Brickcraft

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Revision as of 12:23, 15 November 2025 by Ringtail Raider (talk | contribs) (wait who is Kaplan David how did i screw that up)
Brickcraft
A virtual world showing rolling green hills made of LEGO bricks. The game interface shows five different shapes of LEGO bricks, each with ten thousand in the player's inventory.
Screenshot of the 28 June 2012 prototype build
Developer(s)Mojang
Producer(s)Daniel Kaplan
Designer(s)Markus Persson
Programmer(s)Måns Olson
SeriesMinecraft
Platform(s)Windows
ReleaseCancelled
Genre(s)Sandbox
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Brickcraft, also known by its codename "Rex Kwon Do", is a cancelled sandbox game developed by Mojang. The game was planned to play similarly to Minecraft, but using LEGO elements. Minecraft creator Markus Persson pitched the project to the LEGO Group during Minecraft's beta phase. Development began in September 2011, originally in Java before switching to a custom engine. The game was cancelled in July 2012 as the relationship between Mojang and LEGO collapsed.

Gameplay

My world :)
An example world in Brickcraft with several player-built LEGO models

Now that we have a leaked build, we can describe gameplay here.

Brickcraft was planned to be a sandbox game like Minecraft.

In the leaked build, the player can place five different LEGO bricks: 1×1 1×2, 2×2, 2×4, and 1×2 slopes. The playsr starts off with ten thousand of each type. The colours can be cycled through and chosen before placing. Breaking a brick increases its amount in the inventory; the brick's colour is ignored.

Development

Persson had been partially inspired by his childhood LEGO toys when designing Minecraft, and he had a lifelong dream of working with the LEGO Group.[1]: 9  Upon incorporating Mojang in late 2010, he had told co-founder and chief executive officer Carl Manneh to contact the company about a collaboration.[2][3] In 2011, months prior to the full 1.0 launch of Minecraft that November, Persson attempted to reach out to the LEGO Group to propose a game project. Persson and Daniel Kaplan, Mojang's business developer and first employee,[4] met with someone who was able to get them in contact with the management at the LEGO Group. The two attempted to pitch a LEGO-branded Minecraft-like game to the company, but were initially met with scepticism regarding the game's lasting popularity.[1]: 9 

Persson's screenshot of the game's first prototype

Persson began work on a Brickcraft prototype in Java on 5 September 2011.[tweet 1][1]: 1, 10 

Persson posted frequent updates on "Project Rex Kwon Do" on his Twitter account (as well as his Tumblr blog The Word of Notch),[5][1]: 10  though without revealing any details about the project. He shared an extremely low-quality and zoomed-in screenshot of it on 7 September, which he claimed was all he could show at the time.[tweet 2] He also noted that the prototype was initially not fun to play due to having "too much freedom".[tweet 3][tweet 4] Following a twelve-hour work session on 12 September, Persson finished the prototype and sent it to the LEGO Group.[tweet 5]

On 2 December 2011, Persson announced he was stepping down as Minecraft's lead developer to focus on starting a new project.[6] On 5 December, he announced that Rex Kwon Do had been greenlit.[tweet 6] They could not use Minecraft's LWJGL engine?[7] Mojang hired two new developers to program and design for the project;[1]: 12  one of them, Måns Olson,[tweet 7] had been one of Minecraft's first testers in May 2009 and later directed Mojang's 2020 game Minecraft Dungeons.[8][9][tweet 8][tweet 9]

On 19 July 2012, Persson announced that Rex Kwon Do had been cancelled, citing a desire to focus on Mojang-owned titles Minecraft, Scrolls, and 0x10c.[tweet 10]

Post-cancellation

For unknown reasons, Persson told video gaming blog Joystiq that the project was going to be a first-person shooter.[10]

In May 2019, Kaplan revealed he had worked on a LEGO game in a Twitter post.[tweet 11]

On 24 June 2025, the Minecraft community archive website Omniarchive released a development build of Brickcraft. The build was dated 28 June 2012, less than a month before Persson announced the game's cancellation; the uploader on Omniarchive believed it to be the game's final build.[11][12] It was found by Kaplan, who had kept it on his laptop for over thirteen years.[tweet 12] Kaplan and Persson both confirmed that they did not have the original Java prototype from September 2011.[tweet 13][tweet 14]

  • An earlier version of Brickcraft without slope bricks or distance fog
    An earlier version of Brickcraft without slope bricks or distance fog
  • The earlier version
    The earlier version
  • The earlier version
    The earlier version

