AFLAGAME

Funding programme

Erasmus+ KA220-YOU – Cooperation Partnerships in Youth

Project reference

2021-1-IT03-KA220-YOU-000028849

Period

2021–2024

Coordinating organisation

IG Students Srl Impresa Sociale

Participating countries

Italy, Netherlands, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland

Official project website

Visit official website

AflaGame aimed to strengthen financial literacy, social awareness and life skills among young people by developing original educational board games for use in formal and non-formal learning environments.

The project sought to equip youth workers and educators with practical game-based tools that help participants explore financial decisions, understand the consequences of their choices and develop greater confidence in managing everyday resources.

Its approach draws on the Aflatoun model of Social and Financial Education, connecting financial knowledge with personal responsibility, social awareness and active participation.

Specific learning objectives

• Financial literacy: Introduce essential concepts relating to income, expenditure, savings, budgeting, investment, debt and financial planning.
• Budget management: Develop the ability to allocate limited financial resources and balance different needs and priorities.
• Saving behaviour: Encourage participants to recognise the relationship between everyday spending decisions and longer-term financial goals.
• Financial decision-making: Practise evaluating alternatives and anticipating their possible economic consequences.
• Risk awareness: Explore uncertainty, unexpected expenses, investment risks and the consequences of financial commitments.
• Responsible consumption: Encourage reflection on spending choices and the distinction between needs, preferences and available resources.
• Time management: Recognise that time is a limited resource and consider how work, education, leisure and social activities compete for it.
• Social responsibility: Explore the relationship between personal financial decisions, community wellbeing, generosity and environmentally responsible behaviour.
• Entrepreneurial thinking: Introduce opportunities for income generation, investment, business-related decisions and financial independence.
• Strategic planning: Develop the ability to formulate goals, consider future consequences and adjust decisions in response to changing circumstances.
• Critical thinking: Encourage participants to interpret information, question assumptions and assess the advantages and disadvantages of alternative choices.
• Mathematical literacy: Practise calculations involving money, income, expenditure, balances and other financial quantities.
• Self-awareness: Support recognition of personal strengths, interests, competencies and aspirations.
• Communication and cooperation: Create opportunities for discussion, negotiation, peer feedback and shared problem-solving.
• Empathy and social awareness: Encourage participants to understand how different financial circumstances and opportunities can influence people’s life choices.
• Learning from consequences: Provide a low-risk environment in which participants can experience unsuccessful decisions, reconsider strategies and try alternative approaches.
• Educator competences: Equip youth workers, teachers and trainers with board game rules, materials and methodological resources for teaching social and financial education.

Although the games share a common educational framework, they differ considerably in their principal objectives. Some focus on budgeting and financial management, while others emphasise social responsibility, self-knowledge or planning within a limited budget.

The availability of these educational opportunities should be distinguished from independently demonstrated improvements in financial literacy or behaviour.

AflaGame developed six original educational tabletop games, collectively published as the AflaSet collection.

The games were created through international design workshops involving the six project partners. Each explores financial or social education from a different perspective and provides its own objectives, rules and components.

Games developed

1. SmartSpender!

SmartSpender! is a competitive financial management game in which players attempt to complete individual financial missions by managing income, expenses and other resources.

Age: 13–15 years. Players: 2–4. Duration: 35–40 minutes.

Main game mechanics:

• Roll-and-move: Players travel around a board containing different financial situations and actions.
• Personal financial missions: Each participant pursues specific objectives involving money and other resources.
• Income and expenditure tracking: Players record financial transactions using a dedicated tracking sheet.
• Routine events: Cards introduce everyday circumstances affecting financial and social resources.
• Financial dilemmas: Players face decisions with consequences for their objectives.
• Random events: Try Your Luck cards introduce uncertainty and opportunities or setbacks.
• Resource management: Players manage money, social points and green points.
• Resource exchange: Rules permit the exchange of certain resources between players or with the bank at different rates.
• Financial administration: A designated banker manages payments and exchanges.

Players must consider how spending choices and unexpected situations affect their ability to complete their assigned mission.

Educational integration: Financial transactions, resource management and spending decisions form part of the gameplay. The game therefore provides opportunities to apply budgeting and planning concepts through actions rather than relying exclusively on factual questions.

2. Important Decisions

Important Decisions is a life-management board game in which participants allocate limited time and money among work, education, charitable activities, sport and leisure experiences.

Age: 13+. Players: 4–8. Duration: 60–90 minutes.

Main game mechanics:

• Life-path progression: The board represents a timeline along which participants encounter opportunities and decisions.
• Time management: Players receive 30 time tokens representing hours that cannot be replenished during the game.
• Financial management: Players earn and spend money while selecting activities.
• Alternative starting conditions: Participants can play as themselves or assume character roles with different starting resources.
• Activity selection: Different board spaces allow players to choose between work, education, charity, sport and leisure activities.
• Financial knowledge questions: Quiz cards provide opportunities to apply or test financial knowledge.
• Peer assistance: Players may offer cards or lend money to others, with opportunities to receive recognition for charitable behaviour.
• Multiple achievements: Instead of identifying success exclusively through accumulated wealth, the game awards distinctions for work, charity, education, sport, experiences, knowledge and earnings.

