Bulls and Bears game

Our client

The Moscow Exchange is the largest exchange in Russia, operating trading markets in equities, bonds, derivatives, the foreign exchange market, money markets, and precious metals.

Our challenge

To develop a board game about the stock exchange on a turn-key basis. The game is corporate. The goal of the game development is to increase the loyalty of employees to the company with an author's game with unique mechanics and to attract new talents to the company with the help of the viral effect.

used skills

Our solution

The result of our work was an interactive board game in which the price of shares is calculated by a computer and players make financial decisions with the help of cards.

The game is based on the mechanics of a real stock market. With one underlying asset, the price of which is formed as a result of the players' actions. In addition to a print run of 500 copies, the game is distributed on a print & play model.

The game exists as a web version and a mobile app.

Design Contents

At school we have not been taught economics and practical law. We were learning to calculate cashflow by trial and error method.

As a first step to fill the gap in financial education we decided to design a series of economic games. "bulls-bears" is the first game in this series and it is about stock exchange. We want university and school graduates to be full participants of financial relations and to feel free to open their own business due to these kind of games.​​​​​​​

The game exists as a web version and a mobile app.

Name of the game was inspired by the slang of stock exchange. Those, who buy equities relying on its future value increasing are bulls; and those, who bail equities counting on its refund by a lower price are bears.

Design of the game shows real broker's emotions. Gambling and fear pull the player in two opposite directions. Those feelings interfere to take informed decisions and lead to loss of money. While player keeps opened profitable positions relying on bigger income, the gambling overwhelms him. The fear appears, when the broker do not open profitable positions because he fears of money loss or closes positions with the lowest profit. To convey these feelings we used contrast, clear colors and sharp "ringing" forms.

Our game has analogues. We played such similar games and figured out that hard rules and mental calculation kill all the pleasure of the game. That is why instead of kilometers of rules we designed a web add where all the boring calculations are made by computer.

Inside the premium box players can find pins with the image of bull and bear. Could you guess who are you at stock exchange?

Work process

First of all, we did a market analysis and identified the main game mechanics in stock market games. We also studied game mechanics in the interfaces of financial applications and even gambling.

Then, the game designers compiled a game design document. And separately we have collected a number of moodboards.

After that, we prototyped about 10 different game mechanics. And ran auto-tests on them.

We ran some skin tests on the winning mechanics that maximized game balance.

The simplest and most expressive mascots possible were chosen, based on which the overall style of the game was developed.

Following the given mechanics, the UX/UI of the interface was developed.

Also the graphic design department prepared the layouts for printing and supervised the production of the kits.

After the work of the QA department, the game was accepted by the customer and over the course of a year we iteratively improved the game based on analytics.

Our results

Finally, the result was a simple and exciting game appreciated by the client and his team. In the form of a web and mobile application, as well as a set of playing cards.