Plug And Play

How Lego is looking to the videogame industry to develop a new kind of physical/digital play

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For kids, building (and breaking) stuff will never go out of style. First it was Minecraft; then came Fortnite. But the foundation upon which those games were constructed was one of Danish plastic. Lego, of course, is bulletproof – well, conceptually at least – but that doesn’t mean that its designers aren’t exploring new means of developing its iconic toy for a modern audience. The roles have been reversed: Lego is looking to games as inspiration for a new way to play.

Its latest project, more than two years in the making and launching this summer, is Lego Hidden Side. It’s a series of Lego sets designed to work in conjunction with augmented reality. Scan the finished build with your smartphone camera via the free app, and Apple’s ARKit 2.0 technology will overlay animations and interactive elements. We watch a blocky graveyard spring to life on-screen – a gnarled tree flailing its branches eerily, an angel statue flapping its wings – as senior product lead Murray Andrews plays and talks us through it.