In 2007, I was tasked with leading the design an online financial literacy game for the Financial Basics Foundation, an Australian non-profit.

ESSI Money is a miniature life simulator for players. They get jobs, set budgets, manage expenses, make investments both sweet, and sour and otherwise do everything that they need to do to manage their own financial affairs.

While the game was still going strong nearly 10 years later, it was becoming clear that it would need to be rebuilt. A revamped version – supported financially by Suncorp Bank – kept everything that worked in the original game, but completely overhauled the design and technology.

ESSI Money has become one of the world’s longest-running financial literacy games, used by students in more than half of Australian high schools.

Role

• Learning designer
• Copy writer

Tasks

• Game design
• Writing and editing
• Testing

Using

• Microsoft Office Suite
• Adobe Creative Suite