This year’s Gamescom has come and gone, and there were plenty of big titles to be excited about. One of the standout games of the event, though, was LEGO Skylines, a brand-new LEGO-fueled city-builder developed by Iceflake Studios and published by Paradox Interactive. City-builders have gained a reputation for being difficult management sims that require a lot of attention over the years, but LEGO Skylines is taking a much cozier approach to the genre that could work in its favor in a huge way.
It’s not like challenging city-builders are bad by any means. Games like Frostpunk and Cities: Skylines are seen as some of the hardest city-builder games of all time, but they’re still big hits within the genre. However, the reputation that these kinds of games have built has steered gamers away from the genre. A lot of city-builders use high difficulty levels as a bragging right, and while that’s enticing to longtime fans of the genre who love an intense playthrough, it also makes the prospect of jumping into most modern city-builders incredibly daunting. LEGO Skylines seems to be taking the opposite approach, though, and it sounds like a real breath of fresh air.
LEGO Skylines Is Going Back to Basics, Making It the Perfect City-Builder for Longtime Fans and Cozy-Loving Newcomers
On the official LEGO Skylines Steam page, the game is described as a “cozy, customizable city-builder.” The “customizable city-builder” part is a given, but the use of the word “cozy” has particularly piqued my interest. City-builders aren’t really seen as super cozy, but LEGO Skylines seems incredibly aware that a city-builder centered around the world of LEGO has to have a level of coziness to ultimately make the concept work. Cozy games like Tiny Glade are exceptions that twist the traditional genre tropes, but most city-builders don’t get labeled as super relaxing ways to pass the time.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
The emphasis on “cozy” shouldn’t scare away longtime genre diehards, though. Even though LEGO Skylines has a more relaxing idea of what makes a great city-builder game, the gameplay details that Paradox Interactive has revealed have already confirmed that many of the genre’s staple features will still be part of the experience.
A Look at LEGO Skylines’ Confirmed Features
- The game will feature the same management mechanics that are so common in the city-builder genre.
- When it comes to management, players will have to watch over basic things like food supply, water, and electricity.
- LEGO Skylines allows generous player freedom, but certain design approaches make everything click better.
Players can build however they please, but it’s still very much a city-builder at heart. Citizens can’t have quality food if there aren’t functioning farms, the farms can’t function if there isn’t water, and forgetting essential locations like hospitals can affect the entire town. So, city-builder fans who are concerned about LEGO Skylines‘ cozy side have no need to fear. The main difference is that the effects that certain building decisions have on the community probably won’t lead to death and destruction. This is a LEGO game after all.
Ultimately, this is a great thing, because it removes all the pressure that is so often associated with city-builders. It opens the door to a completely new audience while still adhering to the features that lie at the heart of the city-builder genre, which is the best of both worlds. Some of the best cozy titles of the past few years have mostly been inspired by games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, but throwing a bona fide city-builder into the cozy waters is the perfect formula to attract two different kinds of fan bases.
LEGO Skylines Is a Breath of Fresh Air for Both the City-Builder and Cozy Genre
Even though the majority of city-builders and cozy games have unique twists on the respective formulas of each genre, LEGO Skylines is shaking things up in a far more substantial way. When it comes to the city-builder side of things, players will be able to make the gameplay as simple or complicated as they please, and the cozy side brings something to the table that isn’t a Stardew Valley clone.
LEGO Skylines doesn’t have a release date set in stone yet, but Paradox Interactive has at least confirmed that the game is eyeing a 2027 launch. There are already a lot of great-looking games coming out in 2027, so it’s going to be interesting to see which calendar target Paradox Interactive chooses for LEGO Skylines.
The online chatter surrounding LEGO Skylines has been mainly focused on it being a fresh kind of relaxing city-builder, but the fact that it’s breaking the status quo of the cozy genre is just as compelling. Other great LEGO games like LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight and LEGO Star Wars have been great additions to the action-adventure genre, but LEGO Skylines‘ cozy-loving building mechanics make it a game that might be the closest to an actual real-life LEGO experience.
Anyone who has experience with building LEGO sets knows that the instructions are merely a suggestion. Someone may have a Super Mario LEGO on their hands, but people can create whatever they want. The ultimate goal of LEGO is creativity, and LEGO Skylines‘ gameplay fully understands this. If players want to make a city with an intricate state-of-the-art sewage system and garbage pick-up that’s always on time, it’s possible. However, if someone wants to make a city built on chaos with only pizza parlors as restaurants and the surrounding town is actually just a giant playground, then that’s also allowed.
LEGO Skylines acknowledges the importance of staple city-builder features, but it uses them more as an accessory instead of something that’s essential. The star of the show is building over everything else, and that’s what makes the game so exciting. Challenging city-builders are great, but sometimes it’s best to just get back to the basics. The building focus and low-pressure management incentivizes ultimate creativity, which paves the way for a game that could be the perfect blend of in-depth city-builder and cozy pastime.
- Released
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2027
- ESRB
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Everyone / Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
- Developer(s)
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Iceflake Studios
