heightmap terrain system that could deform in real time. It also incorporated a day/night setup. So we had a simple build of an interactive space where you could see Lego Island morph around. It didn't go any further than that, it was just an idea of testing out new tech. This might have been prior to us starting work on Lego Island 2 GBA. |
Eventually, development halted and the opportunity to work on a Game Boy Advanced version of LEGO Island 2 arrived.
| This is a description taken from the lead designer and associate producer, Dean Roskell. Please do not modify it.
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No, nothing. We were just exploring and we knew that Lego was probably going to be the next thing we worked on as we'd just heard that there wasn't going to be a sequel to Dogs of War (the RTS our team worked on). This was all while Jim, Steve and the rest were building Lego Island 2. If my memory serves me right, and it might not. We did some tech exploration, noting that the Dogs of War team were quite techy people who liked to look at the cutting edge of things, so it was an excuse to play with some new tech. Then the option of working on the Gameboy Advance game came in which we started on. During that time ideas for Lego Island 3 were very light until we shipped. |
The Silk Road[]
According to several developers, the first design for LEGO Island 3 to gain traction was focused on the Silk Road, the working title for an Adventurers theme LEGO was developing. The theme's story involved following the trail of Marco Polo, and later evolved into the Orient Expedition theme released in 2003, which featured the same story premise.
A couple different designs were concepted. One of which can be seen in the design notebook of Rich Hancock, who also did substantial design work on LEGO Island 2. While brief, it outlines the rough idea of an online LEGO RPG for consoles inspired by Everquest and Asheron's Call.[2] However, these rough ideas weren't developed further.
The other[3] was inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and featured Pepper following the path of Marco Polo, that his father Bologna Roni had previously followed. Additionally, it would have been revealed that LEGO Island was a floating island being held in place with an anchor and could be steered around with a powerful turbine engine. The player would have also been able to visit various places such as Arabia, China, India, and Tibet.
An idea document also exists for this version with a variation of the ideas. This version of the game starts with an Ogelite helping the Brickster escape the jail cell on Ogel he was locked up in during LEGO Island 2, before the plot of the version 0.1 design document sets in. Furthermore, it includes ideas for subquests, boss fights, events, and other things.
| This is a description taken from Dean Roskell. Please do not modify it.
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Sure, so Lego Island 3 wasn't a clear sequel to Lego Island 2. We had to work with Lego and understand their plans for which themes they were wanting to promote over the upcoming seasons that fit the timeline of the game's release. So early on the team were working on basic technology, a new engine to drive whatever the game was going to be that would utilise the new Playstation 2 hardware; myself, along with the producers from Silicon Dreams and Lego were trying to build the plans for taking Lego's product theme needs and building out a concept that fit. So at the time, they were discussing a product line up based on the Silk Road. Lego also had an adventurers theme, I can't recall if they were going to be built as exclusive sets or combined so that the Silk Road would become a subtheme of Adventurers. I did a ton of research into the history of the Silk Road, and Arabian Nights. The proposal I built was to have a multi-location adventure which included the Lego Adventurers sets and locations, Pepper would be the main player character, and would be themed around a story based on the Silk Road and Arabian Nights. I did some digging through old boxes and found a sample dungeon adventure I designed to show the type of game this would be (see attached). As you can see the adventure, based in Arabia, uses a story based on an idea taken from 1001 Arabian Nights. Pepper (the player) and his partner Johnny Thunder (From Lego Adventurers). This was the only dungeon design to be fleshed out like this as it was a proposal to see if this fit Lego's wants and product theme needs. The design of this game unlike Lego Island 2 was to be more like Zelda Ocarina of Time, using a flow of moving across a set of different landscapes (with some backtracking), building up a set of key tools which would unlock the ability to access new spaces and perform new abilities, each area culminating in some form of dungeon and boss fight which would test the player's skills using their growing set of abilities, whilst unlocking new abilities for use in future dungeons. This was a very different design, and scope of the project, which that in a combination of Lego deciding not to go with the Silk Road theme after doing some market tests with their own product line proposals (I believe they had some mockup sets which they showed to people for feedback) we axed. Following this was them making bringing a new product theme to the table based on Xtreme Sports. This fit closer to the existing range of Lego Island games as Pepper was already a skateboarder, and the Island could make for a good basis for a skate park style environment easily adapting to the physical sets being produced. |
| This is a description taken from Dean Roskell. Please do not modify it.
