When Ayssar Arida and Sabine de Maussion founded in Lebanon Urbacraft, a building blocks startup that allows children to build construction models, they had no idea they will be building an app store for toys three years later.

In 2015, one year following its kick-off, Urbacraft, was accelerated at the Beirut-based UK Lebanon Tech Hub and the New York-based XRC Labs.

There, they understood that they needed to go one extra mile, and decided to launch Makerbrane, a physical and digital platform that allows players to design their own toys.

At Makerbrane, “you can decide to play physically, digitally or combine both,” said de Maussion.

By being a “software first toy company,” as described by Arida, Makerbrane focused on creating the design of the toy prior to building it physically.

During the Teenswhocode summer camp at BDD in July this year, Makerbrane launched the beta phase of their 3D makerspace, and we got a chance to talk to two participants who tried Makerbrane’s makerspace in this video.

Playing digitally using the 3D makerspace allows users to create through the Makerbrane platform whatever they can imagine. They can also play physically with the actual construction toy set, also called branes and modules, compatible with other toys and items.

Makerbrane as a platform, plans on turning into an open marketplace for digital players to showcase and sell their designs. They also plan on moving part of the team to the US next year. “Designers and players would be in touch. Designers would sell their designs and players would download the design instructions, recreate, and build them at home,” de Maussion explained.