Compound Effect

Inspiration

We were inspired to help students and newly turned 18 year olds who feel intimidated by investing and managing money. Many people are unsure where to start and often believe investing is stressful or risky. Our goal was to show that index fund investing is simple, low stress, and extremely powerful when started early. By making these concepts approachable, we wanted to help students understand how small decisions today can lead to significant financial outcomes later in life.

What It Does

Compound Effect is a gamified daily life simulator designed to teach students the long term impact of investing versus only saving money. Players navigate through simulated life events and financial decisions, seeing how consistent investing in index funds can dramatically change their financial future. The game compares outcomes such as retirement wealth from investing early versus relying solely on savings, all without real world risk.

How We Built It

We built Compound Effect using the MERN stack with React, Vite, Tailwind CSS, MongoDB, and Node.js. The Gemini API was integrated to help generate dynamic scenarios and guidance throughout the game, making the experience more interactive and personalized.

Challenges We Ran Into

One of our biggest challenges was planning and executing the project scope. We had many ideas and features we wanted to include, and narrowing them down into a focused and achievable product was difficult. Coordinating game logic, financial statistics, and React state management also required careful planning and iteration.

Accomplishments We’re Proud Of

We are proud of the overall look and feel of the game and how cohesive it became by the end. Each team member contributed their own strengths, and together we built a polished and engaging experience that clearly communicates an important financial message.

What We Learned

We learned a lot about building game-like systems in TypeScript using React. Managing complex state, rendering changes based on player decisions, and keeping linting and type checks satisfied were challenging but valuable learning experiences. We also gained experience working with APIs to enhance interactivity and realism.

What’s Next for Compound Effect

We plan to continue improving the game by adding more scenarios, deeper financial modeling, and additional features. Our long term goal is to publish Compound Effect on a platform like Itch.io so more students can learn about investing in a fun and accessible way.