A second challenge was to make the game fun. "We've had to make sure the flow of the game is competitive and in line with current popular games," says Wilson, citing the Sims as one inspiration. Not quite as challenging has been the seemingly large task of actually making the game. Not only has the recession highlighted the importance of financial literacy; it has made it cheaper for Nexlutions to hire game developers to do the complicated technical work of programming Gore's design. "The folks that do game development are hungry for business," because of the slow economy, says Wilson. "That makes it easier for us from a cost perspective."
The final step for Gore will be pitching the game to local school districts and groups like the Boys and Girls Club. That won't be easy. Wilson admits that it can be hard to change practices at institutions with a set curriculum. "We have to figure out: How do we supplement what they have? We'll have to go through existing classes," he says. He's confident that the demand for financial literacy will continue. Even after the crisis, personal-finance education is not common. "We have history classes but few personal-finance classes," Gore says.
Does it take a recession to change that mind-set? Gore is hopeful that the state of the economy will make his product more valuable. "In a weird way, [recession] has not been a detriment at all."
markor of AZ @ Oct 23, 2009 05:23:45 AM
Faisal of CA @ Oct 19, 2009 03:19:25 AM