Lego Worlds is both inevitable and a good thing, even if it is too late to be Minecraft. It needs to be done right of course, and the steps towards pre-fabbed construction only are a worry in that area. However, I have a personal preference for its colourful, surreal layout over Minecraft so I’m interested to see how it develops. In a community update, TT Games have detailed where it is heading.
It’s a long post, but here are the highlights:
- Multiplayer is difficult to implement because of the systems the game is built on top of, but is coming both for online and split-screen. They feel split-screen is “an essential part of family gaming.”
- They won’t be creating seperate survival or RPG modes, but do want to implement these sorts of elements into the exploration side of the game. They were deliberately cagey but said “it’s still a videogame – players should feel like they have things to do that make sense, especially if they don’t particularly like building”
- Underwater exploration is a current goal, but has some technical barriers involving the camera that need breaking through before it can be realised. The implication is that the sea will be as fully featured a biome as anywhere else, eventually.
- A map and navigation system is being worked on so that players will always know how to get back to whatever structure they’ve built. Right now there’s an issue where players don’t want to explore too far, get lost and not be able to get back to their hard work, so they feel limited.
- Lots of small additions and tweaks in the next update, including animations, abilities and sounds for more characters.
Here’s Fraser’s review of the Early Access launch version, which he enjoyed but advised people wait for updates before purchasing. It looks like that may soon come to pass. It’s £11.99 on Steam.