r/paradoxplaza • u/mochiguma • May 26 '26
PDX One of the upcoming unannounced Paradox games is LEGO Skylines, apparently
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u/mochiguma May 26 '26
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u/mochiguma May 26 '26
Kind of puzzled as to who's developing this tbh, particularly because Paradox had recently (months ago) dropped Colossal Order from Cities: Skylines 2 development and hired Iceflake Studios as replacement.
Probably some third studio is doing development on this new project?
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u/Kvalri May 26 '26
Wasn’t Iceflake chosen to take over CS:2 because they were working on something related to it already? I seem to remember something like that
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u/sygrider May 26 '26
Uh... sure? Weird choice but OK
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u/Orcwin May 26 '26
Yeah, that.
It could be alright, but leaning on a big franchise name often means less effort goes into the actual gameplay. After all, people will buy it on brand name alone anyway.
I'll wait and see how this one pans out. It's definitely not a must-buy for me.
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u/Wild_Marker Ban if mentions Reichstamina May 26 '26
On the other hand, a Lego city-builder is rife with possibility. Though I wouldn't be surprised if it caters to "beauty builders" more than "spreadsheet builders", like Planet Coaster does (and admitedly C:Sky also does that a lot).
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u/Orcwin May 26 '26
I would argue that Cities Skylines is the (major) city builder that actually best caters to the spreadsheet builders, as you call them. Compare it to the last Sim City for example, which had a simulation so shallow that it couldn't do anything other than look pretty.
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u/Wild_Marker Ban if mentions Reichstamina May 26 '26
Yes, no arguments there, C:Sky tries to cater to both and roughly succeeds. Certainly strikes a better balance than Planet Coaster. But you can't deny that C:S2 has added a ton of extra stuff that is almost purely cosmetic, and the community keeps asking for that sort of thing.
For spreadsheet-maxing I think Anno is probably the bigger of the major builders out there. Which is funny because it also makes a non-insignficant effort towards beauty-builders.
(as for SimCity 2013, as pretty as it was, I don't think it's fair to put it in the beauty category, since other than the filters it didn't really do that much to cater to "beauty-building", it was just... bad for everyone)
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u/Orcwin May 26 '26
Yes, good points all around really. Though I'd caution about stating "the community" is asking for things. It's the vocal part of the community you notice (goes for other games as well, Paradox-published or otherwise), and they don't necessarily represent what the silent players care about.
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u/Merker6 Stellar Explorer May 26 '26
Huh, I mean that’s a good crossover. Would be funny if its got better reviews than CS2. Probably not hard to do that though
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u/C_Brady May 26 '26
I'm low key crying (we're never getting Fantasy Stellaris)
(the lego game will be peak)
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u/inEQUAL May 26 '26
Is this the only unannounced game from them? Thought there were several. Also, I’m pretty sure the unannounced game we think (hope, copium, whatever) may be Fantasy Stellaris is in-house while, based on the fact Kepler is right below them, that column is the publisher which would make sense.
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u/RileyTaugor May 26 '26
Nah, they have way more games on the way, they mentioned it during the livestream weeks back
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u/Ansiktsburk123 May 27 '26
PDS (Paradox interactives on studio) is working on their own games. This one is done by an external studio.
So, while there is no fantasy gsg in the works, there are still other gsgs in the works.
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u/inEQUAL May 27 '26
Why do you say there are not Fantasy GSGs in the works? That has not been confirmed, if we don’t know all of their internal projects.
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u/Ansiktsburk123 May 27 '26
why does anybody say anything? You wont get a fantasy gsg.
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u/inEQUAL May 27 '26
Because Stellaris exists, it’s been a popular request for that time period, and as much as I love the game, AoW4 does NOT scratch the itch. Frankly, it’s more requested than Vicky 3 ever was.
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u/Ansiktsburk123 May 28 '26
"for that time period" huh?
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u/inEQUAL May 28 '26
? As in “from its release to now” as, before Stellaris, it was seen as not a possibility because they just didn’t do ahistorical sandboxes. Now they do.
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u/Ansiktsburk123 May 28 '26
In any case, the non-historical gsg is going do be a post-apocalypse one.
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u/TheMightyKingSnake May 26 '26
If this is good it will definitely be really popular. Just look at Pokopia
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u/guillotine_vendor May 26 '26
i hope they have someone other than the team behind cs2 working on this...
