01 May Bringing Diversity to Gaming

Next: Carolina Acosta took a trip to Latin America that changed the course of her life.

“It’s where I first reconnected with my Latina roots, being half Colombian and half Dominican,” the 29-year-old New Yorker says. “I connected to the countries that I was visiting, particularly Colombia where my mom’s from.”

After she got back, she was talking with a friend who’d come up with the idea of creating a cultural drinking game. “He was thinking about his own culture, which is Korean American, but I immediately thought of my culture and thought, ‘Oh my God, something like that does not exist,’” she says.

That led Acosta in 2019 to develop Tragos, a drinking card game whose name translates to “drinks” or “cocktails” in English. Players answer questions pertaining to Latino culture. Those who don’t know the answers (or fail in other fun ways) take a drink.

People started finding out about the game via social media and word of mouth. Acosta says, “I was sending out maybe 10 orders a day” while still working as a freelance graphic designer. Then one day, orders jumped from 10 to 1,000. That week she fielded 5,000 orders, and realized she had to quickly scale her business. “I had to hire immediately. I couldn’t do it all on my own, and within a few months, I was doing it full-time.”

In a matter of months, the company, also called Tragos, expanded by creating other cultural games (including family-friendly, drink-free Get Loud), hats, and gift kits. The company has sold more than 50,000 copies of the original card game, and in the first two years in business has made more than $2 million.

Acosta believes cultural pride is one of the reasons for the company’s success. “My generation always felt like we had to assimilate,” says Acosta. Younger millennials and Generation Z, however, are coming into their own with a desire to express themselves and embrace all their identities. “We’re not just American. Identity within the Latino culture has definitely reawakened.”

She’s excited about what the future holds, and dreams of creating product offerings that celebrate other cultures. “I would love to see more representation across the gaming industry.”