O' Girl Bank Landing Page

O’Girl Bank 💰🏰

Inspiration

Many students and young adults struggle with financial literacy—not because they lack income, but because they lack consistent habits around saving, budgeting, and mindful spending. While financial education tools exist, most focus on tracking expenses rather than actually changing behavior, making it difficult for users to stay motivated.

We wanted to rethink financial literacy as something interactive, engaging, and habit-forming. Inspired by how games keep users engaged through rewards, progression, and real-time feedback, we built a system where financial discipline feels immediately rewarding instead of abstract.

What it does

O’Girl Bank is a gamified financial literacy app that transforms real-world financial behavior into a tower defense game.

Users upload their bank statement, which is analyzed using AI to understand:
- Spending habits
- Income patterns
- Financial behavior
Each week, users:
- Set a savings goal
- Earn points for staying within budget
Points act as in-game currency and can be used to:
- Build towers
- Upgrade defenses
- Strengthen their city
Every week:
- The user’s city is attacked by enemies
- Their defenses reflect how well they managed their finances

This creates a direct connection between:

💵 Financial discipline → 🎮 Game success

NPC Feature

Users interact with themed NPCs who provide financial guidance:

🤡 Jester → flags unnecessary spending
⚔️ Knight → enforces discipline and budgeting
👑 Princess → guides long-term savings goals
🏴‍☠️ Pirate → highlights risky habits
🗡️ Thief → exposes hidden or wasteful expenses

How we built it

Tech Stack

Frontend: React, Next.js
Backend: Supabase
Deployment: Vercel
AI: Claude API

Architecture

Frontend (React + Next.js):
- Interactive dashboard
- Game-like UI for tracking progress and gameplay
Backend (Supabase):
- Authentication
- Database storage for:
- User data
- Spending behavior
- Points and progression
- Real-time updates
AI Integration (Claude):
- Parses uploaded bank statements
- Extracts financial insights
- Feeds data into scoring + game logic

Core System

Converts financial activity into:
- Points
- Levels
- Game progression
Creates a real-time feedback loop:
- Better financial habits → stronger in-game performance

Challenges we ran into

Nessie API Issues
- Could not retrieve API key due to service issues
- Had to pivot away from real-time banking data
No Access to Real Financial Data
- Created synthetic bank statements
- Simulated realistic spending behavior for testing
AI Parsing Complexity
- Bank statements vary widely in format
- Required multiple iterations for reliable extraction
Real-Time Sync Challenges
- Maintaining smooth updates between frontend and Supabase
- Small delays impacted user experience
Balancing the Game
- Ensuring fairness and motivation
- Preventing exploitation of reward systems

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a system that connects real-world finances to gameplay
Made saving money feel:
- Immediate
- Visible
- Rewarding
Successfully integrated AI for personalized financial insights
Designed and implemented a complete gameplay loop:
- Weekly goals
- Points system
- Tower defense mechanics
Delivered a fully functional prototype with:
- Real-time updates
- Smooth user experience

What we learned

Behavior change requires more than information—it requires engagement and feedback
Gamification is highly effective for building habits
Learned to handle unstructured financial data using AI
Gained experience with:
- Real-time systems (Supabase)
- Frontend-backend synchronization
Understood the importance of:
- Designing fair and motivating reward systems

What's next for O’Girl Bank

Smarter Financial Insights

Automatically categorize transactions:
- Food, subscriptions, shopping
Detect:
- Recurring charges
- Avoidable spending
Generate dynamic weekly goals:
- Example: “Save $40 by reducing takeout”

Expanded Gameplay

Add new tower types:
- Defensive
- Splash damage
- Resource-generating
Introduce:
- Habit-based enemies (e.g., “Impulse Spender”)
- Weekly boss battles tied to savings streaks