Awesome New Project

2 to 4 players | Age 10+ | 45-90 minutes | Cooperative

You and your friends have an idea for an awesome new project, and you need to get it from concept to reality.

Here is a screenshot of Awesome New Project as available digitally on Tabletopia. We see the board for ANP with three coloured bags. Scattered on the board is one character card; The Maker all set up, a number of action cards and challenge cards too. At the bottom is the motivation track, with all players in the middle of the track. On the right is the scenario card, showing that this team is trying to create a cactus shop as their Awesome New Project.

Awesome New Project is a cooperative game that challenges players to deliver their goals and face mounting challenges, before their motivation runs out.

Come and play it with us online, or in person!

How it works

Awesome New Project simulates the dynamics and challenges common to working in small teams. Players use action cards to generate connection, resource, and product tokens that are needed to complete project goals. The team wins when all the goals are completed, but it often feels impossible to do everything that’s required.

Here is an image of two action cards and one goal card from Awesome New Project. The first action card is titled Hustle and reads 'You work hard in your available time to make progress'. The second is titled Communicate and reads 'You craft a piece of media improving clarity in your team, and with others'. The goal card is Primary Research and reads 'Hit the streets and test your idea with some people. Lots of people.' It requires two connection, two resources and one product token to be generated and allocated to the goal to be completed.

Each player has a unique combination of needs, skills and drives. Personal needs require tokens each round, drives can both help and hinder, and skills are often the only way out of a tough situation. Each round, an individual or group challenge is revealed, adding new obstacles.

One of the four available characters is called the Facilitator. The Facilitator helps their teammates do what they do but better. To the left we see their drive card, which details what motivates the Facilitator to be part of this Awesome New Project. To the right we see their personal responsibilities represented by two green squares. This means that every round the Facilitator will need two resource tokens to cover their personal responsibilities outside of the project.

When players are doing well, their motivation goes up, giving them more cards and abilities. When challenges grow, motivation dwindles, and the whole project threatens to grind to a halt. Success is a constant balancing act between doing the work, meeting personal needs, and keeping up motivation - just like a real project.

Why it's different

Many project simulations put the player in the role of an omniscient manager. Awesome New Project instead emphasises the challenging interpersonal dynamics of working in a small team towards shared goals.

Veteran collaborators find it cathartic, while novices stand to learn and avoid common pitfalls.

For new teams, it’s a great way to catalyse conversations that will improve their chance of success.

Ready to try Awesome New Project?

We are currently offering free demonstrations of Awesome New Project to fellow explorers, and to those interested in one of our workshops.

Hit us up in the contact form below!