Sometimes one of the seven games in my catalogue is exactly right. I'll tell you so and we'll book it.

And sometimes it's close but not close enough. The team dynamic is odd. The culture shift is very precise. The strategic context is yours and nobody else's. That is when I sit down and design from scratch - mechanics built to your brief, not somebody else's game with your logo pasted on top.

So here's how I actually build one

I used to start with a theme. A clever storyline, a nice metaphor. It is by far the most fun part, and I still have to stop myself.

So these days I start with the brief. The exact behaviours you need to surface, who your people are, and what has to be true six months from now.

Then I engineer the decision architecture - the mechanics, the constraints, who knows what and who doesn't, and the consequences that make a bad call actually bite.

Theme comes last. It fits your world and it pulls your people in, but it never drives the design. Behaviour drives the design. Which is also why a game built for somebody else's brief, however good it is, tends to sit slightly off from yours.

Now the honest bit. A custom build costs more and takes longer than pulling a game that already exists. It earns that when the need is precise, the audience is specific, or you'll run it cohort after cohort after cohort - at which point a game made for your people quietly becomes the cheaper option per head.

Where a custom game earns its keep

A few of the briefs I have built from scratch:

• Read a leadership team before you restructure it. A diagnostic that shows how they really behave under pressure. Before the org chart moves under them, not after.
• Onboard your high-potentials without the induction snooze. They show you who they are in week one, not month six.
• Make an abstract culture change land as something people did. Not a poster in the lift. A decision they felt the consequence of.
• Get real behaviour out of an assessment centre instead of self-report. How candidates actually decide under pressure, not how they say they would.
• Plus: a conference keynote people are still talking about in March. A room of hundreds playing, not politely watching slides.

Sit with three questions before you write to me

You don't need a polished brief. Rough answers to these three are plenty:

• What behaviour or capability gap is actually costing you right now?
• Who's in the room, and what is their world like?
• Six months after the session, what is visibly different?

Bring those and we work out the rest together. No RFP, no obligation. And if a custom build is the wrong call for you, I will say so and point you at the game that isn't.

Or you could build it yourself

Some people reading this already know their subject better than I ever will. What they are missing is the design craft, not the content.

If that is you, there is a five-session mentorship where you design the game and I sit on the other side of it. You playtest between sessions, you finish with something you can run on Monday, and you own it outright.

The honest difference is who does the work. If you need it fast, or the stakes are high, have me build it. If you want to be able to build the next one without me, do it yourself.

Message me about your brief Call +91 99458 61640

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With love from Bengaluru, this is Arvindh saying over and out.