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LEGO Fusion Announced


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My wifi isn't playing nice right now, so I can't upload any of the pictures here, which there are quite a few of. Just look at these links.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=96885

http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/19/lego-fusion/

http://lego.gizmodo.com/new-lego-fusion-sets-let-you-play-even-when-you-dont-ha-1593080024

http://mashable.com/2014/06/19/lego-fusion-hands-on/

 

Quote

LEGO Systems Blends Physical and Digital Play with New LEGO® FUSION

-New Play Experience Moves Children Seamlessly Back and Forth Between Physical and Virtual LEGO® Worlds Via Hands-On Brick Building and App Gaming to Delight LEGO Builders and Casual Gamers Alike-

NEW YORK (June 19, 2014) – LEGO Systems, Inc., makers of the world’s leading construction toys, today introduced LEGO® FUSION, a play experience that combines traditional LEGO brick play with familiar app-based game themes. LEGO FUSION leverages new technologies—and children’s fascination with them—to create an entirely new way to engage in LEGO brick building and app game play for children ages 7 and up. Available later this summer, the LEGO FUSION collection will include four distinct titles: LEGO FUSION Town Master, LEGO FUSION Battle Towers, LEGO FUSION Create & Race and LEGO FUSION Resort Designer.

Each LEGO FUSION experience consists of a distinct set of LEGO bricks, a corresponding free downloadable app and the new FUSION capture plate, a small brick building plate with a printed design that enables a smart phone or tablet’s camera to identify the size and colors of the LEGO bricks built onto it. In response to game prompts, children build vertically in 2-D on the FUSION capture plate, enabling the app to ‘see,’ import and transform the creation into 3-D in the digital world.

“Children have always imagined their LEGO creations as immersive worlds which come to life for hours of role-play and adventure,†said Ditte Bruun Pedersen, senior design manager, LEGO Future Lab. “Recently, smart phones and tablets have become a popular platform for empowering game mechanisms that kids love. LEGO FUSION brings these two favorite play patterns together in an experience where real-life LEGO builds come to life in a virtual game, inspiring creativity, strategy, and the pride of creation.â€

To Win, Step Away from the Screen

Once a child’s creation has been imported into the game, a series of challenges and interactions requires that players turn away from the device and return to the real world to use their LEGO bricks to build new solutions in order to move game play forward. Each game encourages this back-and-forth between physical and virtual, keeping children engaged in both worlds.

“In our research, we heard repeatedly from parents that they are constantly battling ‘zombie gaze,’ the experience when their children are immersed in their device screens for large blocks of time,†said Pedersen. “We developed LEGO FUSION with this challenge in mind, creating a play experience that keeps children entertained with the kind of app gameplay they love while giving real reasons to return to the brick pile to creatively build.â€

Each LEGO FUSION product offers a distinct play experience. The four products launching this year are:

LEGO FUSION Town Master

In this simulation game, players create and rule their own LEGO town, first by building it with LEGO bricks, then by capturing it and importing it to the game. Children build everything from houses to a pizzeria, fire station and bike shop while completing errands and missions like catching robbers, fighting fires and skateboarding. To keep the minifigure citizens happy, players solve problems through physical building and earn points to gain access to more structures, and even run additional towns.

LEGO FUSION Battle Towers

Players build a tower and defend it against attack so they can rule the kingdom. First, players design the Battle Towers with real LEGO pieces, then capture them and import them to the game. Next, players choose tower defenders like wizards and archers and battle against evil warriors, skeleton armies, and more. If a tower is damaged in battle, players can repair the damage with a timed build with the game’s real LEGO bricks.

LEGO FUSION Create & Race

In this racing game, players get behind the wheel and virtually drive the cars that they create with real LEGO bricks. Once a custom vehicle is digitally designed, physically built, and imported to the game, it can be optimized for success in racing, demolition or stunts. Players learn that every brick shape and color on the vehicle matters for performance. Three themed courses offer endless challenges unlocked by physical LEGO builds, and children can even ghost race against friends to top the leaderboard.

