The LEGO Minecraft That Almost Was

December 9, 2020 0 By Brian Crecente

The creator of Minecraft was well into development of a LEGO® brick take on his massive hit when he decided to suddenly walk from the deal with the LEGO Group in early 2012.

The problem, according to Daniel Kaplan, who worked on the project at developer Mojang Studios – and others at the LEGO Group – was the level of bureaucracy and rules imposed by the brick company.

“There were a lot of rules from the LEGO Group, like what we could do and could not do. And those were basically at the end of the day, the ones that made us break the deal with the LEGO Group,” Kaplan said in the most recent episode of LEGO podcast Bits N’ Bricks.

The project started out as an idea by Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson around the time he released the first retail version of the game in 2011. Long a fan of the toys, which he at times said inspired his creation of Minecraft, Notch decided to pursue a lifelong dream of working with the LEGO Group.

After being introduced to the company, folks at Mojang and the LEGO Group held several meetings where they discussed the idea, and it was immediately clear that both companies were interested in working together.

The LEGO Group’s Daniel Mathiasen was among those who spoke with Notch. He noted that much of Notch’s impetus for creating a LEGO game was powered by his childhood memories of playing with the toys.

“It had dawned on him while he was working on Minecraft that the power of the LEGO brick experiences he had had as a kid,” Mathiasen said. “And he really, really wanted something to happen between our two companies and bringing out some great experience.”

So Notch initially got the green light to create a prototype, something he whipped up in Java, which essentially recreated the Minecraft experience with LEGO bricks.

The ultimate goal, according to Kaplan, was to create a fully realized LEGO brick world with a variety of biomes based on different LEGO themed sets and with its own sort of adventure. The look of the game was meant to illustrate worn down LEGO bricks and use a sort of stop-animation movement that was meant to capture the look of a child moving a Minifigure by hand. But the more they went down the road of development, the more the developers at Mojang realized that the LEGO Group had its own set of rules and processes in place for developing with its brand.

A meeting with LEGO Group lawyers and the small team at Mojang was the final straw, and Notch apparently pulled the plug.

Those working closely with Mojang on the project at the LEGO Group were devastated. After the deal fell through, some even floated the idea of the LEGO Group buying Mojang. That idea worked its way all the way to the top but was eventually rejected.

While the initial idea of Brickcraft, codenamed Project Rex Kwon Do at Mojang, came about in 2011, the LEGO Group had long been exploring the notion of creating a sandbox construction game that would capture both the look and feel of the brick, as well as the philosophy of playing and building it had long nurtured.

For years, people at the LEGO Group had been discussing and even testing a variety of ideas for a game that would essentially deliver a bucket of digital bricks to children and allow them to build whatever they want in a LEGO world.

One of those ideas eventually worked its way into some of the early design work of MMO LEGO Universe, but that was eventually watered down and turned into one facet of a much bigger game.

Following the breakdown of the Brickcraft work, the LEGO Group continued its efforts. At one point, they spoke with Microsoft about working together on its sandbox game Project Spark, but that didn’t come together.

Teams then worked on an original idea at the LEGO Group with developer Funcom to create a sort of digital shoebox experience that would allow players to create their own little brick-based dioramas. That idea eventually made way for TT Games’ work on LEGO Worlds. While LEGO Worlds did launch, it never approached the level of success that Minecraft found.

Looking back at the missed opportunity, documentarian and Bits N’ Bricks co-host Ethan Vincent points to what he sees as one of the major stumbling blocks the LEGO Group faced.

“There is a boldness required to just do it and to maybe not be bogged down by some of the complicated lawyerly interactions and musings, and even the super ambitious task of trying to get every single LEGO brick into the gameplay experience,” he said. “A certain boldness and vision will be required for LEGO Games to move forward.”

Brain Crecente, journalist and Bits N’ Bricks other co-host, noted that while Brickcraft was a missed opportunity for the LEGO Group, there are still plenty of opportunities open for the company.

“The people at the LEGO Group identified that Minecraft nailed Minecraft, so we don’t need to recreate that,” he said. “I look forward to seeing what they do in the future and how they create, not the next Minecraft, but the next LEGO game that’s amazing and unbelievable.”

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.