Budget Life

Budget Life is a life-simulation game inspired by BitLife where players face real-world choices in education, money, health, and work to learn financial literacy and long-term decision-making.

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Inspiration

Our project was inspired by the mobile game BitLife, but with an educational twist. As a group of high school students, we noticed that financial education is often limited, so we decided to design a game that fills that gap. We wanted to create an interactive experience that teaches financial literacy in a way that feels fun, relatable, and realistic.

What it does

The game simulates real-life financial decisions and responsibilities, showing how choices affect long-term stability, happiness, and future opportunities. Players experience budgeting, bills, emergencies, lifestyle decisions, and financial planning while learning how each action impacts their overall outcome.

How we built it

We developed the game using GitHub Codespaces with shared live sessions. The core systems are written in JavaScript for functionality, HTML for structure, and CSS for styling. All development was done using Visual Studio Code.

Challenges we ran into

We struggled with code organization because most gameplay logic existed in one large JavaScript file, making collaboration difficult. It was also challenging to balance development scope within the limited time and still create meaningful gameplay. We also spent time finalizing the game direction before development fully started.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of how much we built in only 24 hours, especially since this was our first hackathon. We created a large and functional game prototype with minimal bugs and a strong foundation. We also learned quickly and worked well as a team under time pressure.

What we learned

Most team members were new to web-based game development, so we learned how to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript together to build an interactive project. We also learned about collaboration, version control, communication, and shared workflow.

What's next for Budget Life

We plan to make the gameplay more realistic and expand the content. Planned features include:

  • Grocery and household expenses
  • Credit score and debt management
  • More random life events and decision paths
  • Additional educational financial topics
  • Improved UI and more organized code structure

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