Shenzhen-Themed Board Game Raises Money to Fight COVID-19

By Matthew Bossons, March 23, 2020

While many of us have begun venturing back outside and resuming our day-to-day lives in Guangdong, the coronavirus prevention and control measures of the previous weeks and months are a time we will not soon forget. During the prolonged Spring Festival holiday in self-isolation, a group of Italian architects in Shenzhen decided to get creative, designing a Monopoly-inspired board game to help raise money for charity.

Titled METROPOLISZ, the game features a number of well-known Shenzhen venues, including OCT, Baishizhou and Window of the World, among others. Its design was also heavily influenced by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, with the Jail slot on the gameboard replaced by Quarantine.

In METROPOLISZ, Monopoly’s familiar Chance and Community Chest cards are replaced with OMG! and WTF? cards, and Utilities have been replaced by Food and Beverage cards. The four sides of the gameboard represent Futian, Luohu, Shekou and Shenzhen’s outskirts, while the four stations have been replaced with local transport hubs, including Bao’an International Airport and Futian Bus Terminal, among others.

Image via Lapis Bureau

Freddy Curiél, from design firm Lapis Bureau, tells That’s that he came up with the idea alongside colleagues Viki Ferrari and Niccolò Centrone. Since most of the staffers from Lapis Bureau were partaking in the self-quarantine measures, the trio found themselves in limbo with plenty of free time on their hands, which led to the creative undertaking that resulted in METROPOLISZ.

According to a press release from the designers, their intention in making the game was to offer some fun relief to families stuck at home while also “fighting the good fight” against COVID-19, by raising money to help combat the global health emergency.

Our favorite feature of the game is the board’s soft-iron rubber composition and magnetic game pieces that ensure you don’t have to re-setup the game every time someone rolls the dice.

You can snag your copy of this fun, localized game now by donating at least RMB333 to Shenzhen-based charity A Heart for China. According to Curiél, each game will be customized to include the donor’s name. For further information, check out the poster below: