Review: Build Together
Posted by Huw,
LEGO has just added an interesting new feature to the Instructions Plus app called Build Together that facilitates building sets collaboratively.
To some extent it is possible to do so already without it, especially if the set you're building has multiple subassemblies and instruction manuals, but Build Together takes it to another level by splitting construction between builders more granularly, and introducing interaction between them.
We've been sent one of the six sets that the feature is available for during the initial beta test period to try it with, 10270 Bookshop, so earlier in the week I invited my neighbours Steve, who's recently built the UCS Millennium Falcon, and his wife Paula round for a building session to discover exactly how it works.
It was very interesting. It did not work as I expected it to, but it did work well, and it was a lot of fun.
The four of us started at 7.15pm. We loaded up the Instructions Plus app on our iOS and Android phones and tablets, located the bookshop in it, then selected the new Build Together option. After scanning the QR code on the front of the instructions from each device the app recognised that were working as a team and assigned us colours. I was blue.
Building then commenced, and we were all presented with instructions for small subassemblies to construct. When we finished one we'd be given instructions for another.
This is a screenshot of the instructions which will look familiar to anyone who's used the app. Note the four different coloured players, as it calls them, shown at the top of the screen.
Every so often we'd be prompted to pass a subassembly we'd built to another player. In this case blue is told what to give to red, and at the same time red is told to get something from blue to add to what they are building.
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For the first hour or so we built nothing but small subassemblies. We all started building from parts in bags numbered one then progressed through bags two, three and four and so on until we had all eight bags open. Luckily I had enough trays to tip all the pieces in, and half-way through thought it might be good idea to label them, so we knew which was which!
Some of the assemblies were small: a door inserted into its frame, or two stacked 1x1 plates in one case.
It occurred to me later that what we were doing was constructing all the parts of the model that are normally built separately from the main flow, such as the base of the grandfather clock below, first.
Sometimes they were further split into separate parts: the small sections of this bookcase would have been built by different players, then passed to the one who was tasked with putting them all together.
Once we'd finished constructing all the subassemblies we all had quite a collection of them, and nothing that looked like a modular building!. At this point we moved onto the actual floors and walls of the building, with each player assigned a storey to build, receiving the parts that had already been built by other players as needed.
After three hours we ended the session at 10:15, although we hadn't completed the model: four floors were half built and dozens of subassemblies are ready to be put into them.
You will notice that there's no apparent logic to what is built first: nobody is building the ground floors yet, for example, and we didn't finish the bookshop half of the set before commencing on the house.
The app on my phone knows that we have not finished and when I start it up now it offers to begin another session where we left off. I suspect we will complete it over Christmas when my daughters and their boyfriends are here. It will be interesting to see how it handles a different group of players.
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Verdict
It was a fun and enjoyable experience, and great way to spend an evening: doing something constructive and collaborative while chatting, eating and drinking. Steve said "We both had a great evening. The collective build is a great idea. The different methodology of building the model from a solo build was novel."
Building in this way is certainly not quicker than doing so conventionally, I think the set takes one person about 4 hours to build: we spent 12 man-hours on it and are only 3/4 of the way through. That is partly because we often needed to rummage through the same tray of parts to find what we needed and of course you can't easily do that all at once. Not that it mattered, it wasn't a race and we weren't rushing, although it was perhaps disappointing for Steve and Paula that they didn't get to see the completed model after so much time and effort!
The sequence of building it was totally different to how you construct it normally. I expected that we'd open bag 1, finish that part of the build between us, then move on to bag 2, as you would if building alone. Or at least, finish the left half of the building before commencing on the right. But that was not the case at all. Instead, we built every subassembly from both halves first before moving on to the main part of the buildings, and even then some of us were working on the bookshop and others the house.
When half-way through, we had all eight bags open and there was seemingly no logic to the order in which we were building things. However, that did not matter at all because the app was keeping track, and I am sure it will all come together in the end.
The only problem really was that because this is a large set we had sorting trays everywhere and when we were all building from different ones at the end it was a job to fit everything on the table. That won't be such an issue for the other, smaller, sets though.
