As an educator, we know that one of the latest trends in learning is through gamification. Thanks to the recent Covid-19 pandemic, a multitude of websites have popped up with various educational games, with the most popular ones being quiz-based games like Kahoot! and Quizizz.

But games don’t always have to be quiz-based. What if we could have games that are just games, without the explicit educational aspect, and yet learning still takes place?

So I got excited when I came across this website which offered a multitude of financial games, designed for kids. But it’s not only for kids. I myself was learning too as I played the games.

It wasn’t that really easy to find though, as it was inconspicuously hidden under “Mortgage Calculator”.

It is almost as if they’re saying our money is undergoing games when doing loan calculations.

There are a number of games available on this website, all for free! Every game comes with a tutorial as a quick run-through about how the game is played and what the aim of the game is.

Designed for kids

Some of the games are really designed for younger children. The money games are actually just Math, but done with money. It is a practical way of teaching children about handling money, which is an important life skill.

An example of this is “Cash Back”, where the settings can be adjusted depending on the child’s level.

The game mode is adjustable to suit the child’s level. Or can be lower, if an adult wants to feel smart.
In case you can’t do the Math, you can get them to do the Math for you. Then it’s a matter of you just figuring out how much of each money denomination to give out.
Or you can challenge yourself without any hints. This is the mental Math that those mamak fellas used to be able to do.

Test your entrepreneurial skills

How about putting your entrepreneurial skills to the test in a safe environment? Well, it’s not really like real life, considering we don’t actually have to stand out in the hot sun and brave the weather, and deal with fussy customers, or handle inventory, but it does enable us to get an idea on the factors we need to consider when pricing our products, and making sure we purchase enough raw materials for our sale.

Coffee Shop was an interesting game I tried. The aim is to make as much money over 14 days.

If you ever considered operating a coffee shop, perhaps you should consider a coffee kiosk first.
You would need to know how to handle inventory, and you can also adjust the recipe of the coffee, which you would need to do based on feedback from the fussy customers. Pricing is also important to consider. The simulation also includes the temperature of day, which actually affects our inventory, because the milk will spoil more quickly.
If they don’t like the coffee, they’ll actually throw it away. The requests as well as feedback appear in the thought bubbles, which you can click on to read for interpretation. And if everything is bad, your reputation would go red.
The feedback can be brutal!
If you make the correct adjustments based on feedback, you can start to make good sales and your reputation would improve. However, once the day has started, the only thing you can adjust is the price. You cannot adjust the recipe or the inventory.
Yay, people like my coffee. But ugh, the milk has spoilt!

Not all games are made equal

Some games aren’t really games though, and to me, they made no sense and were quite disappointing.

This game was listed under STEM games and sounded like a good educational game.
But it’s all about just clicking as quickly as possible on the screen, and doesn’t fulfil the game objective.

So not all the games here are great.

Overall, many games are educational and interesting, so it is a matter of testing and trying out the games in order to determine whether they’re good. There are more than 70 games on it, many of which are quite fun to play. The only thing is that you can’t save your progress as there is no account or login, so for the most part, you’d have to complete the game in one sitting.

I’m definitely going to get my students to play some of these games!

View the list and play Money Games!