Introducing the Coolmath Game Jam Winners!
On May 4th, Coolmath Games hosted a Game Jam for financial literacy games. The theme of the jam was ‘Break the Bank’. These games are meant to teach people real-world financial skills, while still making sure that the games are fun and interesting to play.
The Game Jam featured $20,000 of total prize pool money, with the winner bringing home $10,000, followed by $5,000 for second and third place. That’s a serious chunk of change!
Financial Literacy Game Jam
There were 138 submissions over the course of the one month that the Coolmath Game Jam was open. From idle games, to card games, to platformers, there was no shortage of interesting genres that developers were able to turn into financial games.
Everyone in the Coolmath Game Jam should feel a sense of pride in participating, making a game in just one month is a real feat of talent! Even if you didn’t win, there is a chance that you will receive a message from the Coolmath Team about potentially licensing your game, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Game Jam Winners
It took three weeks to comb over every single game and figure out what the top three games were. This hasn’t been an easy task, there were a ton of great submissions. However, after numerous discussions and tons of testing out each game, it has been narrowed down to the Top 3 games. They are as follows:
3. Kittyconomy
Play as a fishmonger who is trying to get out of debt. You must pay off your loan by fending off customers using fish turrets. This game is all about timing and keeping an eye on all of the danger coming toward you.
Use upgrades and adjust your interest rates to get out of debt as quickly as possible. This is one of those games that has the classic Coolmath Games feel to it. It’s a game that is pretty simple to learn, but you can play for a long time without getting bored.
What Kittyconomy probably does best is toe the line between fun and learning. When asking the developer about this, they told us, “The biggest thing going on in my mind was making a math game that didn't 'feel' like a math game.” This dedication to fun can easily be felt while playing the game.
2. Super Coupon Club
Use coupons to ensure you don’t go over your budget in this Balatro-inspired title. There are 25 different coupons that players can use. It is your job to combine these as efficiently as possible to limit your spending as much as possible. The goal is to last all 7 rounds in order to take down the Corporate Super Mart.
Super Coupon Club is a great game that requires a strategy that can be applied to real life. Maximizing your coupon combos is a game that you can certainly play in real life situations. While you won’t be able to counterfeit coupons like in Super Coupon Club, you can still find ways to stretch a dollar if you play your cards right.
When asked about developing their unique game, the creators said they, “wanted to make each [game state] distinct and create a sense of progression and story as you switch between the different screens.”
1. $ave Our Summer
The big winner of the Coolmath Game Jam is $ave our Summer! This budgeting game had the best balance of fun, financial literacy, and polish. It’s everything that you want in a financial literacy game.
When we asked the developers how they thought of $ave our Summer, they said, "[when] planning how we wanted to approach a budgeting game, we wanted to explore what feels like the hardest part of budgeting in the real world, which is actually sticking to a budget."
The goal is to help the citizens of Somerville get to their savings goals before the end of Summer. You do this by making choices about wants versus needs. Sometimes you might want to buy a sweet treat after a long day, but you might need to spend that money paying your phone bill. It can be difficult to skip the fun tasks, but it really adds up quickly. Save the pennies and the dollars will follow!
So there you have it, the winners of the Coolmath Game Jam. Not only are the quality of games through the roof, but there is also a great amount of variety between the three games. You have an aiming game where you must fend off hoards of enemies, a card game where you must make the best choices possible to save on groceries, and an optimization game where you have to balance your wants and needs.
Make sure to check out all three of these games now! Remember, it's never too earlier to start educating yourself about the world of financial literacy.