The game provides two modes: one in which players begin with equivalent resources, and another in which character cards introduce different starting circumstances.

Educational integration: Participants experience the opportunity costs associated with allocating limited time and money. The game also provides a simplified representation of unequal starting conditions and the relationship between financial wellbeing and other life priorities.

Explicit debriefing: The rulebook includes questions about participants’ strategies, changes in their decisions, the importance of time and whether they would make similar choices in real life.

3. Aha! Money – A Funny Business Journey

Aha! Money is a financial education board game representing a series of everyday economic challenges across a path of 30 spaces.

Age: 13–19 years. Players: 2–8, with the manual indicating a preference for larger groups. Duration: At least 45 minutes.

Main game mechanics:

• Roll-and-move: Players advance according to dice results.
• Financial challenges: Different board spaces activate cards involving money, skills or knowledge.
• Aunty Challenge Cards: Activities through which participants can obtain hearts associated with the winning condition.
• Guess What! Cards: Knowledge-oriented challenges.
• Active Skills Cards: Activities connected with the acquisition of different skill-related coins.
• Resource collection: Players must accumulate the required resources while retaining some money.
• Eligibility-based victory: Reaching the final space is insufficient unless the player also satisfies the required resource conditions.

To win, a player must possess at least one coin of each relevant type, at least three hearts and a positive amount of money.

Educational integration: The game combines financial questions and practical challenges with resource collection and budget preservation. Its central progression remains largely determined by dice movement and card-based tasks.

4. Prosperopolis: A Social Money Challenge

Prosperopolis is a competitive economic simulation in which participants seek financial independence while maintaining sufficient social influence.

Age: 14–20 years. Players: 3–8. Duration: 90–120 minutes.

Main game mechanics:

• Economic simulation: Players manage income, expenses, investments, savings, loans and taxes.
• Roll-and-move: Dice determine progression around the game board.
• Financial event cards: Different spaces introduce transactions and situations affecting players’ economic positions.
• Investment decisions: Participants consider opportunities to increase their assets.
• Savings and borrowing: Players encounter decisions concerning financial reserves, debt and loans.
• Social dilemmas: Event and decision cards can influence the accumulation of social points.
• Dual success conditions: Players must achieve both financial and social targets to win.

The published winning conditions require assets worth at least EUR 400,000 and a social influence score of at least 25 points.

Educational integration: Financial concepts are represented through transactions, investment decisions and resource accumulation, while social points introduce an additional dimension of performance.

The combination creates opportunities to discuss financial success, social reputation and the limitations of evaluating wellbeing exclusively through wealth.

5. You Are Enough!

You Are Enough! is a cooperative personal development board game intended to help participants recognise their abilities, interests and competencies through social interaction.

Age: 14–22 years. Players: 4–6. Duration: 60–90 minutes.

Main game mechanics:

• Roll-and-move: Players advance across coloured spaces by rolling a die.
• Card-based reflection: The colour of each space determines which category of cards must be used.
• Three card decks: The published components include cards associated with personal information, self-expression and feedback from others.
• Avatar development: Each player progressively completes an Avatar Fact Sheet representing their strengths, interests and other personal characteristics.
• Group discussion: Players share answers and receive feedback from the facilitator and other participants.
• Cooperative completion: The game ends when all participants have completed the required elements of their avatars.

There is no conventional single winner. The published rules describe a collective process in which all players can complete the experience successfully.

Educational integration: The game uses card-based interaction and progressive self-description to support reflection on personal competencies. Its financial learning component is less directly represented in the core rules than its objectives concerning self-knowledge and social interaction.

6. AflaTOUR

AflaTOUR is a competitive travel and resource-management game in which participants attempt to complete a European sightseeing itinerary while managing a limited budget.

Age: 8+. Players: 2–4. Duration: Approximately 20 minutes.

Main game mechanics:

• Modular route: Six city cards form a circular travel route representing Warsaw, Vilnius, Budapest, Bratislava, Rome and Amsterdam.
• Movement decisions: Players choose their direction of travel between adjacent cities.
• Fuel management: Fuel tokens allow players to travel farther and skip intermediate destinations.
• Passenger transport: Tourist Cards specify collection and delivery locations and the payment associated with completing the journey.
• Income generation: Players earn money by transporting tourists between cities.
• Budget management: Money must be allocated between travel-related interactions and visiting attractions.
• Personal travel objectives: Each participant receives a Travel Goal Card identifying three attractions to visit.
• Route optimisation: Players consider the location of passengers, available fuel, income opportunities and the attractions they need to reach.