LEGO FUSION Resort Designer

Players help the LEGO Friends design new vacation houses, shops and activities for Ambersands Beach. After building 2-D facades, capturing them and importing them to the game, players can design the interiors of 3-D digital structures, such as an aquarium, surf shop and beach houses. Children can unlock new levels and build more resorts by completing missions like rescuing dolphins, riding horses, surfing and other resort activities.

Beginning in September, LEGO FUSION will incorporate the ability for players to access their digital LEGO creations and game play anywhere. Using their LEGO ID, players can sign in on any compatible device and access their gallery and game play from within the LEGO FUSION app.

Developed by TT Games, makers of the best-selling LEGO video game franchise, the LEGO FUSION Town Master, Battle Towers, Create & Race, and Resort Designer app games are free for download from the Apple, Google or Samsung App Store for Apple iOS and Android.

LEGO FUSION Town Master, LEGO FUSION Battle Towers, and LEGO FUSION Create & Race will launch in August 2014; LEGO FUSION Resort Designer will launch in September 2014. Each will be available for $34.99 in LEGO Stores and Toysâ€Râ€Us stores in the U.S., as well as online at shop.LEGO.com and at toysrus.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN-VzQ9yRi0

 

Sources:

All of the above

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Basically... It's LEGO Sim City, AR plus an image scanner.

 

Yay for building 1 wall of a house.

 

If they think they can win back kids that play video games and get them back into real LEGO with this, they're fighting a losing battle. There is nothing ground breaking about this, AR has been around for ages now.

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I'll take a simple tablet version of a LEGO Sim City over any other mobile games they've done. They're actually doing a game genre they haven't come close to touching on for well over a decade, one that actually involves sandbox play and creativity at that, and that's pretty awesome. Building a town, customizing the buildings, keeping the citizens happy, then putting it online and visiting other player's towns... Groundbreaking? No. Fun? Yes.

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I'll take a simple tablet version of a LEGO Sim City over any other mobile games they've done. They're actually doing a game genre they haven't come close to touching on for well over a decade, and one that actually involves sandbox play and creativity at that. And that's pretty awesome.

 

Dividing the product into 4 separate apps is a mistake. They should have been a single app. I didn't read the whole post but I believe they did this so they can release 'sets' with 'apps'. A single game with all these elements in the 'city' would have been more fun.

Their market looks like 8 year olds, so expect the 'sim city' to be anything but simulation. By the looks of the video the game looks as simple as: "plonk down down buildings, click on the fire to stop it, click on the robber to stop him". Which is fine, if you're 8.

 

 

 

Lego's Fusion Research Lab, which studies just how kids like to play

 

only those that come with them plus some basic bricks are identifiable to the app. Anything else used that the app can't recognize will be replaced by something similar.

Just as I had thought.

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Having a City game, a Friends game, a Racers game, and a Castle game all smashed into one package because they share an AR element sounds like a completely disjointed mess to me, but alrighty then.

I might also point out that every game we discuss on this site is marketed towards 8-year-olds.

I'm not interested in this because I'm looking for a complex, challenging game - most LEGO games don't even come close to providing that. I like these sorts of LEGO games because sometimes I just want to chill out and customize a cute LEGO world.

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Having a City game, a Friends game, a Racers game, and a Castle game all smashed into one package because they share an AR element sounds like a completely disjointed mess to me, but alrighty then.

You would prefer separated gameplay with which has no effect on other things in this 'fusion' world?...

"Right, I've finished my building... I would like to do a race. *Closes Town App* *Starts Race App* Now I can race.... but I wanted to race around my town"

If you like it this way, you could say every game LEGO has made since the 90's is the equivalent of separate 'fusion' apps.

 

 

 

I might also point out that every game we discuss on this site is marketed towards 8-year-olds.

