Since a form of digital money known as bitcoin ushered into the public limelight circa 2009, cryptocurrency has captivated many investors, financiers, entrepreneurs and those who would like to have a piece of ‘the money of the future’.

Cryptocurrency investment has turned many men and women into millionaires (or even billionaires). Surprised with such news, many laymen (including myself) are left wondering with one simple question: what is cryptocurrency?

As cryptocurrency becoming more prominent over the years, Capital Gains Studio wants its player to delve deeper into the finance world through tabletop games. In this interview, we asked the co-founder of Capital Gains Studio, Xeo Lye, to find out how they are able to turn complicated financial concepts into enjoyable board games to play with family and friends.

MyGameOn (MGO): Can you introduce yourself?

Xeo Lye: Capital Gains Studio is a Singaporean tabletop designer that publishes board games with a finance-related theme. We were established in 2014 and our first project, Wongamania is an economics-based card game, which was actually born in Malaysia! Currently, our games are distributed in major toy shops, bookstores and hobby stores around the world.

MGO: Can you tell us about your latest board game, Cryptocurrency?

Xeo: Cryptocurrency is a 2-4 player board game that puts the players in a battle of wits to make the most amount of money from trading and mining cryptocurrencies. You will take on the role of the CEO of a fintech startup, leading a specialized team of technological experts who will help you to evaluate, trade and mine various cryptocurrencies.

However, some of the cryptocurrencies are scams that designed to rob the unwary investors of their money and it is up to the player to manipulate the information, to design the ultimate scam while tricking other players to invest in it.

You must make strategic decisions in hiring technological experts, solve cryptocurrency mining algorithms and manipulate the information network while engaging in tactical coin trading and getting rid of the questionable coins before the game ends.

MGO: Cryptocurrency can be a heavy and confusing topic. How do you design and create an entertaining game based on cryptocurrency?

Xeo: That’s one of the strengths of our studio, the ability to take on boring financial concepts and turn them into a fun and entertaining board game. Our first board game explores the concept of the economic cycle and how the rich and powerful can influence the economy. For our second game, we turn debt into a huge monster called Debtzilla, which players have to work together as superheroes to take down.

Cryptocurrency is no different. We adapted the real working mechanics of cryptocurrency and gamify the whole process. There are, of course, the exciting parts of Cryptocurrency that lead to the recent hype, which we gladly adapted into the game. However, there are the boring and technical parts of the technology, which we took a lot more creative adaptation to make them fun.

For example, when people try to create a new Bitcoin through the process of “mining”, they have to solve a complex mathematical algorithm using a huge amount of computing power. Gamers definitely are not going to sit through a Maths lesson to learn about the formula but the idea of cracking a code definitely appeals to gamers. So what we did was to simplify the mechanics into a puzzle solving gameand that mechanic was the most well-liked mechanic in the entire game.

Banana coins to fuel your investment

MGO: Do you aim to deliver a game as close to real-world cryptocurrency?

Xeo: As game designers, we recognize that games are a form of entertainment and escapism for people who want to take a break from the real world. We feel that a 100% interpretation of the real world cryptocurrency into a game is something that actually hinders the main fun element of the game.

Similar to movies based on real life, directors took many creative adaptions to ensure that the movie entertains the crowd while trying to maintain as much realism as possible. In our case, we seek advice from technical advisers who are experts in cryptocurrency to try out the game and give feedback on the accuracy of the adaptation. We have received a pretty good score from them on how fun the game is and how well we have adapted the real-world concepts.

MGO: What are the challenges do you face while making Cryptocurrency?

Xeo: For the tabletop, the biggest challenge lies in the operation and distribution of a physical product. Many Kickstarter’s tabletop projects actually fail to deliver due to the mismanagement of the manufacturing process and the logistics process where you have to deal with shipping, custom, and taxes.

Unlike digital games, which can be patched once the game is launched, there is no turning back for tabletop games once the manufacturing button is pressed. You also need to pray that the goods can be safely shipped from the factory to the hands of the backer safely and in one piece! You will be surprised by the amount of damage that arise because of bad weather and rough handling.

Cryptocurrency draws inspiration from its first two tabletop games: Debtzilla and Wongamania.

MGO: Why do you choose to market your game on Kickstarter instead of publishing it yourself?

Xeo: Kickstarter is a great way to reach out to our audience and to validate the marketability of the product. Honestly, we were very nervous when we launch a game base on cryptocurrency as all the previous cryptocurrency related board game failed on Kickstarter and some of them were launched during the peak of the cryptocurrency hype back in January.

Since then, the hype has gone down along with the crash of the cryptocurrency market and launching into a cooled market may seem to be suicidal without proper market validation. That’s where Kickstarter comes in to help us gauge the demand of the product. Thanks to that, we are now confident that there is an interest in a well-produced cryptocurrency board game.

MGO: Other than cryptocurrency, what other topics would you like to transform into a game?

Xeo: The finance theme in the boardgame world is very underrepresented as it is mainly dominated by the fantasy genre and science fiction at this moment in time. There are many other topics that we can cover in the world of finance, ranging from forensic accounting, money laundering, trade wars and,even insurance. How do you even make a board game base on the topic of insurance fun? You shall have to wait and see!

Cryptocurrency is definitely a refreshing take of financial literacy in a sea of fantasy and sci-fi board games as premiered at Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention (STGCC) with a variety of Singaporean-made games featured from indie to mobile games. To find out more about Cryptocurrency and other finance board games, head on to their official website!