LEGO Star Wars’ First Level Used to be Different...

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MinikitSophie

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Published on January 24, 2025 9:00:48 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEXib1fflP4

Game:

Lego Star Wars: The Video Game (2005)

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You could easily argue that 1-1, “Negotiations”, is one of the most iconic levels in LEGO games, acting as an introduction to LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game’s most basic mechanics. It’s absolutely iconic but... did you know that the version we got is smaller than originally planned?

0:00 Intro
0:12 Background
0:20 Changes
1:26 Outro

Included in the LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity book is an early schematic of the level and, while it’s mostly similar to what ended up in the final game, there are some pretty major differences.

Firstly, you would have encountered a few PK worker droids right after leaving the meeting room and, if you attacked them, they would try to warn nearby battle droids. The rest of the corridor is pretty much 1:1 except for the fact that studs are referred to here as “coins” and that there’s a set of doors outright missing.

Well that’s because they’ve been moved down the corridor and are now unlocked by an astromech instead of a protocol droid. Plus, the second room behind these no longer has the moving platform. Instead, you can simply fly over the gap and jump on the vulture droid to get a minikit.

If we go back on the regular path, we’ll quickly find yet another divergence with more missing doors. Again, according to the book, once you defeated all the battle droids in the area, reinforcement would arrive through this door, after which it would stay permanently opened. This would give you access to the final section of the level without needing to go through the vent.

Another detail is that you wouldn’t have been able to switch to TC-14 immediately, Instead, she would wait for all battle droids to be defeated before collecting pieces and carrying them into the next room, opening the door while doing so. Once both players entered the newly opened area, she’d stop and you’d be able to switch to her.

Finally, we have the large hangar area which looks pretty similar until you look towards the right. Originally, you would’ve had to fight several battle droids in this wide open area, as seen in these screenshots from linterni Gamer. The end of the level with the MTT would have instead been further right, although it seems like it would have functioned the same way.

And that’s it for “Negotiations”, which is the only level to have its draft schematic featured in this book. It’d be curious to know what your thoughts are on these differences, especially the alternate path into the hangar. Also, I can’t be the only one that wishes TT Games would show more of these early level designs, right?


Sources:
"Episode I - Scene 1: Negotiations" - Page 129 from LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity - Graham E. Hancock, 2024.
"I watched a review of #LEGOStarWars The Force Of Creativity book when I noticed something. There's a storyboard of Negotiations and it got my attention. Well, turns out that's design_e1_01, found by me on 2019 on LSW1." - @LinterniG (Twitter), Jan. 20, 2025.
https://x.com/LinterniG/status/1881457573658030267
"the actual level fits the storyboard. Thats the actual storyboard of design_e1_01" - linterni Gamer (Discord), Jan. 20, 2025.
https://discord.com/channels/620326407066746900/621744092610560011/1331009379750772859

Games Featured:
LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game (2005)

Music provided by Chillhop Music
Boukas, A D M B - Let Go (Philanthrope Remix)
https://chll.to/b32d5e97

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