Fading Memories is a cooperative hack of Memory, the classic card-matching game for families. The recent loss of my grandma, who struggled with dementia in her last years, compelled me to design a game about the fragility and malleability of our memory. Each time you reveal two cards, you say “I remember…” and share a memory which revolves around the words on those cards. Then the cards start fading. As players, your goal is matching all the cards before “memory loss” becomes irreversible.

Country: UK / Italy

Keywords: Cooperation // storytelling // dementia // intergenerational // memories

Category: Boardgame

Recommended Age: 6+

Content Warnings: Dementia

Additional Links

• How I’m using games to process the loss of a loved one (Hacking 10 games in 10 weeks, 17 March 2019)
• Why do I make games? (5 August 2019)

About the Creator: Matteo Menapace

Matteo Menapace is officially VIDEOgames designer in residence at the V&A Museum in London. Practically he makes cooperative board games about cheerful topics like food politics, memory loss and honeybee capitalism. In our age of extreme individualism, tech addiction and epidemic loneliness, in which the incarnation of Mister Monopoly is literally the US president, Matteo teaches people how to make games that encourage collaboration and experimentation, and help us tackle tough questions.