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Rick
& Bob meet Erik Legernes,
Designer of LEGO Sport 17 February 2003 London, England |
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ERIK: We did a lot of research into the sports arena and discovered that as well as being extremely popular in the US, basketball is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. We reckoned that we could take the coolest elements of the game and recreate them in LEGO Sports. We aim to translate the LEGO values of creativity, imagination and fun into an innovative build and compete sports game. In
addition, we realised that there were no other tabletop games that
really made basketball come to life - a perfect opportunity for
LEGO Sports!
RICK: How did it develop from there? ERIK: We started by looking at the essence of basketball and what makes it cool. We realised that trick shots, game playing, atmosphere and entertainment were core to the game. In total, a team of six designers and engineers, worked for over two years to channel all this excitement and creativity into LEGO Basketball, to create a game that is challenging and fun. RICK: How did you bring LEGO Basketball to life? ERIK: We looked at game play scenarios and realised we needed clear offence and defence, and that all figures have to work together to form an effective team. With LEGO Basketball we've really tried to bring the game to life with players who can pass, shoot and slam dunk just like the real game. First we started working on the mini-figure's upper body, we wanted the players to be able to pick up and throw the ball. The design team worked on all sorts of variations to the arms and hands, fraction by fraction, until we had a 100% success rate for the hands to grip the ball. Once we had the arms sorted we moved onto the hips and the challenge of getting our player to bend down and pick up the ball. We then set to work on developing the actual movement of the players, trying different solutions to get the players to jump up and down, always thinking how you can interpret the real moves. We wanted to create all the fun of the real game - and that means cutting down ways to cheat! In total it took two years - and a great deal of patience to perfect our players. BOB:
What's the coolest thing about LEGO Basketball?
BOB: What was the greatest challenge? ERIK: Developing the throwing movement was pretty stretching, we spent day after day for 12 months working on designs for the mini-figure to pick up the ball and throw it successfully. BOB: What made you think it would be a success? Once the mini-figure was complete we sent some prototypes to basketball fans around the world to see how they stood up to the challenge. We learnt that while kids loved LEGO Basketball, just like the real sport, with a bit more fine-tuning, we could ensure that even the youngest fan could find the right level of difficulty. So, we are really proud that this is true to LEGO values and is a game for basketball fans from 6 - 99, not too hard or too easy! RICK: Were there any unexpected developments? ERIK: One of the coolest things was that we discovered was that different size springs in the mini-figure's hips affected the way the players throw. So, we decided to use a combination of springs for long and short passes to make the game more exciting - just like the real thing! RICK: What's your favourite shot? ERIK: The reverse slam-dunk is a really impressive on the court move, so in the LEGO Basketball game we designed a really cool device to flip the player up, and slam the ball down into the hoop! RICK: What is your proudest moment? ERIK: When the NBA gave their seal of approval to LEGO Basketball and invited Magic Johnson along to try it out, apparently he liked it so much he asked if he could keep the game. For a real basketball hero to rate our game so highly means the world to us.
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