Gathered friends, welcome to yet another post by the Le-Koro Band!

This week, while wandering the lush countryside of Le-Wahi, we came across a clearing. At its center, a being was floating, cross-legged in meditation. He had many arms, each of them creating different works of art at the same time! One flawlessly modeled a small sweeping Visorak, another composed an ethereal song of lost love, another painted a beautiful digital landscape, and yet another wrote an epic poem about self-discovery amidst the apocalypse!

All the while, he was singing, “…every moment that you waste, is one more heartache that you take, and every person that you wake, is one more soul whose dreams you’ll make…remember your virtue!” until we interrupted him.

It was none other than the renaissance man himself, Jordan “Jocool” Willis! He was singing lyrics from a song he had worked on with the Le-Koro Band for “Ide’s Journey: Act 2, Disc 1,” released in 2023, titled “Good in the World,” in which Vican, also voiced by Jocool, comforts the titular Ide after a particularly foreboding nightmare:

We talked about how he developed his many skills over time, how the team behind Masks of Power assembled, the excitement of Project: Rustbound, the challenges and joys of music making, and collaborating throughout the BIONICLE^® community on grand projects!

So, gathered friends, and honored guest…

When were you first introduced to the world of BIONICLE^®? What was your first set?

My earliest memory that I can recall from my life is probably when I was around 2 or 3, playing on the floor in my room, with my older brother’s Oohnorak set. So, it’s a little hard to recall what my first set was, since my older brother had a few before I ever did. Including Oohnorak, Nuparu Inika, and Marhi Kongu. My best guess of what my first set was, would be… Probably Pohatu Phantoka. The first I got outside of a special occasion was Tahu Mistika, I remember that because the Mistika box with the huge Mask of Life lid was awesome, but it hurt your fingers to open lol.

Everyone should hopefully be familiar with your amazing animation work by now. How on earth did you begin your studies in animation and game development? Did it start with Bionicle, and have you always had such talent in so many artistic ways, or did it come with a lot of hard work?

I was always interested in entertaining in some way. Originally, I wanted to become a Film Director, then a Film or TV Editor. But then my older brother kept telling me I should learn to make video games, and that he would teach me. So, I agreed, under the condition that it would be a Bionicle game. I had always wanted to make the perfect Bionicle game, since I felt that none were produced that took full advantage of the theme. That game became Bionicle: Masks of Power.

As for animation, it really ended up as a natural progression from building models in Blender, rigging and 3d modeling. Animation was just one aspect of the program I hadn’t learned yet. I suppose it’s also the extension of my wanting to enter film. I started by trying it out in my occasional IRL short film, but then in 2019 I decided to challenge myself to actually learn how to do it properly, by creating a fully animated space horror short film called “Encounter at Station Delta”. Looking back on it, it certainly has a lot of problems, but it is quite impressive for my first true endeavor into the medium. A year later, in an effort to teach myself the new version of Blender and once again refine my skills in animation, I decided to reanimate in 3d the Metru-Nui Flash animations, all within a month. So, while my animation journey didn’t truly begin with Bionicle, it did end up there anyways. Besides, seeing the work that Team Kanohi’s animators were doing behind the scenes, certainly inspired me to put more time into it.

I have found some artistic mediums easier to learn than others, so I suppose you could say I have a talent for those. But regardless of how easy they were to learn, that doesn’t mean I was any good until I practiced for thousands of hours. In my opinion, my animation is the easiest to track to see my improvement, since I was practicing using the videos I put out. Just watch Station Delta and then my latest Bohrok Saga episode, and it should be clear.

Is game development a profession you still want to pursue as a career?

Yes, even while it may not be a very lucrative business, especially right now. One of my main goals in life is to be able to effectively share my emotions through art. To be able to give people what I would’ve wanted to have as a kid, and to be able to inspire those kids in the way that Bionicle inspired me. Now that Team Kanohi has been formed into Unmasked Games, I believe that we have a very unique opportunity to make something we have all wanted to make, and maybe even make a living from it.

And we’re all rooting for you! On to the more social side of things, how did you become involved with the BIONICLE^® community?

Back when I was still just thinking about making Masks of Power, I wondered if there was anyone else who was similarly obsessed with Bionicle like I was. So, I found the LEGO^® Bionicle Sub-Reddit and started watching TTV. I even entered one of their shark-week MOC contests. Then later on, after I had started developing BMOP, I entered the first trailer of it into TTV’s big Bionicle fan project showcase (I forget the name of it), in an effort to spread the word about the game and attract developers to help me work on it. And it kind of spiraled from there lol.

Is that how you assembled over time the amazing team at Unmasked Games, that used to be known as Team Kanohi?

