Welcome to Imagining LEGO Universe!



In 2006 the vision of bringing the iconic LEGO brick to the virtual world of MMO gaming - started some years earlier by key members of The LEGO Group - began to take shape with the partnership of a small and little known Colorado based video game development studio called NetDevil.

During the five-plus year journey of development, the team at NetDevil was faced with many difficult technical and design challenges in order to bring LEGO play to the virtual space. Working along side the designing minds and programming wizards, the LEGO Universe art team, lead by Art Director Phillip Atencio, molded a visual style unmatched in the world of MMO gaming, seamlessly melding existing LEGO themes with original story developed in-house by the minds of NetDevil developers who also happened to be life long fans of the timeless plastic toy.

The conceptual design team tasked with bringing the vision of LEGO Universe to life boasted some of the most incredible talent the video game industry has to offer. Lead Concept Artist Jim Stigall guided a team of seven concept illustrators during the life of the project. Along with the help and incredible visions of Jerry Meyer, Dave Kang, Brett Nienburg, Kyle Wheeler, Richard Tran, Peter Coene, Nathan Storm, and Mike Rayhawk many many worlds and literally thousands of drawings were explored to assist the world builders, animators, character modelers, and visual effects artists bringing the three-dimensional world of LEGO Universe to life.

Millions of fans logged in daily and assumed the identity of their Minifigure avatar, virtually interacting, building, and exploring with their friends in the LEGO Universe.

Sadly, in January, 2012, after little over a year since its initial public launch, LEGO Universe was closed for good.

This blog is for you, the fans. It is a place where we, the Concept Art Team from LEGO Universe, can share with you the passion and love that was put into this wonderful game - much of it never seen before, some never meant to be shown.

Please enjoy Imagining LEGO Universe...

Monday, March 12, 2012

Swagger Town's Pirate Ship

In Swagger Town it was planned that a large pirate ship would dock in the cove at certain times to add and in-game event. This series of drawings shows, in part, the concept process to the approved design. This design was actually realized in brick. It was nearly 6-feet long and close to 4-feet tall. When digitized, it proved to blow the in-game poly-count allowance out of the water and presented the first of many technical challenges in using a digital version of a LEGO brick multiplied by thousands.

I'm still searching for photos of the finished physically built ship...







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1 comment:

  1. BrigsMarch 19, 2012 at 11:10 AM

    I am pretty sure they spawned this beauty in-game near the very end, I can send you some pictures if you want to show the finished model.

    -Brigs, Assembly Builder

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