References

  1. ↑ a b c d e Crecente, Brian; Vincent, Ethan (December 8, 2020). "Episode 1 – Minecraft" (PDF). Bits N' Bricks (Podcast). Participants: Daniel Mathiasen, Daniel Kaplan, Danny Bergmann, Paal Smith-Meyer, and Ronny Scherer. The LEGO Group. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 1, 2024. Audio version via YouTube.
  2. ↑ Wolf, Michael (11 December 2012). "A Talk With Mojang CEO Carl Manneh". Acme Thoughts Incorporated. Archived from the original on 14 December 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
  3. ↑ Cox, Alex (June 13, 2018). "The history of Minecraft". TechRadar. Bath, Somerset, England: Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 9 August 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2025.
  4. ↑ Handrahan, Matthew (July 27, 2017). "Daniel Kaplan leaves Mojang for Coffee Stain". GamesIndustry.biz. London: Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 15 November 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2025.
  5. ↑ Persson, Markus (7 September 2011). "You know what's fun?". The Word of Notch. Archived from the original on 24 September 2011 – via Tumblr. I'm doing a high priority secret project this week (a prototype for a future possible project), but I already have at least three things I want to work on as soon as I get back on Minecraft work next week. Mirrored at Omniarchive.
  6. ↑ Persson, Markus (2 December 2011). "Och med dom orden så passar jag micken". The Word of Notch. Archived from the original on 27 December 2011 – via Tumblr. Mirrored at Omniarchive.
  7. ↑ "Credits". Minecraft.net. Mojang. 2011. Archived from the original on 23 September 2011.
  8. ↑ "lwjgl IRC logs" (IRC chat logs). 14 May 2009. Archived from the original on 8 February 2014 – via Echelog. 
    [14:10:05] <Dragonene> Notch: what sort of game *is it*?
[...]
[14:11:07] <Notch> the current concept is a cross over between Dwarft Fortress and Infiniminer
[14:11:15] <Dragonene> Notch: I haven't played either :)
[14:11:16] <Notch> I'll try to get a VERY EARLY alpha out this weekend. =)
  9. ↑ "lwjgl IRC logs" (IRC chat logs). 17 May 2009. Archived from the original on 8 February 2014 – via Echelog. 
    [13:10:22] <Dragonene> yep, that's tab closure for me
[13:10:27] <Dragonene> minecraft that is
[13:10:30] <Dragonene> or browser exit I guess.
[...]
[14:07:48] <Dragonene> Sorry to pull you into this discussion Notch_
[14:07:55] <Dragonene> I just want to be able to play it without it crashing on me :D
  10. ↑ Conditt, Jessica (July 26, 2012). "Canceled Mojang project was a first-person shooter". Joystiq. AOL Inc. Archived from the original on 28 July 2012.
  11. ↑ DEJVOSS (26 June 2025). "Brickcraft". Omniarchive. Archived from the original on 9 August 2025. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  12. ↑ Bailey, Dustin (June 27, 2025). "13 years ago, Mojang canceled its Lego Minecraft game amid frustrations with the toy company's brand restrictions - now the original prototype has been found and preserved online". GamesRadar+. New York: Future US, Inc. Archived from the original on 28 June 2025. Retrieved 15 November 2025.

Tweets

  1. ↑ Persson, Markus [@notch] (5 September 2011). "Secret project Rex Kwon Do begins today! It will involve caffeine and giggling" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter.
  2. ↑ Persson, Markus [@notch] (7 September 2011). "Great progress on Project Rex Kwon Do today. This is the clearest screenshot I can show: http://imgur.com/3nIuH?full" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter.
  3. ↑ Persson, Markus [@notch] (8 September 2011). "Huh. Project Rex Kwon Do isn't fun to play at the moment. Analyzing why is challenging and interesting" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter.
  4. ↑ Persson, Markus [@notch] (8 September 2011). "Oooh, I think I realized a big portion of why it's not fun yet! Too much freedom!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter.
  5. ↑ Persson, Markus [@notch] (12 September 2011). "Had to spend today on Project Rex Kwon Do. 12 hours of work later, and the prototype is packaged and done. I will now wash my hands of this" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter.
  6. ↑ Persson, Markus [@notch] (5 December 2011). "In other news, looks like Project Rex Kwon Do got greenlit! :D :D :D :D" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter.
  7. ↑ Olson, Måns [@MansOlson] (13 April 2014). "I'm Dragonene.7498" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 10 July 2019 – via Twitter.
  8. ↑ Kaplan, Daniel [@Kappische] (16 May 2024). "Dragonene who was one of the first testers of Minecraft in the world, would eventually become the game director of Minecraft Dungeons :D" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 21 October 2024. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter. Mirrored via X Cancelled.
  9. ↑ Kaplan, Daniel [@Kappische] (16 May 2024). "But he was hired for another project, one of the main designers/coders of a LEGO game, that never saw the light" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 21 October 2024. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter. Mirrored via X Cancelled.
  10. ↑ Persson, Markus [@notch] (19 July 2012). "Remember Project Rex Kwon Do? We cancelled it to focus on Minecraft, Scrolls and eventually 0x10c that we own 100% ourselves instead" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter.
  11. ↑ Kaplan, Daniel [@Kappische] (14 May 2019). "So it's story time!! Did you know that I worked on a Lego game?" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 23 October 2024. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via Twitter. Mirrored via X Cancelled.
  12. ↑ Kaplan, Daniel [@Kappische] (28 June 2025). "I've had it on my laptop for over 13 years 😂" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 9 August 2025. Retrieved 9 August 2025 – via Twitter. Mirrored via Nitter.
  13. ↑ Kaplan, Daniel [@Kappische] (28 June 2025). "I don't have the first prototype made by @notch unfortunately" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 15 November 2025. Retrieved 15 November 2025 – via Twitter. Mirrored via Nitter.
  14. ↑ Persson, Markus [@notch] (28 June 2025). "You assume I do backups. You flatter me" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 9 August 2025. Retrieved 9 August 2025 – via Twitter. Mirrored via Nitter.
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