Agile Games France is intended for all agilists looking for an opportunity to test new games, do "crash tests", experiment, and facilitate all kinds of serious games (or not). A bit like Agile Games Alpes in the end 😁

This event has existed since 2012, with one exception in 2021 due to COVID. Like its little brother, the ticketing is often stormed by the event's regulars, who make up a good half of the participants. Something I noticed this year is that the average age dropped noticeably thanks to new, younger faces. A bit of renewal never hurts 🤗 This year, it took place on March 21 & 22. The chosen venue was the Novotel Valence Sud. Venue elected by a narrow majority (47%) against the other proposals which were Caen (41%) and Criteuil-Magdeleine (13%).

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The (numerous) regulars of the event enjoyed a "Before" on Thursday evening. Given the number of people present, it took place in 2 separate venues. As for me, I was part of the group settled at " La Réserve " in the city center.

The other party had already settled in at the hotel, enjoying its large terrace.

I'm not going to list all the games that were played there, because there are too many and I only took part in a very small portion. Gregory ALEXANDRE has written another post about the event that will give you another point of view on it and on the games played.

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Morning

So after the more or less quiet "before", we gathered in front of a good breakfast to build up strength before getting down to serious things.

The first stage of this marathon is the presentation of all the participants' proposals. The event being "unorganized", an open forum is set up so that everyone can advertise their activity, but also offer their market of inspiration.

I began my morning with a workshop on UnFix facilitated by Maxime Bonnet

This workshop wasn't really a discovery for me, but a good reminder of the fundamental principles of this toolbox. The exercise of imagining a company that follows the powers of 2 forces us to ask ourselves the right questions, guided by the different cards made available to us. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to go deeper, but it clearly makes you want to dig into the subject.

I then did an "Artist and Specifier … express", facilitated by Moïra Dgroote. So express that I didn't even take the time to take a photo 😅. Broadly speaking, the exercise consisted of this:

• Form groups of 3 people
• Have 2 of the 3 people leave the room
• Give written instructions for the production of a drawing (geometric in our case)
• Hide the productions of this first group
• Have a second team member come in
• Ask the 1st drawer to give the instructions to the newcomer to reproduce the drawing
• Do the same with the last team member
• Compare the final drawing with the original
• Debrief

The activity was really express and simple enough to make it an "ice breaker". What I retained from the debrief is that during the transmission of the information, nobody gave an overview or even simply the theme of the image to reproduce. The written instructions were passed on almost as-is to the last person in the chain, without really trying to simplify or improve them.
To make up for not having taken a photo, I captured another of Moïra's activities that she ran in the early afternoon. Apart from the content of the participants' sheets, her first activity had the same layout.

Of course, I asked what this second activity was about, and it's just as interesting. It was an "Agile MasterMind". From simple basic shapes (circle, square, triangle), filled or not, you had to guess the combination(5) established by the facilitator. But, otherwise it would be too easy, the correction is only done in batches of suggestions. That is to say that in the first round of the game, participants had to propose 6 combinations before getting their correction. Then in the second round, the batch of suggestions is reduced to 3, and finally in the last one to just 1.
I find that the illustration of the tunnel effect and the importance of having the shortest possible feedback loops is very powerful. Even though I couldn't take part, I will reuse this workshop.

After my express drawing, I went to attend Dynotopia facilitated by Rébecca Carlier and Lilan Roche. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get into the game. I already arrived late because of the previous activity, and the group already seemed too large for me to find my place. Having to rely on a spreadsheet to follow the game mechanics contrasted somewhat with the activities usually offered. I promise Rébecca, next time I'll get into it more seriously. A gift keychain was handed out to participants to thank them for their trouble 🦖🦕

Finally, to end the morning, I arrived late to the "The Bend" activity by Alexandre Boutin. With a simple stretchy fabric and a few balls, we were able to feel the instability of a system subjected to multiple changes. A multiplied effect in case of strong dependence between the actors. Several balls were distributed among the participants who had taken their place in this tense system. These balls had to be passed between participants by stealing the place of the person receiving the ball. A second iteration was done, but this time taking your left or right neighbor along in your run. When a single person moved, there were already some turbulences, but with your neighbor, we were clearly jostled.

And that's it for the first morning!

Afternoon

After a good meal, here we go again for the afternoon.

To open the ball, an original warm-up. Reusing the concept of "Chinese whispers", we had the "agile mime" facilitated by Johnny Blondel

This was followed by a play proposed by Remi Sarraillon, Mario Esposito, Sylvia Cohen and … Very entertaining, with a very convincing Rémi as a 3.0 manager.

