Our Mission

Games are a product of play. For all the beauty, all the structure, all the “juice”, it comes down to how a game interfaces with a player. Wax Wings Games is determined to produce games, supplements, and tools that remember their role as an invitation to play. Play that is intrinsically rewarding, and extrinsically supportive.

Wax Wings also stands for a rejection of aesthetic-as-substance. Too often games (including facilitated workshop experiences) bring only the most surface aesthetics, often referred to as Points, Badges, and Leaderboards (PBL). These aesthetics make things look like games, in the same way a poker machine looks like an interactive game. But in the same way, they are at best unintentionally pointless, and at worst harmful. Games that result from aesethic-as-substance are Frankenstein-ian, with the skin of well-designed methodologies draped over the skeleton of something much less ethical. As companies seek to gamify their ways of working, Wax Wings steadfastly rejects the dressing of KPIs with PBL, or the framing of powerpoint presentations as “exercise workshops”. Rather, than seeking “10 mind tricks to motivate players - Psychologists hate #4!”, Wax Wings is dedicated to design and facilitation that empowers players in making decisions, rather than manipulating them to generate outcomes.

Wax Wings works with international collaborators, however, our work is primarily produced on unceded Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung land and that of the broader Kulin nation. Wax Wings pays its respects to elders past, present, and future. 1% of all Wax Wings profits goes to Pay the Rent.