Can creativity be taught? Press Start Studios’ Vincent Siu certainly believes so

In Fiero!, each round starts with selecting a card containing a mission brief for a group of three to six players to solve. Examples of scenarios include creating a plan to become a successful influencer, surviving in space with crew members and transforming a suitable city site for children.

Players will then draw additional cards to help them develop their pitch. These cards may suggest a character to portray or a venue to utilise.

The cards feature graphics to aid players in visualising and brainstorming ideas. They are designed to avoid providing clear and concrete definitions, leaving the interpretation entirely up to the players.

Subsequently, the players will each present their ideas and the group will vote for their top choice to move on to the next round. The chosen idea is then further developed. The game concludes after three rounds, each lasting approximately 30 minutes.

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Siu and his team spent eight months developing and refining the game of Fiero!. It is one of the products released by Siu under Press Start Studios. He launched the game studio in 2023 to address some of the limitations of Press Start Academy.

The academy designs curriculums based on games that require instructors to teach the students in person, which Siu says, makes its business model cost-intensive and difficult to scale. “If we sell an after-school programme, then the usual cost for a public member to sign up for it ranges from HK$1000 to HK$4000. It’s pretty standard for a learning centre, but it’s not very affordable and accessible to those who need this education the most.”

Siu, whose primary goal is to provide quality education to a broader population, aims to reduce costs with his second venture by releasing simple games people can play themselves, like Fiero!. They could be priced at tens or hundreds of dollars yet they hold equal educational value. “Regardless of your demographic, you also have access to the same quality Press Start education experience in your home,” he says.

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Eventually, Siu wants both brands to be able to collaborate to maximise his goal. His team is developing lesson plans and event formats for teachers or parents to use Fiero! in educational settings. For instance, they plan to organise a creative writing competition at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival using the card game to encourage participation, even from less experienced individuals.

“What we learned from Press Start Academy could lead to productised versions through the studio. The studios will have extensions of applications and evolutions that are more experiential, so they tie back into the academy side,” he says.

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Since last year, Siu has been working closely with the Gen.T community to enhance the game and build excitement ahead of its launch. Fellow honourees had the opportunity to test the pilot version at various events in Hong Kong and Singapore, including the flagship Gen.T Summit, offering valuable feedback that contributed to the development of the final product.

Gen.T hosted two events in October this year to celebrate the card game’s launch. The first took place in Singapore, where Press Start Studios co-hosted a gaming session following an office tour of the advertising and marketing agency Dstnct, led by its founder and Gen.T Leader of Tomorrow 2024, Matthew Zeng.

This week in Hong Kong, the startup co-hosted an event at the Hong Kong Golf and Tennis Academy Town Club in Central, bringing together around 20 young leaders and talents from different sectors. They could try out the game while connecting over drinks and canapés.

“It was great to come up with many new pitch ideas and see how everyone interpreted the cards. We began with a story about a grandmother, and all of a sudden, she became a chef. And then it snowballed into an inventive story,” says Carla Martinesi, a Gen.T honoree and founder of the food-saving app, Chomp. Her group eventually collaborated to develop an idea for a cooking show.

Krizia Li, a Gen.T Leader of Tomorrow 2023 and founder of the e-commerce platform Vermillion, says that the game helped to break the ice among participants. “[The game] created a lot of laughter and uncomfortable but great situations where people would reveal a lot of their deepest, darkest thoughts or their humorous sides. It helps you get to know other people’s personalities straight away.”

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