My P3 group will be designing a game about the credit score system. The game aims to model the credit score system and how the financial decision that a player makes affects their credit score and how that credit score affects their financial opportunities. The main values of this game are financial-literacy, financial decision making, risk-taking, and responsibility. Throughout the game, players are given the opportunities to make decisions about purchasing assets, paying off bills/loans, and going into debt or not. Through these mechanics/dynamics we plan to represent such values.
The game features a main game loop that is represented by the game board itself. The game board is an infinite loop that players traverse through. The loop begins and ends at a payday square, where players collect their “monthly” income. Within the loop we also have a pay bills square where players must make their monthly payments to their debt. Between these two squares, there are event and opportunity squares. These lead to purchases and players going into debt. Players go into this infinite loop of going into debt, having to pay it off, maintaining their credit score, while accumulating assets to win.
This main game loop has several arcs that get the players to different iterations of this main game loop. One of these arcs can be traveled by a player that decides to purchase an asset given an opportunity to do so. If the player uses their money, then they are able to go through the loop without debt, but with an asset. If the player decides to take out a loan, they now take a hit to their credit score and must make “monthly” payments. Another arc is the event arc. At certain points, players might land in event spaces that make them draw an event card. These events can make them pay for something or earn money, which sets them up for a different experience in the subsequent game loop.
