The wonders of Economic Infrastructure

Homepage of our game!
Rules of the game, clear and concise!
At the end of each level, there's a summary of what you finished thus far
level 4, FDIs
Goal for each term, in this case, year 5
End, with a mini-lesson

Inspiration

One of the most criticized aspects of Western education is the lack of required curriculum concerning money and the economy. It is also no coincidence that the UN dedicates 4 of its 17 SDGs to topics surrounding development in the industry. Beyond this, the main issue preventing the other SDGs from being achieved is money. The point of sustainable development is to find a balance that turns short term sacrifices into long term success, but - far too often - we see that resources are not always being used to their full potential. As citizens, students, potential workers and future taxpayers, we understand the vitality of ensuring that our generation is well-informed in regard to topics surrounding national economic and industrial affairs, and we hope to inspire a generation of leaders that knows how to responsibly manage money in order to promote sustainable development across the globe.

What it does

The game puts the player in the shoes of the federal government, where they are tasked with managing the economic affairs of the country. As the newly-elected president of Orth, the player moves through 5 different levels, exploring various fields of both micro and macroeconomics within each one.

How we built it

Upon considering several different options for game building, we finalized building the game using Python. We did so using the pip library that was installed and them importing some modules needed for the game. The game was built in a structural format using functions wherein for each level the game went through the same set of functions. As for the calculating results part, this was more level-based as different levels had different acceptable answers. The game was built using functions, lists, objects, modules, and graphics.

Challenges we ran into

Throughout the process, we were unsure of the structure of our levels and it was a challenge to put in different economic ideas together and divide them into levels. Taking hours to plan out the structure of the game including what should be in each level and their respective indicators, we used critical thinking skills to come up with a solution. Additionally, the levels itself are complex to code because they are not the same for each level, for instance, some levels require written answers while some require checking boxes off and following steps after that. Since the game is fairly complicated, there have been a lot of glitches while playing the game but in the end, it worked out perfectly fine through rigorous coding.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Throughout the game, several of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals were addressed, with great emphasis being placed on sustainability and the ability to think and act in order to achieve long-term success, whether it be through investing in sustainable energy, funding firms that maximize employment, increasing efficiency through monopolization, and much more. We are proud of being able to create a game that educates and inspires in a fun yet simple way.

What we learned

We learned how to make a game, using Pygame and making it look visually appealing. Since we faced several glitches, we also learned to debug our program in the most effective way and now, we are confident in creating games without too many glitches. We also learned a lot of new economic concepts in microeconomics and macroeconomics.

What's next for The wonders of Economic Infrastructure

We are hoping to increase the complexity of levels by adding in more options and more factors that would determine progress, such as stock market prices and income elasticity. We would like to make our game as detailed as possible so that users of any age can play and learn about economics. We also would like to make a website for it so individuals gain more knowledge about this game and therefore more people try it out.

Built With

Submitted to

SET.Hacks()

Created by

I worked on creating the whole idea of the game, putting in various microeconomics and macroeconomics concepts together, such as elasticity, import and exports, and foreign direct investments. I also helped create our project video.

smriti sharma
I helped put together the project video and crash test the game. Pretty new to both the programming and economic concepts involved in this project, I worked hard to understand everything that was at play to make it come together.

Drew Kennedy
I worked on designing and developing the 5 levels of the game. Initially, I was faced with a challenge: I was unsure of how could make the levels look visually appealing. But, I persevered through and played around, and found a nice aesthetic way to organize the page. These levels were implemented into the game using Pygame. I also comprehended the economic ideas presented and tried to further apply them in the game when I designed the levels.

Neysa Patel
I worked on developing the actual game and its graphics using Python and its accompanying libraries. It was my job to understand and implement the economic ideas that Smriti had planned into our actual game.

Preesha Ruparelia