Do you see it in the picture?

The Brandford Rant Institute of Cosmic Kinesis was founded in 1984 by inter-dimensional theorist Bradford Rant to study the possibility of intersecting alternate universes, and they may have finally hit pay dirt. They’ve been tracking mysterious LEGO pods that have been falling to Earth from origins unknown, apparently drawn to locations that contain a significant number of LEGO bricks and large amounts of imagination.

The scientists who maintain the Institute have set up a website to track the progress of their discoveries, having already posted a video documenting the discovery of the first pod, found in LEGOLAND Park in Denmark. That discovery only led to more questions. What are the mysterious words on the side of the pod? Why are the pilots so damn cheery? What does it all mean?

The next Pod is somewhere in North America. Can you help them find it?

This is obviously some sort of alternate reality game for some sort of LEGO product, and we’ve got a hunch that it could be for LEGO Universe, Net Devil’s upcoming MMO. When you start talking LEGO and parallel universes, it’s the logical conclusion to come to.

Visit the Bradford Rant Institute website yourself to see if you can help solve the mystery of the LEGO pod people.

These screens show not just a taste of the diversity you can expect from the game’s characters, environments and LEGO creations, but also how you’ll go about building your minifig avatar.

Online multiplayer game LEGO Universe won’t be coming out this year as planned, the LEGO Group told Kotaku this morning.

“Within the company we have made a strategic decision within LEGO to make a delay of LEGO Universe. It will not be coming out in 2009,” said Mark Hansen, director of business development for the LEGO Group. “The reason is, we have a luxury right now, the business is going good. We have products launching that are not digital, the physical products, with them going so well we don’t want to take focus away from them.”

While Hansen couldn’t say if the game would come out even in 2010, he was adamant that LEGO Group remains committed to the online multiplayer game being developed by NetDevil.

“This is something LEGO is very committed to,” Hansen said. “We see it as a major growth.”

It’s likely that LEGO Group’s annual earnings report next Monday might shed a bit more light on which project they don’t want overshadowed by LEGO Universe. It’s possible that more details about eventual timing for the game could be hinted at then as well.

The delay means that NetDevil will have more time to both work on the original concept and also potentially add new ideas to the game before it ships, Hansen said.

“There will be additions,” he said. “But we are holding exactly to the plan we had when we started game development. (NetDevil might) create more content and alignment with the products we have on the shelf.”

At least initially that won’t include the LEGO bricks that use different IP like Batman, Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Hansen said. But that’s not totally off the table. The hang-up would be getting the owners of those properties to sign off on the rights, he said. Something that’s often a difficult proposition.

Hansen said that while the game has been delayed, development is progressing nicely. In fact LEGO Group released two new pieces of art to Kotaku that were created using 100 percent game assets.

One shows pirates the other shows a robot of sorts being attacked by people with swords and spears.

“We like the results very much,” Hansen said. “The NetDevil relationship is very, very strong. The commitment to bring it out is as well.”

In an interview with Massively, though, NetDevil’s Mark Hansen did not entirely dismiss the suggestion that some of the licensed properties from the Traveller’s Tales games might make an appearance in the future.

When asked if this was the case, Hansen said, “No, not at all. I think you will … yeah. (laughs)”

It might be a nice extra but you have to hope that this doesn’t distract from the basic Legoiness that the game seems to offer. It is always more fun if you make it yourself, after all.

Lego IPs interview pt. 2 [Massively, via Joystiq]

This video was recorded in NetDevil’s second Lego Universe Project event. According to Scott Brown, NetDevil’s president, in the first LUP event they asked these Lego users to give them an idea of what the game should be like, which of course resulted in them building hundreds of actual Lego models of monsters, places, and all kinds of devices, machinery, and vehicles.

After that session, NetDevil started to program the software tools and the models needed to design Lego Universe terrains and structures. Now, in the second LUP event, they have trained those Lego people on the tools themselves, which they are using to create the virtual worlds. Apparently, NetDevil is very impressed by how fast these people–who in their day jobs are mostly engineers–got into the tools after just a three-hour class. Hopefuly that means things are progressing fast and we will see this game–which seems to have great potential–sooner than later.

LEGO Universe design director Brian Booker says that the game will have an “overarching epic storyline about the origins of LEGO Universe and the minifigs that inhabit it.”

I can’t tell everything about the game just yet, but maybe I can give you some hints… Aside from just playing games or trading and socialising, the story allows minifigs to team up—and that’s when the real adventuring begins. If the teams of little LEGO people are successful in their endeavours, they’ll uncover new zones where they can have new and different experiences…

Booker also walks us through the games economy which isn’t, it turns out, based on studs.

Turns out that LEGO’s are going to be toting around… plastic to buy things.

Essentially, new minifigs enter LEGO Universe with nothing: no money, no bricks, no stuff. Then they go through the world completing challenges, defeating enemies, gathering goods, discovering treasures and unlocking secrets. Along the way, the minifigs find bricks and collect a highly valuable currency— plastic.

Using plastic, you can buy and sell goods to do things like customise your minifig; all the shops and vendors in LEGO Universe take plastic!

Since LEGO bricks are actually made of plastic, your minifig can also use it to create the bricks they need for their models or pets. But you could also trade with other minifigs for the bricks you need —so you can conserve your currency by cooperating!