LEGO Minecraft just makes sense. As the most popular sandbox game of all time and the iconic construction brick we probably all played with as kids, LEGO and Minecraft fit together perfectly (like two bricks).
To find out how this dream pairing came together, we spoke to LEGO Minecraft design manager Frédéric Roland Andre about how the LEGO team brought Minecraft to life.
BUILD SOMETHING GREAT
“You build in Minecraft like you build in LEGO, basically,” says Frédéric, who was hired as an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) 11 years ago after sending in a portfolio of his own creations and attending a recruitment workshop. More recently, he was the creative lead on LEGO Minecraft for three years before becoming design manager. “[LEGO is] the perfect medium.”
He oversees the creation of all the sets and jokes that the only difference is, “in LEGO, there’s gravity.”
CREATE YOUR WORLD
There are loads of LEGO Minecraft sets, and each one lets you recreate your in-game constructions in real life, and vice versa. There’s the Pig House with Alex and her cute pink friends, the Ruined Portal, and the Modern Treehouse — and even sets that let you build real-life versions of the Nether and the End. But building your Minecraft creations in real life is only half the fun. Frédéric says the LEGO team tests all their sets in Minecraft’s Survival mode to make sure they’re accurate to the game as well.
“You should be able to look at your LEGO set and know what to put together in the game to reproduce it.”
In that way, the collaboration is an extension of both brands and a special way to continue building out your Minecraft world. You can build each set as-is or combine them to recreate your in-game world — or you could use the LEGO Minecraft sets as inspiration for your next big build in the game.
BUILDING TOGETHER
The LEGO team works closely with Mojang, the developer of Minecraft, to ensure their sets are as accurate to the game as possible.
“Our relationship with Mojang is super important,” says Frédéric. “We’re in constant communication with them so we know what’s coming up in the game a bit earlier than the public, and we can start to come up with ideas . . . We try to accommodate that into our sets and make something new, something you haven’t explored.”
The team also worked with Mojang to create an extensive library of LEGO bricks they could pull from when they were making the new sets. Collaborating means the bricks look like real-life versions of their in-game counterparts and let you build LEGO sets that are near-perfect replicas of your in-game creations.
It also helps the LEGO team build what they call “core Minecraft” products. “For example, the abandoned mine set that came out this year,” says Frédéric Fred. “Some players are just starting the game and they don’t know all the biomes . . . But the player sees that set and knows exactly what we’re talking about.”
EVERYONE’S WELCOME
Something that LEGO is very proud of is introducing new characters to Minecraft that are inclusive and diverse.
“Every character should be kind of genderless, so they could fit boys, girls or any expression of your own body,” says Frédéric. “We try to include everybody and every kind of player in our sets.”
“We have a few sets representing Minecraft Dungeons as well, so we use the broad and diverse range of skin tones that were available in that game.”
LEGO included original Minecraft characters like Alex and Steve, but also created new characters that can’t be found anywhere in the game, like the beekeeper in The Bee Farm set, the jungle explorer and archaeologist in The Jungle Abomination set and the friendly workers in The Village set.
DON’T STOP AT THE SETS
So, you can reproduce your Minecraft creations in real-life and build your LEGO Minecraft sets in-game, but how versatile are these bricks, really? As it turns out, very! Frédéric shows us how to “Minecraftify” everyday objects by using the blocks from the sets to build around things like a desk lamp.
“That’s a very good thing with LEGO bricks: a product is not an end to itself, and you can always expand it,” he says.
He shared some tips for how to start “Minecraftifying” things, and all you need is a few blocks and your imagination. Start by familiarising yourself with the 2×2 LEGO brick and learn how to build things in a grid formation using different combinations of the 2×2.
Then pick up your favourite object from the game and play around with it. The possibilities are endless once you get started.
To shop the many LEGO Minecraft sets available so you can get creative at home, head to the LEGO website.
