ONBOARDING · WHENEVER A COHORT STARTS
Onboarding events where a new cohort actually meets the company
New hires meet their manager, their laptop and a compliance video. They rarely meet each other, and almost never meet anyone outside their own team, which is exactly what makes month three lonely.
- Runs
- whenever a cohort starts
- Teams start booking
- two weeks before day one
- 5-10,000 players
- In the browser, no installs
- Priced per event, not per head
Pick the game, the date and the headcount, and the price is on screen. No quote call.
Bureau of Magical Affairs
- Mission 8-Bit
- Office Chaos
- +55 more games for this occasion
Vertrouwd door HR-teams wereldwijd
TWO FORMATS
One live session, or a week of play
- LIVE
Big Game
A host brings everyone into the same story at the same time. The whole company in one session.
70-90 min · live host · 5-10,000 players
For this occasion
Sixty to seventy-five minutes on the Friday afternoon of week one, once the required training is done.
- ASYNC
Marathon
The same story over 1-5 days. People play when their day allows, and the leaderboard closes at the end.
1-5 days · no host · any time zone
For this occasion
A week of play for a large intake, so a cohort spread across time zones starts together without anyone taking a late call.
OUR PICKS
Our three picks for a new cohort
A game about being the new hire, a build-and-ship arc, and a first day at the most chaotic office in town.
- Top pick
AVONTUREN · Big Game / Marathon
Bureau of Magical Affairs
Een geheim bureau dat magie reguleert. U bent de nieuwe medewerkers
Why it fits
The one we lead with for onboarding, and the best fit in the catalog for it. A secret office that regulates magic, and the players are the new hires: chaos meeting paperwork is what week one already feels like.
Inside the game
AVONTUREN · Big Game / Marathon
Mission 8-Bit
Uw team zit vast in een retro arcade
Why it fits
For engineering cohorts. The arc runs setup, build, ship, so a group that has never worked together finds out how it works together before anyone touches the real thing.
Inside the game
AVONTUREN · Big Game / Marathon
Office Chaos
Your first day at the most chaotic office in town
Why it fits
Its tagline is "your first day at the most chaotic office in town", which is the joke a new cohort is ready for. Every floor is a coworker to help, so the hour is spent meeting people, and that is the point of week one.
Inside the game
ALSO FITS
Also fits a cohort week
- AVONTURENUITGELICHT
Last Temple Mystery
Ontcijfer een oude tempel voordat de tijd op is
Big Game · MarathonBekijk details → - MYSTERIES
Wintervald Hotel Mystery
Een ingesneeuwd hotel. Een verdwenen gast. Uw team onderzoekt
Big Game · MarathonBekijk details → - AVONTURENUITGELICHT
Apocalypse
De wereld vergaat. Uw team heeft 90 minuten
Big Game · MarathonBekijk details → - TRIVIA
Icebreaker Trivia
Get-to-know-you rounds about your colleagues
Big Game · MarathonBekijk details → - TRIVIA
Pop Culture
Memes, virale momenten, internetgeschiedenis
Big Game · MarathonBekijk details → - OP MAAT
Bouw uw eigen event
Vertel uw verhaal. Wij bouwen de game.
→
What teams ask for
- A first week where the cohort has one shared memory that is not a policy document.
- Longer-tenured people mixed in, so new joiners leave with names outside their own team.
- Something repeatable, because the next cohort starts in six weeks.
What to steer clear of
- Icebreakers that ask people to be interesting on demand, in front of strangers, on day one.
- An event only for the new joiners. It makes a class, and a class stays separate.
WHEN TO BOOK
Book the cadence, not one event
The next cohort starts in six weeks. The booking worth making is the standing one.
- 1
4-8 weeks out
Set the cadence
Most cohorts are booked four to eight weeks ahead. If intakes come monthly or quarterly, book the year at once: one build, run on a schedule, and less per event than booking them one at a time.
- 2
10 business days out
The floor for a customized game
Most cohort events do not need customization, because the value is who is in the room. If you do want your world branded or your leaders in it, it still needs ten business days.
- 3
3 business days out
The floor for a live game
A hosted Big Game off the shelf. Two business days for a Marathon. Two weeks before day one is enough to get the slot you want.
- 4
Friday of week one
Mid-afternoon, after the paperwork
Run it once they have finished the required training and met their own teams. Seventy-five minutes is the ceiling for first-week energy.
Cohort events run whenever a group starts, with peaks in January, July and September. Two weeks before day one is enough, and booking the whole year's cohorts at once is cheaper than booking each.
MAKE IT YOURS
Make it your company, not a generic welcome
- $1,000
Your branding
Your logo and colors through the game world and on the leaderboard the cohort sees at the end.
- $2,500
Your people in the game
Your leaders as characters the cohort meets inside the game, so the first sight of the exec team is not a recorded welcome video.
- $5,000
Your story
Your onboarding week as the plot: the systems they just learned, the teams they just met, your own inside jokes. It earns its price when the same build runs for every intake all year.
Take one, or all three for $7,500. Any customization needs 10 business days.
Coca-Cola HBC
- The brief
- LearnFest runs for the whole company. The closing event had to hold 6,000 people across 28 countries at the same time, on one connection, with no installs.
- What we built
- Two 30-minute virtual journeys back to back, Tokyo then New York, hosted end to end.
- people in one event
- 6,000
- countries
- 28
- journeys, back to back
- 2
- start to finish
- 60-70 min
Citibank
- The brief
- 800 people in a banking operation, on shifts and in branches, who could not all be online at any one hour.
- What we built
- Game Marathon over a single day, branded, about 10 minutes per person, played whenever their shift allowed.
- completed in one day
- 800
- support request in total
- 1
- attendance rate
- 86%
- would recommend
- 93%
Playrix
- The brief
- A global mobile-games studio wanted an event their people would recognise as theirs, not as a vendor's template with a logo dropped on it.
- What we built
- Austin, their own character, rebuilt as a playable NPC: he greets the team, sets the tasks and reacts to what they do.
- participants
- 180
- attendance
- 90%
- custom scenes
- 6
- would recommend
- 95%
Pick the game, the date and the headcount, and the price is on screen. No quote call.
MORE DATES
Other occasions worth planning now
NEW YEAR KICKOFF · JANUARY 6 – FEBRUARY 14
The January kickoff, minus the ninety-minute slide deck
The first all-hands of the year sets the tone for the next eleven months, and most of them are last quarter's review with a new cover slide. The goal is not information, it is that people leave the hour feeling like one company.
COMPANY ANNIVERSARY · ON YOUR FOUNDING DATE
Company anniversary events that bridge year one and year ten
A milestone is the one event with a story already written: yours. The trap is that the story only belongs to the people who were there, and most of the company was not.
Questions we get
- Does this replace onboarding?
- No. It is the hour where the cohort meets people, which onboarding usually leaves out. Everything else about your programme stays where it is.
- What size cohort does this suit?
- Anything from five to a few hundred. Below fifteen a shorter icebreaker format fits better than a full game.
- Can we run the same event for every cohort?
- That is the usual arrangement: one build, run on a schedule. Teams that book the year up front pay less per event than booking them one at a time.
- Should anyone besides the new hires be in the room?
- Yes, and it is the decision that makes the event work. Mix in managers and a few longer-tenured people, then split the squads across tenure. A cohort that only plays with itself leaves with the same names it walked in with.
- How much does our team have to run on the day?
- For a Big Game, nothing beyond sending the link: a host runs the session. A Marathon has no host at all, so people play their stage when they can. Nobody on your side has to stand up and MC on a Friday afternoon.