Money Story

Inspiration

Throughout the pandemic, there were lots of financial issues. Many people started to have debt because they needed money while also not being able to work during the pandemic. Our inspiration comes from the lack of financial planning and thus, we are building a project to help young adults to be more aware of their financial income.

What it does

An interactive story of sorts. The player has to guide a character named Sunny through a series of financial decisions. The financial, health, and happiness level may vary depending on each decision being made. Although it is important to be stable financially, we also added other aspects such as health and happiness because we believe that these are equally important traits.

How we built it

First, we made a jamboard to brainstorm possible ideas with a little bit of research. We agreed on main ideas and got to work. One person was responsible for research and outlining, another was responsible for animations, and the last person was responsible to start coding. We made sprites using procreate. We used google docs to plan the storyline and we also used pygame to code.

Challenges we ran into

• We had to learn pygame (python is the only language we all know). As such, we didn't have enough time to complete the whole project using graphics and had to carry some of it over to the console. Even then, we ran into problems trying to put our separate files together.
• Due to the time limit, we had to simplify the program many times.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

It was our first hackathon! Also our first time collaborating on a project and using pygame. So, despite the fact that we did not manage to finish, we like the concept we brainstormed and we're happy to say that we tried our best.

What we learned

Learned many interesting facts regarding finance and learned may ways to save. Learned how to code with pygame.

What's next for Money Story

• Putting the game together
• Creating a stock market game and allowing them to experience the real stock market before investing.
• Making fake websites and testing the player to increase their vigilance
• Add a summary of gains and losses at the end of each chapter's mini game so the player can visualize their spendings.
• Add a dress section and add the weather icon. If it has bad weather, allow them to dress accordingly. If they are not willing to spend to dress, then they will get sick and their health will decrease. This teaches them the basic ways to plan ahead for activities and dress accordingly to save up by doing small actions.
• Give examples of trustworthy websites and investments so the player gets an idea of what to expect
• Add possible certifications at the end of the game so the player feels accomplished

Built With

• pygame
• python