When I first learned about the feature I thought perhaps that someone at LEGO would have to think about how to split the build process so that it can be performed simultaneously by several people, but of course that's not what's been done at all: it's really just an extension of the normal instructions that are available in the app.
The entire build already exists in it as a series of instructions for subassemblies which are combined to create the finished model, so what's being done is that they are each assigned to different builders, and when one of them needs something that's already been built by someone else, they are prompted to get it from them, making it a much more interactive and collaborative process than simply sitting at the same table as others who are also building. The sequence in which things are built has presumably been optimised to maximise interaction and to ensure that sections are completed before they are needed by someone else.
If the feature is to be expanded to include more sets in the future it has to be something that doesn't take too much effort on LEGO's part to set up, otherwise it would not be sustainable, and I guess how it's been done is the only way that could be achieved. I'm sure it's still not trivial, but presumably once the algorithm has been honed it can be applied to any set.
Overall, then, I would definitely recommend giving it a go. It adds a new dimension to the building experience that transforms what is too often a solitary activity into one that can be enjoyed with friends and family, preferably accompanied by plenty of beer and snacks!
Tips:
- Make sure you have enough sorting trays, and number them somehow because you'll be putting them to one side before they are empty
- You need a large space to build on, particularly for large sets like this
- Make sure your phone or tablet has plenty of power, or access to a charging socket. The battery in my Samsung S21 drained from about 70% to 5% in less than three hours, although I think the Apple devices fared better
At the moment Build Together is available for the following sets:
- 60307 Wildlife Rescue Camp
- 60292 Town Centre
- 60291 Family House
- 60302 Wildlife Rescue Operation
- 10270 Bookshop
- 31097 Townhouse Pet Shop & Café
I understand that more will be added next year. Ideally there will be some indication on the box because at the moment most people will only discover the feature by chance, if at all, and that would be a shame.
Thanks to LEGO for sending the Bookshop to us to facilitate testing. All opinions expressed are my own.
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45 comments on this article
That's much better than I had imagined. Might be a way to get more people into building Lego, or turn it into a sort of party game. Finally, Lego seem get an app right.
I can see this working very well for families with younger kids. It's a very cool concept.
It is not for me, though. I like to get my set, put on Star Trek, and build alone with no interruption :)
This sounds like fun; my only gripe is that the instructions have been split a little too granularly for my tastes. It doesn't seem all that fun to have lots of people putting together just one bookshelf, for instance. The Instructions app does seem quite battery-heavy. Also, nothing like a mention of beer to remind me of the AFOL-centric nature of this community.
I really like this idea, though it's not for me. I don't use sorting trays, I don't have a really large assembly area, and I don't really want to use my phone to assemble a set. Though I'd perhaps use a laptop for the larger screen and built in support.
@LegoSonicBoy said:
"This sounds like fun; my only gripe is that the instructions have been split a little too granularly for my tastes. It doesn't seem all that fun to have lots of people putting together just one bookshelf, for instance. "
That only happened early on when subassemblies were split into separate subassemblies themselves. Someone built the whole bed, for example. The tree was interesting. I built the base and part of the trunk, Steve built most of the trunk incorporating the part I had already made, while others built the leaves and nest sections. Often you didn't know what you were building and that only added to the fun.
Oh, I would hate this. I'd be screaming at other people to hurry up and get aggrivated if they built or put on a sticker wrong
Does the app take into account of different building speed of different builders?
^ Yes, I believe so. Presumably it creates a pipeline of tasks and assigns them to players once they've finished what they are building. That would also enable people to leave and join during the session, which is also possible.
This seems like a smart feature. I'm used to building collaboratively having grown up as a twin—alternating steps is practically second nature to me. But when building with three or more people it can be easy to lose track of whose step is whose, and when you factor in things like subassemblies it can get even more confusing. Having this as a feature of the digital building instructions app therefore seems pretty useful.
Oh, this site is going down the drain!
First clickbait titles, now product placement!
O, where will it end??? ;-)
The new app feature sounds interesting and maybe I'll give it a try with my son sometime,
but I don't see me using it in a larger group.