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After Silk Road didn't test well (the Lego sets IIRC weren't well received). We had a bit of time before a decision was made on what to build. So I think there were a couple of suggestions. One I worked on with some of the designers was to base a game around a few different Lego themes and have Pepper journey between them on his adventure. I can't remember all the suggestions: Adventurers, Kingdoms. |
According to one programmer, the rewrite happened early enough that as far as they knew no specific assets were created for it - only early work that was just as relevant to Island Xtreme Stunts, like the higher detail minifigure model.
After The Silk Road[]
Following the cancellation of the Silk Road Silicon Dreams tried to rework the concept by using various previous Adventurers subthemes in replacement of the Silk Road. The Adventurers Island character bible is the only public source for information on this version of LEGO Island 3, which places an emphasis on Mr. Hates being the main antagonist.
| This is a description taken from the lead designer and associate producer of Island Xtreme Stunts, Dean Roskell. Please do not modify it.
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As for Characters, I took some photos from a character document posted below, this was from when the Adventurer's theme was proposed to be included so we listed out a set of characters who would feature in each of the game's spaces based on the themes of the set (Desert, Jungle, Dino Island, Orient Expedition). For these, in particular, I remember went no further than this one document. No development work was ever actually produced beyond some concept writing. |
| This is a description taken from Dean Roskell. Please do not modify it.
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I'll see what I can remember about that. The more I think about it, it might have just been the Adventurers Theme and the zone hopping would have been the sub zones: Eqypt (a good replacement for some of the silk road desert theme ideas), Amazon, Dino, Orient (again filling in for other Silk Road events). We had a very, very rough idea which was basically Pepper moves across each sub zone on an adventure. There was a suggestion to use Johnny Thunder as a hero you'd keep meeting along the way, along with Dr. Kilroy, Pippin Reed. I can't remember if we looked to involved The Brickster or look to use Sam Sinister. We might not have even got that far into it. It was just a few documents outlining a very rough idea. I think Lego were annoyed that they saw us trying to push on them what they should be selling and not us looking to compliment whatever strategy they were thinking about. Really it was more because we knew Silk Road was dead and we had little else to work with until the eventual arrival of Xtreme Stunts. Perhaps it would have been better us just wait, but we were excited to be wanting to do something. |
Island Xtreme Stunts[]
The earliest development on Island Xtreme Stunts goes back to late June 2000, when Rich Hancock and a few other Silicon Dreams designers flew Billund to work on the Island Xtreme Stunts setline with the intent of having it tie into a video game.
| This is a description taken from Rich Hancock. Please do not modify it.
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There had been games of play sets and play sets of games, but Xtreme stunts was the first title where the game and play sets were designed together. Myself and a few of the other developers went to the HQ in Billund and worked directly with the real lego artists and designers of play sets to come up with the style and items for both the game and play sets that would be used. I got my passport like a week before that trip, and the passport is dates June 20th 2000. |
LEGO Island 3: Xtreme Stunts Design Document - Playstation 2 v0.5
According to the 0.5 version of the Playstation 2 Design Document the game was designed to tie into the Island Xtreme Stunts setline by at least July 11th, 2001. Additionally, the main game structure was in place by October of that year.
Cut And Changed Content[]
Before the release of the game several aspects of the game including locations, characters, subquests, and subgames were either changed or cut from the game.
Titles[]
This version of the game was initially known as LEGO Island 3: Xtreme Stunts, but was renamed to Island Xtreme Stunts for marketing reasons (much like how Drome Racers was known as LEGO Racers 3 during development but renamed before release):
| This is a description taken from Dean Roskell. Please do not modify it.
