TESA Collective

TESA Collective, described as the Toolbox for Education and Social Action, is a worker-owned cooperative focused on socially engaged game development and media production. Rather than operating primarily as a conventional entertainment studio, TESA designs games and educational tools intended to help organizations and communities explore social, economic, and political change. Its work is associated with ethical and social-change-oriented practices that seek to contribute to healthier communities. The collective's output extends beyond digital video games. Its projects include tabletop games, documentary work, and interactive webinars, reflecting an approach in which play and participatory media are used for education, organizing, and discussion. The games commonly address cooperation, labor rights, movement building, power, and resistance. This places TESA within the broader social-change-games field, where games are used not only for recreation but also to model systems, facilitate conversation, and develop practical understanding. Among TESA's documented projects is Co-opoly, a board game centered on the operation and negotiation of a cooperative business. Its cooperative structure is reflected in the game's premise: participants work through shared challenges rather than competing solely for individual victory. Rise Up: The Game of People and Power focuses on building a social movement and confronting an oppressive system. Space Cats Fight Fascism is identified as the fourth entry in a series of TESA social-justice games, using a more playful premise to engage with anti-fascist themes. TESA also collaborated with Jobs with Justice on STRIKE!: The Game of Worker Rebellion, a labor-organizing game in which players build their ranks, mobilize workers, and organize strikes across a city. The project received funding through a Kickstarter campaign, which ran during a union drive at Kickstarter itself. This association illustrates the collective's interest in connecting its production methods and subject matter with real-world labor and organizing issues. Publicly available reference material provides limited information about TESA's founding date, location, leadership, ownership details beyond its worker-owned cooperative structure, financial performance, and current operating status. The available description nevertheless establishes a clear identity: TESA is a socially focused cooperative game and media studio whose products are designed to support learning, collective action, and discussion of social justice issues.

TESA Collective is presented as a worker-owned cooperative whose name expands to Toolbox for Education and Social Action. Its work sits at the intersection of game development, education, community organizing, and social justice. The collective's stated approach is to engage consciously with ethical and social-change practices, using creative media to help produce healthier communities. TESA operates within the expanding field of social-change games. In this field, games are designed to address questions of social and economic change rather than focusing only on conventional entertainment objectives. TESA's projects cover several formats, including board games, documentaries, and interactive webinars. This breadth suggests that the collective treats games as one component of a wider educational and communications toolkit. A recurring characteristic of TESA's work is the use of cooperative or participatory structures. In cooperative games, players may share a common objective, meaning that everyone succeeds together or everyone fails together. This design approach is consistent with TESA's interest in collective action and community problem-solving. It also gives players a way to examine negotiation, power, organizing, and institutional change through structured participation. Co-opoly is one of the collective's documented tabletop projects. The game introduces players to the practical dynamics of negotiating and running a cooperative business. Its subject matter connects game play with alternative ownership models and collective economic decision-making. Rise Up: The Game of People and Power shifts the focus toward social movements: players build a movement while confronting an oppressive system. The game therefore frames organizing and resistance as central mechanics rather than as background themes. Space Cats Fight Fascism is described as the fourth game in a series of social-justice games produced by TESA. Its title indicates a deliberately playful treatment of anti-fascist themes, characteristic of a broader effort to make serious political and social questions approachable through game-based interaction. TESA also worked with Jobs with Justice on STRIKE!: The Game of Worker Rebellion. The game models labor organizing by asking players to expand their ranks, mobilize workers, and organize strikes throughout a city. Its Kickstarter funding campaign connected the game's labor subject matter with a contemporary workplace-organizing context: the campaign ran while Kickstarter workers were engaged in a union drive. This episode is one of the clearest documented examples of TESA linking its creative projects to real-world organizing concerns. The available reference material does not identify TESA's founding year, founders, headquarters, executives, website address, financial information, or current corporate status. It does establish the collective's organizational model, broad mission, principal formats, and several named projects. TESA is best understood as a socially oriented worker cooperative using games and related media for education, movement building, and social-change work.

• TESA develops a portfolio of social-change games and media tools

  [1]TESA Collectiveen.wikipedia.org

  The collective establishes a body of work spanning tabletop games, documentaries, interactive webinars, and other tools addressing social and economic change.

• STRIKE!: The Game of Worker Rebellion receives Kickstarter funding

  [1]TESA Collectiveen.wikipedia.org

  TESA Collective and Jobs with Justice fund a labor-organizing game through Kickstarter. The campaign takes place during a union drive at Kickstarter.

A worker-owned, socially engaged game and media cooperative that uses participatory entertainment and educational tools to support social justice, labor organizing, cooperation, and community change.

• Tabletop game

  Co-opoly

  A board game that introduces players to the mechanics and challenges of negotiating and operating a cooperative business. Its subject matter emphasizes shared ownership, collective decision-making, and the practical issues involved in building a cooperative enterprise.

• Social-justice game

  Rise Up: The Game of People and Power

  A game about building a social movement while confronting an oppressive system. The design places movement development, collective action, and the relationship between people and power at the center of play.

• Social-justice game

  Space Cats Fight Fascism

  A socially themed game identified as the fourth installment in a series of TESA social-justice games. Its playful anti-fascist framing uses an accessible premise to engage players with political and social themes.

• Labor-organizing game

  STRIKE!: The Game of Worker Rebellion

  A game developed with Jobs with Justice that models labor organizing. Players build their ranks, mobilize workers, and organize strikes around a city. The project was funded through a Kickstarter campaign conducted during a union drive at Kickstarter.

• STRIKE! Kickstarter campaign

  United States

  TESA Collective and Jobs with Justice used Kickstarter to fund STRIKE!: The Game of Worker Rebellion, a game focused on worker mobilization and strike organization. The campaign coincided with a union drive among Kickstarter workers.

  Outcome. The project was funded, but the available reference does not provide a funding amount, campaign dates, or detailed performance results.

  Source

1. 1TESA Collectiveen.wikipedia.org