Dropping Into LEGO Fortnite

Today’s article comes from guest contributor BrickinNick who attended the New York launch of LEGO Fortnite.

LEGO Fortnite

Hello BrickNerd readers! I’m BrickinNick, a content creator, LEGO Master and avid gamer. BrickNerd was kind enough to invite me to be a guest contributor for a special event held in New York City: an early look at LEGO Fortnite for press and fan media, featuring a hands-on game demo and roundtable Q&A. This was an extremely exciting invitation to receive, as my favorite types of custom builds to create are ones based on video games.

I’ve even tackled a wide variety of Fortnite-based builds over the years, so I couldn’t wait to get a glimpse of what LEGO and Fortnite were building together!

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Going Digital… Again

But before talk about what is new, let’s take a step back at what has come before. Going all the way back to 2011, LEGO has experimented with a wide variety of digital play experiences such as the build and scan game Life of George, power-ups for the Nexo Knights game, LEGO Dimensions, Hidden Side augmented reality, music video maker Vidiyo, barcode-based LEGO Super Mario and many more.

While each one of these ideas brought something unique, unfortunately none of them have caught on enough to become a true part of the LEGO system, keeping kids (or us AFOL kids-at-heart) engaged or interested for very long outside of the fun of the physical building involved with each.

Of course, when the experience has been digital only, LEGO has been successful with a wide variety of video games from classics like LEGO Island and LEGO Racers to the huge library of TT Games. It is when the bricks and digital mix where LEGO’s track record isn’t quite as shiny.

A common thread of many of these video games is that they leveraged people’s love of physical LEGO sets and already established first-party and third-party themes, whereas many of the unsuccessful attempts at digital play were trying to create new themes from scratch that would hopefully drive interest in the physical sets.

But could it be possible that by leveraging a wildly popular third-party IP, focusing on the digital experience first, LEGO has finally found something that LEGO fans of all ages will love?

Waiting For A Fortnite

This brings us to April of 2022. LEGO announced that they would partner with Epic Games “to shape the future of the metaverse to make it safe and fun for children and families” and “to build an immersive, creatively inspiring, and engaging digital experience for kids of all ages to enjoy together.”

The announcement led to much speculation on what may come from the partnership. I was very skeptical of what they might try to bring forward, especially given LEGO’s track record.

Then, we jump to the last few weeks. ‘LEGO Fortnite’ was teased and revealed, and I must admit I liked what I saw! I could see awesome detailed builds, mention of survival crafting-type gameplay akin to Minecraft, and an emphasis on creativity. Now, along with details from this event, we’ve gleaned a much clearer picture of the space in the metaverse LEGO has created with Epic: a free game within Fortnite, where players can choose between a survival crafting game or an open creative building mode. Anyone can create a world, invite up to seven friends, and fight to survive and build. Or, they can simply let their imagination run wild and build anything they like. Expectations were high.

Walking into the launch event in New York was an experience. The event itself was quite impressive. We were greeted by a large, seemingly 12-foot-tall brick-built Loot Llama, surrounded by lots of fun LEGO Fortnite graphics and posters, and immersed in a build-and-take station for a Loot Llama mini-kit similar to the in-game build of it. All that was in the same room as rows and rows of PCs ready with the LEGO Fortnite lobby open and beckoning to come play. The environment definitely created some serious excitement!

For those who are interested, here are some cool details shared during the game demo and roundtable about what LEGO Fortnite will be like on launch, which is happening today, December 7th:

LEGO bricks assemble and break in-game, similar to what they do in real life.

Over 10,000 unique bricks are part of the in-game builds on launch, with more to come.

Everything in-game is buildable with physical bricks, outside of a handful of parts in colors that may not exist or be in production currently.

Parental controls are very strong and easy for parents to set up and control access.

NPCs (non-playable characters) from both Fortnite and LEGO themes can join your party, go on adventures, and support your village.

Follow pre-set building steps or customize with a huge library of pre-assembled segments.

Friends can play within your world, even while you’re not there.

Level up your village with more characters, builds, resources, and decorations.

The LEGO Fortnite map is 20 times the size of the Fortnite Battle Royale map.

