LEGO World Builder is the official way for LEGO fans to create and pitch the next LEGO series, story, video game, or even a full-fledged LEGO franchise!
If you’ve spent time building with LEGO bricks (we’re guessing that’s most of you!), you know the feeling of endless possibility that comes with being the architect of your own world. So it’s probably not surprising that LEGO fans are some of the most imaginative storytellers out there.
Each year, thousands of creatives send the LEGO Group their original ideas for new shows, characters and stories. Trouble is, there hasn’t been an official way to capture them...until now. Enter LEGO® World Builder, a platform completely dedicated to empowering this type of creativity.
LEGO World Builder, designed with Tongal and powered by our technology, is a brand new story development platform that gives the LEGO fan community and creative talent all over the world direct access to the LEGO creative team to develop stories, shows and more, revolutionizing the way new talent and concepts are discovered.
As early adopters of Tongal in 2012, the LEGO Group has long embraced open platforms, engaging those who know and love the imaginative world of LEGO and the creative process. Together, we’ve greenlit talent from Pennsylvania to Malaysia to produce engaging videos (like this psychedelic gem!) for social and streaming. But we always had a feeling we’d only scratched the surface of what is possible in an open system. So, in late 2018, a radical idea began to take shape:
What if anyone, anywhere could be part of the LEGO writers’ room? What if passionate fans could collaborate with illustrators and animators around the world to incubate dynamic LEGO stories and see their creations come to life?
And so LEGO World Builder was born. Anyone can take part by creating their own stories or collaborating on worlds with other fans, writers, animators and designers of all backgrounds. The LEGO creative team can also collaborate, give feedback and option or buy the rights to concepts and worlds that catch their eye.
Earlier this summer, we invited over 200 creators to test LEGO World Builder and we watched as they populated the platform with unique worlds, like this time-travel steampunk adventure from Nathan Stewart, a former LEGO Masters contestant, and this zombie musical by animation writer, Celina Frenn.
The LEGO Group was so impressed by what was created during beta that they purchased a world to help introduce the platform. That world, David Kilgo’s cheesy 80s action series spoof, LEGO Neon, became the basis for a series of videos where Dan Clash, a private investigator and part-time actor, walks us through the platform with the help of his trusty, French-Canadian sidekick, Kal Boom, a character contributed to the world by April Merl.
When we tested the platform, it happened to be at a time when most people were stuck at home, putting the power of an open, creative model into even sharper focus.
Creators spend so much time trying to get their foot in the right doors. If they’re lucky, they’ll score a 15-minute chance to pitch one or two ideas to a room full of development execs – hopefully, right after lunch. But in an open creative model, the traditional barriers disappear – the execs in glassy, Studio City midrises, the long conference room tables, the gatekeepers…
Once these things are stripped away, all that’s left is you, your brilliant ideas and, oh yes, a community of people rallying around you supporting your work. That was our goal in building this platform with the LEGO Group: to open unprecedented access to their creative team and make space for talent outside of the system to connect, collaborate and build incredible things in the LEGO sandbox – channeling that feeling of creative empowerment and possibility that LEGO bricks have brought to generations of fans and creators for decades.
Welcome to LEGO World Builder. We can’t wait to see what you imagine!
Start creating the next big LEGO world today at worldbuilder.tongal.com.