I would disagree, many of the TT games are marketed toward a higher age group.

 

 

 

Once a custom vehicle is digitally designed, physically built, and imported to the game

So you must first make the car in the game, then it requires you to make it in real life... then it verifies that you did what it told you to? Did I read that right? Now thats why I call disjointed.

 

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You would prefer separated gameplay with which has no effect on other things in this 'fusion' world?...

"Right, I've finished my building... I would like to do a race. *Closes Town App* *Starts Race App* Now I can race."

If you like it this way, you could say every game LEGO has made since the 1990's is the equivalent of separate 'fusion' apps.

I honestly have no idea what you're saying here. What...?

 

I would disagree, many of the TT games are marketed toward a higher age group.

I recall an interview with some TT devs around the time of the release of the Marvel game where they said they designed LSW with kids in mind, were surprised when they founds adults were getting into it as well, and are now going for a sort of "all ages" thing, with a lot of jokes that fly straight over kids's heads (LEGO City Undercover especially).

That's a key quality LEGO has as a whole - its primary audience is kids, but it appeals to a much broader audience, as a thing, hence why we now have this community of teenagers and adults playing and modding Racers, Loco, etc. I'm not quite sure why you seem to think these Fusion games are only enjoyable by the target audience (if you don't and I've misunderstood, please correct me). I find that hard to believe after being a member of this community for so long, and heck, even witnessing several Heroica competitions at LEGO conventions. :P They're not built on the same scale as the PC/console games; they're tablet games, but considering how often I hear people gushing with nostalgia for early-mid 2000s LEGO web games built in Flash and Shockwave (and how much I enjoy those web games myself - WorldBuilder, Junkbot, Crystalien Conflict, etc), I'm not sure that it's an issue.

 

So you must first make the car in the game, then it requires you to make it in real life... then it verifies that you did what it told you to? Did I read that right? Now thats why I call disjointed.

Is that how the racing game works? I have yet to see any details on even the racing bits, let alone car building. I'm remaining largely indifferent on that one (and the tower combat thing) until more info comes along. For now, I'm just happy LEGO is considering sandbox-y build-y stuff again, along the lines of LEGO Loco.

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I honestly have no idea what you're saying here. What...?

I'm not sure I can clarify it further.

 

 

 

I'm not quite sure why you seem to think these Fusion games are only enjoyable by the target audience (if you don't and I've misunderstood, please correct me)

What I mean is... it's a tablet game... with an audience based at about 8. Now given tablet games are already design to be 'easy'/'casual' to play, I would expect this game to have severe lack of depth and more of: 'what you see in the video is the best parts of the game'. I thought LMO, a PC game, would have more depth than what was shown in the videos... I was wrong. Naturally, given LEGO's quality of video games these past years... my expectations are quite low.

I believe it's a good idea, but ultimately fails to reach it's potential.

 

 

 

Is that how the racing game works? I have yet to see any details on even the racing bits, let alone car building

I quoted that directly from what you quoted. It would be odd to write it such a way, if it was like the town builder, I'd thought it would have been written "scan your car model to import it into the game" or something along those lines.... nothing about 'digitally designing' it.

 

To me, so far it looks like TLG has been avoiding creating a real building game(Minecraft competition size) from LEGO out of fear of losing real life LEGO sales.

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I'm not sure I can clarify it further.

Then I'm not sure what to make of it. Fusion world? I like what...?

 

I believe it's a good idea, but ultimately fails to reach it's potential.

Ah, I see. My expectations were initially quite low after hearing it was going to be a series of LEGO tablet games, and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the gameplay. I'm not expecting the next Skyrim or anything (they say they're appealing to "casual gamers" right at the beginning of the press release), I'm just glad to see LEGO releasing a tablet title that's not glorified advertising and/or a generic action-oriented game, or a LSW clone, but instead something that's actually quit a bit closer to the LEGO games/sandboxes I enjoy the most. It looks like something I could have fun with.

