Player Driven

Gamifying Corporate Culture: Turning Boring Training into Playable Stories w AJ Leece


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Summary:
In this episode, Greg chats with AJ Leece, the founder of Brekade, a studio transforming security training into engaging, story-driven video games. From his roots in ethical hacking to building games like “Fishing Expedition” and “SecOps Chaos,” AJ shares how he's gamifying the most dreaded parts of corporate training—and why that's the future of workplace education.

Key Takeaways:

  • Gamifying corporate training turns passive learners into active participants.
  • Boring topics (like InfoSec) come to life when wrapped in story and play.
  • You don’t need to be a full-stack developer to build great games—just curiosity and courage.
  • Player feedback = gold. AJ evolved his product based on student reactions.
  • “Productive laziness” is a feature, not a bug—automate the boring to unleash creativity.

Top Moments:

  • 04:52The D20 That Started It All: How AJ turned a dull compliance class into a D&D-inspired tabletop game.
  • 13:44Goombas and Burnout: A sneak peek at “SecOps Chaos,” AJ’s synthwave burnout simulator for security pros.
  • 19:40Cheap Wings, Big Ideas: AJ’s midweek pub sessions and the notebook that fuels his creativity.
  • 25:34Changing Perception, One Game at a Time: Why mid-sized companies are the sweet spot for gamified training.
  • 42:26Turning Weakness into a System: AJ shares how he built an app to capture ideas on the fly—his secret weapon against creative blockers.

Guest Links:

  • Brekade Website
  • AJ Leece on LinkedIn
...more
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Player DrivenBy Greg