Team
Who We Are
Who We Are
We are dreamers from Design Dream Lab. We are a non-profit creative collective based in NYC striving to bring positive impacts to the local community by applying the empathy-based Design Thinking mindset. We bring our passion and love for humanity to everything we build, with everyone we connect, and to all our projects. The dreamers who are working on this game have a lot of heart, and they also come with expertise in game design, user research, cultural education, behavioral therapy, and community building.
We are dreamers from Design Dream Lab. We are a non-profit creative collective based in NYC striving to bring positive impacts to the local community by applying the empathy-based Design Thinking mindset. We bring our passion and love for humanity to everything we build, with everyone we connect, and to all our projects. The dreamers who are working on this game have a lot of heart, and they also come with expertise in game design, user research, cultural education, behavioral therapy, and community building.
The BackStory
The BackStory
Developing this game over the past 14 months has been a labor of love. It all began with a simple email. On September 11, 2017, Design Dream Lab got an email inquiry from the Queens Public Library in New York City:
Developing this game over the past 14 months has been a labor of love. It all began with a simple email. On September 11, 2017, Design Dream Lab got an email inquiry from the Queens Public Library in New York City:
“We’d like to build a ... game for families to play together during the holidays...to introduce story sharing as a fun activity and (hopefully) begin family dialogue ... to not only share their heritage within their own family, but share it with their library’s local history collections.”
“We’d like to build a ... game for families to play together during the holidays...to introduce story sharing as a fun activity and (hopefully) begin family dialogue ... to not only share their heritage within their own family, but share it with their library’s local history collections.”
Design Dream Lab members (aka dreamers) got together and created a game to be played during holidays with family. However, during the development of the game, we didn’t have enough families to test out the game. So we tested with different groups- with complete strangers, with college interns, with our neighbors, and with our co-workers.
Design Dream Lab members (aka dreamers) got together and created a game to be played during holidays with family. However, during the development of the game, we didn’t have enough families to test out the game. So we tested with different groups- with complete strangers, with college interns, with our neighbors, and with our co-workers.
Something magical happened. Strangers, colleagues, and neighbors began sharing stories of their childhood, their recent travels, and memories they haven’t shared in a long time with anyone. And those memories connected people in such meaningful and delightful ways.
Something magical happened. Strangers, colleagues, and neighbors began sharing stories of their childhood, their recent travels, and memories they haven’t shared in a long time with anyone. And those memories connected people in such meaningful and delightful ways.
That's when we decided to expand the reach of this game to communities beyond families.
That's when we decided to expand the reach of this game to communities beyond families.
We discovered that sharing memories, listening, curiosity, and empathy - which are essential ingredients in playing this game - could bring people together in such meaningful and surprising ways.
We discovered that sharing memories, listening, curiosity, and empathy - which are essential ingredients in playing this game - could bring people together in such meaningful and surprising ways.