About Us

“In our age, when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale, the public’s need to understand our government, and the protections it provides, is ever more vital.”
- Chief Justice John Roberts

“Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness.”
- George Washington

We believe that the lack of basic civic knowledge is a primary issue that divides Americans today. We created Citizen to be a gathering place to stimulate informed conversation, impart knowledge about how our founders intended our democracy to work, and bring people back together for some good, old-fashioned fun.

All of the people and events depicted in Citizen have been researched to the best of our ability from multiple and diverse sources. It is our intention that the interaction and impact of these ideas, people, and events remain in your hands. We did our best to check our politics at the door.

We hope you enjoy playing Citizen as much as we have loved researching and refining it over the years. Play with friend or foe. Fight for an issue you love or loathe. Play with integrity, or do whatever it takes to win. Play to learn something new, to settle a feud, or to simply come together for some fun in the company of your fellow citizens. As it should be in America, it’s all in your hands.

DREAM STATE, LLC.

Dream State is a partnership between the game designers Steve Barger and Gray Smith. They were inspired to create Citizen more than a decade ago after a grueling stretch of highly publicized Congressional gridlock. Smith, a public media executive by profession, wanted to shine some light on who pulls the government strings by creating a set of baseball-style trading cards for each member of Congress, with voting stats and major campaign contributors. When he showed a sample to longtime friend Barger, a global video producer and project manager, Barger said, “A good idea, but you should make it move.” And so they did.

KERTIS

Based in Louisville, KY, Kertis is a small, potent group of strategists, filmmakers, photographers, writers, designers, and curious people. Ben Kemble, Stephen Kertis, Amber Garvey, and Brett Marshall led the project management and marketing of Citizen.