Didasko aims to incorporate faith and fun through a biblically-rooted card game

By: Avonlea Brown

The card game Didasko made a soft launch at Cedarville University on September 14. A team of eight students created the game with the goal of “drawing Christian families together and building a deeper appreciation for God’s Word.” 

Carson Kirby, Janie Walenda, Abigail Francis, Joel Farnsworth, Eric Reiff, Gladys Cerrato, and Hannah Norefleet joined up through the Integrated Business Core, or IBC. The IBC is a 12-credit practicum course that gives students 

the opportunity to create and launch a business over the course of a year. 

“The IBC was one of the reasons I came to Cedarville in the first place,” said junior Business Management major Carson Kirby. “You’re able to learn in an environment with a counsel of Christian business people with degrees that back that up.” 

Kirby is the team lead at Didasko and one of his first goals was to create a product that could be used by anyone and everyone. 

“We wanted to go out and make something that will be really different and unique and something that we could even last beyond the IBC,” Kirby said. “So we started down the route of ‘What can we do to kind of encourage people in their spiritual disciplines and walk with Christ?’”

They later identified parents and teens as their target audience, and the team at Didasko decided to create a product that brings the two age groups together in their faith. And then the idea for a game was born.

Creating the game posed the longest and hardest obstacle, but the students had a clear mission and once the rough idea was solidified, the rest followed. 

“There were days when we were just staring at the computer like, ‘What are we going to do about this? How do you make a game?’” Kirby said. “But God was really faithful to us, putting the right people around us and kind of directing us through that process.”

The game includes 120 matching cards and 49 challenge cards. The matching cards have a symbol and a color assigned to them; players have to get three cards with the same color and symbol to grab a challenge card. The challenge cards include different tasks a player must complete in order to keep the challenge card. The tasks within the deck include prayer, sharing your testimony, retelling a bible story in a unique way and more. The goal of the game is to collect three challenge cards before anyone else.

The purpose of the game from the start was to reach a wide range of audiences. The students behind Didasko wanted to create a product that could bring people together and grow in their faith. To reach this goal the team made the unique decision to market off-campus before their launch on campus.

“I think we’re different in the IBC in that regard,” Kirby said. “Most groups are focused on campus. If I had to give percentages, I’d say only about 5%-10% of our focus is on campus.”

Over summer break, the team managed to continue to meet despite different time zones and international communication. Sophomore Marketing major Abigail Francis was one of the first team members to see the game played successfully.

“I was involved in actually going out to the people and playing the game with them,” Francis said. “I played the game with many different people from India and then I also went to Singapore and played with a family there.”

Francis shared videos and pictures with the rest of the team over the summer, as well as the feedback she received from people. Her messages encouraged and emboldened the rest of her team to keep working hard as the fall semester began.

“My favorite thing about the IBC and about the Didasko team is all of us are just so well connected as a team,” Francis said. “It was like God put us together and we all have this desire of not just doing it as a program, but actually continuing this company to impact and make it our ministry to reach out to many people.”

Avonlea Brown is a junior Broadcasting, Digital Media, and Journalism major from a small town in Maine. She is the co-editor of Campus News for Cedars Student News and currently working towards going abroad to study international journalism. She likes reading, travel, and learning new things.

Check out this video about the game: https://youtu.be/pQ9ItvM2MtA?si=6iws8zWwMaAU2oHq

Photos:

Elisabeth Penner (Team Picture)

Ian Chan (picture of group playing Didasko in Panda Express)

Isaac Darr (picture of girl reading Bible and picture of 3 Bible cards)

More information about Didasko is available on their website and Instagram page:

https://www.didaskogames.com/

@didasko.ibc