 

I quoted that directly from what you quoted. It would be odd to write it such a way, if it was like the town builder, I'd thought it would have been written "scan your car model to import it into the game" or something along those lines.... nothing about 'digitally designing' it.

Yes, I'm aware of where it came from, I'm just unsure on what exactly they mean - it's a bit vague and strange.

 

To me, so far it looks like TLG has been avoiding creating a real building game(Minecraft competition size) from LEGO out of fear of losing real life LEGO sales.

I'm not so sure about that; their initial plan for LEGO Universe was exactly that (a game/platform for LEGO fans to build their own virtual worlds on), before the other powers in play morphed it throughout its four year development into a simplified LEGO WoW with LDD tacked on. They wanted a virtual counterpart to LEGO, it didn't quite work out... Apparently they've taken its failure as meaning something else, now we've got stuff like LMO. Weeeeeee.
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Oh look, there are six plates for scanning in the Town Master set. I may just buy one off of Bricklink, download the free app, and screw around with my own parts; I wonder how compatible it will be with parts, say, in deviating colors...

 

yay frugality

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Oh look, there are six plates for scanning in the Town Master set. I may just buy one off of Bricklink, download the free app, and screw around with my own parts; I wonder how compatible it will be with parts, say, in deviating colors...

 

yay frugality

 

According to the videos/press-release it will just try to fit in bricks that it does know in the places for unknown bricks.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C83Ukgga8kc

Mostly pre-rendered stuff instead of gameplay in these ads.

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The trailer looks pretty good and does show a bit more on how scanning the cars in the Create & Race set will work, and it also shows a bit more of the minifigure included in the Town Master set, which I think has an exclusive torso. Either way, I may get the Town Master set, but none of the others really interest me.

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HE'S USING AN APPLE

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!one!!!

 

:P

 

That bit where those people pop up... Unit Teleported Safely... :P

[/nonactualfusionstuff]

 

The Town one... I'm not too interested in it. It seems too TT-ish. The Tower thingy did look interesting, though I'd like to see a little more actual gameplay. The Racers one... I can see it working well with the pieces that you are given, but with us hardcore Lego fans that like to use our own pieces, well...

'Fusion.exe has stopped working...

Windows is checking for a solution to the problem...'

O.T.
Has it ever found one? :P

Also, if you build an asymmetric car: then what? The device only gets one angle of it and I can see pieces being put in the wrong places.

*gets to Friends*

AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

*shuts tab* :P

 

Overall, I'm interested but not taken.

...and I wouldn't buy one even if I really liked them (I was going to say 'if they were going for $1,' but then I'd buy them anyway for the parts :P) because my phone is a Nokia Brick. :P

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The cynical part of me says that this will never work. It's too half baked and doesn't understand the market. It overestimates the amount of members in its target range who have tablets. It just won't financially succeed.

 

The idealistic part of me says that this will succeed in bringing back sand box style Lego games, and that this is a baby step towards that.

 

Regardless of how this succeeds, I am extremely happy that Lego is trying to bring back building games. After the uninspired Chima and Minifig MMOs, this is a pleasant surprise. I hope to see them keep trying.

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  • 4 months later...

Well, Fusion a go low to hell.

Now I come to think of it; doesn't it seem that recent Lego games have been unsuccessful? LOCO I think is a good example of one (especially since it is losing all of it's players).

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Huh, yep. The set's listed as discontinued and the app is gone. Oh well, I guess?

 

GOOD JOB LEGO G8Zgj.jpg

 

To me, they just needed to push it more. Go to the LMBs and ask "Lego Fusion" and the first think somebody will say is "Go join the S.O.P.A. in the LoTR forums" G8Zgj.jpg (has happened to me G8Zgj.jpg).

Or they just needed to actually delay release by a week so they could bug-test it. Why don't they use the Lego Club Magazine subscribers for that or something?

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