TabTalks is a design company that focuses on custom board and card games. Working with clients, TabTalks will unpack the learning needs of your organization or the difficult problems your stakeholders or community are facing and create games that provide a safe-space to engage in dialogue and learn.

TabTalks games aim to challenge assumptions and change the way people work together through friendly competition. All games are designed for success, but through embedded learning. The games create a safe space to facilitate face-to-face conversations and exploration of new ideas. Through purposeful play, paradigms can be challenged in a safe environment and new norms can emerge.

Disasters and games; what game am I playing?: Tabatha Soltay at TEDx

Problem

Understanding your needs and ensuring that the learning aims of the game are aligned with this is the most important part of developing a custom game. What do you want players to understand or know when they finish playing?

Prototype

Testing the game mechanics, first without content and then with, ensures that the game is easy to play for your target audience and that the content  delivers your learning objectives. Does the game deliver? If not – what needs to change?

Play

Developing additional resources and training game-hosts is essential to the game being delivered to your target audience. Developing parameters and ensuring you have time to play ensures learning. Are you ready to play?

Graphic & web designer

Kat Kavanagh

Kat, from Capra, creates beautiful graphics that make games easier and more joyful to play. Her company builds custom applications, with a focus on experimenting with new tools and finding the right solution for a problem. Kat has experience in game design and graphic design.

Game designer & writer

Jean-Philippe Veilleux

Jean-Philippe is a fiction writer and gamer who has been plotting and scheming with Tabatha since their days at Environment Canada. He has become a key collaborator in developing TabTalks’ games. With his extensive experience in storytelling he brings a unique flavour to TabTalks game projects.

Collaborators

The League of Intrapreneurs

The League of  Intrapreneurs Canada  promotes proactive, socially-motivated (and risk-taking) individuals innovating from within institutions and corporations. Tabatha, as someone who challenge the status-quo and help others ask difficult questions, is a founding participant of the League.

Collaborators

ISED Innovation Lab

The Innovation Lab is a multidisciplinary team of public servants who encourage the use of innovative methodologies to solve complex policy, program or regulatory challenges. The Lab uses design thinking to develop and test better ways of doing. Tabatha is a Lab supporter, alumni, and ally.