On the 22nd of June 2021, Amble Studio turned 1. Well, technically we started ambling earlier than that, but we had to choose a date and this one seemed to work well enough.

So how do we celebrate Year One of Amble Studio? It feels like so much, where do we even begin?

In true Amble fashion, we started by playing games! Collaborative tabletop games tend to be our favourite, and Amble Birthday was no different.

After games, out came the cupcakes (home made by Kiri and Logan), and we ordered some sugary treats to be delivered to Bec in New Zealand. Together, we toasted to our first year as Amble Studio. Then we got outside and went for a walk around the block, taking Bec on Hailey’s phone with us.

Post-walk we headed back inside and got down to ‘business’. By which we mean our fun and gameful reflection process!

A little background here; our weekly reflection is called The Night Sky, our monthly reflection is called New Moon, and the current title of our annual reflection is Amble Constellations. We carry a theme of stars and celestial bodies, of and reaching up and pushing ourselves to new heights. But also, importantly, of marvelling at beauty and appreciating each other.

Amble Constellations was designed by Ambler Logan, drawing on the theme of celestial bodies, and our culture of appreciation and care. Designing a process like this is just a short step away from game design, so he felt quite at home.

Our Amble Constellations began with each of us calling out a milestone that we had achieved this year. This milestone was represented as a large star. Around that star, we created smaller stars that represented all the individual tasks and decisions that went into making that milestone possible. As we went, we connected tasks and milestones to each other. This showed us how much effort went into each milestone, and how some tasks spilled out into new milestones that we didn’t foresee at the time.

Just some of the key milestones we hit in Amble Year One include:

🐑 Launching and streaming Green Hollow
📈 Building social media presence
🤓 Incorporating
🚀 Launching our website
⭐ Creating a number of internal processes

As we went through the process together, we discovered some things Logan was not expecting!

Firstly, when Logan designed this process, he expected each milestone to have discreet tasks. A milestone would have 10 or so associated tasks, and that was it. That milestone would be complete, and we could stand back and admire it before moving on to the next.

But what actually emerged was a much larger degree of interconnectedness. A task we did for one particular milestone also influenced and furthered another milestone. Tasks associated with different milestones were connected to each other. Milestones themselves were also connected. It showed me that nothing exists in a vacuum, and to pretend so is futile. We cannot take one achievement and set it apart from all the other work.

This is connected to the second noticing we had; the presence of our values and commitment to rhythm. A number of our tasks and milestones reflected the importance we placed on connecting to each other regularly, and building a culture where we can bring our whole selves to work and be met where we are and celebrated for it. In an exercise designed to be quite outcome oriented, it was surprising to see how strong our culture shone through regardless.

After writing down and connecting all these tasks and milestones, we stood back and wondered at all we had accomplished. We reflected on our feelings and contributions, what made us proud and what we wished was different. 

Then we turned our gaze towards the incoming year, and all it may hold for us.

Congrats Amble on celebrating Year One! We should be proud of all we have accomplished, from games to connections to culture. Can’t wait to see what else is in store!

Stay safe everyone.

This article was written by Logan Timmins on Wurundjeri land. Amble Studio pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

Banner image by Frantisek Duris. First article image taken by Logan Timmins, second article image taken by Jose G Ortega Castro.