Venture Valley Makes University of Arizona FORGE Students Virtual Millionaires in Its PC and Mobile Game

Video Game Tournament Winner Reaches 92M+ Profit to Win Venture Valley Tournament and Take Home $2500 Cash Prize

TUCSON, Ariz., Oct. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The business battles were fierce this past Friday night when almost 100 student entrepreneurs took part in the Venture Valley video game tournament held at University of Arizona's FORGE at Roy Place in Tucson. In a FORGE event, University of Arizona FORGE partnered with Venture Valley, a fast-paced multiplayer business simulation PC and mobile game from The Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship. The event also featured the U of A Venture Expo, showcasing student businesses, products, and prototypes.

Almost 100 players from the University of Arizona, Pima Community College, and Cochise Community College played Venture Valley, where they took on the role of an entrepreneur and put their business skills to the test against each other. The competition was fierce as the students vied to make the most profit. Walking away with the grand prize of $2500 was Oliver Stoner-German, who grew his in-game revenue to $92,827,930. Travis Gramm won a second prize of $1000 by building businesses worth $76,072,040. Twelve other students won part of the total $5000 in cash giveaways and prizes.

"As part of our quest to bring entrepreneurship opportunities to our students, we partnered with the Venture Valley mobile and PC game as it encompasses what we teach on a daily basis," said Paul Valdez, Program Manager, FORGE Student Venture Pathways. "All of our students had a blast playing the game and walked away from the competition with a real sense of all of the factors and intricacies involved in being an entrepreneur."

Venture Valley features both competitive esports-style multiplayer play and a single-player campaign with 35 unique missions, giving students both a fun outlet to compete with friends in positive ways and practice entrepreneurship and personal financial skills on their own. Budding entrepreneurs get to experience the highs and lows of being their own boss but need to keep in mind that along with success comes rivals. Venture Valley is available for free (no in-app purchases or ads) on mobile (iOS and Android) and PC (via Steam).

"Seeing students' enthusiastic responses to playing the game was exciting. Watching them come up with spur of the moment business and marketing strategies to out-earn each other was exactly what we pictured when we created the Venture Valley game," said Roger Hector, Executive Producer of Venture Valley. "We got great feedback from the students on how our game really put their entrepreneurial learnings to the test in a fun, risk-free environment."

Venture Valley is a free (no in-app purchases or ads) PC and mobile (iOS and Android) game. The game is a project of the Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit with the mission of making financial competence fun and engaging for everyone by using the power of entertainment to capture attention, create change, promote entrepreneurship, and to inspire individual achievement. https://venturevalleygame.com

FORGE (Finding Opportunities and Resources to Grow Entrepreneurs) is a unique entrepreneurial community that combines startup acceleration alongside experiential student and community education. FORGE programs provide entrepreneurial education, mentoring, coaching, exposure to the venturing process, and readiness assessment tools. FORGE maintains an entrepreneurial resource hub in downtown Tucson, Arizona, and several locations on the University of Arizona campus and throughout the state. Learn more at forge.arizona.edu

Contacts

Susan Lusty | Venture Valley Game | [email protected]

Lori Mezoff | Venture Valley Game | [email protected]

Erika Mitnik | FORGE | [email protected]

SOURCE Singleton Foundation