Adventures in Finance

Enter a middle school or high school classroom and start lecturing about budgeting and credit scores and eyes will glaze over almost immediately.

Introduce pirates, zombies, ninja warriors, the Wild West and outer-space adventures into the equation, however, and drab financial lessons become heroic quests to thrill any class or youth group.

Luke Erickson, a University of Idaho Extension personal finance specialist based at the Caldwell Research and Extension Center, has had children hooked on financial literacy since 2013, when he began creating custom video games that transport youth to financial fantasy worlds.

His first foray into using games to deliver Extension financial curriculum entailed leading youth in a Jeopardy-style trivia game, with categories and wagers written in marker on a whiteboard. He went digital with his game-centered teaching approach after receiving a $4,000 UI Extension 4-H Youth Development grant, funding the creation of a gameshow-themed videogame, “Who Wants to be a Credit Score Millionaire?” He and Extension colleagues built the game in-house, hiring college undergraduates with experience in computer coding and graphics to help.

Over the course of more than a decade, the team has developed a catalogue of 11 videogames covering a range of themes and finance-related topics. Games such as “Night of the Living Debt,” “Pirate Loot,” “Levy Gulch” and “Interstellar Investor” are available for teachers, libraries, 4-H clubs and other youth groups and individuals to download for free. Each game focuses on a specific topic pertaining to financial literacy such as building credit, investing, balancing a budget, college and career exploration, savings and taxes.

“We’d sit around in these game creation teams and brainstorm ideas,” Erickson recalled. “We’d start with the content and then go through the educational theory and decide how we could best apply an educational theory to make a game exciting, fun and playable.”

A Popular Approach

Their games have been extremely popular, claiming a long list of awards and enjoying widespread international use. For example, the original version of “Night of the Living Debt,” which challenges players to outmaneuver financial zombies, has been downloaded more than 75,000 times from the Apple app store. Furthermore, the zombie-themed game won the Gold Medal Award for educational games at the 2016 International Serious Play Conference and Best Overall Digital Game at the 2016 Meaningful Play Conference.

Extension educators who offer programming in financial literacy, including Lance Hansen in Madison County and Karen Richel in Latah County, also routinely use the games in their teaching efforts.

Most of their games were funded with a $280,000 grant from AgWest Farm Credit (formerly Northwest Farm Credit Services) and a $150,000 grant from CoBank, both of which were received in 2014.

Financial Zombie Apocalypse

The Extension team hired the New Mexico State University Games Lab to handle graphic design and computer coding of their most popular game, “Night of the Living Debt.” The concept of the game is that zombies have taken over the financial world, and each zombie represents a specific financial opportunity.

“Yes, they’re zombies, but if you master the zombies, they work for you. If you don’t, they can actually start to control you and cause you problems,” Erickson said.

The original version of “Night of the Living Debt” was only compatible with Apple iPads. New Mexico State procured a $100,000 Extension Foundation grant to release a second iteration of the game in January 2025. The updated version is compatible with most devices and has content updates and improved playability.

Remarkable Improvement

Erickson and his colleagues survey players following workshops or lessons featuring their games. The feedback helps them make improvements and draft Extension bulletins highlighting program outcomes. The main benefit Erickson sees from the games is that children get to learn about finances through trial and error without having to endure real-world failures.

“We show pretty remarkable improvement in terms of knowledge gained and intended behavioral changes,” Erickson said of the survey results. “One thing that is really fun for me is to see kids truly enjoy the process of learning about finances. I believe the educational power of games like these is underrecognized.”