I saw this game and for a fan game it seemed really good, I was wondering if any of you had anything to say about. I’ve been really excited about this and saw that the demo for would be coming out early 2024.
But aside from a few trailers you cant find much on it.
Though its just nice to see something new for bionicle.
I think it looks promising, though I doubt that a final product will be available soon. Hopefully it’ll be optimized for computers like my own, which doesn’t support extremely high graphics.
If you want to get a feel for how this might turn out, play masks of power legacy. It was their first attempt at creating the game. could kinda view it as a prototype. A bit rough but still fun. has some neat ideas. I recommend starting with Kopaka. The trailer footage does seem quite a bit better already
I was skeptical, but considering as there’s been progress as of 810 day… I do think it’ll eventually get a release.
As to whether it’s anything more than an extended demo, I have no idea.
Usually these fan projects die out. And I’m not just talking about Bionicle. Look at the countless KOTOR remakes/ reimaginings that fail to get out (funny how the official licensed remake fails to get off the ground too, but KOTOR’s graphics are fine as they are.)
Yes, I’m going to have to get a better computer soon, right now I can’t even download legacy, and with the game play I’ve seen so far seems like I’ll need a pretty decent computer.
Wasn’t sure if this news had already been spread here or not, but since it hasn’t I figure I should:
Heartbreakingly, after 8 years of development, it would appear that Masks of Power is officially dead following a surprise cease and desist from The LEGO Group.
Team Kanohi revealed that they had intentions to shadow-drop the Free the Band demo in August of this year, but this new development has led to them being required to scrub the entire project from online spaces.
We can only speculate the reasons why, but it’s certainly a shock. Masks of Power had the blessing and even endorsement of The LEGO Group for almost a decade. For them to suddenly pull the plug like this is unexpected and utterly confusing.
Team Kanohi has since rebranded to Unmasked Games and have announced a new project currently codenamed “Project Rustbound” that aims to take what they’ve learned from Masks of Power and apply it to an original IP.
Speaking personally now, I’m heartbroken and appalled by LEGO’s heel turn on this game.
If there was ever a time for them to play the copyright card, it should have been years ago before any of this got off the ground, before extremely talented and well-known fan creators poured their time and effort into this game, before even formerly official collaborators on Bionicle like David Williamson and Cryoshell had their voice and works involved in the marketing.
And it’s extremely disappointing to see that the company that prides itself on creativity has decided to side with the likes of Disney and Nintendo on fan works as opposed to entities like Bethesda not only giving free copies of the Oblivion remake to the Skyblivion team, but inviting them all to take a tour of their studio, all while still allowing them to complete their project despite having a competing product on the market.
And LEGO chooses to do this for…what reason, exactly? To continue to sit on their dead IP and do nothing with it? To pull back all fan works so they can release another failed reboot of their own? It just doesn’t make any sense.
I’m excited to see what Unmasked Games does in the future. I wish them all the best in their next project, and I’m happy that they can actually profit from it, unlike LEGO in this instance.
Masks of Power?
More like
Lack of Power 
I have a potential explanation as to why the LEGO Group would do such a thing. Even aside from general copyright protection (confusing consumers by looking like an official product), though that is likely the legal defense. The LEGO Group is pulling their license from all video game and other software development companies. We heard about TT Games losing the license not too long ago, but they aren’t the only ones. As of current, side from Epic Games, the LEGO Group is ending all outside partnerships as it relates to video games. And they’re currently in the works of building an in-house development team. The LEGO Group is not only going back to be a software publisher, they’re also becoming a developer.
It seems as consequence, they have been going after anything that could be a potential rival or threat to the launch of this initiative.
I haven’t seen news of any of that, but if that’s the case then that actually does make a lot of sense.
I still personally think it’s a bad move on their part in this instance as we’re talking about a non-profit fan work based on an unused IP as opposed to other corporations that do stand to make significant profit off of LEGO IP currently on the market.
But it would be a logical explanation that I could see a suit making.
Aye, not a great look. But, unfortunately for us, one they can easily weather. Perhaps one day we’ll learn the true reason(s) behind it.
I had just assumed that the game had reached a level of quality beyond what Lego had initially anticipated, making them pull the plug. But what you said actually sounds like a more likely explanation. It’s a very disappointing situation all around though. I had only become aware of the game I believe late last year and was surprised by how much work had gone into it. It was a truly impressive project.
Even more disappointing given that I can’t think of many Lego-developed games that anyone actually plays anymore. Did they ever make any publicly-used software, or were all of Lego’s games made by external developers?
What would be good is that if they are remaking it into an original idea based on similar things we like about Bionicle they can decide to charge cause it’s not the same thing as Bionicle. So if they end up being very successful Lego is the only one that need to be kicking themselves as they could have told the developers to make game and allow them to make a profit with them gaining most of it for their IP. It just seems foolish to me to cancel the game when they could have demanded a large sum of compensation for using their IP and let them charge people to pay for the game.
Lego could have a practically free money maker in their hands if they allowed the game to be released and purchased. However, I am not an expert of said topic I just can’t see how Lego could just not give it the opportunity and take the profit for themselves. Now watch the developers make an even better game that will make Lego wish they made that money.
A vast majority were developed by external developers. The LEGO Group usually doesn’t give any open-source stuff for their software. Also note that they do archive and vault almost everything developed for them, released or not, and that includes software. In the official Lego podcast, Bits’N Bricks, they talk about some of the weird stuff from external developer offices there were packed up and sent to Lego HQ (e.g. a jar of pickled pigs feet). But they were required to send all code, all versions, prototypes, etc. and, depending on the decade, even the PC used.
After it was announced that it was cancelled a ton of bionicle fans have been commenting on official Lego posts asking to „bring it back“. I don’t think Lego will even acknowledge them but it’s cool to see the bionicle community trying.
Really expensive plastic? Check.
Taking down fan works? Check.
Lego is turning into Games Workshop
In all seriousness, this is a real bummer. I hadn’t kept up with news regarding the game for a while, but what I had seen looked very promising. Sucks that this happened, but hopefully the team behind the game can bounce back, they clearly have a lot of talent.
Indeed, do I wonder if LEGO shifted hands in leadership?
Perhaps, the current suits in charge are less lenient? If a company allows a fan-project to roam for such an extensive period to only swipe the rug out of their hands, then perhaps the blessing was merely to watch and take from these developers ideas for future projects of their own?
For this is what stirs me the most.
That would require that the game had things in it which would have made a ploy like this worth it, and I don’t see that it had anything of that nature.
in 2 hours Eljay will play the demo
and tomorrow in the new Nak & Jay episode they’ll discuss its failure
Hey there, PR Manager for Team Kanohi/Unmasked games here. Just wanted to make a statement regarding leaked footage of the demo, such as the footage that Eljay shared in his latest video.
Our team has asked that leaked footage like this not be publicly shared, distributed, or advertised. Sharing this kind of content has the potential to get our team into further legal trouble with the LEGO Group.
Our team has asked TTV to remove this video. They have refused to do so.