Most audience engagement games have one thing in common:

Eventually, the game ends.

Trivia night wraps up. The bingo cards are closed. The event ends, everyone goes home, and you start planning the next one.

At Gig Game, we started wondering:

What if the game didn't end?

What if your customers left your restaurant, bar, arcade, entertainment center, resort, or attraction—but the experience they started there continued?

What if they checked it again tomorrow?

What if your customers weren't just playing a game together for an hour, but were building rivalries, alliances, strategies, and stories that could continue for weeks or months?

That's the idea behind Trade Empires, our newest game—and it's very different from anything we've built before.

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Your Business Gets Its Own Galaxy

Trade Empires is a persistent, browser-based multiplayer strategy game.

But here's the important part:

Your business can have its own private universe, populated by your customers.

Every player becomes the captain of a starship. They begin with a small vessel, some credits, and a limited number of turns.

From there, the galaxy is theirs to explore.

Players discover new sectors and planets. They buy and sell commodities between trading ports. They upgrade their ships. They establish colonies. They build wealth and resources. They form corporations with other players. They can fight rivals, collect bounties, build reputations, or become powerful without firing a single shot.

And because everyone exists in the same persistent galaxy, what one customer does can affect everyone else.

A profitable trade route can be discovered. A planet can be claimed. A corporation can become powerful. An enemy can emerge. A nobody with a tiny ship can eventually become one of the most powerful captains in the galaxy.

This isn't a game against anonymous opponents generated by a computer. It's a shared world for your community.

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You Don't Have to Get Everyone Together to Play

Trade Empires is inspired by a style of multiplayer gaming that existed long before modern MMOs.

In the 1980s and 1990s, players connected to Bulletin Board Systems—or BBSs—using modems. Some of the most memorable BBS games were persistent multiplayer games where players received a limited number of turns each day.

You didn't need everyone online together.

You logged in.

You made your moves.

Then someone else logged in later and made theirs.

The next time you returned, something might have changed.

Trade Empires brings that idea into the modern browser. There are no downloads or installers, and players share a galaxy that continues whether they're currently logged in or not.

That's incredibly important for a venue.

You don't have to announce:

"Everyone take out your phones. The game starts at 7:00."

A customer can play while having lunch.

Another can make their moves from home that evening.

Someone else can check their empire tomorrow morning.

The players don't have to be together for the community to be playing together.

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The Game Night Ends. The Galaxy Doesn't.

Trade Empires isn't intended to replace trivia night, bingo, or the other live experiences in Gig Game.

Those experiences are excellent at engaging customers while they're with you.

Trade Empires introduces something completely different:

Engagement between visits.

A customer may leave your business tonight, but tomorrow they're wondering whether somebody discovered their planet.

They want to see whether commodity prices changed.

They want to spend their new turns.

They want to know whether their corporation moved up the rankings.

They want revenge on whoever attacked them yesterday.

They want to know what happened while they were gone.

The entertainment relationship hasn't necessarily ended just because the customer walked out the door.

And that's where Trade Empires becomes particularly powerful for a business.

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Turn Real-World Purchases Into In-Game Rewards

Trade Empires can bridge activity inside your physical business with progress inside the virtual galaxy.

Businesses can create QR codes that award players in-game credits.

That opens up some interesting possibilities.

Buy an entrée → earn Galactic Credits.

Come in on Tuesday → get bonus credits.

Win trivia night → receive an in-game reward.

Attend a special event → get a reward available only that night.

Put a QR code on a receipt.

Reward a VIP customer.

Run a limited-time promotion.

Give players a bonus for trying a new menu item.

Instead of simply offering another coupon or discount, you're giving customers something that has value because they're already invested in their empire.

And suddenly real-world customer behavior can have consequences inside the virtual world.

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Hide Real Offers Inside a Virtual Galaxy

We wanted the connection between the real and virtual worlds to go even further.

Businesses can hide messages, clues, rewards, and promotional offers inside their galaxy.

Imagine exploring an obscure sector and suddenly intercepting a transmission:

SECRET TRANSMISSION RECEIVED Show this message to your server tonight for a special offer.

That's no longer simply an advertisement.

The customer discovered it.

A restaurant could hide specials throughout its galaxy.

An entertainment center could run a month-long treasure hunt.

A themed attraction could hide clues that connect the online universe to things guests can discover at the physical location.

A bar could hide a code somewhere in deep space and announce that the first captain to discover it wins something Friday night.

The galaxy itself becomes a promotional channel—one your customers actually want to explore.

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Yes, You Can Put Billboards in Space

This might be one of our favorite features.

Businesses can place virtual advertising billboards directly inside sectors of their Trade Empires universe.

Players encounter them naturally while traveling through space.

That billboard might promote tonight's special.

It might announce an upcoming event.

It might advertise another attraction inside an entertainment center.

It could feature a local business.

Or it could belong to a sponsor.

For venues with sponsorship relationships, that creates an entirely new piece of virtual advertising inventory.

Why give your sponsor another banner ad when you can give them a billboard floating in space?

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Your Players Become Your Audience

And this is where the persistent nature of Trade Empires creates an opportunity that traditional advertising can't easily replicate.

Once customers become invested in their ships, planets, corporations, rankings, wealth, alliances, and rivalries, they have a reason to keep coming back to your universe.

And every time they return, they're returning to an environment associated with your business.

That gives you something incredibly valuable:

A recurring, highly engaged audience.

