Games · Digital · Tabletop · Simulations

Games that change what people do.

Our game designers turn strategy, process and behavior into digital games, board and card games, decision games and simulations — so people practice the calls that matter, see what happens, and come back to play again.

Designed by business-literate creatives, and launched by the same studio that makes the films, the pictures and the campaign around them.

Start a projectTake a turn

Built for 10,000+ participants at a professional services firm, for The Curious Advantage and for teams at Novartis.

A laptop showing an online learning game: a floating island map with level stars, chance cards and team-challenge notifications
A custom board game with Risk and Chance cards laid on the board

Now playing

Why play works

People learn more when they play. The research agrees.

Four large reviews of the research find games beat the usual training on what people know, remember and do. The gains are real but modest — and they grow when people play together, more than once, as part of a wider program. So that’s how we design them.

Games that are played together, played again and part of the program do best. That’s how we build every one.

What we make

Choose your game.

Digital or on the table, five minutes or a whole quarter, one player or ten thousand. We choose the format from what people need to learn, decide or do — never the other way around.

  1. Level 01

    Four phone screens from the Curiosity Game: a multiple-choice question, an anagram, a word grid and a Correct screen

    Quickfire quiz games

    • Phone
    • Laptop

    Short rounds with three lives, rising difficulty and a best-streak leaderboard — built for replays, and refreshed from an admin area as your program moves on.

    Players
    Anyone with a phone
    Session
    Short bursts, played again
    Builds
    Knowledge that sticks

    See the Curiosity Game

  2. Level 02

    A hand holding a phone showing the start screen of The Decision Game, with buttons for play, leaderboard, achievements and help

    Decision games

    • Phone

    Real situations from the job, a swipe to decide, and scores that move on what matters — client, team, margin. Every decision is tracked, so you see where judgment needs work.

    Players
    Thousands at once
    Session
    Level by level
    Builds
    Judgment under pressure

    See the Decision Game

  3. Level 03

    A custom board game charting a product through its development stages, with Risk and Chance cards on the board

    Board games

    • Table

    Custom tabletop games that turn a strategy or a process into something teams can play, argue about and master together — social, high-energy and hard to forget.

    Players
    Teams around a table
    Session
    A workshop
    Builds
    Shared understanding

  4. Level 04

    A deck of custom product cards in a clear acrylic holder, with two loose cards beside it

    Card & conversation games

    • Table
    • Anywhere

    Decks that get people talking honestly about values, behaviors and the customer — with a facilitator in the room, or on their own.

    Players
    Pairs and small groups
    Session
    A coffee break or an offsite
    Builds
    Honest conversation

  5. Level 05

    An island level from Challenge Cup: a path of stars and chance cards past a volcano, with the word Think spelled out in blocks

    Team challenges & tournaments

    • Laptop
    • Phone

    Online games where people and teams progress in parallel, with weekly team challenges and solo tasks that get tougher level by level.

    Players
    Teams across the organization
    Session
    Weekly, over a program
    Builds
    Alignment on new ways of working

    See Challenge Cup

  6. Level 06

    A desktop computer showing a team game with a knowledge-level panel, an illustrated office scene and a team chat

    Simulations

    • Room
    • Laptop

    Run the project, the launch or the business for an afternoon, and watch months of consequences play out — in teams, in the room or online.

    Players
    Teams, in the room or online
    Session
    One session or a series
    Builds
    Business acumen

The play loop

People remember the calls they make.

Every game we make runs on one loop: decide, see what happens, talk it through, play again. Take a turn — this situation is from the Decision Game we built for a professional services firm.

The Decision Game Take a turn

Harvey’s Group is a new client — not just to you, but to the firm. It’s up to you to make this the start of a long-term relationship.

In the meeting, you realize the client could do this project themselves.

  • +20−20Client
  • +10−10Team
  • −10+10Margin
  • −10+10Manager

Trust up, margin down. Is a smaller project today worth a client for years? That’s the conversation a good game starts.

Margin up, trust at risk. What happens when the client works it out? That’s the conversation a good game starts.

Illustrative scores. The situation is from the Decision Game, where every decision is tracked.

  1. 1

    Decide

    A real situation from the job, with a real trade-off and no answer handed to you.

    In the Decision Game: swipe left or right.

  2. 2

    See what happens

    Scores move on the things that matter. The consequence is yours, so it sticks.

    Client, team, margin, manager.

  3. 3

    Talk it through

    Leaderboards, debriefs and team challenges turn one person’s choice into everyone’s conversation.

    In the Decision Game: points and a leaderboard.

  4. 4

    Play again

    New situations, harder levels, another go — every round is another session of practice.

    Curiosity Game players often replayed several times a session.

Then do it for real. The aim is the next client meeting, not the high score.

Where we’re different

Business-literate games, with a whole studio behind them.

  1. 01

    The game at the heart of the change

    Most game studios hand over a standalone product. Ours sits beside filmmakers, animators, designers and visual scribes, so your game launches with a film, a look and a campaign people talk about — and the story keeps going after the last level.

    For Novartis, a day of colleagues playing a card game became a film campaign on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram.

