• LEGO Island originally released on 26th September 1997 and has become a cult classic. 
• The Bricks to Bytes community has collated and preserved much of the game’s history which it has now presented for the 25th anniversary. 
• This collection includes behind the scenes design documents, physical models, original photographs and more. 

Even for non-LEGO fans, the LEGO Island game from 1997 is a classic piece of videogame history and, for its 25th anniversary, we can see more of it than ever before thanks to the work of Bricks to Bytes.

Bricks to Bytes, according to its about page, is a community effort to “preserve, archive and showcase classic LEGO games history”.

This looks at the game from its initial prototypes all the way to its success and legacy.

Starting at the beginning developer Mindscape and executives from The LEGO Group did use actual LEGO to create and test out layouts for the island. This is a bit funny to us as developer Hideo Kojima famously used LEGO to test out levels for Metal Gear. To see bricks used in this way, for an actual LEGO game, just makes sense.

Another interesting part of the game’s development was timing character dialogue to facial animation using a custom tool. The unique way characters talk in LEGO Island is a distinctive part of the experience, so seeing more of this is fun. We’re sure this piece of art will show up in a few months as avatars on social media.

This project ends with a final report into the reception of the game carried out in the UK which has the following under the broad summary / conclusion: “‘LEGO Island’ has a distinctive appear for a Pre-Secondary School target of 7-10/11 year olds, with particular strength in Quality Graphics, Variety of things to do / see, Features / Detail and ‘LEGO’ Connection [particularly, though not exclusively for ‘Enthusiasts’]”.

We have to wonder how many lifelong fans of games and LEGO this title created, and what all those seven to 11 year olds are up to now after playing LEGO Island around release.

We’ve just scratched the surface of what Bricks to Bytes has uncovered and preserved with its extensive work. You can see more in the long Twitter thread by clicking on its beginning below.

Alternatively the website for the community has a dedicated page for the project which is available here.

On September 26th, 1997, Mindscape and The LEGO Group released LEGO Island, the first LEGO video game for PC and the first to receive a world-wide release.

25 years later, we are pleased to debut hundreds of previously unseen artifacts from the development process.

— Bricks to Bytes (@Bricks_To_Bytes) September 26, 2022