Recent Projects

Developed with renowned game designer Jane McGonigal on behalf of the World Bank Institute, Urgent Evoke is part social game and part crash course in changing the world.

The Foresight Engine won't tell you what's going to happen in the next 50 years, but it probably knows all the same. Created with our friends at the IFTF, this online game crowdsources ideas, stretches thinking, and casts our sights toward ... the future.

AOK is a social game for social good. The currency is kindness. The collaborators are the founders
of TGO.tv and SHFT.com.

Gameful.org is a "Secret HQ for world-changing game designers" and a collaborative enterprise with
thousands of monsters hell-bent on the positive power of play.

Teh Daily Scrambler is a Twitter race to unscramble the headlines (and get newsified doing it). Just tweet @scrmblr with the #tag and your answer. Odog ckul!

If we didn't promptly answer your email last week, it was probably because we were entrenched in an Applied Gaming Workshop. These one- or many-day sessions tease the senses with Applied Gaming principles and send participants home with their very own game design toolkit (made entirely of magical ideas!).

We built Shmoozl in about the time it takes to cook a lamb, but we’re still proud of this real-time reputation minigame. It brings the simplicity of LinkedIn recommendations to the mayhem of the conference setting.

Survival Horizon is less of a game and more of a daily reminder that, hey, maybe the end of humanity is just around the corner. Developed for the IFTF's Future of Persuasion.

In the shadow of a million-dollar intranet that nobody uses, Zipline is our ongoing conversation about Knowledge Management Systems, usability, and gameplay.

News Archives

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Playing Games with Higher Education

Posted on March 26th, 2010

Professor Lee Sheldon’s students aren’t so fussed about As or Bs. For them, it’s all about the XP.

Instead of traditional grades, game design students earn experience points from their Indiana dungeonmaster. According to Professor Sheldon, “the elements of the class are couched in terms they understand, terms that are associated with fun rather than education.” We couldn’t have said it better.

The idea resonates with the Baxters who, neck deep in a hoppy North Pacific IPA, speculated about a future workplace with similar game bent. After all, what is a quantitative performance review if not an opportunity to level up?

We’re interested in discovering how Sheldon’s system accounts for qualitative measures (style points?), and it looks like we’ll have the opportunity to ask him directly: the innovative prof has invited the Baxters to sit in on a game design class. Look for our report in a mid-April post.

h/t Escapist Magazine

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