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Tim Wileman: I think it's a game that not only fans of the Jurassic Park franchise, but also gamers in general, have wanted for a while now. It's a proper, authentic LEGO Jurassic World-slash-Park game.Well, as authentic as an entirely fictional thing made out of bricks can be.
Exactly. We've stayed as close to the source material as we can. I think that'll attract some interest. This has been a fantastic collaboration, and everyone involved has understood each other. It's been a joy to work with all of our partners, it really has.
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Yeah, it is a little scary, and dark. We don't want to shy away from the tension and the atmosphere of the original trilogy, because that's a good part of the reason why they were so successful. But what we do is balance that fear with humor, with comedy value, like we have done with all of our games. And that might be something very subtle, like a smiley face or a wink, or it might be something more slapstick. But it's about finding that balance, and taking the edge off. For example, with the dinosaurs in the game, we treat them like pets, really. As you play through the game, you'll see how they all have personalities, which softens things slightly. But we do want to have thrills and spills in there, in the process.
We are using the original voice over where we can, but we're talking about a film that was made over 20 years ago where audio techniques were very different to how they are now. The recordings simply weren't as good then as they would be today, so where we can use them we have, but we've also had original dialogue created for the gameplay. We've brought Mr. DNA back, and he'll talk you through a lot of cool stuff in the game, and provide educational tips on the dinosaurs. So we want to create this authentic experience, as much as we can.
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Well, dinosaurs are real, and we're still learning about them every day, how they lived and how they evolved. So it was nice to add this extra element. It's not going to be rammed down players' throats—it's there if you want it, and you can take it or leave it.Was there no temptation to update the representation of the dinosaurs, from how they were in the movies to how they're generally seen as appearing today? A lot more feathers, basically. I know that the scientific knowledge on dinosaurs has evolved a lot, and we get that, but we want to deliver this authentic Jurassic Park experience. If we put a feathered velociraptor in there, I think it might raise too many eyebrows. We want to stay close to the source material, and do it justice. We want to do a proper job on the original trilogy and the new fourth film, which is going to be amazing by the way.I suppose some of these dinosaurs are iconic villains, really.
Exactly, so with the T-Rex, we've tried to give her a personality that emphasizes that. The raptors are really cool in the game, and they're going to deliver a lot of laughs. Of course they're serious, too, but I'm lucky to work with such an amazing animation team, and they've really brought these inanimate LEGO objects to life, which is really cool.The most recent LEGO game I've played, before this one, is the third Batman title, Beyond Gotham, which I found rather over fiddly, with too many costumes per character and, honestly, some confusing level design that dragged on. But Jurassic World already feels more streamlined than that, simpler, in a good way.
I think we have possibly, in a direct comparison sense, gone for a more "snackable" approach to these sections, rather than larger, expansive levels. That doesn't mean this new game is any smaller, and we have the hubs too, which are vast and full of content, like the dinosaur customization tool. (Oh yeah, you can create your own dinosaur from pieces of the "proper" ones, if toying with nature is your thing.) Each level is made up of several small sections, but they have you progressing through each story very comfortably. We want this game to cover as much of the series content as possible. I think the feeling is that this game is more old school, gameplay-wise, which I personally prefer.LEGO Jurassic World is released in June for just about every system under the sun.Follow Mike on Twitter.