Lego Ideas has opened up a contest for creators to submit Lego games made in Unity

Lego x Unity microgame
(Image credit: Lego / Unity)

Update: Lego Ideas has now opened up a competition for creators to submit the Lego games they make in Unity. 

Live as of January 28, you'll have the chance to submit your Lego game creations until March 15, and be in the with a chance of winning some Lego x Unity themed goodies. As an added bonus, everyone who enters will receive a free physical Unity Lego mini-figure. 

Lego Ideas will select two grand prize winners and two runner-up winners, along with two winners who will be selected at random. The grand prize winners will receive a Lego Nintendo Entertainment System, a Lego Mindstorms Robot Inventor, Adventures with Mario Starter Course and Bower's Castle Boss Battle Expansion, a year's subscription to Unity Pro, a Unity Microgames Premium Asset Bundle, and a Unity Asset Store voucher worth $200. 

"Once you've built your game, come back to LEGO Ideas and show off your game!", the blog post states. "Create a trailer, make posters, share screenshots. Make your game look as interesting as possible!"

You can see a full rundown of the contest rules, prizes, and how it works over on the Lego Ideas competition page

Original story: The Unity and Lego Microgame project lets fans create their very own Lego games in Unity's engine, which you can then submit to the Lego Group for "potential publication". 

As spotted by PCGamesN, the Lego Microgame project will allow you to submit your creations to the fan community and the Lego group for "potential publication as an official Lego title". Yes, that's right, if you've ever dreamed of developing your own Lego game and making it an official part of the Lego games lineup, this is truly your time to shine. 

Using creative mods and ready-made assets, the Lego Microgame teaches you the basics of Unity as you create your own experience. It's a great project for any aspiring game developers out there who want to get to grips with the engine for the first time. 

In Lego Gaming's Bits N' Bricks podcast, journalist Brian Crecente and documentarian Ethan Vincent spoke to Unity's technical director of product management Vipul Gupta, who explained the purpose behind the development of the microgames. 

"Our microgames are developed so that new users can come into Unity, start creating, and share their creation in pretty quick order; less than half an hour," Gupta explains. "Unity's latest edition to the microgames is the Lego microgame [...] the goal is that users can come in with no coding background and be able to experience the power of like real-time and 3D game creation and share that creation with people pretty easily." 

Crecente, who tried out the Lego microgame, said it "walks you through the process from beginning to end of creating your own Lego adventure" and "takes about 30 minutes." 

Unity announced the partnership with Lego in a blog post on its official website back in October last year. "We believe the world is a better place with more creators in it," the post begins. "This mission requires making game development more accessible and lowering obstacles for new users. It’s also why we built the Unity Microgames series - to help them successfully start creating in Unity and, in the process, have fun modding within a community of users all making their first games." 

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Heather Wald
Senior staff writer

I started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at 12DOVE. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I'm not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good.