ambivalence — Season 1

Eight civic fables, one season.

Eight cinematic episodes — each sized to complete in a single sitting. Nine civic domains. Verifiable credentials that travel with the learner. Demos on ambivalence.app.

Still from The Transportable
S1E3 · The Transportable

8 Episodes
9 Civic domains
370+ Interactive moments
Varies Runtime per episode
The catalogue

Eight stories. One competency framework. Zero stock imagery.

Each episode tests a different civic competency through a dramatised scenario researched with practitioners. The stories travel; the learning travels with them. Demo episodes are free to try; Licensed episodes are included when your organisation takes Season 1 — see licensing.

A civic hall — etched figures around a committee table at the start of the democratic ritual.
S1 · E01 Demo Assembly Navigator · Civic Shifter

The Rivers of the Watershed

Civic action traced through a watershed — from committee-room ritual to the quiet continuity of community voice. Six scenes on devolution, systemic pressure, language and equity, asking where the real decision actually gets made.

6 scenes 42 sequences 4 competency tiers
A council housing office — a queue waiting under fluorescent light.
S1 · E02 Demo Assembly Navigator · Systems Critic

The Weight of the Key

A civic fable about the journey home. A key is forged the moment someone needs shelter — but before it can turn in any lock, it must pass through the queue, the desk, the system, the clock, and the reckoning.

6 scenes 38 sequences 4 competency tiers
A passenger reads their phone on a city bus at dusk.
S1 · E03 Licensed Field Analyst · Policy Synthesiser

The Transportable

Sam follows three blue lines across a city. Then the algorithm changes its mind — and teaches him, his partner Jess, and a transport planner named Aisha what a consultation response actually costs.

6 scenes 52 sequences 4 competency tiers
A Net-zero dashboard labelled OMNI-GRID 9000 glowing cyan, stuck at 67% — the trigger beat of the episode.
S1 · E04 Licensed Governance Engineer · Field Analyst

Hush Children, What's That Sound

A net-zero dashboard freezes at sixty-seven percent. Davies and Sarah discover the 18-month wall between policy intent and resident reality — and the quiet revolt a good evidence log can start.

4 scenes 25 sequences 3 competency tiers
A monumental council building at dusk, windows blazing amber through rain — the institution Jade Okafor has to change from the inside.
S1 · E05 Licensed Governance Engineer · Civic Shifter · Field Analyst · Assembly Navigator

Five Gates of Accountability

Jade Okafor has one mission: make the Procurement Act 2023 real inside a council that's still reading the safety instructions. A martial-arts boss progression through opacity, tick-box, lowest-price, silos — and the mirror.

11 scenes 59 sequences 4 competency tiers
Two figures silhouetted in a grand doorway, looking across a fog-shrouded bridge and canal — Ren and Sol about to begin their survey.
S1 · E06 Licensed Systems Critic · Policy Synthesiser · Field Analyst

The Cutting Machine

Ren and Sol receive instruments that hum when pointed at assumptions. Four encounters — a Clockmaker, a Bridge-Keeper, a Children's Garden, a covered market — teach zero-based budgeting as an act of perception, not austerity.

7 scenes 40 sequences 3 competency tiers
An analyst in an orbital cupola looking down on Earth — coastlines and cloud from four hundred kilometres up.
S1 · E07 Licensed Systems Critic · Governance Engineer · Insight Mediator

The Long View

Four hundred kilometres up, Maren Voss and Idris Cope turn raw planetary signal into defensible choices. Scenario planning as stress test, not prophecy. Coastal futures as schedule, not doom. Their first multi-voice episode.

7 scenes 35 sequences 2 voices
Margaret Chen by the window — a still from Older, Older, Burning Bright (Season 1 Episode 8).
S1 · E08 Licensed Insight Mediator · Assembly Navigator · Policy Synthesiser

Older, Older, Burning Bright

Margaret Chen returns — now the one in the chair by the window. Social care told at the pace of a hand on a windowsill: dignity, unpaid care, assessment forms, and what we choose not to write down.

7 scenes 51 sequences 3 competency tiers

Bespoke commissions

Season 2 and beyond

Licensed partners can commission bespoke episodes for a regulatory change, a transformation programme, or a devolution deal. Our production pipeline (ScriptHub → SoundBox → ambivalence) turns a research brief into a shipped episode in weeks, not quarters.

From brief to shipped

The same pipeline scales to your context: ScriptHub for research and authoring, SoundBox for assembly, and ambivalence for delivery — so a focused team can move from mandate to a published episode in weeks, not quarters.

Policy-shaped briefs

A devolution deal. A Care Act review. A new strategic framework. If your team needs to learn it in weeks — not a quarter — we can turn your research into a fable.

Own the credentials

Licensed organisations issue credentials under their own brand — with DevBot as the verifiable issuer. Your staff walk away with badges that carry your trust and our technical integrity.

Thinking about a bespoke commission? Tell us the policy area, the audience, and the timeline. Start a commission →