Gaming
LEGO Skylines brings whimsical city building to consoles and PC
Paradox and LEGO unveil city builder with creative gameplay across four major platforms
MUMBAI: Brick by brick, the city-building game is getting a little less serious. Paradox Interactive has officially unveiled LEGO Skylines, a new take on its Cities: Skylines franchise that combines the logic of urban planning with the anything-goes creativity of LEGO.
Developed by Iceflake Studios, LEGO Skylines will let players build functional cities while also giving them plenty of room for stranger ideas. The game was first hinted at following a leak earlier this summer and was formally announced at Gamescom.
Unlike a conventional city builder focused largely on keeping an urban machine running smoothly, LEGO Skylines encourages players to experiment. A city could, for instance, have a bakery on every corner, with the businesses producing doughnuts using wheat supplied by farmers elsewhere in the city.
The LEGO twist extends to the game’s construction system, with players able to use buildings, decorations and other LEGO elements to create everything from bustling metropolitan centres to quirky seaside towns. The developers promise a “frankly absurd amount” of building and decoration options.
The idea is to combine the systems-driven depth of Cities: Skylines with the imaginative freedom associated with LEGO, allowing players to build cities that are logical enough to function but unusual enough to feel distinctly their own.
“Building and creativity have always been at the heart of the LEGO experience, but LEGO Skylines takes us into completely new territory,” said Fredrik Löving, SVP and Global Head of Games at the LEGO Group.
The game is being positioned as more than a LEGO-themed city builder, with Löving saying the ambition from the outset was to create a title capable of standing among the best games in the genre.
There is no release date yet, but LEGO Skylines is confirmed for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
For now, the message from the virtual planning department is simple: the foundations are down, but the skyline is entirely up to the player.
