BBEX runs a proprietary trading desk that also ships games. We size each title like a position — capital at risk, drawdown limits, settlement windows. Creative P&L is still P&L. We mark to market every Friday at 17:00 CET, whether you like it or not.
A roguelite structured as a margin account. Every death is a realized loss; every run is a new position. The house takes a 2% spread on in-run currency conversion. Players who survive 40 floors get settled in actual store credit. Yes, we clear it.
A cozy management sim we are short against the genre. Players run a café during a recession; revenue decays with real macroeconomic indices we scrape weekly. If CPI prints hot, tips drop. We hedge with a long on a separate inflation-themed title. Pairs trade.
A turn-based tactics game where the only resource is time-to-settlement. Miss your window and the position auto-liquidates. Built with a former clearing-house ops lead. The tutorial is a 40-page ISDA appendix. Surprisingly addictive.
Our largest open position. A multiplayer trust game where every interaction is an OTC contract with implicit collateral. Reputation is margin. Default and your avatar gets frozen for a settlement cycle. Currently 240bps above our cost basis and climbing.
BBEX occupies floor 14 of a Bauhaus-era office block on Bahnhofstrasse, Zürich. The front half is a regulated advisory desk. The back half — behind a soundproof glass wall — is the interactive division. Same P&L statement, different realization timeline.
We do not greenlight titles. We open positions. Each game has a notional size, a stop level, and a settlement horizon. If a title underperforms its drawdown limit for two consecutive quarters, it gets liquidated — assets folded into the next opening. No sentiment. No franchises.
The desk marks the interactive book to market every Friday at 17:00 CET. Creatives get the same risk report as the rates traders. Some found it brutal. The ones who stayed now think in basis points. The others went to work for publishers.
Runs the interactive book like a rates portfolio. Sized Drawdown Engine at €900K on a hunch and a correlation study. Marks to market personally. Has never shipped a title he wouldn't margin. Sleeps four hours, reads filings for fun.
Builds the drawdown engines that decide which titles live. Wrote the auto-liquidation daemon. Speaks in basis points and confidence intervals. Once killed a beloved prototype because its Sharpe fell below 0.8. No regrets.
Originates title ideas, then defends them in weekly risk review. Learned to pitch in notional and stop levels, not "vision." His survival rate is 3 of 5. The two liquidated ones funded Counterparty. He considers that a win.