After practically a decade within the works, the fan recreation Bionicle: Masks of Energy has been shut down following a request from Lego.
To mark the top of the venture, Group Kanohi, a bunch of followers who got here collectively to construct the “Bionicle recreation of [their] goals,” has launched a “autopsy” walkthrough of Masks of Energy’s final construct. It was shaping as much as be a trendy third-person action-adventure recreation that includes Lego’s iconic masked ninjas, and it actually appears superior. Verify the gameplay video out within the embed under.
In a letter to fans, Group Kanohi acknowledged that it’s unclear why, precisely, Lego determined to close the sport down now. Because the crew wrote, it had labored onerous to observe Lego’s phrases round truthful use of Bionicle property. For example, Group Kanohi by no means deliberate on charging gamers for the sport, and it clearly labeled all of its web sites and recreation pages with details about Masks of Energy being a fan-made venture.
Though Lego has not offered any justification, the developer means that it is perhaps as a result of Masks of Energy has acquired a excessive profile that’s more and more competing with official Lego merchandise. “Whereas we are able to solely speculate as to the precise purpose why they’ve requested us to take away the sport at the moment, what we suspect is that our venture was too straightforward to mistake for an official product,” Group Kanohi wrote. The letter continues: “A median particular person seeing our recreation for the primary time may simply assume that it was an official recreation at first look.”
The shutdown of Masks of Energy doesn’t imply that Group Kanohi is disbanding, nonetheless. In reality, within the letter to followers, the crew introduced that it’s rebranding as Unmasked Video games and is embarking on improvement of an authentic venture. At present known as Mission Rustbound, this authentic title will construct on the information and abilities that the crew had accrued by way of its work on Masks of Energy. It will probably be some time earlier than we hear something extra about Mission Rustbound, but when the Masks of Energy gameplay is any indication, this crew may need the potential to make a reasonably cool recreation.
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