When Singapore went into COVID-19 circuit breaker in 2020, there was a surge of Singaporeans taking up new insurance policies to protect themselves and their families in case they were infected..
Veteran game designer and financial practitioner, Xeo Lye, saw this as an opportunity to design a tabletop game to create a family fun experience, while sparking conversation about the use of insurance and its role during the pandemic. The twist to the game is that there is a zombie virus spreading and players can buy insurance to insure themselves against the zombie virus.
Zombielife Insurance is a 2-5 player family card game where players aim to survive a zombie outbreak while trying to emerge as the winner by being the richest player. Players can earn money by buying insurance and getting huge insurance pay-outs when infected by the zombie virus and thus risking their life; Or they can try to survive the pandemic via social distancing and getting adequate protective clothing to earn huge survival bonus while making money from long term investments.
“I wanted to introduce the subject of risk management and insurance in a fun and lighthearted manner and the idea of combining a pandemic and zombie makes perfect sense as it gives people a sense of urgency to take a hard look at their personal health risk during a pandemic, while letting players have fun turning into zombies and coming after their friends.”
The game touches on topics such as the pros and cons between a term and cash value plan, how age and pre-existing conditions can affect premium rates as well as how to allocate resources among the different types of insurance and investments.
Following months of development and a successful Kickstarter in May 2021, the game is now available for public sale in major board game stores and online stores in Singapore.