This seems like a good idea for people with children, or perhaps for use at LUG events or shows. Personally I like to build by myself in quiet with the computer turned off, it's my Zen time as such!!
I really hope that Lego does not get to the point of not making physical instructions at all. The Mario stuff that's been coming out I haven't built any of but know from seeing information out there that they do not have physical instructions. This move seemed really strange to me as I'm sure there are a lot of children out there that do not have phones for one and probably do not have some sort of tablet device. I only have my desktop now as my laptop pooped itself a few years ago and I didn't use it enough to warrant the replacement cost, that money was better spent on Lego lol!! My phone would be a nightmare to try and build from, I would go mad trying that.
Anyway I am glad you and your neighbours had a fun night working on the bookshop :)
This looks suprisingly promising! Very neat idea to take those microassemblies from regular instructions and make them the center of the collective building!
@Huw said:
"^ Yes, I believe so. Presumably it creates a pipeline of tasks and assigns them to players once they've finished what they are building. That would also enable people to leave and join during the session, which is also possible."
That's great! During the pandemic, I started building ALL the modular buildings. (We moved into a new house a few months before that and the sets had previously been in storage.) I got as far as the Bookshop and had to stop because my wife is an author and insisted that she build it with me. ...so I've been waiting to build that for about 6 months now. I think these instructions will help a lot because we have VASTLY different build speeds as well as a 3 year-old that may join and drop from the building process.
We'll definitely give this a try!
I like this idea a lot, in principle. My GF and I have been building together for about a year and we do have some difficulty figuring out who should be building what.
I don't like the idea of having to open all the bags at once- we tend to build in the evening and it might take us a few days to build a bigger kit. Bags give us a good point to take a break and see if we have time to keep building.
Having said that... In the future, Lego bags could be done by sub assembly and all the instructions could use the same style as the build together app.
Ok this is one of the GOOD things Lego made. Hope it will get appreciation!
This is a good review! As the twin that @Lyichir mentioned, I have likewise always thought of LEGO as a great social/collaborative activity that can really bring people together, including introverts like me. And yet I've found that a lot of people think of it exclusively as a solo activity, which feels like sort of a missed opportunity.
For example, I can't tell you how often I've seen set reviews express frustration at how repetitive large "2x" or "4x" sub-assemblies can be. Those are the sort of thing that is PERFECT for when you have one or more "building buddies" to share the experience with. That way, everybody gets to take part in that portion of the build, and enjoy the rewarding feeling of everybody's contributions coming together at the end!
I suspect that an app like this will help alleviate some of the hiccups that can sometimes occur when building with multiple people, like losing track of whose step is whose, losing your place in the instruction manual, feeling like one builder is getting all the bigger steps and another is getting all the smaller ones, discovering another builder before you missed parts from their step, or figuring out who gets to attach a finished sub-assembly to the rest of the model.
I'm pleasantly surprised that the developers took the initiative to change the order of some of the sections of the build, instead of just leaving the order the same as in the paper manual. That gives me confidence that LEGO genuinely wants to ensure that people building as a group get the best possible experience — something that may be much trickier to optimize with paper instructions.
Hopefully the developers will get lots of useful feedback on this feature during this open testing phase, so that they can continue to improve on it as they expand it to a wider range of sets. Perhaps they may even be able to use some of that feedback to improve on how well their traditional instructions work for different sized groups of builders.
@Aanchir said:
"As the twin that @Lyichir mentioned"
No wonder I've gotten your handles/comments mixed up in the past - twins!! A+.
@PubliusMaximum said:
"I like this idea a lot, in principle. My GF and I have been building together for about a year and we do have some difficulty figuring out who should be building what.
I don't like the idea of having to open all the bags at once- we tend to build in the evening and it might take us a few days to build a bigger kit. Bags give us a good point to take a break and see if we have time to keep building. "
That's a good point. I've got trays of parts and subassemblies all over place that I'll need to keep as they are until the next building session.
Another disadvantage I've just thought of is that you don't have the usual 'checkpoints' after each bag when you would check that you've no parts left over.
@ForestMenOfEndor said:
" @Aanchir said:
"As the twin that @Lyichir mentioned"
No wonder I've gotten your handles/comments mixed up in the past - twins!! A+."
