This week is the big debut of your newest online team building game, Secret Agent: The First Mission. As we discussed in a recent blog post, this is our second venture in creating an online team building game, and we’ve learned a lot from our earlier experiences.
Since this game is a big step forward for us, we want to talk to you about some of the features in this new game that are different or that we improve on when compared with our earlier game (Tabitantei).
Needless to say, we are very proud of Tabitantei and the work we put into it, and it is still a game that we highly recommend for teams to try. But there is always room for improvement, and so we used a lot of the feedback we received from Tabitantei when designing Secret Agent.
This blog post will explain the features of our new online team building program, and what your team can expect from this unique and exciting experience.
1. Design and User Experience
Some of the biggest improvements that we made this time around were to design and user experience (thanks in large part to our new full stack developer). Our goal was to make the game as smooth and seamless as possible. We wanted to create a game where teams could focus on the challenges and on each other, without having to have many issues with confusing graphics or bugs.
Secret Agent: The First Mission really does look great. It leans a little more heavily into the “gaming” side, in order to give players a true online experience. And we’ve incorporated our puzzles more seamlessly into the digital environment, so that the user experience and overall gameplay feels very fresh and easy-to-use.
2. Exciting international storyline
While our first game, Tabitantei, focused on traveling around Japan, this time we decided to go bigger. Secret Agent: The First Mission features a story that is set on the world stage, with players getting to “travel” to other cities outside of Japan, most prominently Paris, on a sleuthing-style spy mission. This is an exciting theme that gave
This is a great way for players to get to experience the world in this time of travel restrictions. We know that many people are feeling disconnected from the rest of the world since they have to stay put for the time being. Hopefully our new game refreshes their sense of connectedness with the global community, and gives them a virtual taste of the pleasures of traveling internationally.
This internationally-minded storyline also fits in with who we are as a company and our emphasis on bilingual team building. Our philosophy has always been that we can connect people of different cultures, nationalities and languages through puzzle-solving activities. Secret Agent: The First Mission, in both it’s story and it’s substance, is a literal embodiment of our credo.
3. Creative new puzzles
By creative we truly mean creative. Many of our previous puzzles have been created by going to a real location and using elements that we found there. For Secret Agent: The First Mission, we designed puzzles from scratch. This both tested our creativity and led to some really original puzzle designs. It also fits in well with a virtual environment, in which the scope for creation is wider, and you can do a lot of things that aren’t possible in real life.
We also tried to include new puzzle types and concepts. When we were first starting out with the design of our first online game, we really wanted to incorporate asynchronous information challenges (challenges in which different team members are given different bits of information that they have to put together).
At the time, we didn’t have the know-how to incorporate it into our first Tabitantei game. However, now we have a lot more skills and experience, and so we have added asynchronous puzzles, as well as other types of puzzles that we haven’t tried before, into Secret Agent: The First Mission. There are so many fun and creative puzzles in this game that utilize other media too, like video.
4. Increase connectedness in your online team
Besides all the innovative features and improvements in game design and puzzles, at its core Secret Agent: The First Mission is a team building activity. And so it’s number one goal is to increase communication and deepen relationships among team members.
Online and hybrid teams especially need more opportunities to connect and form relationships. The usual method of forming relationships in the office or at after-work drinking parties can no longer be relied on as the only path to building tighter connections among team members.
Invite Japan has designed Secret Agent: The First Mission with this in mind. We have striven to make cooperation and communication a more fundamental part of the game concept, and to emphasize these skills in new and fun ways. From start to finish, this is a game designed for online teams with online teams’ specific needs and challenges, particularly when it comes to communication, in mind.
Bonus: Just in time for end-of-year and new-year celebrations!
One last feature of Secret Agent: The First Mission is that it is coming out just in time for end-of-year and new-year parties. This game is a great way to celebrate your successes as a team while getting them to think consciously about how their team operates. It’s also perfect for any type of team. Obviously online and hybrid teams will benefit from this online game.
However, even if your team has returned to in-person work, you may not be quite ready to return to in-person parties. If that’s the case, an online event like Secret Agent: The First Mission can be the alternative you are searching for–one that can accomodate large groups playing at once, while also providing a brand new experience.
Apart from Secret Agent: The First Mission, we have our other online team building game, Tabitantei, available for teams to play. As part of our team building lineup, we also offer a range of other activities including scavenger hunts, and in-person programs and workshops.
Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash
