From FLIGBY to Late Shift
FLIGBY: Leading the Way in Serious Gaming for People Analytics
FLIGBY stands out as a unique force in the “serious gaming” market, carving its own niche by combining immersive storytelling with advanced people analytics. Unlike traditional games, FLIGBY turns the user’s decisions into a detailed skills profile that evaluates 29 essential people competencies. This approach lets players not only engage with a compelling narrative but also receive detailed, actionable feedback on their leadership and interpersonal abilities—making FLIGBY much more than just a game; it’s a powerful personal development tool.
Over the years, FLIGBY has developed into the most advanced and precise tool for analyzing human behavior in virtual environments. Its analytics framework is trusted by business organizations worldwide and has also become a key focus for academic research. Today, FLIGBY is one of the most studied serious games in academia, supported by a wide research network that continually investigates and confirms its methodologies. This ongoing research keeps FLIGBY at the forefront of both technological innovation and scientific rigor in the field of people skills assessment.
How FLIGBY’s People Analytics Works
FLIGBY’s people analytics engine is at the heart of its unique value. As players navigate the interactive movie, every decision they make—over 150 throughout the simulation—is meticulously tracked and analyzed. These choices are not just about advancing the storyline; each one is designed to test and measure specific leadership and people skills in real time.
The system evaluates the impact of each decision on individual, business, and organizational outcomes, capturing patterns in decision-making and interpersonal dynamics. By the end of the game, FLIGBY’s analytics generate a comprehensive report that details the player’s abilities across 29 essential people skills. This report provides a nuanced overview of strengths and areas for improvement, offering actionable insights for personal and professional development.
FLIGBY’s methodology goes beyond just scoring. It uses advanced behavior analysis to interpret how players handle complex interpersonal and business challenges, creating a dynamic and precise leadership profile. This approach not only helps individuals understand their own skills but also supports organizations in identifying skill gaps and developing targeted strategies for growth.
When Two Worlds Collide: The Encounter of FLIGBY and Late Shift
The story of FLIGBY and Late Shift coming together started with a chance meeting. In spring 2020, a mutual friend—familiar with both ALEAS Group and CtrlMovie—recommended a meeting between Scott C. Silver, head of CtrlMovie, and Zsadany ZAD Vecsey, head of ALEAS, along with their teams. This first meeting quickly led to a series of productive consultations, where each side showcased their main solutions and gradually discovered the strong synergy between their approaches. CtrlMovie introduced its innovative project, Late Shift, which was already known as the most successful interactive movie of its kind.
The Genre and Story of Late Shift
Late Shift is a genre-defining interactive crime thriller that puts viewers in the shoes of the protagonist, challenging them to make vital decisions that directly shape the story. Set in London, the story follows Matt, a college student who unexpectedly gets involved in a high-stakes heist. The film’s engaging, branching storyline ensures that every choice results in a unique outcome, offering viewers a truly participatory cinematic experience.
Late Shift made waves not only for its gripping story but also for its pioneering contributions to filmmaking. Late Shift’s three major innovations:
- First Hollywood-Standard Interactive Movie – Late Shift was the first interactive movie made to Hollywood standards, establishing a new benchmark for quality in the genre.
- Innovative Decision-Making Mechanic – The film introduced a unique decision system: viewers have only five seconds to make each choice. If they don’t decide in time, the movie engine makes a random selection, seamlessly advancing the story. This design led to CtrlMovie’s famous tagline, “no decision is a decision too,” and ensured that the narrative never pauses, maintaining immersion and engagement throughout.
- Interactive Movie Platforms – CtrlMovie developed specialized software, called the “Creator” and the “Editor.” These tools support every stage of interactive movie production—from scriptwriting to post-production—making the complex process of creating branching narratives both easier and more efficient for filmmakers.
As discussions deepened, both parties found themselves fascinated by each other’s expertise. ALEAS was eager to learn about Hollywood’s innovative production techniques, while CtrlMovie was intrigued by FLIGBY’s comprehensive system for analyzing user decision-streams and transforming them into actionable insights.
Laying the Foundation for a Joint Project
At this crossroads, Zoltan Papp—a serial entrepreneur and investor already involved with FLIGBY and ALEAS Technologies (the company behind FLIGBY’s people analytics)—proposed formalizing the collaboration. He envisioned a joint venture to explore integrating these two worlds, suggesting to “upgrade” Late Shift with FLIGBY’s advanced analytics. This idea marked a pivotal moment in edutainment history, promising to merge cinematic storytelling with cutting-edge people analytics for a truly next-generation interactive experience.
Turning Vision into Reality: Overcoming Integration Challenges
Zoltan’s idea to combine FLIGBY’s people analytics with Late Shift’s interactive cinema initially seemed straightforward, but it quickly became evident that the task was much more complex than expected. As Zad Vecsey later explained, the development team encountered a series of major technical and conceptual challenges before this groundbreaking integration could be achieved. The first significant hurdle was reverse engineering. FLIGBY’s analytics engine was originally custom-made for its own simulation, closely integrated with the story, structure, and specific decision points of FLIGBY. To adapt this advanced system for Late Shift—or any other interactive movie—the team needed to rethink and generalize the core logic. This involved establishing universal rules to convert user choices from any narrative into accurate skill assessments. This foundational work not only enabled the analytics to be used across other films and simulations but also laid the foundation for patenting the overall approach to measuring skills in interactive experiences.