I had the pleasure of meeting the twins when they were in London a few years ago :-)
@BulbaNerd4000 Lol! Totally. I don't think I could ever cede control over applying stickers to anyone else on one of my Lego sets..! I build Lego with my kids all the time and we take turns based on pages, but I always apply the stickers! Not that I'm perfect, but if I screw up I'm ok yelling at myself..!
I think this sounds like a way to have lots of fun with friends or family, although I agree that I don't want to lose printed instructions entirely (or at all). No one is being made to give up the process of building a set solo, after all.
I think I'll pass on this gimmick. I prefer the good old paper instruction over anything, to the extend that I won't buy a used set if it's missing an instruction booklet (or has one with punch holes).
All these gimmicks and app based replacements to physical LEGO stuff is just a way for the company to save money and meet the sustainability goals. I would bet my whole collection that LEGO will cease and desist paper instructions altogether in the near future. The first step was made in Super Mario, next Bricklink Designer Program and so forth. Especially if sets will continue to grow bigger and become more complex year by year and the wood resources becoming rarer and more expensive. This is also why I don't get the change to paper bags. Why not use bioplastic bags for instance?
Even the physical remote control for trains will not last long. For Control+ sets there will probably never be a physical remote included. And when the app is no longer supported, the set becomes a paper weight.
Lose together, win together, build together, build together, build together.
When I buy a Lego set, I want to build it. Not just bits and parts of it. So probably not for me.
Stop fretting, everyone! This isn't replacing paper instructions, or forcing you to not build on your own.
It provides an additional experience, one that won't be right for everyone, but perfect for social gatherings at which you might have played a game or something.
This looks like a lot of fun, and reminds me of the way a group can put together a puzzle in a way you couldn't really do for Lego. I'm looking forward to giving it a try and can easily see it becoming a tradition with things like the winter village sets.
@meclo said:
" @BulbaNerd4000 Lol! Totally. I don't think I could ever cede control over applying stickers to anyone else on one of my Lego sets..! I build Lego with my kids all the time and we take turns based on pages, but I always apply the stickers! Not that I'm perfect, but if I screw up I'm ok yelling at myself..!"
I don’t usually apply stickers but when I do, I use the method recommended by LEGO itself of dampening the brick with a bit of window cleaning solution. It really works!
It’s probably still too fiddly for small kids, but teens should be able to manage it.
@BulbaNerd4000:
You might still cringe at sloppy stickers (or simply ask that all stickered sections be handed to you for application), but speed shouldn’t be an issue at all. The only way to make sure one person isn’t left twiddling thumbs while someone else hunts for a missing part is to make sure nobody is ever waiting for anything. To accomplish that, it appears to work through all of the sub assemblies first, assign them to be handed off to various builders, and only when they’re all done does anyone start working on the main model. By this point, all the sub assemblies are lined up for installation, so no waiting on other builders until the very end. If one person builds much faster than the others, they’ll simply knock out more of the subassemblies than anyone else.
The only complicated part is when you start completing sections of the main model. If one person is slow, short of telling Red to shove Blue out of the way, there’s probably no way to really jump in on the same section that someone else is currently building. So yeah, you could end up waiting for the first floor to be completed so the rest of the Modular can be stacked on top. Maybe if you build this way regularly, it’ll track competence and give the biggest share of the main assembly to the fastest builder, on the theory that it’ll help everyone finish closer to the same time.
In light of how this works, I’m curious if it has min/max settings for the number of builders who can or should participate. Does it handle devices losing power mid-build? Can you change the number of builders if someone has to drop out or a new builder shows up late? Does it have a way to reassign completed subassemblies to a different builder?
@YanVanLan:
If I sign in as a party of one, will it just tell me to refer to the paper instructions and stop wasting its time?
@Squidy74H:
_Some_ of the Mario sets do actually have paper instructions. For sure the blind packs do, but I would expect both the NES and “?” cube would, just because they’re more display pieces than game components.
The reason they went with digital instructions for both Dimensions and Mario, however, is not that they’re trying to do away with paper instructions, but because paper instructions can’t really do gameplay videos. With digital instructions you can always insert those into the normal process so you teach people how to play the game as they build stuff, instead of having to type manuals up in umpteen different languages.
