Inspiration
Financial literacy is often taught too late, usually after mistakes have already been made. We were inspired by how games naturally teach through experience rather than instruction. In life-simulation games like Animal Crossing and BitLife, players learn systems by interacting with them, experimenting, and seeing outcomes unfold over time.
We wanted to bring that same experiential learning model to financial education. Many kids and teens grow up learning through technology, yet money is still taught in abstract, text-heavy ways. We saw an opportunity to create a space where young people could safely explore financial decisions, see future consequences, and build confidence before facing real-world financial systems. Our core motivation was empowerment through understanding, not fear.
What We Built
MoneyGrow is a life-simulation web app where players guide a character named Monty through different stages of life. At each stage, players make decisions about spending, saving, priorities, and trade-offs. Every choice influences two core metrics: wealth and happiness.
These metrics are not just numbers. They represent how financial decisions affect emotional well-being and long-term stability. Over time, players see how small choices build on each other, with real-time feedback, expressive character reactions, and AI-powered guidance that turns every decision into a learning moment. By the end of Monty’s life, players receive a summary of their financial journey, reinforcing learning with reflection and encouragement rather than punishment.
How We Built It
We built MoneyGrow as a browser-based interactive experience using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, focusing heavily on UI/UX design to make the game intuitive and welcoming for younger users. Instead of relying on pre-made assets, we designed the character visuals and interface elements ourselves with Procreate, making intentional design choices to ensure expressions, layout, and feedback felt clear and emotionally readable.
The game logic is powered by a decision system that updates Monty’s wealth and happiness metrics in real time based on player choices. Each scenario is structured to create cause-and-effect relationships, allowing players to see both immediate reactions and longer-term outcomes from their decisions.
AI was integrated as optional assistance to provide contextual financial advice during scenarios. Rather than forcing instruction, the system supports different learning styles, letting confident players continue independently while offering guidance to those who want deeper understanding. This design keeps the experience exploratory and player-driven rather than information-heavy.
Challenges We Ran Into
Making a web app is tricky, making transitions and dynamic movement with characters needed learning of new concepts of animation and graphic design. While putting it together we had to break it a part a lot. How very fitting of our game, to be good at making financial decisions some mistakes need to be made as well. We learned a lot and hope that our audience can as well.
Accomplishments That We're Proud Of
We completed our first hackathon product! We are extremely proud of the finished product, it is a cumulation of our love for game play, graphic design, and front-end development. We are proud of MoneyGrow and our cutie Monty.
What's Next For MoneyGrow
The future of MoneyGrow holds a more expansive and immersive experience, with deeper gameplay, new characters, and a wider range of life scenarios. We aim to move toward a more open-ended world where players have greater freedom in the paths they choose, allowing for more personalized financial journeys.
As the game grows, we plan to explore more complex and meaningful topics, such as differences in opportunity, access to resources, and how starting circumstances can shape financial outcomes. By expanding both the world and the depth of decisions, MoneyGrow can evolve from a learning game into a platform that builds awareness, empathy, and long-term financial confidence.
Built With
- express.js
- fastapi
- gemeniapi
- javascript
- node.js
- vercel
