Actabout: turning
civic action into something you can play.
We worked with Salwa Studio — a collective of artists and newcomers whose motto is "play to grow" — to design and create Actabout as both a board game and an online game.
Serious games, played seriously
Salwa Studio makes serious games that turn complex social ideas — civic engagement, collaboration, belonging — into hands-on experiences. Actabout takes that approach and applies it to how change actually gets made.
Learn by doing
Players negotiate, allocate scarce resources and live with the consequences — the same muscles community work asks for.
Two formats, one game
A physical board version for workshops and classrooms, and an online version for remote groups.
Made to be facilitated
Built so a facilitator can run it with a group that has never played anything like it before.
Our role in the build
Concept and game design
Working out the loop: what players do, what they trade, and what makes a round worth replaying.
Narrative and content
Writing the cards, scenarios and prompts so the game teaches without lecturing.
Visual and production support
Board layout, digital adaptation and the production files behind both versions.
Testing with real groups
Playtests with community groups and youth participants, then rewrites based on what actually happened at the table.
Want to build something people can actually play?
Workshops, training, campaigns and community programmes all work better when people are doing something rather than being talked at.