What is PlayDate?
PlayDate is your new favorite bonding game for building close one-on-one friendships! The game includes question cards with multiple options for different comfort levels and two sets of elegant stacking blocks so that you can engage in a fun activity while getting to know each other on a deeper level. With an opt-in approach to emotional intimacy, funny block-stacking challenges, and wonderfully competitive rules, PlayDate sets every pair up for a great time.
How to Play
On your turn, draw a card from the deck.
Each card has two color-coded options corresponding to wholesome, intimate, imaginative, active, spicy, silly, and connective prompts. Pick one to engage with.
Once you have answered the question or completed the challenge, place a block that matches the prompt color onto your stack.
Take turns drawing cards, following prompts, and stacking blocks until one player finishes stacking all their blocks to end the game.
Notes
The deck contains wildcards to keep you on your toes. Follow the directions on the card to complete your turn.
If you're out of blocks in one color, choose the other prompt. If you’re out of the blocks in both colors, draw another card.
You can only touch the block you’re stacking, and once your block is placed, you can’t move it.
If your stack falls or partially falls, add the fallen blocks to your unstacked pile and continue playing.
How PlayDate Came To Be
Every choice that led to PlayDate came from intentional teamwork and feedback. We centered our guiding values - joy, surprise, and beauty - at every step.
Here are some design choices we’re proud of:
PlayDate originated with a crucial insight from a series of interviews with the best players in the world... preschoolers! They showed us the joy of breaking a block stack.
We used psychological research on synesthesia to create the block shapes and match them intentionally to corresponding emotional themes (kiki & bouba forever!!!!).
Each card has two questions so that players can adapt the game to their level of vulnerability by choosing between two different emotional themes.
Some cards ask players to pose their own questions to their playmate to encourage organic connection.
We used resin for our blocks because it’s so sexy. And also because our testing found that it was the best weight for stacking.
Our question cards are color-coded, corresponding both to their block shapes and to an emotional them:
