For reasons best known to myself, I have installed Light Brick Studio’s Builder’s Journey on my Apple TV. Last week, the onscreen icon changed, and I thought I should find out why. The game has just undergone its 4th major version update, introducing a new series of puzzles: Robot’s Adventure. [Note: this post was already in development when this morning’s news about Light Brick Studio’s new game, LEGO® Voyagers, was announced]

Builder’s Journey features one of the simplest interfaces for a player to engage with a digital brick on a touchscreen that I have experienced. Point and click: pick up a brick from a pile on the level. Click again- spin it around. Give a sustained touch: it clicks in place. The studio has invested heavily in making the bricks as lifelike as possible – from their opacity, colour – even scratches and play wear on systems with selected graphics cards. Over the years, there have been a couple of content updates: one introducing new levels, and another introducing a creative mode, where you can use a handful of elements to create your own digital models.

The original game follows the story of a father and son, working hard to spend time playing together and losing this time due to father’s work commitments. The game play varies from creating pathways for our characters to pass, to solving mechanistic puzzles that can take many attempts to solve, and allow our characters to progress in the game. The game is accompanied by original music by Henrik Lindstrand, and after all these years, the album is still on high rotation for my personal relaxation.

In the main game, the son builds a robot, and they go exploring together while father is at work. After a while, they become separated and we hardly see the robot again. This new section brings us the Robot’s Adventure, so we can find out what it is up to while traveling on its own.

As I started to play, I had no idea what was happening – but it soon became apparent that we were traveling between floating islands – some islands act simply as transit points, others present puzzles requiring specific LEGO pieces to complete the solution. In Builder’s Journey, the robot would often come up with the right piece. In this game expansion, you need to figure out how to create the appropriate parts that are needed to solve the puzzles, allowing the robot to advance on his journey.

The puzzles are interesting, and take a new approach to problem solving. Half the fun of this expansion is working out how to get the robot to create the elements, using circuit boards with missing parts. I won’t elaborate on this, as part of the satisfying game play is just playing with the environment to establish the in-universe rules. Like the main game, the nature of the puzzles change, just as you think you have mastered them.

This is a thoughtful, thought-provoking expansion for a beautiful game. Although devoid of dialogue, the story is still clearly conveyed. I was surprised at how emotionally engaged I became in the Robot’s Adventure, particularly at the end of the game.

The haunting soundtrack makes the game worth playing with the sound on, even on your phone. Like the original, this is not a game for the impatient. I expected to become bored waiting as the robot traveled between screens. I did not: the developers have timed it perfectly: long enough to get your thought processes to slow down, but not so long as you become bored. Just step back from your rushing around, and embrace the experience.

I heartily recommend this game to anyone looking for a casual game to play – it is a shame that it is restricted behind the paywall of Apple Arcade for mobile use, although the game play is a premium experience.

At this stage, the update is on Apple Arcade, and is due to go live on other platforms (PlayStation, X-Box, Nintendo Switch, Steam and Epic Games Store) soon.

[I subscribe to Apple Arcade: access to the game on this platform is obtained at my own expense]

Did you play Builder’s Journey in the past? Have you checked out the new update yet? Leave your comments below.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!