Koru was created by myself and Faridah Adam for our senior degree project at MICA. We started out with a broad dream: to promote the discussion of mental health in an exciting way. Through a ton of research and a social design approach, we found that a game would be a fun way to bring everyone together—whether they have a full-on mental disorder or college stress—and just talk about it.

Koru is a card game that promotes the discussion of mental health in a light-hearted, fun, non-judgmental environment. The card prompts lead players through the stressors and hassles of everyday life, taking everyone through phases of self analysis, reflection, empathy, connection, support, and—of course—struggles! Koru is all about storytelling and struggling. It’s crazy how much you can get to know the people around you—the best and worst of them—through telling stories. This is how we bond as human beings: we admit and we relate. The idea is to struggle openly. The more a player struggles, the further they advance in the game. Being able to share, relate, and assist gives players the upper hand and adds to the larger narrative.

The goal of the game is for each player to achieve a new sense of self; to come together and grow stronger as a community by admitting our personal stories and struggling together.

At the end of the semester, we put together an exhibition to display our final project. We curated a very comfortable, home-like space for people to play Koru. Using the CNC Router and Laser Cutter, we built a hand-painted, custom floor table for people to sit around on our large shag rug and floor pillows. As an additional element, we covered the wall in speech bubbles with examples from 40+ people who answered our prompt questions and introduced how the narrative could go.