PlayDate
Making friends is hard.
Last year, 50% of people in their 20s reported having zero close friends.
That’s why we created PlayDate:
your new favorite two-player game to build social connection.
Creating PlayDate
PlayDate originated with a crucial insight from a series of interviews with the world’s experts on play... preschoolers! They showed us the joy of breaking something you’ve built — like a stack of blocks.
We had experienced this joy while playing Jenga, when the stack crashes down. Play involves creating things without any attachment or expectation of permanence — just for the fun of it (as well as the fun of watching it topple over).
Play experts Henry and Michael breaking their creation (for fun)
So we designed our game around stacking blocks (that ultimately crash and fall).
We made 5 prototypes and tested each prototype on 5 groups of recent grads. Using what we learned from each round of game testing, we refined our question/challenge cards and rules of play.
We used psychological research on synesthesia to design our block shapes and match them intentionally to corresponding prompt themes for the challenge cards: wholesome, intimate, imaginative, active, spicy, silly, and connective.
Next, we conducted many in-depth interviews with people from our target user group (recent grads) to get a better understanding of their needs.
We learned that they needed a way to casually deepen distant connections with a structured activity that helps calm social anxiety in one on one settings.
To address these needs, we designed a two-player game, combining block stacking to keep players’ hands engaged to relieve anxiety in one-on-one settings, with challenge cards to encourage bonding through silly physical tasks and questions that spark deeper conversation. We also made sure that:
Each challenge card has two questions so that players can adapt the game to their level of vulnerability by choosing between two different emotional themes/challenge types.
Some cards ask players to pose their own questions to their playmate to encourage organic connection.
We spent months defining our brand aesthetic, designing the packaging, and physically manufacturing the game pieces by hand. We used resin for our blocks because it’s beautiful, and our testing found that it was the best weight for stacking.
What’s in the box?
1 pamphlet with gameplay instructions
80 dual themed & color-coded challenge cards
30 blocks (resin printed and hand dyed)
+ a sticker and QR code to our website
How to play:
On your turn, draw a card. Each has two color-coded prompts, corresponding to our themes: wholesome, imaginative, intimate, spicy, silly, and connective.
Pick the prompt that calls to you. Answer the question or complete the challenge, then stack a block that matches the color of the challenge or question you completed.
Take turns drawing, playing, and stacking until someone completes their stack to win!
The future of PlayDate
So far, we’ve made 7 copies of PlayDate.
We designed and hosted a picnic where we invited new grads to come play PlayDate. We had lots of fun, and people loved PlayDate!
We also built a website to market our game. Click the button below to check it out!
Our marketing efforts have been a huge success, and hundreds of people have signed up to eventually order PlayDate.
We are in the process of obtaining copyrights and trademarks for PlayDate, in the hopes of trying to find someone to manufacture, license, or buy it! More updates to come.
