Data Design Interactive
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Data Design Interactive is the video game developer & publisher company that is responsible for the creation of the LEGO Rock Raiders PC Game and PS1 Game. It is a UK company and was founded in 1983, and ceased trading in 2009 after a significant drop in sales due to a series of poorly received releases for the WII in the late 200s.
Developing The Game
The game, released in 1999 (for PC) and 2000 (for PS1), was the one and only LEGO game that it ever developed. Development began early that year. At some point the development of the game split between platforms, leading to the PlayStation Game being radically different in nature to the PC Game. The PC Game developed as an RTS game reminiscent of Dune II, in which the player controled the rock raiders from the first and third person, in the mining of caverns, collection of Materials, construction of Buildings and Defending Rock Raider HQ. The core of the game came together around April as the game entered the Beta Version of the game. After a number of optimizations to the engine and the HUD, the game was finally released on November 15, 1999.
The PS1 version instead developed into an action/strategy game where the player controlled a single character at a time and focused more on exploration, rather than base construction & maintenance. Because of this diversion, progress was slowed while the PC Game was being finalized, and the release of the PS version was delayed until August 17, 2000. The first version that was released was for the NTSC video standard (for Japan & North America). The second was for the PAL video standard (for Europe, Asia, Brazil, Australia, etc.) and added more content to the game.
Sister Companies
A number of companies assisted DDI in the creation of the PS and PC Rock Raiders games.
LEGO Media International
See Main Article
LEGO Media International was the publishing company that hired and worked with DDI on the creation of the Rock Raiders game, and is also responsible for the publishing of all LEGO games until Traveller's Tales took over LEGO Game development and publishing in 2005. The company underwent a number of brand name changes, changing from "LEGO Media" to "Lego Software" to "LEGO Interactive."
Artworld UK
For more information: See here
Artworld UK was created in 1998 when LEGO contacted DDI to create the Rock Raiders PC Game. Artworld contained a team to handle creation of game graphics and 3D animation. Artworld followed on to create graphics & animation in Lego Racers, Lego Alpha Team, Lego Creator and Legoland.