@PDelahanty:
Hindsight and all, but the logical way to have done this is to have started with the Bookshop first, and only build that based on her availability. When she’s not available, start the rest of them and build those at your own pace. Sure, it throws a wrench into the idea of building them all in order, which I’m guessing was your intent, but you’re far less likely to just stall out for months on end.
@PubliusMaximum:
Once the set releases, digital instructions are available to all. Sets come with paper instructions. Give one person the book, the other a digital copy, and have one of the two build all the subassemblies ahead of the other builder doing the main build. It’s not going to be as rapid with adjusting time management, but it would allow you to limit the number of open bags, and you can always tweak the process if you come up with new ideas.
Wow. This is incredibly dumb! Though I suppose given LEGO's track record on software design, not too surprising! The instructions generating algorithm is so unintelligent it makes Lego Digital Designer's instructions generator look genius! It literally just takes the instruction app's subassemblies from smallest to biggest, and reorders the steps in that way, completely ignoring the bag system! It would have been simple to just carry out the same process, just separately for each bag! The way it assigns tasks is just, as @Huw hypothesised, a pipeline. The first "player" to finish a step in a 4 "player" scenario would be taken to overall step 5, the fifth smallest subassembly, and so on, rinse and repeat until the steps are exhausted. Hopefully LEGO will at least make the program slightly smarter by including bags when they extend this program to other sets...
@PurpleDave said:
" @PDelahanty:
Hindsight and all, but the logical way to have done this is to have started with the Bookshop first, and only build that based on her availability. When she’s not available, start the rest of them and build those at your own pace. Sure, it throws a wrench into the idea of building them all in order, which I’m guessing was your intent, but you’re far less likely to just stall out for months on end."
Yeah, the goal was to build all the modulars in order. It was actually quite fascinating seeing the buildings progress from a mere exterior shell to having both highly detailed interiors and exteriors. It was also interesting seeing new building techniques come into play. With all the builds fresh in my mind, I also picked up on some references to earlier modulars with the same unique building techniques (particularly with Assembly Square).
@PurpleDave said:
" @YanVanLan :
If I sign in as a party of one, will it just tell me to refer to the paper instructions and stop wasting its time? "
Would be a nice touch if it actually did! :-)
I'd really would like to see how it reacts to only two builders.
Usually my son and I build most of my 'adult welcome' sets together and then just more or less alternate per bag (He picks out some bags he would like to build, mostly the ones with the most minifigs or animals in it, then one of us builds, the other one looks for bricks).
Would be interesting to find a different way to build and see how we like it;
this app function might just do that.
@PurpleDave said:
"In light of how this works, I’m curious if it has min/max settings for the number of builders who can or should participate. Does it handle devices losing power mid-build? Can you change the number of builders if someone has to drop out or a new builder shows up late? Does it have a way to reassign completed subassemblies to a different builder?"
Two is the minimum and I think it's up to five for some, but four for this one.
You can leave and re-join the session, and I believe you can add more people, although we didn't try either.
This would be perfect for when my nephew visits & wants to build a set with me. He would prefer using a computer anyway & it would also be better interaction. When we built the Fishing store together, we each took a turn building each page, but when it was my turn to build my page he would infringe & gather my pieces for me & hand each piece to me (sweet, but very annoying). It is a wonderful set but memories of putting it together with him makes me not want to share a build with him.
Instead I find him a set that I don't care if I build (not easy to do) & he builds it while I build another set, but then we miss out on building LEGO together. I think the app would alleviate these issues by keeping him busy building while I build my parts.
It also would help when I want to have my mom build with me. If the set is too large she doesn't feel like she can help with it, like it is too difficult for her, even though she has built many smaller & some of the bigger promo sets that I get her at Christmas.
She's comfortable building the smaller sub-assemblies but not a building. This app would help, starting small & then moving onto to the bigger assembles, so she wouldn't feel like it was too difficult to help assemble. I hope it takes off, I would definitely use it.
