What can you remember about the development history of the project?
Lego Island 2 we were the "forgotten project" everyone was messing around with the PC version and we were essentially given free reign on the GBA version. This was obviously great. The idea was a "simple" RPG like game (something like the Dizzy series of games, created by the Oliver Twins and published by Codemasters.
Can you remember any detail about cut/removed content from the Game Boy Advance version of LEGO Island 2?
In the original script we had names for all the characters, these were eventually dropped since they were the names of the developers and famous people (at the time) and full of terrible puns, which we the development team thought were incredibly funny. I think the only pun actually left there was the "sick squid" "joke" where the player needed to give the sick squid (6 quid (pounds)) to someone.
Malcolm Grant also mentioned some details related to the development of the map for LEGO Island 2:
There's an area which isn't seeable from anywhere (normally) in game - it's just to the side and it's a ring of gems. There's also some big footprints which you can't see as they are just off camera and they go from one area to another. The only people who could see these would have been me and Dean Roskell.
What can you remember about the origins of Island Xtreme Stunts Game Boy Advance?
So basically [during] GBA LEGO Island 2, they had completely left us alone, since they were busy with the PC/playstation version. After some decent reviews of Lego Island 2, the LEGO management decided to weigh in and mess it up (in the very first meeting) by removing many things and making it rubbish. It was quite painful as they had issues with a number of things which were some of the best features from LEGO Island 2, essentially dumbing it down. It was quite sad to see various features go. After that I handed the game design to Troy [Lonergan], it had a few months left and I left.
Can you go into detail about what those changes were?
Changing from the overworld, [including] moving around the world was removed from Xtreme stunts. The 3 levels of difficulty was added, you needed to play each game 3 times and the unlocking of story, the story was completely cut down and just a few lines here and there from what I remember.