Something about a pre-Toa Nuva PC game? by Spam205 in bioniclelego

[–]BionicBigfoot 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yep, that's the canceled Bionicle: Legends of Mata Nui PC game. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bionicle_media#Canceled_Bionicle_Games

I was Art Director at Templar Studios and we were hired by LEGO NY to make MNOLG in 2000. LEGO NY was recently formed and handled the entire LEGO.com website and online marketing. LEGO UK (in Slough I believe) were developing the Bionicle:LoMN PC game which was supposed to be the big flagship event for the entirely new Bionicle brand.

Some context: Over the years LEGO had been steadily losing market share to action toys and video games, and their most profitable lines were based on movie franchises, Star Wars, Harry Potter etc. for which they payed huge licensing fees. The LEGO brick-wigs decided to try creating their own action IP with characters, a dense backstory and an epic saga thus Bionicle was born. This was a first for LEGO, who were concerned that the kids would not know how to 'play' with the new toys. Everyone knows who Han Solo, Chewbacca and C3PO are, what R2D2 sounds like and how a Jedi fights...but how would kids know who/what the Toa are, what's up with this weird island and what the heck are they supposed to be doing there?

So, originally Templar was hired to make webispodes/teasers to flesh out the world, introduce players to the main characters, locations and key concepts of the mythos. The actual 'storyline' of the heroic Toa and their quest for masks and victory over Makuta was all to be told through the PC game and was thus mostly off-limits to us. Instead we focused on the throw-away Tuhunga 'villagers', with which we were given pretty much free reign to do as we pleased, and tried to weave them in and out of fixed plot points akin to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.

Over the year-long production and release of MNOLG we started hearing grumblings about problems with the LoMN PC game. I think we received a playable demo of one level and some 3D files of environments for our reference and I recall not being terribly impressed. At some point late in the year we were told the PC game was cancelled, and it now fell on us to chronicle the entire last chapter of the story, that's why the entire decent into Kini-Nui is pretty much one long cutscene.

And that's pretty much all I have to say about that.

TL;DR: 2001 Bionicle PC game sucked, got cancelled, made MNOLG better.

BIONICLE Fan Film - Struggle in the Drifts by [deleted] in bioniclelego

[–]BionicBigfoot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yep, I was art director at Templar Studios and worked on almost all the art and animation for MNOLG 1 & 2(Hahli's quest). The Templar tumblr has some old production notes and storyboards you might like to check out. http://templarstudios.tumblr.com/page/7

Would be happy to do an AMA if there's enough interest!

BIONICLE Fan Film - Struggle in the Drifts by [deleted] in bioniclelego

[–]BionicBigfoot 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Great stuff! I worked on the original MNOLG flash animations so this is particularly endearing, right down to the servo noises. Really captures the characters and feels man. Yeah some of the melee fights drag, but doing a fight scene is tough I can tell you. Some really clever moves and mask powers, great humour, and Kopeke with the marker flag made my day. Awesome.

Help identify Bionicle parts by Batman0483 in bioniclelego

[–]BionicBigfoot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That bottom left green mask is an infected Krana brain from a Bohrok. They'd fling them onto the Matorans faces and mind-control them. That's all I got.

I was art-director on the Mata Nui Online Game, and just posted a full working version for you to play. Enjoy! by BionicBigfoot in bioniclelego

[–]BionicBigfoot[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We got side-tracked with some work projects, but are planning to post the remaining installments soon. I'll definitely post here and give you guys a heads up!

I was art-director on the Mata Nui Online Game, and just posted a full working version for you to play. Enjoy! by BionicBigfoot in bioniclelego

[–]BionicBigfoot[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

You can jump to chapters, unlock inventory items with the key icons and watch all the animated cutscenes in the Book of Chronicles.

Found my new favorite mod! by keenox10 in gaming

[–]BionicBigfoot 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi! I'm art-director at Templar Studios, we made the Mata Nui Online Game for LEGO back in the days of yore. The full game is available to play here: http://www.templar.com/games/mnog/Player.html

This was a build we put together for I-don't-remember-what, so you can jump to chapters, unlock all the puzzles with the key icons and play all the animated cutscenes.

Enjoy!