Adapting to Faster, Simpler Decisions
Another key challenge arose from the very nature of Late Shift. Unlike FLIGBY, where players can contemplate complex, multifaceted decisions, Late Shift’s narrative flows continuously, requiring rapid choices—often within just five seconds. These decisions, while immersive, are simpler and less nuanced than FLIGBY’s. To ensure meaningful analytics, the team once again enlisted academic experts from psychology, decision-making, and literature. They meticulously analyzed every decision embedded in Late Shift, considering the broader narrative context and mapping choices to classic storytelling frameworks—such as the “hero’s journey.” This interdisciplinary approach ensured that even brief, high-pressure decisions could be interpreted for deeper insights about user behavior and skills.
Bridging Two Data Worlds
On the technical side, the integration involved overcoming a major data structure mismatch. Late Shift’s datastream was built using CtrlMovie’s proprietary standards, while FLIGBY’s analytics engine required a different format. The solution was to create a new algorithmic “bridge” that could translate and synchronize data between the two systems, enabling ALEAS Technologies’ analytics to process and evaluate decision data from Late Shift accurately.
This ambitious process—covering technical innovation, narrative analysis, and interdisciplinary collaboration—took nearly a year to complete. The outcome was a robust, generalizable analytics system capable of enhancing interactive movies like Late Shift with actionable, scientifically validated people skills profiles, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of edutainment.
Blending Entertainment with Personal Development
Recognizing Late Shift’s broad appeal—especially among Gen Z gamers on platforms like Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam—the team aimed to create two innovative assessments for the extended version’s starting kit.
Role Skills Assessment for Gamers
This tool was crafted with the primary Late Shift audience in mind. It showcases a player’s strengths in various team roles, reflecting their personal preferences for collaboration—an important skill for both gaming and real-world teamwork. To make the feedback more engaging, ALEAS recruited celebrities to act as virtual mentors. These included Jimmy Smith, the legendary NFL wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars and a five-time Pro Bowl player, and Erwin Ballarta, the executive director of the Texas Police Association and a well-known former bodyguard to George W. Bush. Their participation added authenticity and excitement, turning the assessment into an inspiring coaching experience.
VUCA Report – Performing Under Pressure
The second assessment adapted FLIGBY’s popular VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) report. It offers insights into how players handle high-pressure situations—mirroring the fast-paced, high-stakes decisions that define the Late Shift experience. This tool provides valuable feedback on decision-making skills in uncertain environments, which are increasingly important in today’s world.
Experimentation Meets Unexpected Demand
Originally, the integration project was conceived as an experiment—an opportunity to explore how digital entertainment and personal learning could be merged for pure fun and innovation. The team never intended to commercialize these tools. However, the unique blend of cinematic storytelling, interactive decision-making, and actionable feedback quickly caught the attention of organizations seeking engaging, effective learning experiences. Airlines, software and media companies, and leading universities began incorporating the upgraded Late Shift into their professional development, and later into their selection programs. Notably, even the FBI Academy and certain NATO forces tested the enhanced version to assess its potential for building situational awareness and decision-making skills under pressure.
The insights and breakthroughs from this groundbreaking collaboration have proven invaluable. They are now driving several new joint projects between CtrlMovie and ALEAS, aiming to push the boundaries of both entertainment and education further. By merging cinematic storytelling with advanced analytics, the two companies are creating exciting new possibilities for how we will learn and be entertained in the future—offering a glimpse into an era where digital experiences are as personal as they are immersive.
Q&A: Understanding FLIGBY and Its Collaboration with Late Shift
Q: What is FLIGBY?
A: FLIGBY is a unique serious game that functions as an interactive movie designed to develop and assess leadership and people skills. It transforms the user’s decision-making stream into a detailed profile across 29 essential people skills, providing insightful feedback for personal and professional growth.
Q: What is Late Shift?
A: Late Shift is an interactive cinematic experience and high-stakes crime thriller where the viewer takes on the role of Matt, a mathematics student forced into a brutal London heist. The story unfolds through the player’s decisions, which shape the narrative and lead to one of several possible endings. Known for its innovative format, Late Shift lets players control the protagonist’s fate in real time.
Q: How did FLIGBY and Late Shift come together?
A: The collaboration between ALEAS Group (FLIGBY) and CtrlMovie (Late Shift) started in the spring of 2020, when the two teams found many shared interests. This synergy led to the idea of integrating FLIGBY’s people analytics into Late Shift, aiming to turn player choices in the movie into actionable skills profiles. This partnership marked a milestone in edutainment, combining cinematic storytelling with cutting-edge behavioral analytics.
Q: What is the “upgraded” version of Late Shift?
A: The “upgraded” version of Late Shift refers to a special edition of the interactive movie that combines FLIGBY’s advanced people analytics with the gameplay. In this version, players’ decisions are analyzed using FLIGBY’s proven methodology, providing detailed feedback on their people and leadership skills.
Q: What are the two assessments created for the Late Shift upgrade?
The enhanced edition includes two unique assessments:
- Role Skills Assessment: Designed for Gen Z gamers, this tool emphasizes the player’s strengths in team roles, providing personalized coaching feedback from celebrity mentors like NFL legend Jimmy Smith and Texas Police Association director Erwin Ballarta.
- VUCA Report: Adapted from FLIGBY, this assessment evaluates how effectively a player performs under pressure, offering insights into decision-making in volatile and uncertain situations.
Q: How did the audience find Late Shift’s enhanced version?
A: The enhanced version of Late Shift, which incorporates FLIGBY’s people analytics, has garnered curiosity and interest, especially among audiences already engaged in interactive storytelling and gaming. The upgraded version has also drawn attention from organizations and educational institutions, which recognize its potential for professional development and training.
By Judit Nuszpl, Head of Program Development, ALEAS Group
