Inspiration
Financial inclusion is often discussed through statistics and policy, but it can be difficult to understand what unequal access to financial services actually feels like.
We wanted to make that problem tangible. Our central question was:
What happens when two people face the same financial shock, but have different access to affordable financial services?
This inspired IMPACTFORGE, an interactive financial-life simulation where players experience the consequences of financial decisions over time.
What it does
Players navigate 30 days of unexpected financial shocks and everyday trade-offs while managing cash, savings, income, debt, stress, resilience, and financial access.
The key mechanic is that financial access changes the consequences of the same decisions. A financially included player can access more affordable credit, while a financially excluded player faces significantly higher borrowing costs. At the end, players can compare how different levels of access affect their financial outcomes.
How we built it
We built IMPACTFORGE as a separate frontend and backend so we could develop the product in parallel.
The backend was built in Python and contains the simulation engine, player and event models, financial rules, game progression, and final scoring system. We created a clear frontend-backend contract where the frontend sends a player's choice, such as "loan", and the backend calculates all financial consequences before returning the updated game state.
The frontend presents the simulation through an interactive interface, while the backend handles the underlying logic.
Challenges we ran into
One of our biggest challenges was turning the complex idea of financial inclusion into a simple and understandable game mechanic.
We had to balance starting cash, savings, income, expenses, loan interest, stress, resilience, and financial access so that every decision created a meaningful trade-off without making the simulation overwhelming.
Another challenge was making sure the frontend and backend could be developed independently. Establishing the interface contract early helped us avoid duplicating financial logic across both sides.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are especially proud that IMPACTFORGE doesn't just explain financial inclusion—it allows users to experience its consequences.
The same financial shock can produce very different outcomes depending on a player's access to affordable financial services. Our final comparison makes this difference visible through changes in debt, resilience, stress, and overall financial health.
We are also proud of building a modular backend that can be expanded with new events, financial mechanics, and player profiles without rebuilding the entire system.
What we learned
We learned that effective social-impact technology needs to make an abstract problem understandable through direct interaction.
We also learned the importance of designing the system architecture before coding. Defining the frontend-backend contract allowed us to divide the work effectively and keep responsibilities clear.
Most importantly, we learned that financial inclusion is not simply about how much money someone has. Access to affordable financial tools can fundamentally change how someone responds to the same financial shock.
What's next for Impactforge
We want to expand IMPACTFORGE beyond the initial MVP with:
More diverse financial events and life circumstances More financial-access profiles Dynamic income and employment changes Inflation and changing cost-of-living pressures Insurance and emergency-fund mechanics More sophisticated debt and repayment systems Personalized post-game analysis Educational explanations showing why certain outcomes occurred Additional scenarios that demonstrate different forms of financial exclusion
Our long-term goal is to turn IMPACTFORGE into a broader interactive financial-literacy and financial-inclusion learning platform, where users can understand systemic financial inequality by experiencing it themselves.
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