Lego DC Super Villains executive producer talks keeping things fresh while making fans happy (plus more footage)

There have been a ton of LEGO video games so far. The series has been extremely successful, and continues to be so. How do you keep all these LEGO games coming without things turning stale? LEGO DC Super Villains executive producer Phillip Ring shared some insight in an interview with GamesBeat.

GamesBeat: How do you make sure you’re appealing to new players and keeping things fresh for returning fans?

Phillip Ring: That’s something that’s actually really important to us. This being the DC supervillains, it’s the fourth game we’ve done in the DC universe. We wanted to make sure that even if you’d played all of the other DC titles we’ve done, and even all the other Lego games, you’ll come along and say, oh, this is cool, I wasn’t expecting that, this is new. We have new mechanics, new abilities, and even characters that are returning — someone like the Joker — have a whole host of new moves, new animation sets. In the demo he has the ability to control goons. Which is something that also fits really well with villains.

We wanted to have that as something that would feature throughout the game as you’re playing. Like I said, it matches villains. Heroes don’t call on other people. We get to be quite villainous with this. Goons are disposable, so you get to use them and then, well, I’m done with you, you can go now. Then there are other mechanics we have later on that are similar sorts of things. There are things the Joker does that make perfect sense for him. So we’ve added new mechanics that are specific to the characters. Then also the idea that you can create a custom character that has a different dynamic. We’ve never really had a game where you to get to unlock and progress a character through the story. You get more abilities and unlock new features.

GamesBeat: When it comes to these games, how much of it is about a formula, and then how much needs to be new to justify making another game?

Phillip Ring: For us, that’s really important. We don’t necessarily have a formula. We don’t just sit there and say, we’ll use 40 percent what’s tried and tested and then 60 percent new. It’s more of a feeling. It’s more; we’ve worked on these games, played these games, and lived in these worlds. If we feel we’re doing something and it’s like, this could have been in Batman 2 or Batman 3, it’s not right. We want to make sure that we feel like this feels different, this is cool, this is something that’s new.

And of course we don’t want to lose some of the things we have. It’s a Lego game. You want to be able to smash things up and use the bricks to build something new. Or have familiar mechanics. For example, in the first level, the silver Lego, we educated people that you can blow silver Lego up with explosives. We don’t want to throw that away and turn around and say, oh, no, now it’s purple or green. There are familiar things that help–