Cart is empty About the Game
The MentaMorph Money app uses a powerful gaming format integrating the many aspects of financial decisions to simulate the real-world experience, with numerous scenarios and increasing levels of complexity.
In MentaMorph Money:
- You can play anytime, anywhere.
- You can progress to more levels and enjoy additional releases.
- You can "Morph" into multiple customers, roles, income levels, and market scenarios to show patterns.
- Multiple categories for expenses and assets differentiate where to find the money for savings and investments.
- You can experience how multiple choices affect your financial situation over time - not just once, but over and over.
Market Exploration and Early Success
MentaMorph Money was a finalist in the Pocket Change competition for financial games.
Tabletop Format
This game was first “dreamt up” in a manual scoring format using toothpicks for money and stickers and paper for scoring. It was played with hundreds of adults and teens with tremendous success.
What our Student Testers Said...
In the school delivery shown here, these are some of our favorite comments on what they learned:
- Pattern recognition... - Jacob, 16
- Save for emergencies. - Lance, 16
- How to save some money. - Shaun, 17
- I learned how to manage money. - Arnav
- Make sure what you have to pay first. - Nelson, 14
- The bare minimum doesn’t get you ahead. - Ryan, 16
- How you have to think ahead, and weigh the + & -. - Jonathan, 16
- Stock fluctuates. Daily things sometimes need to come first. - Robby
The game is played in Rounds, with multiple decisions per round as occurs in the real world. Below are some of the initial actions. As the game progresses, additional functions are added.
Goal: The highest net worth at the end of the game.
The elements of the game can be divided into 4 categories:
Income (Currency, Apples)
Each round you collect the income. In the tree farm scenario, this is done by collecting apples from your apple farm.
You start with a base amount, and your income can change. For instance it can either increase with savings, or decrease if you have an outstanding loan.
Expenses:
Weekly Expenses (Watering)
Every week, or round, expenses must be paid in order for the game to continue. In the tree farm this is represented by watering.
Monthly Expenses (Fertilizing)
Every month, periodic expenses must be paid. In the tree farm this cost is represented by fertilizing. If they are not paid there is a penalty applied for the next four rounds.
Liabilities
Emergencies (Beetles, Fire, etc.)
Emergencies are randomly occurring events that cost currency to resolve. Emergencies need to be resolved before you advance to the next round or the game is over.
They encourage players to balance their assets so they can manage these unexpected investments. If a player is invested entirely in the more risky variable assets but their value is not sufficient to manage an emergency they will either have to pay a penalty on a loan or lose the game.
Loans
Loans give the player currency when they are taken out. Players need to pay back the loan amount to resolve the loan. However, every round before the loan is paid a penalty is applied until the loan is resolved.
Assets
Liquid Assets (Savings)
A Savings asset can be obtained which provides passive income for every round they hold it. Players can reclaim the currency whenever they choose.
Fixed Assets (Apple Cart)
Fixed assets cost a fixed amount. They enable the player to collect additional income every round they hold it. They can also be sold back if needed.
Variable Assets (Type of Wood)
Variable assets are essentially stocks. In the tree farm they are represented by seeds. Their value goes up and down at random so the goal is to purchase them when their value is low and sell them at a higher price to make a profit.
Net Worth Summary
At any point in the game users can see how they are doing by seeing their net worth.
Additional Scenarios and Levels
The Tree Farm scenario introduces the major categories of the game design.
Additional scenarios are planned to be played as students, heads of households, careers, businesses and even countries. The principles are the same; the types of Income, Expense, Assets, Liabilities and Investments change.
As game play progresses new levels are introduced.
The possibilities are endless.