Lego announced a city builder called Lego Skylines last month, and the internet’s collective response was: “Oh yeah, duh.” A landscape of colorful bricks snapping together into a metropolis from the godlike perspective we already view our real-life Legos makes perfect sense. The joke is that the idea is so obvious that it’s barely a joke at all — it’s just the natural return of an idea that should have arrived years ago.
The only thing more obvious than a Lego city builder is a Minecraft city builder. The brand affectionately referred to as “digital Legos” has all the pieces already on the board. How did Lego and Mojang not compete over this category of PC players years ago?
Why Minecraft Should Have Done It First
Minecraft has all the pieces ready to build a city. The game is full of templated structures like villages, temples, and fortresses that are already a staple in vanilla Minecraft. Players love to exploit villagers and give them jobs. Minecraft players love to build, and cities are the natural next step.
- The game already has templated structures like villages, temples, and fortresses.
- Players have been building with villagers for years.
- There are Minecraft mods for city building.
- The first generation of Minecraft players is Old™ now.
- Minecraft already has spinoffs in other genres.
It makes sense.
Maybe Mojang Already Tried and Dropped It
The answer to why Minecraft hasn’t done a city builder might be simpler than anyone expected. Maybe Mojang has prototyped one internally and it just wasn’t great. Maybe it’s on the to-do list but the studio hasn’t found a partner studio to work on it.
Minecraft spinoffs have a mixed track record. Minecraft Dungeons is good. Minecraft Legends is not. The precedent is there.
“Maybe it’s on the to-do list but Mojang hasn’t found a partner studio to work on it.”
The Writer’s Position
The author is totally in favor of the concept. Minecraft villages are just cool as heck, and they want to build at that scale instead of block by block. The Sims games, which the writer has played for over 20 years, are a long-running example of what a city-building sandbox can do.
Lego Skylines is a real thing. The comparison is inevitable. The question of why Mojang didn’t get there first is a small, pointed one.
The writer’s honest reaction is amusement at Mojang’s oversight — so obvious that it becomes the joke. The Sims games, which the writer has played for over 20 years, are a long-running example of what a city-building sandbox can do.
This is a small story with a big joke at its center. Lego Skylines exists, and it makes sense. Minecraft should have beaten it to the punch. It didn’t, and the world will keep spinning.
Source material: “Wait, how did Lego beat Minecraft to making a city builder?,” PC Gamer.
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