LEGO reveals more details on Monkey Palace board game
The LEGO Group has shared more details on Monkey Palace, including how it prioritises building no matter the skill level – and how it required creating a ‘code of laws’ for LEGO board games.
The first title created in partnership between the LEGO Group, new studio Dotted Games, Bezzerwizzer Studio and publishers Asmodee, Monkey Palace is a jungle-themed strategy game for two to four players that includes both cooperative and competitive elements. Players must rebuild the Monkey Palace while competing to create taller staircases for maximum bricks and banana points.
That’s the elevator pitch, but now the LEGO Group’s Board Games Lead Jaume Fabregat has delved a little more deeply into the company’s fresh foray into board games, its wider ambitions in the industry and what to expect from Monkey Palace when it debuts later this year. Speaking to Brands Untapped, Jaume revealed that the LEGO Group began exploring the potential of board games in 2019.
“We decided that if the LEGO Group was to publish board games again, we would need a compelling reason,” he said. “An idea present from the very beginning of ideation was that LEGO brick building must be a core part of the play; the LEGO System in Play must be integrated into the board game mechanics… The reward wouldn’t be based on skill, but instead, it would be a game of strategy, decided by who made the best use of the LEGO system to win the game.”
This ethos represents a slightly different approach from the LEGO board games that debuted in 2009, many of which feature one-and-done models that are constructed once and then used as static game pieces. “If players enjoy LEGO building, we want them to be constantly building, unbuilding and rebuilding with the bricks,” Jaume added. “Our goal was to make a board game where players enjoy the endless possibilities [of] the LEGO system.
“For example, with Monkey Palace, players will receive a handful of LEGO bricks that should be used to rebuild the collapsed palace. Nobody knows what the ancient palace looked like, and the only help is the little monkey living there. While sometimes the monkey may be more of a hindrance than a helpful hand, it will reward the players the higher they build.”
The LEGO Group’s conversations with Asmodee around Monkey Palace led to a meeting with Bezzerwizzer Studio’s David Gordon and Tin Aung Myaing (also known as TAM). “The initial concept they presented had a couple of mechanisms that immediately resonated with the kind of experience we were looking for,” Jaume said. |At this point, the entire design team at Bezzerwizzer Studio became involved, and everything began to progress quickly.
“David and TAM are great game designers and the team at Bezzerwizzer Studio had a wealth of necessary expertise to move the game development ahead.”
Modern board games have moved beyond the relatively simplistic days of Monopoly and Cluedo to offer more depth, strategy and interaction between players, as well as giving those players more agency and involvement in what’s happening around the table. According to Jaume, the LEGO Group and Bezzerwizzer Studio both sought to bring those traits to Monkey Palace.
“The main guiding principle when developing Monkey Palace was to ensure that LEGO games offer a fun family social interaction; a play experience that brings together different generations around the table and enables them to have a good time playing together,” Jaume explained. “There are multiple ways this can be done, but one of the ways we did this with Monkey Palace was through subtle tongue-in-cheek humour, which is often so iconic to LEGO products.
“The other thing we kept in mind throughout was innovation. We had to think outside the box throughout the entire process, but our levels of innovation were particularly pushed when trying to integrate the concept of our beloved Building Instructions into the traditional game rules booklet.
“The team took the essence of the LEGO Building Instructions’ step-by-step guide and used it as inspiration for the game rules, creating a new ‘code of laws’ on how to build and measure the impact of the player decisions in the game. This helps empower the user through their choices at building. It was a hugely innovative move from both the LEGO Group and from a board game perspective alike.”
We’ll learn more about Monkey Palace when it debuts at board gaming convention Essen Spiel on October 3. The game will then launch worldwide shortly after (it’s currently listed at select retailers with a launch date of ‘October’).
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