Minecraft Legos

From the Department of Redundancy Department. Lego is producing an official Minescape Lego product, which will be completely different from regular Lego because it will say "Minecraft" on the box. And maybe come with a Creeper face decal.

Lego CUUSOO is a site that allows people to post ideas for Lego projects, and if they get enough votes (and pass review), Lego will produce that product. Minecraft passed the 10,000 vote mark and the review process, and "we are now developing a concept that celebrates the best aspects of building with the LEGO system and in Minecraft and we can’t wait to show it to you—but we aren’t ready just yet. These things take time, so we appreciate your patience. More details are to come."

h/t Penny Arcade

DC/Marvel Teaming With Lego

This isn't gaming news, but it touches on two beloved subjects here at Casa McD: superheroes and Lego. Starting January 2012, Lego will begin a multi-year deal to produce sets based on DC and Marvel comics characters.

A line tied to The Avengers feature film will include minifigs of Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Loki and Black Widow, while the the X-Men collection includes Wolverine, Magneto, Nick Fury and Deadpool, and the Spider-Man sets offer Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus. On the DC side, we'll be seeing Batman, Robin, Catwoman, The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Bane, Bruce Wayne, Superman, Lex Luthor, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman.

In the past, Lego has produced significant lines for both Spider-man and Batman, but this is the first universe-spanning deal to date. They're launching the new endeavor with a Lego Super Heroes Unite contest, which invites people to use their minifigs to create artwork and films highlighting the characters. Expect to start seeing sets in May 2012.

Lego Carcassonne

I've written about Lego Catan in the past, but someone has now taken it to the next level by working on a complex version Lego Carcasssonne. Designer Cal Henderson isn't actually making the whole thing, mind you, since a full set based on this design would cost around $2000 to create, but he's showing how it could be done.

A new computer mockup of Lego Catan was making the rounds of the interwebs last week. It looks great, but it hasn't been built.

The Toy Fair Recap Part II: Lego! Mayfair! More!

Toy Fair is an annual trade show in which the toy and game industry shows their latest wares, usually in mid-February. I liveblogged my day on Monday, and now I'm writing about everything I saw in a little more detail. The first part of the report can be found here.  

After Hasbro, I cabbed it over to Javits, had a painless check-in, dropped off my coat, and started heading for the show floor. That’s when I noticed that Activision was doing a bit of a demo in a little conference room off in a corner. Thus, I began my day by looking at …

Wappy Dog
Okay, so it wasn’t the most thrilling way to begin Toy Fair, but it’s a cute product that is expected to have a reasonable price point. Wappy Dog is a little robot dog (like the old Tekno toy) that works in tandem with a Nintendo DS game. The package comes with a DS cart and the dog itself. The game is a standard Nintendogs clone, but the twist comes from its ability to interact, wirelessly, with the robot dog. The dog barks, sings, changes color, makes noises, dances, and so on. You can pet it, train it, play with it, and get reactions from it.

Look, I have a daughter, so I’m around a lot of little girls. This kind of stuff is like catnip for them. If it works (the version I saw was prototype) and the price stays reasonable, it could definitely find its market. 

Lego
Although I didn’t make an appointment, I did manage to slip behind the velvet ropes of the Lego showroom and get a tour of their game line. It turns out that last year, Lego nabbed almost 13% of the children’s game market with their new Lego board game line. The first series of games not only had several Reiner Knizia designs, but Knizia had input into the direction of the line.

Lego games will continue in a couple of interesting ways. The new flagship title, following on from Lego Creationary, is Lego Champion, which offers a combination of building challenges and racing.

The new Lego Ninjago line (a popular item with my son) is getting a board game this August, and there’s also a pirate-themed game called Pirate Plank due in March.

More interesting is the Heroica line, which is an entirely new Lego line created exclusively for boardgames. The initial releases will be four build-and-play adventures—Draida Bay, Waldurk Forest, Caverns of Nathuz, and Castle Fortaan—which can be linked together to form an even larger game. All four are due in August, but the art I have is tagged “preliminary” and is thus embargoed. I could probably describe it to you, but I’m afraid Ninjago agents would appear from the shadows and cut me to ribbons with their little Lego weapons.

Oh, and Lego now has the Pirates of the Caribbean license, which explains this stupid photo of Yr Humble Correspondent. 

Man-sized minifig heads:
Gruesome trophies from a tribe of Lego headhunters 

Queen Games

I’ve been trying to score a review copy of Fresco for ages with no luck. Now I understand why: Queen Games is based on in Germany and has no real US PR presence. Plus, their products are big, heavy, and beautifully produced. They had a wide range of items on display—Samarkand, Kairo, Lancaster, Show Manger—but Fresco and its expansions was clearly the highlight.

In Fresco, you manage your Renaissance art studio, buy and mix paints, and slowly restore a fresco for the bishop. The pieces, board, art, and mechanics all look wonderful. I’m going to have to buy this one, so please start shopping through my Amazon store so I can afford it.

