IN THIS ECONOMY?

A simulator of surviving on minimum income while balancing happiness and stress. Discerning between 'needs' and 'wants.

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Project Description <<<

What problem are you solving

-The lack of financial education in our society !

Who is the target community

-Young adult without, because at this stage of life every financial decision you make are critical for the rest of your life, also it is at that stage that you have to build got habit for the rest of your life.

What does your solution do, and how does it work

-Our solution is a game like experience that allows everyone to learn without any stress, with mechanics that reflect the life of the average Canadian

Inspiration <<<

-We need financial literacy more than ever now that the economy is approaching a recession -Difficult economy, change in buying power -Surprise expenses aren't always budgeted for -Rely on high interest loans or credit cards -Mental health is impacted by financial difficulties - this leads to negative feedback loops

Why did you choose this problem

-Because not only having a bad financial education can ruin your life, it can also affect the society due to a snowball effect.

Explain what motivated your team

-The willingness to make the society a better place.

What It Does <<<

    Key features or components

-3 'currencies': money, happiness and stress. An itinerary of all expenses categorized into 'wants' and 'needs' a visual display of this is shown to the user. We have an interactive aspect through random events. The choices made in these events alter the currencies accordingly.

    How users interact with it

-We wanted to make it feel personal and real. Inconsequential actions like buying a snack could result in being unable to pay bills and result in a game over. The user is making these decisions themselves. They are entirely reasonable for the course of the game. 

    How it directly helps the target community

-Showcases how fast the cost of 'wants' pile up and makes affording 'needs' impossible

Challenges Faced <<<

    Technical limitations

-Struggles using Javascript (JS) had to switch to script due to having troubles creating classes. Classes within JS were confusing and had unclear restrictions 

    Time constraints

-We spent a lot of time on ideas and expanding the scope unintentionally. We had grand ideas that couldn't be implemented in the time limit. In the future starting with an incredible simple idea (1 functional aspect) and building from there. 

    Understanding the community’s needs

-Choosing a target audience was hard and ultimately we didnt pinpoint one because financial literacy and identifying wants vs needs is relevant to everyone. But having a specific audience would allow us to tailor our project better.

    Team coordination

-Our approach wasn't as organized as could've been. In the future we want to follow the SDLC structure more closely to progress efficiently

What Was Learned <<<

Technical skills gained

-Team work in github, oriented object programming with typescript.

New understanding of community needs or social impact

-A lot of problem that you have can are due to bad financial education. And not being aware isn't only just bad for you, it drags society down.

Lessons about teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving

-Without organization, teamwork can become very messy. So it is very important to think about the groups visions and sticks to it while bringing innovative ideas to get there. Leadership is not just telling other what to do, it is understanding the strength and the weakness of each one to better knows which task will be more effectively done by which member.

What's Next <<<

With more time we would have implemented :
  • tax system
  • a bank integration
  • use Unity to make a proper game

  • a system where the user could invest in his education to get more money

    How the project could grow :

  • A installable APK in play store and apple store

    Opportunities for Enactus competitions or real-world pilots

  • Working with bank to educate their client

Team member details <<<

Tchio Seme Pierre Arthur

Jose Mari Christian Hilario

Tejanpreet Dherdi

Hailey Smolak (Pinkham)

Any required disclosures (e.g., tools or AI used) <<<

Co-pilot - source facts and references, aid in debugging, refine and automate set template for CSV file, logo image generation Chat GPT - aid in debugging Local AI Model Z-image - image generation

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