Startup Fever is a new board game created by Louis Perrochon that lets you and up to five friends compete against one another to see who can build the biggest and baddest Internet startup company. The game is a "Euro style" board game like Settlers of Catan, which means that you'll spend the majority of your time acquiring commodities.
In this case, the commodities aren't worthless and useless items like sheep and wood; instead, they are workers. Suits, programmers and salesmen are the commodities that can be bought, traded and stolen in Startup Fever. The game borrows from popular board games like Monopoly with event cards that can bestow either heartbreaking or heart-racing news to you and your company. The game is currently in beta testing and is soliciting funds from Kickstarter to help with production. Seeing as how Startup Fever has already raised well more than the original $10,000 it asked for, there's a good chance that you will see this game on shelves sooner rather than later.
Silicon Valley Board Games
Startup Fever Makes Your Internet Business Dreams a Reality
Trend Themes
1. Board Game Startups - Fostering entrepreneurial spirit through board games that simulate startup culture and competition brings new opportunities to disrupt the traditional gaming industry.
2. Commodity-based Board Games - The trend of using complex commodities like workers instead of traditional commodities presents new learning and engagement opportunities for players and new monetization opportunities for the board game industry.
3. Productivity-based Games - Productivity-based games like Startup Fever that simulate business environments are becoming more popular and present new opportunities to incentivize teamwork and teach business strategy.
Industry Implications
1. Board Game - The board game industry can capitalize on the increasing interest in entrepreneurship and new types of gameplay mechanics by creating more games like Startup Fever.
2. Education - Startup Fever and other productivity-based games present new opportunities to teach business strategy, teamwork and resource allocation, sparking a disruptive trend for educational gaming.
3. Crowdfunding - Successes like Startup Fever's raise in Kickstarter demonstrate the potential of crowdfunding as a new platform for funding and launching board games, disrupting the traditional board game publishing industry.