But can a mobile game make money management more relevant to youth before they dig themselves too deep a hole? That's what Mindblown Labs, the startup behind the in-development game Mindblown Life, thinks.
The iOS game will have players navigate a series of life-simulating tasks and adventures while interacting with other friends in the game. Balancing work and personal lives while trying not to go virtually bankrupt is meant to teach kids applicable skills such as the financial cost of a bad relationship or the effect of two fancy Starbucks drinks each day on future retirement funds.
A Kickstarter campaign to fund the project is off to a fast start, already raising two-thirds of a $60,000 target goal with with nearly three weeks left to go. Mindblown Labs cofounder Tracy Moore says the game can play an important role for young adults emerging into a dramatically different economy than the one that existed just several years ago.
"We're at an unsustainable point in financial literacy," he told Mashable in an interview. "If we don't do something now, the tomorrow that exists will be dramatically different from the one we imagined and the one we want."
Mindblown Labs went with a mobile-based approach for Mindblown Life in an effort to reach and become relevant to a younger generation that increasingly accesses the web via a smartphone and spends less time on laptops or desktop computers.
The company is involved in aiming to equip younger generations for the future in more ways, too. Moore and two other Mindblown Labs labs members help lead the Hidden Genius Project, a mentorship program that aims to get young black males involved in tech startup entrepreneurship, design and engineering.
Judging by the Kickstarter campaign's success so far, Mindblown Life shouldn't be able to see how effective it can before long. But Moore says his startup hopes funding doesn't dry up at $60,000 because it would love to apply extra cash to some "stretch goals" that would add more features and push the game out sooner.