  2. 02

    At the table and on the phone

    Board and card games for the room, where people argue it out together. Mobile and online games for reach and replay. Or both, designed as one, so the workshop and the follow-up feel like the same game.

    Group play and repeat play are where the research finds games work best.

  3. 03

    Built on how your business works

    We start from the decision, the process or the number that matters — not the game mechanic — and build on your own models and language, so the game teaches the real thing.

    Built on The Curious Advantage’s own curiosity models; a decision game for 10,000+ people at a professional services firm.

  4. 04

    Built to show what changed

    Every decision can be tracked and every replay counted. You see who played, where people hesitate and which topics need another round — evidence for the next step, not just a completion rate.

    In the Decision Game, every decision was tracked for analytics on engagement and capability.

How we work

From the learning goal to the last level.

  1. 01

    Start from the behavior

    What should people do differently after they play? We agree the goal, the audience and how we’ll know it worked.

    • Goal
    • Measures

  2. 02

    Find the game in it

    Every strategy, process or decision has trade-offs and consequences. We find them, then pick the format: digital, tabletop or both.

    • Concept
    • Format

  3. 03

    Prototype and playtest

    Paper prototypes and clickable builds, played early by real people from your organization — then tuned until it’s right and it’s fun.

    • Prototypes
    • Playtests

  4. 04

    Make it beautiful

    Illustration, writing, design and build, with the same craft as our films and pictures.

    • Art
    • Build

  5. 05

    Launch it, keep it alive

    A launch film, a campaign or a live moment — then new rounds, leaderboards and analytics that bring people back.

    • Rollout
    • Analytics

The work

Games people played, and played again.

  • Gaming

    Challenge Cup

    This state of the art online learning game used storytelling methods and social media to create compelling content that ensures learning material is easy to understand and to apply.

See all the work
Three Novartis colleagues at a round table, each holding up a whiteboard with one word on it, while playing the ImagineIf card game

Case study · Novartis

One card game. A whole campaign.

  1. The challenge. Bring Novartis’ values out of strategy decks and into lived experience — credibly, for colleagues and the wider world.
  2. What we did. We filmed colleagues playing ImagineIf…, a facilitated card game that sparks dialogue about behaviors, and shaped one day of play into a series of short films.
  3. What happened. The campaign launched on LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram, showing the values being lived rather than explained.

Read the case study

In their words

What players and clients say

  • “The TRD game is brilliant, state-of-the-art! Inspirational, a great learning opportunity.”

    ParticipantsNovartis

  • “We have worked with Ludic Media Studio for almost a decade which is a testament to their brilliance.”

    Charlotte OttersonHead of Content, FT Forums

  • “Ludic Media Studio truly understand the meaning of the word flexibility; interpreting the brief and dealing with last minute requests so that we can deliver the perfect result.”

    Dianne MaginnisMD, Global Conference Management

Works well with

Launch the game like a campaign.

A game lands harder with a launch film, a world people recognize and a campaign that keeps them coming back — all from the same team.

  • Five animated characters standing together on a cloud

    Film & Animation

    Films people want to watch, built to be understood.

    • Explainer films
    • 2D & 3D animation
    • Event films
    • Interviews
  • An illustrated strategy graphic of leaders steering a ship toward clients and markets

    Design

    Complex ideas, designed so people get them at a glance.

    • Rich pictures
    • Infographics
    • Interactive media
    • Campaign identity
  • Campaign assets laid out across print, social and screens

    Comms Campaigns

    Campaigns people notice, understand and act on.

    • Campaign identity
    • Rollout kits
    • Podcasts
    • Event moments

Questions

Good to know

What kinds of games do you make?

Digital games for phone, tablet and laptop; custom board and card games; decision games and quiz games; team challenges and tournaments; and business simulations. Many programs use more than one.

Digital or physical — which should we choose?

It depends on the goal and the people. Tabletop games are best when people need to talk, argue and decide together in a room; digital games reach thousands and invite replays. Often the strongest answer is both: a table game for the workshop and a phone game for the weeks after.

How do you make sure people actually learn something?

We start from what people should do differently, build the game around real decisions and their consequences, and playtest it with real people before launch. The research says games work best played in groups, over more than one session and alongside other learning — so that’s how we design them.

Can we update the game after launch?

Yes. Our digital games can include an admin area, so questions and scenarios can be added, edited and retired as your program moves on.

Can you show us what changed?

Digital games can track every decision and replay, so you see engagement and where capability needs focus. For table games we build in debriefs and simple before-and-after checks.

Can a game be part of an event or a wider campaign?

That’s where games are strongest. Our film, design and comms teams can launch it, and Ludic Advisory’s event team can make it the live moment of a conference or offsite — at the table, or on the big screen.

Do you work globally?

Yes. Our global network of business-literate creatives works with teams wherever they are, and a digital game reaches every time zone at once.

Start a project

What’s your story?

Tell us what people need to learn, decide or do differently. We’ll find the game in it.

What happens next

  1. Tell us the story

    What you need people to see, understand or do — and who they are.

  2. We find the right team

    A lead from our team reads it and brings in the scribes, designers, animators or game designers the brief needs.

  3. We talk it through

    A short call about goals, audience, timings and budget, then a proposal with options.

What could we make together?

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