Success In the Cards?

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Players of Hasbro Inc.’s the Game of Life, can choose a career as a doctor, a hair stylist or even a superstar.

But Venice digital agency Philosophie is hoping to make a game that might be better suited to those with an entrepreneurial spirit.

The agency recently launched a campaign to raise $5,000 through Kickstarter to create DevShop, a card game that would allow players to create their own fictitious Web development firm. The company has already created a prototype.

Players can expand their firm by fundraising or hiring employees while trying to manage a crisis such as an audit by the IRS. The winner is the player who ends the game with the highest number of satisfied clients.

Characters in the game, such as Bobby the software developer, are modeled after real folks at the 16-employee firm.

The small shop chose to fund the game through Kickstarter so as not to take away money from its core business. What’s more, the shareable videos and Kickstarter page provided publicity.

The card game highlights the firm’s day-to-day work – designing and developing digital products such as social games.

Managing Partner Skot Carruth said the firm’s niche isn’t widely understood by the public.

“Since not a lot of people outside the tech community are aware that people like us exist, we thought we could build a game for them to learn from,” he said.

The project had raised about half of its stated goal by the end of first week in April with three weeks of fundraising left. The company only receives the money if its target is met.

– Jonathan Polakoff and Natalie Jarvey

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