Inspiration
We were inspired by the 5 components of financial literacy on the CapitalOne website, and we decided to focus on building credit. Many students are aware of the basics of budgeting, investing, debt, and saving, but credit is a more foreign concept, so we wanted students to get exposure to how it works and the importance of their FICO score. For our design, we were inspired by older games like Oregon Trail and used the pixelated style to create a retro system-type UI.
What it does
Credit Sim is a life-simulator game which gamifies learning about building credit. It includes random events which can either force you to pay money or earn it, similar to events that might happen in real life. Examples include Birthday Money and Hospital Bills. The user's end goal is to raise their credit score as much as possible, and their score corresponds to the type of house they are able to buy.
How we built it
We built the project using C++ and JavaScript for the game logic and React for the website and UI. We had the help of LLM Tools such as Gemini and Copilot to guide us in the right direction, but we edited a lot of the code by hand to enhance the learning experience. For example, we edited the game logs so that users could immediately see how each action they made affected their credit score. Additionally, we added hints which teach the users how credit builds and drops.
Challenges we ran into
We ran into some challenges early on with forming the idea of what the website would do and whether we should include more or different elements of financial literacy. However, after the initial idea was in place, we were able to work well together to split up tasks like design/theme building and development of game logic, and developed a complete product. Additionally, we had challenges with balancing the game and making sure the difficulty was not too hard but also not too easy. Balance changes occurred through many iterations of the project, and we spent a lot of time making sure the game not repetitive and was fun to play.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are all first year students, and have little to no hackathon experience. In fact, we have only signed up for one hackathon before this, and some of us did not have a product to submit. We are extremely proud of the fact that we submitted a project, had a viable and impactful idea, and most importantly came together as a team to build a polished, finalized product which is fun to use and educational at the same time.
What we learned
We learned how to compile C++ code in JavaScript using WebAssembly (WASM). We also learned that LLM's aren't able to handle everything, and sometimes it takes poring over lines of code to understand it in order to figure out what changes to make. We also learned how to work together as a team and split up a whole project into parts so that each team member plays a role in the finished product.
What's next for Credit Sim
Credit Sim is an extremely fun game to play, and there were numerous times when we spent an hour "testing the game" when really just playing it for fun. It could be used as an educational website for many econ teachers, especially in high school, which students could use to learn about building credit and how to manage it well. With further balance testing, development, and additional features, it could be an extremely viable tool for making learning about a mundane topic fun.
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