CASE STUDY

How we developed an app that helps users manage different kinds of credit & interpret credit report

Technology Stack

Unity3d Game Engine
.NET C#
MySQL

The Challenge

The client wanted a game that would be fun for students to play, but would also teach them how to use credit wisely. The goal was to create a game that would allow students to manage various types of credit, interpret a credit report, achieve good credit, and avoid risks associated with debt.

Providing this educational tool to young students can help teach them responsible financial practices. The game is fun by itself, but it also helps students become familiar and comfortable with credit management, reporting and financial products. So when they reach the appropriate age to utilize credit, it will help them avoid predatory lending, make timely bill payments, maintain high credit scores, and more.

The Solution

When most people think of credit, they don’t think “fun.”

We wanted to change that for the app. In the game, the goal is to consecutively make timely bill payments on five credit types, with unique loan amounts, eliminate debt, maintain low APR and a high credit score while also having a fun and addictive time.

The gameplay itself is simple, yet hard to put down. But it also has a learning component. Students make inputs controlling when payments are made in the game, and they view how the payments impact the credit score displayed in a user interface. By doing this, students intuitively learn the various components of credit reporting, like how amounts and frequencies of different types of credits can affect a credit score.

By enabling powers in the game in connection with correctly answered questions, students may be incentivized to learn from the lessons and answer questions correctly.

Features

Login and Landing Screen

At the landing screen, the user is presented with two options: “Play” immediately, or “Connect using Facebook.” Logging in with Facebook allows the game to store their data such as game achievements.
Once the login is completed, two more options appear. One option is to log out, and the other is to see the leaderboards. On the leaderboard, users can see the list of top ten high-scoring players.

Map of Levels

Once you play the game, there will be an introduction (users have the option to skip).
At the beginning of the game, users be taken to what’s called a Journey Page. It’s a map showing every level that the user must complete, in order, along a path. Once you complete the levels, the color will be changed to indicate that these levels have been successfully completed.
A pop up is shown that instructs players to, “Match Credit Icons to Pay Off Debt.”

Simple Tutorial

At the beginning the first level, there is a brief tutorial that will teach the player how to play.
When you enter gameplay, you’ll be able to hear a voiceover introduction for guidance. It explains the purpose of the game. There is an option to mute, an an option to read the instructions in text form.

Facebook Sharing

Facebook Sharing is also integrated, so you can share your scores. At the end of each level, you can click the Facebook Share button and post your score.

Addictive Gameplay

Once you will enter a given level, you will be given a certain amount of credit. You have to pay that back within a fixed number of moves and a fixed amount of time.
There are multiple icons players can swipe, and each icon represents a form of debt the player must pay off.
To pay off your bills, match at least three of the same bill types. Link four blocks together to unlock the golden block. Golden blocks clear all blocks radiating from it across the board. To master questions, answer correctly three times in a row.
There’s an APR (Annual Percentage Rate) meter. The bar raises if you wait too long before making payment, but it reduces every time you make a payment.
On the game screen, there is a section labeled “debt,” accompanied by a number indicating the amount of debt. To complete the level, players must reduce the number to zero.
The game mechanics are similar to Candy Crush. Players must group matching icons by swapping icons to get matches either vertically or horizontally. Once the icons are matched, they will vanish and your debt will be reduced.
You have to complete each level in a certain amount of time, and if the timer runs out before you’re finished, you have to start over.
Once your debt reaches zero, the level is complete! Each level should take around two or two and a half minutes to complete. You can choose to go on to the next level, or you can restart that level to get the highest score possible

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