The scenario. The narrative goal was to take families away from their daily lives. I wrote a fantasy universe drawing on the real history of the Aubinière estate : a spell has poisoned the forest, players are scientists sent to investigate and lift the curse. 1h30 sessions, 8 players each, accompanied by a game master in character.
The work method. Given the team’s makeup, I set up a hybrid approach. Agile meetings for decision and co-creation moments, design thinking workshops I facilitated for ideation, and weeklies to share progress. Concretely : the big directions were validated collectively, and between meetings I designed the mechanics on my own before submitting them to the group. It was more efficient for everyone, and respected each person’s actual availability.
Team management. That’s where I learned the most, because it was new to me. Working with people who aren’t from the games industry, who don’t want to be there, or who can’t dedicate much time to it. I had to learn to adapt my vocabulary (no game design jargon that excludes), to manage motivation (show concrete results quickly, make sure each meeting produced something visible), and to calibrate the level of co-creation (involve without overloading). These reflexes still serve me today in agency work.
The budget constraint. A lot of recycling for the game’s physical materiality. Build puzzles with what’s at hand, prototype with cardboard before making the final version, lean hard on resourcefulness. It was formative for design choices (no fluff, every element has to earn its keep).
The handoff. At the end of my internship, the project was taken over by a project manager on civic service for the season’s logistical organization (slots, bookings, animator). So I spent the last weeks documenting : full rules, mechanic sheets, game mastering scenarios, edge cases. A good school for handover work, which taught me to write docs that are actually usable by someone else.
