Team building workshop · Half or full day

Your team makes a video game. You get to know your team.

Solo, in pairs or in small groups, your people design a retro game on paper, build it with your own AI tools, then play each other's games. Half a day or a full day. No coding. Everyone takes the book home to make one with a kid they love.

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Half or full dayFrom $4,999 + GST8 to 40 peopleIn person or onlineNo codingYour AI tools

Where this came from

It started with a bowl of hot chips.

Pixel art: a bowl of hot chips, then the empty bowl as Harper plays Koala Trail on Steve's phone

I'm a professional uncle. Uncle by blood to my niece Harper, and Uncle Steve to a few other kids whose families have made room for me. I'm not a parent, so I get to choose what I bring to those relationships.

One night Harper and I were waiting on hot chips at a restaurant. The booth had built-in games and they were rubbish. So we made our own. Who's the hero? What's chasing her? How do you win? By the time the bowl was empty, we were playing it on my phone.

Then it happened again. And again.

Koala TrailDesigned by Harper, age 8Designed over a bowl of hot chips. Built before the chips were gone.

Harley's Dino DashDesigned by Harley, age 3Twenty minutes on the floor with textas. Now "can I play Harley's game?" is a sentence in two houses.

Snag HoundDesigned by a 9 year oldA full game design document, written by a kid. Starring Banjo the sausage dog.

Those afternoons became a book: Press Start Together, a guide for the significant adults in a kid's life to make a game with them.

See the book

Then I tried it on my team.

Rush Hour Makati character select: Guy from Accounts, who owns exactly one tie, and Girl from Marketing, who ran track in college

Rush Hour Makati, built at our team day. Pick your runner.

Kids don't hold back. Give them a blank page and they tell you exactly what they love. I wanted to know if adults would do the same.

So I ran it with the Learn Awesome team. A couple of hours on paper, then AI did the coding. They argued about who the good guy is, what the power-ups do and how you win. And they told me more about themselves in one afternoon than in a year of meetings.

It's never about the game. It's about the connection.

What I learnt about my team

People put themselves in the game.

What they love

The world people pick says a lot. Mine was our commute through Makati: stray cats, matcha lattes and kwek kwek from the street carts. You find out what people notice and care about.

How they express ideas

Some people draw. Some write the rulebook. Some pitch the story out loud and act it out. You see who comes alive when they get to make something.

How they think

Our Head of Delivery, a true systems person, wrote the tidiest game plan you've ever seen. Teamed up with one of our creatives, they came at the same game from opposite ends. That's the good stuff.

What matters to them

Two of the team built a game full of small symbolic moments. The games weren't perfect, and that's the point. What people choose to put in tells you who they are.

Why it works

You don't get this from a trivia night.

Rush Hour Makati how-to-play screen: matcha lattes, kwek kwek, stray cats and a phone booth on the walk to work

Matcha lattes, kwek kwek and stray cats. Our walk to work, in our game.

In almost two decades of running rooms, it's one of the most amazing sessions I've ever facilitated.

For a few hours I got a glimpse into their worlds. Literally. They built them, and invited me in. What makes them laugh, what they notice on the way to work, what they'd build if nobody told them what to build.

Everyone walked out with a working game. I walked out knowing my team better.

How the workshop runs

Four levels. One arcade.

Team up

Solo, in pairs or in small groups. Mixed on purpose: a systems thinker with a creative, someone quiet with someone loud.

Design on paper

The hero, the baddies, the power-ups, the rules, the world. No screens yet.

Build with AI

The worksheets become the prompt. The AI does the coding. Everyone ends up with a working game.

The arcade

Every game gets presented, then everyone plays everyone's game. Awards and high scores.

Hiding the veggies in the sauce

They think they're making a video game.

They are. They're also working through the big topics every organisation is wrestling with right now: AI, leadership, connection, and where people fit as the technology moves.

Nobody sits through a slide about any of it. It's all in the sauce.

On the plateIn the sauce

Picking a hero and a worldConnection. What people love, notice and care about comes out on paper.

Teaming upLeadership and collaboration. Who leads, who listens, how people land on one idea.

Writing the rulesSystems thinking. Every action has a consequence, and someone has to design it.

Power-ups and trade-offsDecision making. Incentives, risk and reward, what is worth the cost.

Prompting the AIAI fluency, human in the loop. Say exactly what you want, check what comes back, stay in charge.

Playtest and fixFeedback and iteration. Giving it, taking it, deciding what matters and shipping anyway.

The arcadeStorytelling and confidence. Standing up and showing something you made.

Built at the Learn Awesome team day

Two people. No code. One afternoon.

Andrea and I built Rush Hour Makati at our Learn Awesome team day: our walk to work, stray cats, matcha and all. Here's the rulebook we wrote on paper before the AI built a line of it. Play it below.

Rulebook · Rush Hour Makati3 lives · 1 clock

ObjectiveReach your desk by 9 o'clock
HazardGet bumped and you lose time
WeaponYour laptop is a boomerang
Trade-offPat a stray cat: 25% faster, but it costs 10 seconds
Power-upMatcha latte heals you and adds speed
GrenadeKwek kwek, the street food bomb
LifelinePhone a friend at work

Rush Hour MakatiBuilt by Steve and Andrea at the Learn Awesome team day

What everyone walks away with

Team building with something to take home.

