The lack of digital competences among older adults poses significant challenges to their experience and engagement with increasingly pervasive digital technologies. Addressing this gap, while leveraging the potential of social digital games to enhance learning and cognitive skills, this research explores the how digital games can foster older adults’ digital games through engaging and culturally relevant narratives. Grounded in DigComp 2.2, and adopting a Development Research approach, this study reports an analysis of older adults’ context, needs and preferences, supporting the design of a social digital game prototype while addressing the identified gap. miOne Islands was conceived and developed, featuring a hub world where each island represents a different challenge i.e., shadow matching, memory game, and cooking game. The digital competences, user eXperiences, and field observations of evaluation sessions with 62 older adults were analyzed. Results showed that the prototype encouraged participants’ first interactions with digital technologies, with positive feedback on attractiveness, stimulation, efficiency, control, and innovation. However, the evaluation also highlighted areas for improvement, particularly regarding system interface and usability. This research demonstrates the potential of culturally relevant and socially engaging digital games to bridge the digital divide for older adults, offering insights into designing tools that foster digital inclusion and enhance digital competences in this age cohort.