Inspiration
We were inspired by a submission made by a team in a previous Calgary hacks, where they incorporated environmentalism into their game. Game-based learning is a fun way to introduce learners to new ideas, because of this, we thought up several scenarios that would introduce first year university students to potential expenses they may encounter that they may not already be aware of.
What it does do
This scenario based learning experience, introduces the player to the situation, then the player has the option to choose out of 2-3 options how they'd like to handle their personal finances in different situations. At the very end of the game, the student gets to see a run down of their financial decisions and their ending account balance. This is meant to show areas where the student's financial decisions saved them money, and areas where they spent money. Going through basic situations can help students to plan for expenses they have not had to give much thought to in the past.
How we built it
We used pygame to build a game loop and then we created different scenes and scenarios that would run through the loop based on choices users made about their finances.
Challenges we ran into
At first, we struggled to come up with an idea that we all found to be meaningful and impactful. We also ran into the challenge of creating complex ideas that we would not have been able to complete in the 24 hours given. Once we overcame those barriers, we were able to begin learning pygame, creating a small diagram, and completing the game.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud that we were able to complete one full run through of the game, and that we worked as a team to grow an idea that we believe to be meaningful and impactful for many young adults.
What we learned
All of our team members had little to no experience with pygame before today, so we each learned a lot about pygame. We each studied a bit of python in our first year Intro to Computer Science class and that provided us with a basic foundation to begin learning pygame. We also learned about how much could realistically be accomplished in 24 hrs and how the structure diagrams we had to make in previous classes were highly beneficial in organizing our ideas. We also learned a lot about teamwork as we worked hard to collaborate and compromise to include everyone's perspective.
What's next for Personal Financial Literacy - Undergrad Focused
We had to leave some scenarios we came up with as concepts because of the time crunch, so we would like to continue by finishing the unimplemented scenarios. We would also like to distribute our code as open-source as a way to make a meaningful impact on increasing financial literacy for students beginning their journey through university. Unexpected expenses arise, we believe it's important to try your best to prepare for these situations, and at the very least, be aware that you may have some financial surprises along your journey through Uni.
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