Disrupt!/Games!/ kicked off in Tunis on Friday at Cogite Coworking Space, and right upon arrival, the 30 participants faced their first challenge of the day – a “gamified” lunch.
After being divided into teams of 5, the teams learned of their three lunch options – a delicious Lebanese platter complete with salad and dessert, a normal sandwich and soda, or a simple lentil soup. To decide who got what lunch, the teams had 20 minutes to collect as much litter in the neighborhood as possible, with plastic bottles worth 5 points, plastic bags worth 1 point, and a full trash bag worth 10 points. In just 20 minutes, the teams collected over 50 full bags of trash, and even managed to solicit the help of others in the neighborhood to join in too.
Having worked for their lunch, the participants settled in for a breakdown on the concept of gamificiation from trainer Walid Sultan Midani, the founder of Tunisia’s first digital game studio Digitalmania. Assisting Walid was trainer Adel Beznine, the co-founder of Boost, Tunisia’s first seed accelerator.
Following them, we were thrilled to have special guest Dimme van der Hout visiting Tunis from the Netherlands. Dimme is the founder of video game company Monkeybizniz. He shared his experiences in developing games, working with clients, and creating experiences that can be educational and fun at the same time.
We ended Friday with the first pitch competition, where each team had 3 minutes to present their idea to the group in preparation for their final pitches to a jury on Sunday. All participants started the weekend with 0 seconds for their final pitch, but over the course of the weekend, they were able to win time for being on time, working with mentors, and for wining smaller games throughout.
For this first pitch practice, the presenters each received a Tunisian word that they had to convincingly insert somewhere into their pitch. After each pitch, the group guessed what the “magic word” was, and trainers gave candid feedback for each concept. The first day ended with time for one-on-one work with the team of mentors before closing for the day.
On Saturday morning, the teams again faced the test of arriving on time to win another 30 seconds for their pitch. Walid and Adel launched the first activity of the day with a set of storytelling dice. Each side of the 9 dice had a picture on it, with the challenge of coming up with a story using all the dice. The game again tested the participants’ ability to speak in public and think on their feet.
The rest of Saturday morning was dedicated to game methodology, led by Walid, which covered how games are designed as well as how systems of merits and rewards are built in. Walid exposed participants to four main axes that video games fall in to: role playing, storytelling, cooperation, and competition. Participants charted their game ideas along those four axes to better define the strategy of challenges and rewards.
On Saturday afternoon, Adel took over in working on the business side of the games by first presenting the basics of the business model canvas. Then, each team worked on their own canvas and presented it to the group for feedback.
Once everyone had a basic understanding of their own business models, it was time to go to the advanced level. Professor and business modeling expert Chahira Mehouachi Skyped in from Paris to lead a presentation on how to better define your value proposition in relation to competitors in the market place, and talked more broadly about the need to position their ideas in a global market place and not just in Tunisia.
The day ended with a bit of fun with a selfie scavenger hunt game throughout the Berges du Lac neighborhood, with one team winning the prize of selecting when they present on Sunday. We’re so excited to see what the teams will bring today for the final pitch competition.