Project Description

Company Background
The Financial Education Development Association (FEDA) is a nonprofit organization that aims to create a uniquely engaging online education platform that teaches students financial topics, ranging from simple savings tactics to managing a balanced portfolio of securities. By using interactive activities and comprehensive lessons, we plan to develop a curriculum and a platform that all students can and will use.

Project Background
FEDA has produced curriculum for several financial education topics, including written and video lessons, and we are always working to create even more. FEDA worked with UTDsolv in Spring 2024 to create a gamified investment simulator, FinanceQuest, in which the learner invests their money over a period of ten years into twenty different stocks. Whether or not the player’s wealth increases or decreases is based on real historical data. FEDA would like to improve FinanceQuest by addressing certain limitations of the game (ex. the current game does not show learners how the value of each individual stock has changed each year; it does not differentiate between the money the student has in the pocket and the money they have invested in stocks; the game does not function at all in mobile; and more). In addition, FEDA’s current version of FinanceQuest allows learners to invest in a wide variety of stocks, but not in any other form of investment; in the Fall 2024, FEDA would like to expand FinanceQuest to include other types of investments, such as bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and mutual funds (note: to what extent the game includes new forms of investments is dependent on discussion with the student team).

Project Scope and Deliverables
In scope: The deliverables would be an updated, improved version of FinanceQuest that also includes investments other than stocks, such as bonds, CDs, ETFs, and mutual funds. With the addition of these investments, FinanceQuest will necessarily become more complex. However, the game must still be navigable for the average learner, and not overwhelming, confusing, or cluttered. Ideally, the game should still be intuitive and relatively easy to play.
Out of scope: Content creation, marketing, and post-launch maintenance are all outside of project scope.

Critical Success Factors
Research on the value of bonds, CDs, ETFs, and mutual funds over a ten year period, and the integration of this data into FinanceQuest to create an engaging, easy-to-navigate educational experience.

Required Student Skills
Experience with software development, and knowledge of (or ability to acquire knowledge of) game development are useful skills for this project. Familiarity with game engines (GDevelop was the game engine used to create our current version of FinanceQuest). Background knowledge in investing or finance may be helpful for this project, but is not required.