Indeed. It began by just asking the community to help me out with it, people would just jump into the discord server and offer their services, and I would gladly accept them. After we began to become more well known, we realized we needed some kind of vetting process for prospective members, which ended up being the application forum. Fast forward to today – Some of those people who joined at the beginning 8 years ago, are still at Unmasked Games today, and are now some of my best friends.

The whole of the community has heard about the tragedy of the Masks of Power game and the LEGO^® Group’s bad decision to stop your team from finishing development on the Demo. There’s nothing new we could say about those events here. What we can do is look towards the future, of Project: Rustbound. It’s too early to talk about details, but what are you most excited about working on in the upcoming project?

For me, at least one big thing is the chance to change certain things about both, our development process, and game design philosophies. With BMOP we committed to some things early on in our design that we came to regret later, to keep the game more in line with cannon, to compromise between contradicting media, or just out of a miscalculation of how many man hours it would take. For those of you unfamiliar with Game Development, this is very common and something that happens with nearly every game. But it is very valuable information, when trying to make the next one.

All of that to say: Project: Rustbound gives us the opportunity to reexamine our past decisions, see what went wrong, what went right, and how we should do things this time around.

Pivoting to your musical endeavors, how did your love of music-making come about?

Ever since I was a kid, I have always been interested in making different forms of art. I guess at some point I just started learning how to make music and haven’t stopped. But at the same time, I really hated our music classes in school, and was usually very picky about what I would listen to. Years later, I’ve come to understand and appreciate music a lot more. Music has become very close to my heart, and making it is a way for me to process and share my emotions.

What kind of music always makes you excited to hear or create?

What is your go-to DAW and what are your VSTs of choice that you always seem to go back to? And what is the most challenging aspect of music making in your mind? 

I’ve always been a fan of Plunderphonics, Synth funk, and Emo. Though for making music I tend to lean towards EDM or Indie Rock. I use FLStudio, will always use Kontakt, and sometimes reFX Nexus. Each with their own patches for different instruments. The most challenging aspect of making music to me, is making it correctly. I never learned music theory. I’ve always gone by my gut. So, it’s always a challenge to figure out why something doesn’t sound good to me, and how I should fix it. Plus, mastering is always a pain, but not nearly as much of one.

You voiced Vican in the Ide’s Journey rock-opera/audio drama and have contributed your voice to many songs with the Le-Koro Band. What other projects within the community have you been involved in?

Well, Bionicle: Masks of Power is the other obvious one. But yes, over the years I’ve been involved in a lot of community projects. I did 3d elements for The Mangai Project. Sound, Music, and Editing for Project Mata Nui Rising. I’ve done cameo voice overs in a number of projects like Bionicle: Iliad. A lot of various animation and 3d asset work for last year’s, and now this year’s 810NICLE Day event. As well as a couple of upcoming projects you’ll see featured on that very same 810NICLE day.

What would you say to someone who wants to follow in your creative footsteps? How can someone become as varied in skills as you?

The first step would be to have ADHD, that helps. Beyond that, I would just say to try to put in as much time as you can in each of the skills you want to grow in. There’s a reason the saying, “Practice makes perfect” has been around for centuries, because it’s true. You just don’t realize it’s true until you’ve already done all the work. I tend to learn best “on the job” as it were, meaning that I have to have a project I’m creating in order to learn how to make it. If you want to do it like that, then I would suggest keeping the scope for your first project very small, do the best you can at it, release it, and move on to the next one.

Do you think you’d collaborate with the Le-Koro Band again? Bring them into one of your own projects?

I think so, yes. I’m excited to help create Act 3, and then whatever comes after. If I found an opportunity to bring the Le-Koro band into one of my own projects, I would certainly use it!

Thanks again for sharing your creativity with us! What’s next for you, individually?

I don’t have many personal things planned right now, but I do plan to completely finish the Bohrok Saga 3d sometime in the next few years, among some other small things. However, I will primarily be focusing on Unmasked Games for the foreseeable future.

Our hopes go with you!

If you, dear reader, are interested in the adventures of Unmasked Games, check out all their links in the upper right corner of their website (http://unmasked.games).
And follow the amazing creative endeavors of the multi-talented Jocool here: (https://linktr.ee/jocool1231).
But first, check out his livestreams on YouTube (with one later today!) here: (https://www.youtube.com/c/Jocool1231).
Until next time, be the good you want to see in the world! 

If you’d like to join the band, follow the linktree below (https://linktr.ee/lekoroband), and feel free to reach out to chat in the comments, or wherever you find us!
Tune in next time for another single release and the next episode of “Tree Talks!”

–Sanso