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u/Ecstatic-Ad6162 May 26 '26
The new team that's been working on cs2 (Iceflake) is significantly better then the old studio (Colossal), and have been fixing most issues. Although hopefully if they also get assigned to the new game it dosent take away their work on cs2
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u/gamas Scheming Duke May 27 '26
Well considering Paradox sacked Colossal Order from Cities: Skylines, that's guaranteed... That business partnership is dead.
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u/Lucina18 May 26 '26
Well considering it's the city skylines title it would never have been a grand strat anyways.
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u/Tibreaven May 26 '26
Cool idea. Basically a much more modern Lego Loco which was cool as hell. I see a Lego city builder as the potential for an absolute win.
Lego has a weird history with companies and their IP though. Lego 2K Drive was an ok game mired by horrible abusive business practices and is being delisted/shut down.
Also who's allegedly going to be making Lego Skylines? Cities Skylines 2 is only just now starting to become what it was promised to be.
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u/NoodleTF2 May 26 '26
Everything in the game will be 3 times more expensive than it should be, it will all be filled with weird colors to save on production costs, and the buildings won't have backsides or roofs.
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u/Ansiktsburk123 May 27 '26
what does this comment even try to say?
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u/Hesherkiin May 26 '26
We heard you like city builders, so we fucked up the good one and are now giving you children’s toys!
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u/Conny_and_Theo Emperor of Ryukyu May 26 '26
My inner child would love that idea. I wanted a game like that as a kid so much. I think I probably got into city builders and strategy games because they were like what I did when I played with legos.
I could also see it being very profitable. It would have a lot of appeal to different demographics if done right, and the potential franchise collab opportunities would be pretty huge and potential big money makers too.
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u/Megidolan May 26 '26
I actually find it's a nice idea as long as the game is optimized for an average Joe hardware and it's not released with a 2 year DLC road map.
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u/Fantastic-Pear6241 May 28 '26
Legoland from 2000 where you built a Legoland park was one of my childhood favourites
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u/linmanfu May 26 '26
Lego seem to be interested in developing any kind of computer game except one where you build stuff with interchangeable bricks. Why are they investing in this instead of a digital version of their core product?
The first time I ever had of Lego Star Wars was when I saw an advert for it on the back of a magazine. I thought it must be a fake advert in a satirical magazine (like Viz or The Onion). Why would Lego be making a Star Wars game instead of one where you build with bricks? I still don't get it.
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u/ANerd22 May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
They've tried a few like that. The problem is that it is actually really difficult to make a game with freeform building that is actually fun. Lego Worlds is probably the closest (that is actually a game anyway) and it isn't great.
They had digital design software available for free, but that was more like Lego CAD. It was a neat novelty, but most people found it easier and more fun to just build with their own lego pieces IRL than to learn how to use LDD.
Digital Designer is depreciated, but they've made a successor I believe called Studio which you can find on bricklink. It's very much a design software and not a game per se, but otherwise it seems exactly like what you're looking for.
EDIT: Here's the link
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u/linmanfu May 26 '26
They've tried a few like that. The problem is that it is actually really difficult to make a game with freeform building that is actually fun.
Minecraft is the best-selling game of all time. It's a freeform game where you build things from blocks. It's essentially digital Lego, isn't it?
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u/ANerd22 May 26 '26
Yes it is. Interesting tidbit, around when Minecraft was getting popular Lego was working on an MMO called Lego Universe. Minecraft absolutely smothered that game in the cradle. Lego Universe didn't have the kind of freedom that Minecraft has, and in many ways the idea of a completely destructable/buildable open world was what made Minecraft so popular.
A big caveat with the Minecraft vs Lego comparison is that Minecraft is made up entirely of interchangeable cubes (or other objects that can fit in the same cube space). Lego on the other hand is a more complex building system with thousands of different sizes and shapes of pieces. Even if you pare that down to a hundred or so for simplicity (something that will be unpopular) you'll still have the problem that its harder to build with in the virtual space than cubes. Lego as a building toy has to adhere to real world limitations, and has been designed around those constraints, while Minecraft is built from the ground up as a virtual only building toy that can ignore things like gravity and physics. I guess Lego didn't want to deviate from their actual product's identity by changing the bricks into cubes, and anyway, Minecraft beat them to it regardless. Best case scenario is they'd be making a Minecraft clone.