The live-service game will have updates and changes along the way.

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We even got to see some of this firsthand during the demo. The LEGO Fortnite world is undoubtedly beautiful, and all the experiences, builds and characters we saw in our brief 45-minute session looked and felt great. My only disappointment was that we couldn’t play longer. But I can’t deny much of my enjoyment of the experience came just as much from being a gamer (especially given I’ve enjoyed Fortnite on and off over the years) as it did from being a LEGO fan. 

Fortnite or Fort-not?

During the event, I was keenly aware that everything was focused on gamers… but what about non-gamers? How would LEGO Fortnite appeal to them? Answers to questions like this were fielded during a roundtable with The LEGO Group’s Global Chief Product and Marketing Officer Julia Goldin, Epic Games’ Creative Director of LEGO Fortnite Eric Williamson, and Epic Games’ Executive Vice President Saxs Persson. I’ll summarize a bit of what was said:

Goldin believes that “fans love to realize their creations.” She felt that the in-game building would be a massive draw for AFOLs, similar to their desire to build and share creations for their own sets in programs like the BrickLink Designer Program and MOC Pop-Up Shop, with there being “tremendous opportunity for creativity and building” in LEGO Fortnite. She also mentioned with Fortnite’s large player base, there’s potential for millions of players to see your creations. speaking to the potential for wide exposure.

Williamson spoke about how the open-ended creativity in “the physical play, like the wheels, and thrusters, and switches” allows for huge creativity “and the gameplay has a surface area… [where] each new thing that we add multiplies all of the existing pieces.” This creates many new opportunities for amazing creations where only “imagination will be the limit.” I’ll let you interpret those sentiments yourself.

Persson shared that “we already have a lot of people that come [to Fortnite] not for Battle Royale, but for user-generated content,” and the team at Epic has focused on supporting those communities and what they need to continue to thrive. He said that by leaving an open door for fans to interact with the game how they want to and not be forced to play through story or other modes to enjoy the creative aspects, they won’t feel there’s a barrier to interacting with LEGO Fortnite how they want to.

They showed us a brief glimpse of just how creative builds can be from some footage of builds the dev team at Epic had put together. There were some truly amazing things showcased: a floating village in the sky using balloons and thrusters to travel around, a detailed creation of a waterfront restaurant, a cart being pushed through a track by a continuous row of wheels on both sides, even a pirate ship with balloons hidden inside the hull, allowing it to fly! I know I can’t wait to see what kind of wild creations that I (and other LEGO fans) can bring to life in the game within a game.

One last thing I should note that might further excite AFOLs about LEGO Fortnite: the developers are interested in bringing the existing world of LEGO into the game. We caught glimpses of several LEGO factions of medieval minifigures in game and building elements from sets like Creator 31120 Medieval Castle, and I bet there’s much more hidden throughout the sprawling world to be found!

We also asked about real-life weapons since LEGO has traditionally been against portraying those in sets, but from the gameplay, it looks like they are sticking with existing minifig weapons for now.

Merging Digital and Physical Bricks

Before we wrap up, there’s one extremely pressing question I’m sure most AFOLs still have: will there be physical LEGO sets coming inspired by Fortnite? We did not hear a ‘yes’ … but we also didn’t hear a ‘no’! I think they’re likely waiting to see how things play out on launch and discover what fans are truly excited about before bringing out sets. But you never know. I’ve heard that some LEGO creatives have been working on Fortnite for well over a year—whether that is just the thousand+ new digital minifigs or something more, we will just have to wait and see. (It is listed as a theme on LEGO.com.)

With all that said, I’m truly excited to “drop into LEGO Fortnite” today and do some exploring and building. Goldin said that the “floor is low, ceiling is high, and walls are wide” within the game, and I can’t deny I’m optimistic that will be the case. LEGO Fortnite may not be for every AFOL, but I do think it will be a new and exciting experience for many builders and fans to enjoy. From what I’ve seen, both LEGO and Epic have really done their due diligence and created a world worth exploring.

And hopefully, it just might break LEGO’s digital curse!

DISCLAIMER: LEGO provided travel and accommodations for the event. Any opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

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