Monopoly - student money simulator

Inspiration

Our project is inspired by Monopoly and real-time decision-making financial simulation games.

What It Does

The game simulates the daily life decisions of a university student, where each choice affects both money and mood. Players must navigate realistic scenarios and strike a balance between financial stability and personal happiness.

Game Design Examples

💰 Positive effect on money & 😊 Positive effect on mood:

Due to your hard work during shifts, you’ve been awarded a bonus pay.
A buyer purchases the second-hand textbook you posted.
You entered a hackathon and won the grand prize of £x — congratulations!

💰 Positive effect on money & 😞 Negative effect on mood:

Your boss asks if you can take extra weekend shifts — but that means missing your best friend’s birthday party. What will you choose?

💸 Negative effect on money & 😊 Positive effect on mood:

Your friend invites you to your favourite band’s concert — will you go?
Your best friend’s birthday is coming up — would you like to buy her a gift?
You get invited on a weekend trip — are you joining in?

💸 Negative effect on money & 😞 Negative effect on mood:

On your way to class, you discover your car needs repairs costing £x.
You fall victim to an online ticket scam and lose £x.

Tech Stack

Python for core logic
Pygame for game visualization

Our goal is to simulate real-life situations and incorporate genuine financial dilemmas. Events occur randomly, and players must weigh short-term happiness against long-term financial health. There are no perfect choices — every decision comes with trade-offs.

Challenges We Ran Into

Hoppers Challenge: Financial Intelligence — designing decisions that feel realistic and emotionally engaging.

Accomplishments We’re Proud Of

Built a fully functional real-world financial management simulation.
Successfully collaborated as a team using Git, managing coding tasks efficiently.

What We Learned

We learned the importance of task delegation and teamwork — by assigning clear responsibilities from the start, everyone contributed effectively to the final product.

What’s Next for Monopoly

We plan to expand the game into a crypto trading simulator, where students can practice buying and selling cryptocurrencies using different strategies — learning the risks and rewards of modern finance.