Set-Hacks

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 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.

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 macro economics within each one.

Our game was created using Pygame, using the language Python.

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.

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 maximise 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.

We learned about making a new 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.

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.