Connection

They see how each other thinks, leads and listens.

AI confidence

A real build on tools they already have. No slides about AI.

Systems thinking

Rules, incentives and feedback loops, learned by playing with them.

The arcade

The games stay inside your organisation to share and celebrate.

The book

A copy of Press Start Together each, to run the same workshop with a kid they love.

The book they take home

Press Start Together. One for everyone.

Around 100 pages, written for the adult. Everyone leaves with a copy, so they can run the same thing at the kitchen table with a kid they love. Learn it once. Make unlimited games.

See the book

Angled view of the Press Start Together book by Steve Corney

Look inside

The contents page of Press Start Together

Chapter 4: It started with a bowl of hot chips

Chapter 20: The three lanes, a table of sessions for Littlies, Middles and Bigs

How the book works

Four levels, start to finish.

Learn the language

Thirty minutes for you, with a cuppa, before the kids are involved. What a game actually is, how AI actually works, and a field trip into their favourite game.

Design it together

Six short sessions on paper: the big idea, the hero, the baddies, the rules, the world, the paper playtest. You ask. They make every creative call. No screens yet.

Build it with AI

Hand the sheets to the AI one step at a time. With the kids beside you, or overnight while they sleep. Copy-paste prompts for every stage. About an hour.

Play, reveal, celebrate

The reveal. Launch night. The fridge page, the QR code, the family leaderboard. A certificate, a letter from you, a folder that outlasts the game.

Your AI, our method

Built on the tools your team already has.

Your team builds with the AI tools your organisation already uses. We bring everything else into the room.

The promptsTested, staged prompts that turn worksheets into a working game, one step at a time.

The templates and worksheetsStraight from the book and printed for everyone: hero, baddies, rules, world, playtest.

The facilitationSteve runs the room, keeps the clock and gets everyone to a playable game.

Sample run sheet · half day

Three and a half hours, start to arcade.

Going full day? You get everything here plus a second build round: custom artwork, deeper playtesting and a polished arcade.

Time	Stage	What happens
0:00	Press start	Why retro, the rules of the room, everyone teams up
0:20	Learn the language	What a game is: the loop, the rules, the score, an ending
0:35	Design on paper	Big idea, hero, baddies, power-ups, rules, world
1:35	Paper playtest	Rulebooks get swapped and poked full of holes, then a break
2:00	Build with AI	Worksheets become prompts and the AI does the coding
2:50	Playtest and tweak	Find what's broken, decide what matters, fix it
3:10	The arcade	Present, play everyone's game, awards
3:30	Debrief	What we saw in each other. Books handed out

Pick your game mode

Three ways to play.

Up to 20

Play

Pure team building. Games set in your world, your city, your office.

Up to 20

Campaign

The brief is a company theme: values, safety, a launch. The winning game gets polished and shared company wide.

40 and up

Big Room

For offsites and conferences. Everyone builds in parallel, Steve hosts, and the arcade closes the day.

Pricing

One workshop. Your way.

Half day or full day. In person or online, though in person is better: the paper, the arguing and the arcade hit differently in one room.

Starting from

$4,999+ GST

Half day or full day
In person or online
A copy of Press Start Together for every participant
Prompts, templates and worksheets for your AI tools

Book a chat

Player 1

Who runs it

Steve Corney

Professional uncle and professional problem solver. Almost two decades running rooms as a facilitator, trainer and MC. Founder of Learn Awesome, the learning design agency behind thousands of learning experiences for organisations like CSIRO, Boeing and NAB. He runs AI workshops and designs learning for some of Australia's largest companies. TEDx speaker and author of Press Start Together. Say yes, figure it out, and now he's passing it on.

TEDx speakerAuthorAI workshop facilitator

Questions

Before you press start.

How do I know it works?

I ran it with my own team first. In almost two decades of running rooms, it's one of the most amazing sessions I've facilitated. Everyone built a working game, and I got a glimpse into their worlds.

Can you run it online?

Yes. It works online and in person. In person is better: the paper, the arguing and the arcade hit differently when everyone is in one room.

Does anyone need to know how to code?

No. The AI does the coding. Your people ask good questions, make the creative calls and use the prompts we bring.

Which AI tools do we use?

Yours. We build on the AI tools your organisation already uses and bring the prompts, templates and worksheets into the room.

Is this only for tech teams?

No. It works best with a mix. The most interesting games come from people who think differently.

What will the games look like?

Retro on purpose. Three lives, a clock, a proper ending. The connection is the point, not the pixels.

What does it cost?

From $4,999 + GST, half day or full day, in person or online. Every participant gets a copy of Press Start Together. Book a chat and we'll shape it around your team.

Ready player one

Kick off the year with something they'll remember.

Tell me about your team and your date, and we'll work out the logistics. Half day or full day, in person or online, from $4,999 + GST.

Pick a time for a quick chat. It goes straight into my calendar. Rather email or call? That works too.

Emailsteve@learnawesome.com.au

Phone0414 830 535

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