LEGO has been used to build just about everything imaginable, from elaborate castles and sprawling cities to spaceships that probably have no business flying. A proper city-building game therefore feels like a surprisingly natural fit for the brick-building brand, and LEGO Skylines is finally making that combination a reality. Developed by Iceflake Studios and published by Paradox Interactive, the game takes the established city-building formula associated with the Skylines series and rebuilds it around LEGO’s colorful aesthetic, with a greater emphasis on creativity, customization and accessibility. After getting hands-on time with the PC version at Gamescom, followed by additional time with a preview build, there is already a lot to like about the direction this unusual spin-off is taking.
What we know
LEGO Skylines is a city-building and management game in which players take on the role of a master builder and gradually turn a small settlement into a thriving city. Rather than immediately dealing with a sprawling metropolis, the experience starts on a much smaller scale, with individual households and their needs providing the initial focus. Players can select different types of homes and buildings, place roads and services, and decorate individual properties before gradually expanding their ambitions. Electricity, water, food, healthcare, education, waste management and employment all need to be considered as the settlement grows, although the emphasis is less on punishing micromanagement and more on creating a city that functions while also reflecting the player’s personal style.
The LEGO element extends well beyond simply putting a familiar visual skin over a conventional city builder. Buildings are constructed using configurations based on real LEGO elements, while homes and other locations can be customized with different styles, colors and decorative objects. The game also places considerable importance on the appeal of individual properties and neighborhoods, allowing players to create areas with different visual identities. Leisure facilities, shops, restaurants, parks and other attractions provide additional ways to shape the character of a city, while citizen requests can introduce smaller objectives and problems that need to be addressed.
There is still a substantial simulation underneath all those colorful bricks. Players have to provide essential services, deal with problems such as crime and fires, manage resources and make decisions about how different parts of the city develop. Industry is represented through different types of goods that can be produced locally or imported, while larger leisure facilities can unlock new opportunities as the city develops. At the same time, LEGO Skylines deliberately takes a more relaxed approach to some of the complexities traditionally associated with city builders, with traffic and infrastructure management playing a less dominant role than in the mainline Cities: Skylines games. The result is intended to be approachable without removing the deeper systems for players who want to engage with them.
LEGO Skylines is being developed by Iceflake Studios and published by Paradox Interactive. The game is planned for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, although no specific release date has been announced at the time of writing.
What we saw
Our preview is based on a demo build of LEGO Skylines that we played during Gamescom, where we met with members of the development team and got an introduction to the game’s approach to city building. The session provided an opportunity to experience the early stages of building a settlement, beginning with a small number of residents before expanding into a considerably larger city. A preview build was subsequently shared with us, allowing for additional hands-on time with the PC version and a closer look at how the different construction, customization and management systems fit together.
What we thought
The most immediately striking thing about LEGO Skylines is just how colorful and approachable it feels. City builders can often look intimidating before the player has even placed the first road, with dense interfaces, statistics and overlapping systems suggesting that mistakes will be punished. LEGO Skylines takes a considerably softer approach. The opening stages focus on individual households and their requests, gradually introducing new responsibilities as the settlement expands. It makes the process of learning how the game works feel more natural, while the LEGO presentation gives even relatively mundane tasks a playful quality. There is still plenty happening underneath the surface, but the game does a good job of making those systems feel inviting rather than overwhelming.
The emphasis on individual buildings and decoration is arguably where the concept becomes most interesting. Players are not constructing cities brick by brick in the literal sense, but instead choosing from different building types and then arranging and customizing them within the available spaces. Houses can have different architectural styles, while gardens and other decorative elements can be used to influence their appeal. That creates an interesting tension between making a neighborhood function properly and making it look good. It is entirely possible to throw down whatever the residents require and move on, but spending time creating coherent streets and districts is where much of the game’s charm comes from. During our time with it, it was surprisingly easy to become distracted by the desire to rearrange a perfectly functional area simply because it could look better.
That accessibility does not mean LEGO Skylines is devoid of management mechanics. Electricity, water, education, healthcare, waste and employment still need to be considered, while expanding services and dealing with citizen requests provides a steady stream of things to address. The more advanced city we were shown demonstrated that these systems can eventually create a much more involved simulation than the cheerful presentation might initially suggest. At the same time, some of the systems still appeared to need balancing in the preview build. Waste management and education, in particular, could produce situations where the apparent demand seemed disproportionate to the facilities already available. Those issues are the sort of thing that can be adjusted before release, but they did demonstrate that the underlying simulation will need to remain balanced with the game’s more relaxed philosophy.
The controls and interface also benefit from the game’s emphasis on accessibility, with the zoom level and progression naturally moving from individual properties towards a broader view as the settlement grows. Visually, the brick-built aesthetic is a particularly strong fit, with the colorful buildings, minifigures and decorations giving even a functional neighborhood plenty of personality. Watching buildings assemble themselves is satisfying, while zooming out to see a larger city working as a whole provides a very different kind of appeal. The audio similarly supports the lighthearted presentation without getting in the way of the management side of the game. What remains particularly intriguing is where LEGO Skylines sits between a relaxed creative sandbox and a genuine city-management game. For players who already enjoy the Skylines formula, this could provide a more playful alternative, while for LEGO fans it may even serve as a gateway product into the deeper Cities: Skylines games. Based on this early build, that combination of accessibility, creativity and simulation has the potential to make LEGO Skylines considerably more than just a familiar city builder covered in bricks.