Right after, it was my turn to facilitate a game!
It was with great pleasure that I co-facilitated a DeadLine session with Gregory Alexandre and suffice to say I was very happy with his presence. I have practiced this game rather little as a facilitator and doing it on 2 tables at once is a real challenge. Fortunately Greg was there to make up for my hesitations and answer my questions. The participants apparently enjoyed the game, but its total duration (>1h30) prompted us to sacrifice the last round so as not to keep the participants too long and let them enjoy other games.
I think I now master the rules well enough to offer it as a professional workshop. It remains to find to whom 😅 the fact that it's a game, and a long one at that, is not easy to sell.

I managed to escape from my GO role for a few minutes to see what was happening in parallel.
Right next to us was Alexandre with his Agile labyrinth.

In a slightly more isolated corner, Emmanuel Hervé was running a session of "TAO". (A veeeeery long game on his part)

After my workshop, I wandered around picking things here and there without a specific goal. I finally settled at Alexis Monville's workshop table. It was more of a reflection circle on the design of a new game that was running through his head … looking forward to seeing what he took away from it and what he's preparing for us.

I managed to sit down at the activity proposed by Aurore Chailloux around the game "Opale". As some may have guessed, this game is very largely inspired by the book "Reinventing Organisation" by Frédéric Laloux. It's not really an explanation of the concepts, but more a role-play around different issues with examples of leads to solve them. All against a backdrop of a race between teams.
A very interesting game to bring back down to earth certain managers who think of themselves as right-thinking and caring.

The end of the day approaching, I wait for the evening meal chatting with the participants. It's nice to chain games, but sometimes you have to stop and take the time to enjoy the others. Catch up with people you only cross paths with at this kind of event.

The rest of the evening is quite varied. Some continue with games, like (them again) Rébecca Carlier and Lilan Roche and their game "Kanban EV". I didn't take part, but it seemed like it was still heavy stuff … explaining Kanban via (how original) a car factory 😆

Otherwise, we had a "Blind Test", an evening gathering but without a campfire, a disco and of course, lots of small discussion groups.

The evening ended quietly at the hotel bar. Lots of friendly discussions, some illegitimate cocktails, a game of "Mao" (but I won't say more about that one). In the end, it was the hotel security guard who called the end of the game around 2 in the morning.

D2

The next morning, we put ourselves in the best possible conditions after this evening with a good breakfast.

During the morning, we could find Christophe Deniau with his Agile Impediment Game (I didn't take part).

Sabina Lammert introduced me to "Les Mondes 3D" (The 3D Worlds) which goes well beyond a simple prioritization game. She also mixes in groupings, dependencies, the interests of the different actors, and much more. But we lacked time.

In another corner, Patrice Boisieau was facilitating an "Ofman Quadrant" of which he kindly shared the principles with a help sheet and of course the quadrant to print.

In a private lounge we also had an "Agile Fresco", on the same model as the climate frescos.

Rébecca Carlier and Lilan Roche (always them) were facilitating their other creation, "The Mystery of the Pyramid of Toutankhascrum". Having played their initial idea at Agile Grenoble 2023, the final product they presented here is quite different. Even if the game principle is similar, the dressing has evolved very strongly. The scenario part has clearly been reworked from top to bottom and greatly enriched… to our greatest delight. So if you get the chance to meet them, don't hesitate to let yourself be tempted by a little game 😉

Moïra Dgroote (there are a few "serial facilitators") had gone on an adventure with ducks.

A game that is a regular feature of the event with a "Space Team", in 2 rooms, 2 atmospheres. On one side the board game, on the other its mobile adaptation.

But not everyone was busy. Some were chatting … others were sharing out the miniature bottles that had to disappear 🍾

Finally, a small collaborative online game by Olivier Azeau. Initially, an unambitious POC that eventually grew in scale and is quite interesting for team coordination. There are still a few bugs, but it seems very promising to me.

And unfortunately that's ALL for me. For a personal reason, I had to leave just after the meal. I don't regret it, because I know the best had already passed. From experience I know that the last afternoon is quieter, with mostly lots of discussions. Although admittedly these discussions are often very interesting and enriching and it's a shame not to take part in them, you can't always do what you want.

Thank you to all the participants for this timeless event full of great people you enjoy meeting again at each edition or at other agile events. 🤩