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I can't remember the exact reasoning behind the name change, it was a marketing thing though. to capitalise on the trend of extreme sports, to avoid losing customers if they hadn't played the first two games, and to shift it further away from the educational branding into more of the entertainment space. EA certainly had an impact on that, although they came quite late to the party and the game was very much as it shipped really. Actually, I do have a story about that. when EA stepped in to joint publish the game they came to visit the offices to check in with the dev team, Lego was obviously super nervous about this and it was clear there was a bit of power play going on over who really was pulling the reigns, IIRC Lego wasn't in the best financial state at this time so the move to partner with EA was probably a requirement rather than a want. Tom Stone who was EA's vice president swept through the office bouncing from staff member to staff member asking what they were working on and if they had anything they wanted to bring up. One of the main design issues that the team were struggling with was Lego's constant pulling back on anything that resembled violence, they were getting uneasy at any sort of projectile in the game, and I don't mean guns, but things like bananas, this was requiring us to change the designs of games, and even disregard stuff we'd done for LI2. Tom's comment on this was to turn to the room and make a speech about how it all changes now, you want violence you put that in. The team were actually taken aback by the monologue after he left discussion flared up, and while I was happy that he'd basically given more creative freedom back to us I had to temper things by reminding everyone how late in the project we were, but still it did give us some allowances to make adjustments. Tom, who you might know has gone on to produce quite a legacy for himself when it comes to Lego games, and the statement he gave that day was certainly the grounding of the new path forward for Lego games. Prior to that we often daydreamed about the idea of making a Star Wars Lego game but laughed it off as we saw no possibility of doing any justice to the Star Wars universe if we couldn't feature lightsabers, X-wing battles and blasters. |
Remnants of the the early "LEGO Island 3" name can still be found in the game data with some files making mentions of "LI3."
Characters[]
Several new and old characters were cut during the development of the game. New characters that were cut include Rolf; an Australian veterinarian who was previously a children's entertainer, Polar Oyde; a photographer, Self Morphing Plant; a plant that was the last of its species, an unnamed security guard; who worked at LEGO Studios, and a couple of new soccer players; who supposed to be apart of a team. Additionally, preexisting characters such as Bill Ding (due to issues with his name being trademarked) were cut, along with Pete Bog and the soccer players from LEGO Island 2 for separate reasons.
Multiple character names were also changed for legal and other reasons for characters such as Lucky Larry (who was originally Lucky Luke), Shugu (who was originally Animal Chin), Gnarly Bones (who was originally Boney Hawks), and Phil Maker (who was originally Phil Film).
Locations[]
The early map design for LEGO Island 3/Island Xtreme Stunts
Public design documents for this version of the game include an early version of the Island Xtreme Stunts map design (shown right next to this paragraph). It contains several cut locations including a place for Rolf the Vet, a football pitch, railway stations, tall buildings, a separate island for the jail, and a beach ball lake. Ambience sound effects for the railway and veterinary clinic can still be found in the ambient sound files for the main island. Previously, the map was uploaded to Flickr by a designer from the game, of which included a description with information on the changes to the map:
| This is a description taken from Dean Roskell. Please do not modify it.
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This was an early design of the Island for Lego Island 3, which later became Island Xtreme Stunts. Some of the basic elements stayed with the design through to the end, the waterway under the mountain, the location of the mountain in the centre and the general land mass. As with most work in video games, ideas and plans get cut down during development due to time constraints and technology. Both played their part in the evolution of the islands design. One of the issues was that the game's engine didn't support streaming, as found in titles such as Grand Theft Auto, which meant that all the data had to be loaded all the time, putting strict limits on how big and detailed the island could be. The second reason was that during development, more and more emphasis was placed on the mini game sequences, which meant that we had less resources (man power) to dedicate to the Island gameplay section. |
Another early map from the Delivery Game Notes document.
The Delivery Games Notes document contains another map, that dates to February 2002. Several portions of the landmass from the previous map are cut, along with the train system. Separate islands are noted as being specifically for Shugu and Brian Shrimp.
Subgames[]
LEGO Island: Xtreme Stunts Design Document - Playstation 2 v0.9
The design documents detail a Matching Brickimals minigame at Rolf the Vet's place in which he must go around a room opening crate doors to match pairs of Brickimals. The documents describe the minigame functionally comparable to the Matching Mummies minigame found in the PSX/PC versions of LEGO Island 2.
See also[]
Gallery[]
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