Design Adventure Stories ~ Downtown Providence RI


A New Game

What Happened The Day They Left


By AB Marcus


The day the news broke, the air in Providence and Pawtucket and all over Rhode Island ... felt hollow.


The big toy company packed its boxes, dimmed the lights for the last time, and left for Boston. 


For decades, Rhode Island’s heartbeat had been the rhythm of dice rattling, plastic pieces snapping into place, ideas tumbling like marbles across drawing boards.


Catherine watched from the sidewalk with a clenched jaw. Beside her, Robert muttered, “They never listened. 


Every pitch I made ...dismissed. Like imagination had to pass through a corporate filter first.” Ashley folded her arms, eyes shining. “Well, maybe that corporate filter just left town.” 

Freddy chuckled. “Then it’s our turn to play.”


That night, they gathered in an empty mill building - red brick, creaky beams, the scent of sawdust lingering from its former life in the old Providence Jewelry District where Eddy and Point Street meet.

On the table lay a single sheet of paper with two words scrawled in marker: A New Game.


Ideas poured like spilled Legos: clever puzzles, cooperative games for families, new twists on classics. Games that taught kindness, sparked laughter, and turned boredom into brilliance. For once, nobody said no. Every voice mattered.


Funding, though ... that was the big question. But this time Rhode Island was listening. Two Local investors stepped up, Jonathan & Joseph were proud to see creativity stay home, offered seed money. Suddenly a spark became a flame like a WaterFire Brazier at full lighting.


“What do we call it?” Catherine asked, pen hovering. Robert grinned. “Kidovo. Kids evolve. Ideas evolve.” Ashley tilted her head. “Or maybe USA Toys - proud and bold.” Freddy laughed. “Either way, it starts right here.”


And so a new company was born. Whether it was called KIDOVO or USA Toys mattered less than the truth beneath it: that the power of play belonged not to the corporation that left, but to the community that stayed.


When one game ends, another begins. And the truest design is not made in leaving, but in staying ~ to play again, together.

The End.