Using a visual metaphor to explain ZBD’s role

Where money gets stuck

Financial services move money from A to B. In games, items and currencies can hold value for players, yet moving that value to another player or outside the game can be difficult. Some trades happen through barter or off-platform arrangements. Those examples pointed to a broader challenge: connecting game economies to financial systems.

For a studio, building a bridge to the financial world raises three issues:

• Regulation: Handling player funds can trigger different requirements across markets, including licenses.
• Game economy: Transfers and cash-out could change how an existing economy works.
• Priorities: A new title or feature may offer a faster return than building financial infrastructure.

ZBD saw an opportunity to focus on infrastructure that individual studios would find costly to build on their own. My challenge was to explain that role in one line.

From a barrier to a layer

Every draft that tried to carry both the problem and ZBD’s ambition picked up another clause. I stepped away from the copy and pictured an Eva pushing against an AT Field in Evangelion.

The AT Field was a layer that blocked passage between two spaces. Pushing harder would not get the Eva through, which made me think about the boundary itself. I pictured ZBD in a similar position between a game’s economy and the financial world, with infrastructure that could let value move across it.

The line and the framework

That image gave me “The Money Layer for Games.” The phrase made ZBD’s role easier to picture without tying the company to any one product.

I shared the concept with leadership and the marketing team, who responded positively. I then developed the ZBD Platform messaging framework to carry the idea into product messaging.

What I learned

I had been trying to find the right words before I could see the relationship. Once I pictured the barrier and the layer that could bridge it, the line followed.