PennyVille

Title Page
Introduction
Instructions
AR Town Tour
Ending 1
Ending 2
Ending 3

💡Inspiration

Learning about money and managing a budget can sometimes feel boring or abstract for kids — it’s easy to zone out when the topic is saving, spending, or long-term planning. That’s where PennyVille comes in! 💸

PennyVille is a town management game where kids step into the role of mayor and learn financial literacy by making real decisions: balancing the town’s budget, meeting the needs of citizens, saving for future projects, and planning big goals like building the town museum. We wanted to create a fun, interactive, and AI-driven experience that teaches kids to think critically about money while keeping them engaged with gamified elements and AR rewards.

🧐 What it does

PennyVille combines a virtual town management game with AI-generated scenarios and AR interactions.

Here’s how it works:

Interactive Map 🗺️: Kids explore PennyVille by tapping on buildings and landmarks, learning about each place and its role in the town’s economy.
Scenario Challenges ♟️: Using the Gemini API, the game generates dynamic scenarios and choices based on prompts, simulating real-world budgeting and spending decisions. Each choice comes with an AI analysis, highlighting the pros and cons to teach thoughtful financial reasoning.
Voice Interaction 🗣️: ElevenLabs brings the scenarios and analysis to life through engaging voiceovers, making the experience more immersive and accessible.
*AR Rewards 🏅: * At the end of each chapter, depending on the decisions the player makes, they receive a fun AR prize — a little surprise that celebrates their progress and reinforces their achievements.

Through this blend of gameplay, AI, and AR, kids not only have fun but also learn essential lessons in saving, spending wisely, and planning for long-term goals.

❓ How we built it

Front-end: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Aframe for immersive AR interactions.
*Back-end: * Python, with server-side logic to integrate Gemini API and ElevenLabs for scenario generation, analysis, and voice.
AR Tools: Onirix and Aframe to bring objects and prizes into the real world.

AI Integration:

Gemini API for generating engaging scenarios and analyzing player decisions.
ElevenLabs for dynamic voiceovers of both scenarios and feedback.

💢 Challenges we ran into

Integrating Gemini API and ElevenLabs for real-time scenario generation and voiceover was tricky, especially as beginners with these tools.
Testing was definitely a rollercoaster! Running out of API credits mid-test became a common occurrence.
Deploying the full app to the web via DigitalOcean was challenging; the static webpage nature of the free trial presented a challenge for our interactive app and we were only able to deploy part of it.
And of course, as with any hackathon, the lack of sleep. 🥱

🎖️ Accomplishments that we're proud of

Successfully integrated AI-driven scenarios and feedback, making every player decision educational and interactive.
Created AR rewards that kids can collect based on their performance, even with limited prior AR experience.
Developed a financial literacy game that is fun, interactive, and immersive, demonstrating creativity in both game design and AI/AR integration.

📖 What we learned

How to design and implement interactive AR experiences for web applications.
How to integrate AI APIs into a complex project, including scenario generation and voiceover.
How to make educational content engaging and gamified, balancing learning and fun for a younger audience.
Improved our skills in team collaboration, debugging API integration, and working around resource constraints.

👀 What's next for PennyVille

Fully deploy the game online so kids can play from anywhere.
Add multiplayer functionality for more interaction.
Expand the AR rewards system to make them more interactive and collectible.
Add more unique AI-driven events and scenarios, potentially tailored to each player's knowledge level, for advanced decision-making and replayability.
Include progress tracking, daily challenges, and optional challenges to encourage continuous financial literacy growth over time.