You're no longer simply hoping a customer notices an email, social media post, table tent, or advertisement.

They're voluntarily returning to a world where your promotions can become part of the experience.

Put tonight's special on a billboard orbiting a planet.

Hide an offer in a distant sector.

Announce an upcoming event through an in-game transmission.

Reward a real-world purchase with Galactic Credits.

Feature a sponsor at a major trading port.

Promote Tuesday night to someone checking their empire Monday morning.

The game can effectively create a captive audience—without your customers ever feeling like one.

That's an important distinction.

They're not being forced to look at advertising.

They're choosing to return because they want to play.

The more invested they become in the galaxy, the more reasons they have to return. And every return creates another opportunity for your business to communicate with them.

You're not buying access to someone else's audience.

You're building your own.

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Your Customers Become the Content

There's another aspect of persistent games that we think is particularly powerful:

Players create stories.

That was one of the inspirations behind Trade Empires in the first place.

The game draws inspiration from the classic space-trading BBS games of the early online era.

Back then, the interesting part wasn't simply what happened on the computer.

It was what happened because of it.

Players printed sector maps.

They planned routes.

They formed alliances.

They betrayed alliances.

They argued over strategy.

They planned attacks.

And they talked about what happened in the game when they saw each other the next day.

That's the experience we're trying to recreate in a modern form.

Now imagine that happening among the regulars at a bar or entertainment center.

Someone has been attacking your planets for two weeks.

You know their player name.

You've been plotting revenge.

Then one evening you discover they're sitting three stools away.

That's not simply gameplay.

That's community.

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Bring the Competition Back Into Your Venue

The virtual galaxy doesn't need to remain virtual.

Put Trade Empires rankings and leaderboards on televisions inside your venue.

Celebrate the wealthiest traders.

Recognize the strongest corporations.

Call out the week's biggest movers.

Award Galactic Credits during another Gig Game event.

Create competing factions.

Run weekend challenges.

Give customers bonuses for visiting the venue.

Suddenly the things happening inside Trade Empires become conversations happening inside your business.

Player names become familiar.

Rivalries develop.

Corporations recruit.

Alliances form.

Customers have something in common before they've even met each other.

Your customers aren't simply playing your game. They're building your community.

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It Doesn't Require Another Hosted Event

There's another major advantage for businesses:

Trade Empires doesn't require someone to host it every night.

There doesn't need to be an employee with a microphone.

There isn't a two-hour window where everyone must participate.

Players participate asynchronously, on their own schedules.

Once your universe is active, customers can play during lunch, at home, while waiting for a friend, late at night, or whenever they have a few minutes.

That means your business can provide an ongoing entertainment experience 24 hours a day without hosting a 24-hour event.

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It Can Connect With Everything Else You Do

Trade Empires can also become part of your larger Gig Game entertainment strategy.

Run trivia night and award the winning team Galactic Credits.

Put Trade Empires reward codes inside a scavenger hunt.

Give bingo winners an in-game bonus.

Put codes on receipts.

Create rewards for special events.

Hide codes around your venue.

Create a promotion where customers must discover something inside the galaxy and then complete the challenge at your physical location.

Your live events and persistent universe don't have to be separate experiences.

They can feed into one another.

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Built for Places Where Community Matters

Trade Empires can work anywhere a business wants to develop an ongoing relationship with its customers, but the concept becomes especially interesting for places where entertainment and community are already part of the experience.

Bars and restaurants can give regular customers a shared competition that continues between visits.

Arcades and family entertainment centers can add a persistent game customers continue playing after leaving the facility.

Themed restaurants and attractions can make their private universe part of the larger fictional world surrounding their venue.

Resorts and hotels can create an experience guests discover during their stay and potentially continue afterward.

Conventions and events can create universes for attendees, exhibitors, teams, or communities.

And because the game exists in the browser, players don't need to install another app just to participate.

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Something Your Competitors Don't Have

Most customer engagement products are trying to solve one question:

How do we entertain the customers who are here right now?

That's an important question.

It's one Gig Game has spent years answering with trivia, bingo, party games, card tournaments, scavenger hunts, interactive displays, and other audience engagement experiences.

Trade Empires adds another question:

How do we keep that engagement going tomorrow?

That's a fundamentally different kind of game.

Your customers aren't simply earning points in a loyalty program.

They're building something.

They own ships.

They discover planets.

They build colonies.

They accumulate wealth.

They develop reputations.

They make enemies.

They form alliances.

They compete for rankings.

They become invested.

And all of it is happening inside your universe.

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The Game Night Ends. The Galaxy Doesn't.

Trivia can give customers a reason to come in Thursday night.

Bingo can entertain them while they're there.

Trade Empires gives them something to think about Friday morning.

They check their ship.

Spend their new turns.

Make another trade.

Explore another sector.

Build another colony.

Check the leaderboard.

See what their rivals did while they were gone.

Maybe they discover a promotion.

Maybe there's a reward waiting for them at your venue.

Maybe they simply need to come back Friday night because the guy who's been destroying their trade routes drinks there too—and this has become personal.

That's the difference between entertaining an audience and building an engaged community.

Trade Empires creates a persistent experience your customers can continue returning to long after they've walked out your door.

And every time they return, your business has another opportunity to entertain them, reward them, communicate with them, and ultimately give them another reason to come back.

Your business isn't simply hosting another game.

It's hosting a universe.

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Try Our Demo Right Now! Scan the QR code, or follow the link to start playing on your computer or mobile device.