25 Years of LEGO Game History and Lessons

December 22, 2021 0 By Brian Crecente

As the year-long celebration of the LEGO Group’s 25 years of making video games wraps up, the LEGO Bits N’ Bricks podcast broke down some of the biggest lessons learned over the past quarter of a century.

Senior product lead Don Meadows said he sees the LEGO Group’s digital future in its past – specifically, in creations like LEGO Loco, a LEGO brick toy train set simulator that he views as more toy than video game.

“I think the same way you can build a LEGO model, follow the instructions, remix it, rebuild it yourself – we’ve gone now from creating that spark in you to want to learn about how to make video games or how to make digital play or digital movies to where we are now,” he said. “We’re really starting to open the floodgates to what happens next. I think we’re about to see the new wave of what happens when LEGO fans make LEGO experiences.

“And I love it because it’s going to be obvious things that we’ve thought of, but it’s also going to be so many things we’d never thought of, and I can’t wait to play with them.”

Looking back at the history of LEGO Games, there are moments and lessons learned that have been and can be applied to both the direction and shape of Light Brick Studio, a spin-off developer that started life within the LEGO Group.

“I think in general about this whole idea of using the gaming medium in kind of a new way or in a way that you see mostly within these more artistic angles of games, using the game medium to actually convey emotions and to put players in positions where they actually feel something,” said Light Brick Studio co-founder Karsten Lund. “And I think that’s something that really hadn’t been done as much with LEGO games.”

“I think that the most striking aspect is that there has been, for the entire history of digital play at the LEGO Group, a real spirit of experimentation and a willingness to continue to kind of push ourselves into new frontiers for digital play,” said Sean McEvoy, head of LEGO Games. “From the very beginning all the way through to products like LEGO Universe and LEGO Dimensions, all the way through to something that’s more of a smaller experiment, but maybe equally defining – something like LEGO Builder’s Journey that offers a whole new play digitally with the LEGO brick. It sets us up for what’s to come, and it gives us those really fundamental learnings that we can build on those foundations, that we can build on for the future of digital play.”

“So, I’d love to say that the past 25 years have prepared us for the next 25 or 250 years of play at the LEGO Group – digital play, but also increasingly play that can help to build foundations for the future of physical play.“

That spirit of experimentation, which McEvoy notes can be seen sketched out across the decades, each defined by different approaches. The ‘90s were defined by the work done by Strategic Product Unit Darwin in trying to replicate physical LEGO bricks and play in the digital space. The work done by TT Games defined what it meant to be a LEGO video game in the 2000s, and Fluid Play creations like LEGO Mario became one of the touchstones for the 2010s.

“I would say that is about building the foundations for the future of digital play at the LEGO Group and connecting that endeavor to what seamless play might look like,” he said. “And by that, I mean … fluid play. I think the learnings from that era will define what’s to come next. And that the vision for what’s to come next is a truly seamless experience between physical and digital play because we know that the kids and families and LEGO fans of all ages who encounter our products don’t really make a distinction between physical and digital play. It’s play as play. I think that’s the direction of travel, to a place where it all fits together seamlessly and really enables that play and creativity.”

This article originally ran on LEGO.com as a summary of episode one of the weekly Bits N’ Bricks podcast, which you can listen to here.