Inspiration
As young adults entering the world of adulting, managing our finances became quite challenging. Keeping a budget was tough, and improving it seemed even harder. The shift from knowing nothing about finances to dealing with it all was overwhelming. From this journey, we realized how crucial financial knowledge is. That's why we want to create a central platform to introduce young people to financial literacy. We believe this will help them make thoughtful financial choices and have a positive impact on their lives and the world.
What it does
On the other hand, our game is a meant for a more beginner and younger audience. It's a visual novel game created using Ren'Py, a game development engine. The game follows the journey of a character named Leon, who's navigating through the challenges of adulthood, making financial choices, and growing into a successful individual. Players interact with the story by making choices, shaping Leon's path and experiencing the consequences of those choices. It's a fun and engaging way to explore the complexities of adulting and financial decision-making.The financial literacy chatbot, powered by the Alpha Vantage API, is designed to provide users with valuable insights and information related to various financial aspects, including stock market data, company overviews, and market trends. It acts as an interactive and user-friendly platform for users to inquire about specific companies or stock symbols, enabling them to make informed decisions.
How we built it
To create our game, we began by structuring the story scene by scene. We employed Ren'Py for the actual development, assigning each scene a label. To manage the player's choices, we utilized game flags, tracking decisions to assess correctness as the story unfolded. For the visual aspect, we generated our assets using a reliable AI art generator. This approach allowed us to build a cohesive and engaging experience for players. For chatbot we use fintech api and python to build it. from froend we used anvil.
Challenges we ran into
In the development of "FinLit," our main focus revolved around incorporating gamification elements to enhance user engagement and promote active learning. By integrating game mechanics, such as challenges, quizzes, and interactive content, we aimed to create an immersive and enjoyable financial education experience. By fostering competition, providing rewards for progress, and offering engaging content, we sought to motivate users to actively participate in the learning process. Through the strategic use of gamification, we aimed to make financial literacy more accessible and appealing to a broader audience, thereby fostering a greater understanding of crucial financial concepts and practices.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're thrilled about a few achievements in creating our game. First off, we tackled the challenge of making a game from scratch—writing stories and using Ren'Py, and it felt like a big win. Then, we made our game interesting by using game flags to keep track of what choices players make, giving the story different twists based on those choices.
We also found a smart way to create pictures for our game by using a nifty AI tool. It helped us get good-looking images without spending a ton of time on it. Making the game feel smooth and nice to play was another goal, and understanding things like sprites and assets played a key role in achieving that.
One of the skills we're proud of is getting good at getting the pictures we need really fast. It made the whole process of making the game a lot easier. These might seem like small victories, but for us, it's a big deal and a step forward in our game-making journey!
What we learned
We started making games for the first time, figuring out both the technical and non-technical stuff. We learned how to write stories for games, make the game flow smoothly, and got to know about things like sprites and assets. We also learned tricks to quickly get the pictures we needed and understood how Ren'Py, the game-making tool, works. It was like going on an adventure and learning new things step by step!
What's next for FinLit
We've got some exciting plans for our game!
- First, we plan to add more questions to make things a bit trickier, adding a layer of challenge to the adventure.
- We also wish to introduce more financial terms and tax-related questions, offering a deeper exploration into adulting and finance.
- Diversity is a priority, so we're bringing in different characters to make the game more relatable and inclusive for everyone.
- We also plan to weave new storylines that showcase different perspectives on financial literacy to explore how companies, the government, and charities navigate the financial world. -We wish to add more features like interactive modules and and webinars and virtually animated lectures.
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