Starship Icarus: A Conflict-Resolution Game
🖥️ Virtual or 🌆 IN-PERSON (WITH REMOTE HOST)
⌛ 90 minutes
💵 $2000+ per Group
👥 4-100 people
⏲️ 15+ days Lead time
📦 Specialized Kit Delivery FOR EACH PLAYER
🚀 Leadership Coaching Add-On OPTION
In this problem-solving game, we assign players a role on a starship and send a package of crucial supplies & information (including a secret individual goal). Only through communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution can they safely land Starship Icarus.
“while it is technically an online experience, it feels surprisingly tactile and collaborative." -Risa P.
“the different assets, skills, and goals assigned were great for making us get into our own world and work together as a team!” -Konrad C.
“This game taught me how to hold space for each of my teammates’ ideas while still prioritizing our group’s overall mission.” -Tiffany Y.
about the event
"Hello, crew members of the Starship Icarus! We submit our deepest apologies for waking you early from your cryosleep, but the ship has encountered some… unexpected issues that require your immediate attention. Take a look through your personnel packets, they have all the tools and information you’ll need. Ok crew, let’s get started."
Starship Icarus is an interactive game that can be played virtually or in-person, solving problems with the help of a live remote host. This game is designed in collaboration with an MIT- and Stanford-trained neurobiologist, an award-winning game designer, and a DEIB consultant/leadership coach. The game takes complex concepts of change management, conflict resolution, and consensus building and distills it down to simple and fun gameplay. Players work with the Starship Icarus’s AI (our actor/facilitator) to tackle a range of problems encountered by the ship.
During this game, participants will experience:
- Defusing the amygdala’s fight or flight response when situations get complicated through breathing and observation exercises.
- Productively managing the overwhelm of many urgent priorities, engaging skills of quickly building consensus to strategically prioritize.
- The complex balance of negotiating personal goals while achieving the team’s overall goals. What will your team members do when their personal goals conflict? Can they put aside their individual needs for the greater good of the team?
- The power of gratitude, especially in tense situations
- The benefits in eliminating hierarchy biases and holding space for even the most junior team member
- Communication and collaboration tasks that require participants to work together. Players are given siloed (or compartmentalized) information, where no one member of the team can see the entire problem or solution on their own.
- Opportunities to experiment in a low-stakes environment to encourage psychological safety
Groups have the option to add on a 30-minute discussion with a professional DEIB consultant following the game to solidify the takeaways and offer personalized feedback on team dynamics.
We can host up to 100 players in teams of 4-8. Larger groups will be divided based on their survey responses. Each team will work with a live actor/facilitator on the puzzles and clues.
HOW TO PREPARE
Just have your package ready, log into the videochat link at the time of your game, and our facilitators will take care of the rest. The experience is best on a desktop or laptop computer. Participants should all be on their own devices (even if they’re in a conference room together). Everything you need will be provided for you in the packages, or you will be instructed to gather it during the game.