FinQuest

Gamifying financial literacy with escape rooms

FinQuest at the BMO and Unity innovation challenge with Velocity at UWaterloo.

Mahdi Raza Khunt

FinQuest explored financial literacy through virtual escape rooms. We built a room demo in Unity for Velocity's BMO and Unity innovation challenge at UWaterloo, and placed second.

The room as a puzzle

The first room is a cashflow puzzle. Seven expenses sit on the board. Sort them into needs, wants, and savings, then use the numbers hidden in the solved board to open its lockbox.

FinQuest room 01

Cashflow lock

Sort seven monthly expenses. Drag a brick into a tray, or select a brick and then select a tray.

Needshome, grocery, phone, transit

Wantssocial and convenience spending

Savingsa transfer to future you

Expense bricks0 / 7 sorted

Pick up a brick.

The rules are specific to this fictional month: housing, grocery, phone, and transit count as needs; social and convenience purchases go to wants; one planned transfer goes to savings.

The challenge

I worked with Silvia Ban, Ashin James, Zafar Erkinboev, and Karmanbir Singh Batth. Our second-place finish included a year of Unity Pro.

The FinQuest team with event representatives at the awards
FinQuest at the awards. Photo: University of Waterloo.
Project and room demo · Event recap