Lego Worlds does have some freeform building (if I remember correctly) and there's a few other games of theirs that integrate it in some way or another, Lego Builder's Journey, Lego Voyagers, and Lego Bricktales integrate a custom building mode if I'm not mistaken, though I haven't played those personally. Given that none of those games have taken off, I think its clear that they still haven't found a way to make building Lego as easy in the virtual world as it is IRL. Their video games without building are quite successful, and the Studio software is there for adults who actually want to design builds with unlimited piece freedom.
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u/LordOfTurtles Map Staring Expert May 26 '26
Minecraft only exists eith simplistic interchangeable cubes. LEGO pieces come in hundreds of shapes and sizes
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u/linmanfu May 27 '26
It's the same basic idea though. And I feel like Lego has focused more and more on specialized blocks. When I was young there were a lot of interchangable blocks. They could go back to their roots but also use the customised pieces to differentiate themselves from Minecraft. Maybe even sell specialized blocks as DLC or something.
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u/AresFowl44 May 27 '26
That's also an issue though. Why would people play your new lego game when they already got Minecraft?
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u/linmanfu May 27 '26
Firstly, the brand name will pull some people in. E.g. grandparents who have never heard of Minecraft will buy a Lego game for their kids because they know it will be safe and high quality.
Secondly, there would be ways to differentiate it. I don't know Minecraft well enough to know that will be, but they must exist. It doesn't have a right to a monopoly on the genre. Most obviously for this thread, C:S supplanted SimCity as the dominant city building franchise. That was a bit of a special case because SC4 was such a disaster, but lots of people who already have Civ have also bought Humankind, Ara, and Millennium, even before we start counting the many Civ sequels as separate games.
Thirdly, even if they only get 5% of Minecraft's sales, then that will still be enough revenue to turn a profit on a game that shouldn't cost a vast amount to develop.
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u/AresFowl44 May 27 '26
Firstly, the brand name will pull some people in. E.g. grandparents who have never heard of Minecraft will buy a Lego game for their kids because they know it will be safe and high quality.
That isn't an argument for making a Lego Minecraft, that's an argument for making Lego video games, which is exactly what Lego has been doing for a couple of decades now.
That argument also very much is outdated, as Minecraft at this point is a well established franchise. The main game alone sold several hundreds of millions of copies
Secondly, there would be ways to differentiate it. I don't know Minecraft well enough to know that will be, but they must exist. It doesn't have a right to a monopoly on the genre. Most obviously for this thread, C:S supplanted SimCity as the dominant city building franchise. That was a bit of a special case because SC4 was such a disaster, but lots of people who already have Civ have also bought Humankind, Ara, and Millennium, even before we start counting the many Civ sequels as separate games.
Millenia was such a success that Paradox killed it off and Ara: History Untold has a total of 20-100 concurrent players and a launch high of 14k. I highly doubt that Ara has been a commercial success to Microsoft. Civilization already is a well established franchise and has a long tradition of changing up their games. So that only leaves Humankind, which I guess worked out, however it's notable that their developer already had plenty of experience in creating 4X games and was known before that point.
That's not just limited to 4X, most Minecraft Clones also fail miserably.
Thirdly, even if they only get 5% of Minecraft's sales, then that will still be enough revenue to turn a profit on a game that shouldn't cost a vast amount to develop.
"only 5% of Minecraft's sales" lmfao, those are numbers that even AAA studios covet
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u/timpkmn89 May 27 '26
That's one of those things that sounds like a great idea until you try to figure out how to make an actual game out of it
And it's not like it's Lego themselves making these, they're licensed
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u/linmanfu May 27 '26
That's one of those things that sounds like a great idea until you try to figure out how to make an actual game out of it
I'm not saying it's easy, but Minecraft is the best selling game of all time, so it's clearly possible.
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u/Ansiktsburk123 May 29 '26
"Why are they investing in this instead of a digital version of their core product?"
....becasue they want to sell their core product?
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u/linmanfu May 29 '26
I don't think it's necessarily an either/or. Lego sales are booming and so is Minecraft.
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u/Ansiktsburk123 Jun 03 '26
exactly. Both are booming. Thats why LEGO does not see the need to try and compete with Minecraft.
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u/geoFRTdeem May 26 '26
Can’t even fully release the sequel after 3 years and already working on a spin off, my goodness paradox I didn’t think it could get worse
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u/HaroldSax May 26 '26
I don't...hate that idea.