Thank you for the in-depth review. This looks very interesting and could/would/should be a terrific place for a family build or two! We will be trying this out ASAP! :)
I dont have anybody to build with, so I cant say I really care about this, but I think its a cool idea!
This is very neat. Usually my "together time" builds with my partner consist of one person pulling out the parts and handing them to the other. We did this for the 2019 AT-AT and it was a slog. This is an improvement. Thanks for the very clear review, Huw.
I like this concept, I hope they roll it out for more sets (including older ones)!
There is some room for improvement though, by the sound of the review. I think I would prefer it if only 2 or 3 bags were open at the same time, to keep the parts more managable. And completing subsections before moving on (perhaps a modular floor) may give some good stop points during the build, for those who would spread it over multiple sessions.
Wait.
This is procedural AND adaptive? So a) it can be applied to any set and b) if four builders log in and 3 is in the bathroom for hours…everyone else still gets a turn(s) such that this would “play out” differently every time??
@Jedijon said:
"Wait.
This is procedural AND adaptive? So a) it can be applied to any set and b) if four builders log in and 3 is in the bathroom for hours…everyone else still gets a turn(s) such that this would “play out” differently every time??"
a) not yet but I suspect the algorithms developed just need suitable input data specific to the set to be set up by LEGO to get it working
b) I'm not sure what happens to the stuff already built by a player who leaves. If I have an opportunity I will do more testing over Christmas of some of these edge case scenarios.
@Jedijon:
If one person steps away without signing off, I would expect whatever task they were given would stay on their screen. If it’s a subassembly, others should continue to be assigned until you run out. At that point, the build might stall out because the missing builder has the last subassembly tied up, or only the main build section that requires that subassembly will be left in limbo until it’s completed. If the builder steps away after all subassemblies are completed, the system might just think they’re having a really difficult time with that one particular step. But since it sounds like subassemblies are reassigned to other builders as soon as they’re completed, everyone else should have what they require to build their main sections.
So, I see two ways in which walking away logged in can stall out the process. The earlier this happens, the better. Too late in the subassembly phase, and everyone could end up stuck waiting for one person to finish up before everyone gets to move on to building the regular model. Too late in that phase, and everyone is likely to just end up sitting around watching the straggler build alone.
Oh, and the most important thing to remember is that, if someone has had to slip off during the middle of this to spend hours in the bathroom, maybe don’t let them touch your LEGO pieces until they’ve been hoses down with bleach, because they clearly got something you don’t want to catch, like dysentery, or a bad case of “I-have-to-sneak-off-where-no-one-can-hear-me-so-I-can-moon-over-my-SO”.
Seems like a nice start to a nice feature.
I hope they continue to develop it. I could see games/competitions with it, especially for creator sets (3in1 etc).
I might have used it more when I was younger and built some sets with my brother, but my friends /family are more interested in building their own or doing their own thing. I don't see myself using it at the moment, which makes this review more interesting for me.
@RonnyN said:
"I can see this working very well for families with younger kids. It's a very cool concept.
It is not for me, though. I like to get my set, put on Star Trek, and build alone with no interruption :)"
For me, it's gotta be a thematic tv show. I managed to get the 2021 Quinjet recently, and watched Hawkeye while I built it!
I hope more and more sets will be created keeping the group build in mind.
My 8 and 4 years old built the 'Medieval Castle 31120' together and they enjoyed it much more than building two separate set. (Even if this set is not supported by this new app)
My kids and I just built the 31097 Townhouse Pet Shop & Cafe using the build together option. We thoroughly enjoyed it and the kids already asked to do it again soon. This app was far superior to any other collaborative building we've done before and I sincerely hope LEGO continues to expand this feature by adding new sets in the future.
I'll let everyone else continue to argue about how intelligent the algorithm is while I spend my time using the app to spend quality time with my kids!
Just finished the Bookshop with my wife and my 7 and 3 years old kids. We spent several days on the set, sometimes only two or three of us participated at the same time, but the app kept track of progress and assigned tasks accordingly. So much easier for the kids to build using the 3d model in the app, and the whole family could build at the same time, so no one got bored waiting. We had a lot of fun! Just waiting for new larger sets we can build this way!