Build and Explore: ‘LEGO® Bricktales’ is Available Now on Meta Quest

There’s something very satisfying about building with LEGO® bricks. From sorting the colorful plastic pieces to snapping them together, you can’t help but feel accomplished when you see the end result. LEGO® Bricktales is the closest a video game has ever gotten to recreating that feeling, and it’s an experience that’s only amplified with the power of VR and mixed reality, which lets you play with your digital creations in your own physical space. You can pick up the game today on Meta Quest for $29.99 USD.

In LEGO® Bricktales, you’ll create your own minifig character, and you’ll have to help your grandfather restore his rundown amusement park by collecting happiness crystals. Together with your little robot pal, you’ll travel to five diverse LEGO® worlds—each one a meticulously crafted diorama—and earn crystals by helping the characters that live there. You’ll use the game’s intuitive building mechanics to solve their conundrums, like constructing a sturdy bridge for someone to cross over or building a flying gyrocopter.

True to the LEGO® spirit, you have the freedom to build these objects however you like as long as they complete the task. And once you finish a build, you can revisit them later in the Sandbox Mode to improve them with an even wider assortment of bricks.

To celebrate the launch, we sat down with ClockStone Producer Matthias Hilke, Game Director Dominic Stern, and Thunderful Producer Marcel Aldrup to talk about the inspirations behind Bricktales, how they adapted it for Quest, and how MR helps make you feel like you’re building with physical LEGO® bricks.

Matthias Hilke: ClockStone has mainly been developing for the “flat” platforms. However, we had our first playful experiences with VR game development back in 2016, when we created a small number of in-house prototypes—but these never became published games. Then in 2020, we worked on a rather small VR hunting game for the HTC Vive in the context of a work-for-hire project. So LEGO® Bricktales for Meta Quest is our first big VR game project, and it’s based off the game we released for consoles, PC, and mobile in 2022.

Marcel Aldrup: Back in 2018, The LEGO Group contacted us via email. They were impressed by our portfolio and followed the great success we had with the release of Bridge Constructor Portal. We felt very honored being contacted by the biggest toy company in the world, manufacturing toys we all played with as kids and even now as adults. We met with LEGO in Billund, Denmark shortly after to discuss potential ways of collaboration. There was no concrete project planned around that time, but all parties involved agreed to have a game that focused on brick-by-brick building.

We started working on a prototype based on this idea, and after a few iterations, came up with the concept for LEGO® Bricktales. With our LEGO® game we wanted to focus on an intuitive brick-by-brick building mechanic that gets as close to building with real LEGO® bricks as possible.

Dominic Stern: Adapting our game to VR/MR was an inspiring journey, introducing familiar gameplay into new virtual dimensions. We retained the third-person perspective, enabling players to view our detailed dioramas from any angle, adding an exciting layer to the exploration. Crucially, players can move and rotate the diorama, essential for navigating larger worlds and enhancing interaction. A standout development moment was seeing our game world in VR for the first time, bringing new depth to the player’s experience. Our approach to VR emphasized exploring the world in a more immersive way.

One of the most transformative aspects in VR/MR is the build mode. By using the Quest’s controllers, players can physically interact with the bricks, creating a more engaging building experience. This approach diverges from the cursor-based system of the original game, adding a tactile dimension to the puzzle-solving.

Optimizing complex scenes was a significant challenge, but overcoming it underscored our commitment to delivering a high-quality, high-performance game. We found creative solutions to maintain the game’s visual richness while ensuring smooth performance in VR.

The VR/MR adaptation, while demanding, has been a fulfilling venture, teaching us valuable lessons and setting a new standard for possible future projects in VR gaming.

DS: In our game’s MR mode, the Passthrough feature allows players to integrate the virtual game world into their physical space. Players can freely move and rotate the diorama, placing it anywhere in their room, such as on a desk or table. This flexibility personalizes the gaming experience. Additionally, for important moments like cutscenes, the game automatically adjusts the diorama’s position to ensure players have the best view and don’t miss anything.

MH: On the one hand, LEGO® Bricktales is a typical video game: players control a LEGO® minifigure, walk around with it, and interact with other elements in the game world. On the other hand, what makes Bricktales different from many other LEGO® games is the fact that it feels like playing with LEGO® bricks. It contains more than 60 puzzles, where players get a selection of bricks in order to build different objects needed in the game.

Speaking of the similarity to LEGO® sets: When I wanted to play with real LEGO® bricks, I’d set myself up at my favorite table or somewhere on the floor and start building. Turning on Passthrough mode in the game enables players to imitate this behavior and place their current puzzle in front of them on their desk, coffee table, or some cozy corner of their room—with the additional advantage of not having to tidy up afterwards!

The Passthrough mode also offers players an option to stay in contact with their surroundings while they’re enjoying the game.

MA: We think MR will offer many opportunities in gaming in the years to come. The possibility to mix the real world and objects in your living room with the game experience is really exciting. Of course it always depends on the actual game, and if and how MR features can be implemented. But the gaming industry has always been innovative, so we’re sure there’ll be more and more great games that use the full potential of MR in the future.

MH: My favorite part is that when playing the game on Quest, building with LEGO® bricks almost works like in the real world. With controllers in hand, I can reach out to grab bricks, move them around freely in the three-dimensional space, and place them directly onto my model. I can even build with both hands simultaneously, all while being able to smoothly look at everything from every angle and every distance—which I also enjoy doing when exploring the dioramas, the beautiful LEGO® worlds where everything takes place.

MA: We have some ideas for future updates of LEGO® Bricktales, but nothing is set in stone yet.

Lose yourself in the beautiful, tactile worlds of LEGO® Bricktales, out now on the Meta Quest Store.