About two months ago, an unsuspecting passerby in the Osasco city hall's event room might have thought the auditing team had switched fields and gone into criminal investigation. Faced with photographs , newspaper clippings, and other "material evidence," 42 professionals were trying to solve two distinct crimes .
The stories were 100% fabricated — for four hours, the auditors dedicated themselves to analog investigation games. But the dynamic was far from child's play. It was the resource adopted by Cintia Mendes Moreira, the city's comptroller general, to improve integration among members of her team and help them develop skills such as a collaborative spirit.
“In this role, it’s essential to understand that there’s no competition. That’s what happened in the game. Everyone came together around a common goal, and even the shyest interacted,” Cíntia tells NeoFeed .
Analog games seemed destined to disappear, but they've been showing impressive resilience—especially investigative games. And, fueled by social media , new brands are emerging all the time.
The two stories acquired by the Osasco-based holding company were created by Rio de Janeiro natives Marina Lamim and Lucca Marques, who founded Sob Investigação last year. The couple started printing the games at home, but professionalized the printing in October and already has a distribution center, such is the demand.
“We’ve already sold more than 20,000 units and, in February, we reached the Martins Fontes and Leitura bookstores. By the end of the year, we want to reach 200 points of sale,” projects Marina, in a conversation with NeoFeed . Each game, which corresponds to a story of robbery, kidnapping or murder, costs R$ 119.90.
A competitor of the duo, Eduardo Maia gave up the digital marketing field after founding Detective Nights. He launched his first story in February 2025 and already has nine in his portfolio. Maia creates the scripts, while a team of 12 people shapes the games, which also reach the market for R$ 119.90.
"Our audience is made up of people who love thrillers and binge-watching series on Netflix . I don't sell games, but quality time," he tells NeoFeed .
Created in 2015 in Rio de Janeiro, the Diversão Offline (Doff) fair is a good indicator of the phenomenon. It started with 14 exhibitors and 700 visitors, in a one-day edition. The last one, held in São Paulo in 2025, lasted two days and counted 125 exhibitors and 13,000 visitors.
Fernanda Sereno, CEO of the event, tells NeoFeed that the audience is no longer just hardcore gamers: “Every year, I see an increase in the presence of families and weekend gamers. Millennials are anxious, looking for ways to connect with new generations and get them away from screens.”
Taking place in São Paulo in July, Doff 2026 will have a third day dedicated to human resources professionals, a crucial link to an increasingly promising market for game designers: the corporate sector.
Game Maker founder Marcio Carneiro landed his first corporate client in 2021: the technology company TI Safe. Commissioned by Carneiro, he developed a board game themed around challenging vulnerabilities for cybersecurity professionals.
Since then, Game Maker has created games for major clients. Daycoval bank commissioned a game to train its customer service teams. For the construction company Tenda , the company brought the dream of homeownership to a game board, used in a marketing campaign with influencers.
The goal of the game inspired by the series Only Murders in the Building , created at the request of Disney 's streaming division, was also to promote it on social media.
Reservations required.
Since developing a game can take months and cost the client between R$8,000 and R$14,000, Game Maker's new offering is a series of white-label games, with basic, pre-formatted templates that can be customized to the customer's liking in just a few days.
Alpargatas was the first client. "They ran an internal institutional campaign about the company's values and used the game as a tool," Carneiro tells NeoFeed .
Games designed for the corporate world are generally simple and easy to play. Products developed for the end consumer, however, are far from that.
Unlike the old Monopoly and Clue games, modern board games have complex plots and a wide variety of themes, ranging from zombies to Brazilian history. Most are recommended for ages 14 and up.
According to Diego Bianchini, CEO of MeepleBR, whose portfolio consists of foreign and national games, the Brazilian market began to transform in 2011. The turning point, he says, was the arrival of the German game Catan , launched here by Grow — the objective is to build roads, villages, and cities to colonize an island.
“Previously, the industry only focused on games for children because it lacked the understanding of who the largest consumer audience is,” recalls Bianchini, in an interview with NeoFeed . “Modern games are always for adults, but they can be considered family-friendly.”
The game's dynamics don't depend on luck, but on strategy. One of MeepleBR's best-sellers is Imperial Brazil , which invites players to form a new empire—the product has already been exported and translated into a dozen languages.
Modern video games were once exclusive to niche stores, such as PlayEasy in São Paulo and Game of Boards in Rio de Janeiro, but they have broken through that bubble. They have reached major marketplaces, such as Mercado Livre and Amazon , which has broadened access, despite the price — which averages between R$ 300 and R$ 500.
Not surprisingly, gaming spaces are packed. In São Paulo, those who go to Ludus Luderia pay between R$ 34 and R$ 48, depending on the day of the week, to choose one of the 2,000 titles in the collection and play for as long as they want, while eating hamburgers from the menu (charged separately).
The restaurant has been around for 19 years, but founder Lucy Raposo tells NeoFeed that it has never been so full — there are days when the 200 seats aren't enough to meet the demand: “I receive many families, groups of friends, and the 50+ audience is also increasing. On Saturday afternoons, only those with reservations are allowed in.”
