This year visiting LEGO booth at Spielwarrenmesse in Nuremeberg was a kind of surprise. It is hard to deny that LEGO is putting the footprints in the app and toys integration. I know and play in plenty of their apps. I have even destroyed my iPad during one of the Ninjago fights. Their newest project - Lego Nexo Knights seems to be nothing new. But...
The very nice guy - Alex, who was doing the guided tour in the booth, claimed that this is the first time Lego integrates app with the toys. How come? - I replied. He confirmed that this is not the first app they've made. But it is the first time they designed the product from the ground having the app in mind. Once you look at the knight shield and everything is clear. It looks like a kind of Augmented Reality marker we have used in our games years before.
Lego don't use the shields as a marker. Scanning of the shield is all you need to do in order to activate special powers. It works smoothly and my son enjoy it a lot. Number of combination is substantial even though there are just 5 shields available (more to come in the next half of the year). Eventually, we have a reason to buy a new collection. No matter how bed excuse it is for my wife:)
This brings my main point to the daylight. Why are the board game designers so scared of adding the app to the game? At least for the kids? I have seen number of adults showing me their backs when they learned that our game ROAR requires an app to play. I have seen none of the kids to do the same. It is just opposite. They show high more engagement and excitement to see the tablet or phone in play. Lego already learned that!
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