Game CoLab
Build It. Play It. Own It.
What happens when your team stops playing by the rules and starts creating them?
Game CoLab is a hands-on team-building experience where your group designs, builds, and plays a custom card game together.
Using playful prompts, challenge cards, dice, timers, points, and house rules, teams create a game that reflects how they think, communicate, solve problems, and play.
The best part?
Your team does not just play a game. They build one they can keep.
Build It.
Play It.
Own It.
At a Glance
Game CoLab is designed to get people creating together quickly.
Teams are split into two groups. Each group builds their own card deck, writes original prompts, creates simple rules, and decides how their version of the game will work.
Then comes the twist.
Teams play the game, taking turns playing the other team's version.
Build it Together
Game CoLab is not about making the perfect game.
It is about what happens when people build something together, test it, laugh through the messy parts, and adjust as they go.
Every player contributes in a different way. Some people create funny prompts. Some organize the rules. Some think about strategy. Some bring imagination. Some notice what is missing. Some make sure the game actually works.
By the end, your team has more than a shared experience.
They have a custom card game they created together and can keep using.
The Goals
Build Something Together
Your team works together to create a real card game from scratch.
They decide the rules, write the prompts, choose the tools, and shape how the game will be played.
Explore Different Play Styles
Game CoLab uses playful card types to help people contribute in different ways.
Jokers bring humour.
Creators make things visible.
Dreamers act things out.
Organizers bring structure.
Explorers discover new ideas.
Connectors build common ground.
Competitors add energy and challenge.
Storytellers turn facts and ideas into stories.
Wildcards change the rules.
Everyone has a way in.
Communicate Clearly
A good game needs clear rules.
Teams have to make decisions, explain their ideas, and design cards that another group can actually understand and play.
That is where the real team-building happens.
Play What You Created
After building, teams swap decks and play.
They get to see what works, what gets confusing, what makes people laugh, and what makes the game better.
It is creative, active, and a little unpredictable in the best way.
Setting the Stage
Built for creativity, not another boardroom session.
Game CoLab starts with a table full of cards, dice, timers, pencils, rule sheets, and blank prompts waiting to be made.
Teams jump in quickly, choose their game mode, build their rules, and create the cards the other team will have to play.
Everyone has a role. Everyone has a way in. And by the time the game begins, the team has already started creating it.
How it Works
Build the Game
Teams create simple rules, choose a game mode, and write their own challenge cards using playful card types.
Swap Decks
Each team trades decks and plays the game the other team created.
Play, Test, and Own It
Teams play through the game, adjust what needs fixing, and leave with a custom card game they built together.
For our team there was the genius of moving back and forth between work-based concerns and goals to just plain fun, and I saw the result of that technique come out in the final brainstorm that produced some really great things for our team projects.
James Kornelsen
Manitoba Council for International Cooperation
What Your Team Walks Away With
In one session, your team does not just talk about collaboration. They build something together, test it, play it, and make it their own.
Participants leave with a shared experience, a better understanding of how they create together, and a custom card game they can keep using after the session ends.
