Becoming a team in 60 minutes: how a Red Alert session unfolds

For anyone wondering how a Red Alert session unfolds: a minute-by-minute account from set-up to the scoreboard. Every session is different; the flow below is from a typical corporate event.

Set-up (before you arrive)

The chests, the Sphere and the screen arrive with our crew. One table per team, the Sphere in the middle, the screen on the wall. When the participants walk in the game is ready; nobody has to plug anything in.

00:00 – Briefing

Five minutes. The hacker's message on screen: the systems are locked, the virus is spreading, you have sixty minutes. The rules are short: open your chest, find the codes, stop the Sphere. The teams take their chests and the countdown starts.

00:05 – First drawer

The map game. Most teams make the same mistake here: three people lean over the same clue while the others wait. Five minutes later the division of labour appears on its own.

00:15 – Middle section

Light, Morse, laser, colour. The modules need different skills; the quiet person being the first to crack Morse is a familiar scene. Clues are free to take but cost time: this is where teams have the "do we ask or do we work it out" argument.

00:35 – Top lid and mainboard

The chest's top lid opens; solving the mainboard lights up the digit in the chest's hidden window. On its own the digit is useless.

00:40 – Team code

The key moment of the game. Each chest's digit is one digit of the team code that all the teams build together. A team that wants to stop its chest needs the other teams' digits. There are sessions where two teams are late to think of sharing, or one team sits down saying "we're done"; the best sessions are the ones where someone stands up and walks round the other tables.

00:50 – The Sphere

Once every chest has stopped, the final codes go into the Sphere and the virus stops when the keys reach the right position. The sound in the room at that moment is hard to describe; there is usually a second of silence before the applause.

Closing – Scoreboard and awards

The ranking on screen, team awards (first chest stopped, fastest game) and player awards (code breaker, clue hunter, Sphere whisperer). The table is shared as a PDF. In the optional debrief the questions are always the same: Where did we get stuck? Who was holding the information? Why did we delay asking for a clue? These are the questions that travel back to the office.

To plan a session, just send us your headcount and date.