2023

2025

2020

2019

2018

2021

2022

2024

2026

Entrant Companies

Jennifer Kumer

Bruno Setola

Andy Chaleff

Lily Higgins

 Tracey Walker

Jacqueline Kumer

Nusha Swan

Individual Credits

Lead Designer

University or Design School

Profile Website

Project Website

About the game:
When My Time Comes is a board game that offers a light-hearted, emotionally connective, and explorative way for families and communities to craft plans for the end of life that enriches their quality of life. Together with loved ones, players can learn how to identify their personal values and preferences in approaching one of the most important but least understood phases of our life.

The categories of cards in the game allow players to focus on specific aspects of end-of-life planning, which helps them build a shared dialogue that reflects on the topic holistically. Through storytelling, mini-group challenges, and advice sharing, players uncover new aspects of the lives of those they love. The game leads players towards decisions that will support them, their loved ones, and their community in preparing for the end of life as best as they can be — emotionally, physically, relationally, practically, financially, and spiritually.
-------------------
About the project:
How do we prepare to die? Not usually a question we want to spend a lot of time thinking about, and yet, it's incredibly important. It’s often a question not answered until it is too late. This became very real for me with the sudden death of my grandfather. This was my first encounter with losing someone close, and I became acutely aware of how wildly unprepared we were as a family in dealing with death and talking about the end of life.

As a researcher and game designer, this event sparked me into thinking about whether I could design an applied game that could help alleviate some of the challenges that come with talking about death and dying. I soon turned this idea into a design research project which I explored extensively during the 2 years of my Master's Design program at Willem de Kooning Academy. I designed and iterated the game over the span of many design cycles involving deathcare workers, graduate students, fellow design researchers, and subject experts in both deathcare and game design. I presented the final prototype of the game in my graduation thesis (2022).

Gold Winner in Interaction Design for Social Change

Gold Winner in Game Design for Social Change

When My Time Comes: An End-of-Life Conversation Game