Days of Wonder
My first scheduled meeting of the day was with Days of Wonder’s Mark Kaufmann. DOW didn’t have a booth and they were only showing Cargo Noir, which I’d already covered. So we just talked a bit about the games business and some of the interesting reactions Days of Wonder games generate among hardcore gamers. It was nice to sit down and talk with someone who wasn’t trying to flog his new game--Scowling Men With Beards Trading Little Wooden Blocks--as the greatest thing since penicillin. Thanks for the break, Mark.


Mayfair
And then it was on to Mayfair, who are also very matter-of-fact about their product and their audience. When you have the first Eurogame to be sold in a big-box store like Target, you really don’t need to worry about what the hardcore crowd on BoardGameGeek think.

Mayfair's Bob Carty ran me through the brand-spanking-new, straight-from-the-printers copy of Martin Wallace’s new game, Automobile. This one looks good, but it’s a heavy numbers game, with the entire board dominated by research, auction, sales, and production tracks. It lacks the map element that gives Wallace’s train games their life. I think this one will find its audience, but it probably won’t break as a big as Steam (my favorite among Wallace’s train games).

On the other hand, Bob got me all worked up when he mentioned the third part of the Mayfair/Wallace transportation trilogy. The next game will be about air travel, and will return to a map-based design as people fight for dominance of various air hubs.

In some other Mayfair news of interest:

• They’re publishing a new edition of 1830 with a nice-looking board, original rules, and new variants. It’s a slick-looking bit of work for the hardcore 18xxers. 
• Steam is getting a map expansion with three new tracks: Mid-Atlantic US on one side, and Belgium & Luxembourg and Brussels Metro on the other. 
• Rivals for Catan is also getting an expansion, with new lands, resources, and adversaries. 
• I’m not at all sure what to make of First Bull Run: A Test of Fire, a fast-playing Civil War game from … Martin Walace. It’s listed as ages 10 & up with a 30 to 60 minute play time, which sounds a lot like Battle Cry. I’m really curious to see what they do with this one. 
• The final one that caught my eye was Five Points: Bloody Politics in Old New York. Since everyone else is going to be calling this “Gangs of New York: The Boardgame,” I might as well get the ball rolling. Players control factions vying for influence in upcoming elections, using agitators to tip the scales in their favor. It plays in under an hour, so it’s obviously a lighter game. 

I also got my best swag of the trip from Mayfair. I whispered in the ear of a friendly Mayfair lass that my daughter was the biggest Catan fan in the world, and she returned with a bag filled with these:

My daughter always tells me I’m the “best daddy in the world,” but last night she really meant it.

Final part of the Toy Fair recap coming later today.

One of My Favorite Items From the 2008 Lego Brickfair

In 2008 I had the pleasure of reporting on Brickfair, an annual convention for Lego fans held in Northern Virginia.

In keeping with the theme of today's App O' the Mornin', here's a playable Lego Settlers of Catan, built by Suzanne Rich.

Lego Universe in Beta

We've been participating in the beta for the upcoming Lego Universe game, and it's already looking spectacular. NetDevil is creating a massively multiplayer online game based on several of Legos product lines, such as city, pirate, space, and jungle, with more to come. So far, several worlds have been built around a core spaceport: Avant Gardens, Gnarled Forest, Pet Cove and Forbidden Valley. We probably won't be seeing licensed lines like Star Wars, Batman, or Harry Potter (those gaming rights are owned by others), but all of Lego's original lines should be grist for the mill.

Gamers begin in a spaceport, which acts as both hub and training ground. They learn the controls, assembled a rocket, and then blast off to explore worlds and have adventures. Because the game is not finished (and still not quite stable), we remain under press embargo. That means I can't talk too much about our experience with the software, or run my own screen shots.

However, I can say that it's already shaping up to be the most exciting PC release of the year.

Building will be a big part of the gameplay, with various options for adding things to the world. Universe will include the one-button “quick build” interface found in Lego video games, but it’s also promising more complex options. There will be not only building “choice,” in which you can modify and customize quick build models, but also a completely free-ranging custom build option where anything goes. Previous Lego design software has been fairly sophisticated, allowing users to build items brick by brick. If NetDevil finds a way to integrate these tools into a massively multiplayer online world, then they will succeed in making the most customizable online game ever.

Gameplay appears to be pretty far ranging, with multiple choices and paths to follow. Characters develop over time, advancing in levels as they achieve goals and earn treasure. The early previews depict a Lego version of classic co-op MMORPG gameplay. Characters group their minifigs into teams in order to complete adventures, with all the fighting taking place against a common foe. Gamers can fill various roles depending upon their preferences, whether that means being a fighter, builder, treasure hunter, or something else.

Lego also wants to become a social destination, however, which means that conversation, minigames, and non-combat competitions are also being planned. It become an effective “lobby” destination like Club Penguin, allowing younger gamers to pop in for some light gameplay without engaging in serious adventuring.  

My Lego-addicted son is absolutely quivering with anticipation based on his early time in the game world. I never, EVER participate in Betas, so you can tell how excited we are by this release. (Although I used to cover beta software in my early years with PC Gamer, I no longer have the desire or patience to mess about with unfinished code.)

When this thing is released in October, kids all over the world are going to be saying "Club What?" and leaving their virtual WebKinz pets to starve.

Actually, the prospect of a kiddie World of Warcraft may not be such a great thing after all. We have enough adult MMO gaming addicts already.