Season 1 in Digital Financial Education was officially launched on the 15th of September at the primary school of St Clare’s at San Gwann, by the Ministry for Solidarity and Social Justice, the Family and Children’s Rights and the Ministry for Education. During the event the winners of the financial literacy digital game called Money Monsters were congratulated by both ministers and that shared words of encouragement and enthusiasm for such needed concepts.
The first season was set up in 2019 through the Memorandum of Understanding between ĠEMMA and University of Malta on a collaboration programme that would lead to the design of a ĠEMMA financial capability gamification prototype. The game Money Monsters won first prize for both game concept and design as well as prototype. The brains behind the creation of Money Monsters are Valerija Holomjova, Chantelle Saliba, and Sean Powell. Meet the Money Monsters Team.
Thanks to the close partnership with the Education Division, under the direction of the Education Officer for business and accounts, Money Monsters underwent further user testing in the primary state schools of St. Nicholas College as well as technical testing under the direction of the Assistant Director for e-Learning. Due to this collaboration Money Monsters was completed for launch earlier this summer and used during Skola Sajf in collaboration with HSBC.
Money Monsters is an interactive, educational game for children in primary school. The aim of the game is to help Nugget, the friendly monster, go through the different life stages from the age of 18 until 65 when Nugget retires. Money Monsters teaches children how to make the right decisions, manage their money properly and become more aware of the impact that finances can have on their health and happiness. The game can be played online https://gemma.gov.mt/moneymonsters/ or downloaded from Google Play.
The HSBC Malta Foundation is also sponsoring the competition called “The Money Monsters Challenge” where ĠEMMA encourages children to be as creative as possible using Nugget as the main actor. The competition runs until the end of September and urges all children between the age of 6 and 11 to participate and win different prizes. To enter the competition, click on the link https://gemma.gov.mt/moneymonsterchallenge/
Season 2 is currently in the prototype development stage where 2 further financial literacy games called Karus and Pixelton have won 1st and 2nd. Both groups are students from the University of Malta, department of Artificial Intelligence under the guidance of Drs Charlie Abela and Joel Azzopardi who have mentored and encouraged all students to participate in this collaboration with ĠEMMA from its conception in 2019.