The game ends when a player completes the three attractions associated with their travel objective, subject to the published end-of-round rules.

Educational integration: AflaTOUR provides direct opportunities to practise planning, budgeting, resource allocation and adapting strategies to changing circumstances.

Unlike a conventional roll-and-move game, players make decisions concerning routes, transport services, fuel and spending, giving the economic concepts a more direct connection with the game’s mechanical structure.

Overall game approach

All six titles are project-developed educational tabletop games. They vary considerably in complexity, target age, learning objectives, player interaction and the degree of integration between educational content and mechanics.

Availability

The AflaSet Manual contains descriptions, component lists and rules for all six games. It also includes QR codes intended to provide access to printable production files.

The official Aflatoun project page remains operational and links to the AflaSet Manual, a separate methodological manual and an online training course.

The continued accessibility of all six individual print-and-play packages through the QR codes has not been independently verified.

Official resources:

• AflaGame – Official Project Page
• AflaSet – Six Board Games and Rulebooks
• AflaGame – Methodological Manual

AflaGame adopts a Board Game-Based Learning methodology focused on experiential financial education, social awareness and the development of practical life skills.

The methodology combines original game design, non-formal education, financial decision-making simulations and facilitated discussion.

Its educational resources were developed within the Aflatoun social and financial education framework and adapted to different age groups and learning objectives.

Methodological approach

1. Identification of educational needs: The consortium focuses on the challenges young people face when making financial decisions and managing limited economic resources.
2. Collaborative educational game development: The six partner organisations participated in international workshops addressing game design, mechanics, educational objectives and prototype creation.
3. Development of differentiated games: Each partner contributed to the development of a game with its own themes, rules and learning objectives.
4. Prototype testing: Games were tested with participants and reviewed to identify problems affecting mechanics, clarity, usability and educational relevance.
5. Iterative refinement: Feedback from young people, teachers and educational professionals informed changes to the rules, visual presentation and game components.
6. Introduction to financial concepts: Facilitators can introduce essential financial topics before gameplay, selecting examples relevant to the participants’ experience and level of knowledge.
7. Practical gameplay: Participants make decisions involving income, expenditure, time, savings, investment, social responsibility or other resources, depending on the selected game.
8. Experience of consequences: The rules provide immediate feedback through changes to players’ money, resources, positions or opportunities.
9. Interaction and discussion: Several games encourage negotiation, resource exchange, cooperation or discussion about financial and personal choices.
10. Facilitated reflection: Educators help participants interpret their decisions and relate the simulated situations to everyday financial and social experiences.
11. Transfer to practical contexts: Participants are encouraged to consider how the situations encountered during gameplay relate to budgeting, responsible spending, goal-setting and other real-life decisions.

Different methodological approaches within AflaSet

The collection should not be treated as a single homogeneous educational intervention.

Financial resource management: SmartSpender!, Prosperopolis and AflaTOUR include economic variables that participants must manage to achieve their game objectives.

Life choices and opportunity costs: Important Decisions introduces a relationship between money, time, personal circumstances and different types of life activities.

Question-based financial learning: Aha! Money combines conventional board progression with card-based challenges and resource collection.

Self-awareness and interpersonal learning: You Are Enough! uses a cooperative, card-based activity to promote reflection on personal competencies, interests and strengths.

These differences are relevant when selecting a game for particular learning objectives and when designing educational evaluations.

Facilitator’s role

The AflaSet rules provide different degrees of facilitator involvement.

In SmartSpender!, a designated banker manages economic transactions and supports the administration of the resources.

Important Decisions requires an independent moderator who explains the rules, supervises financial and time transactions, checks responses, assists players and facilitates the final discussion.

You Are Enough! involves a game master who supports communication, helps participants interpret the cards and encourages constructive feedback.

Other games can be administered by a facilitator who introduces the rules, resolves uncertainties and connects gameplay with the intended learning objectives.

Reflection and debriefing

Reflection is explicitly documented in Important Decisions.

After gameplay, the moderator encourages participants to consider their final financial situation, the time they allocated to different activities and the types of experiences they prioritised.

The discussion questions address:

• The strategies selected by participants.
• The reasons behind their choices.
• Changes in goals or strategies during the game.
• Whether they would make similar decisions in real life.
• The importance of time when evaluating different options.
• The relationship between economic success and other dimensions of life.

This debriefing is particularly relevant because the game allows participants to achieve different forms of success rather than awarding recognition exclusively for accumulating money.

In You Are Enough!, reflection is embedded directly into card-based interaction and the completion of personal Avatar Fact Sheets.

For the other games, the published rules describe opportunities to examine financial decisions and consequences, but do not establish an equally detailed standardised post-game debriefing protocol.

Session structure

The games vary in duration from approximately 20 minutes for AflaTOUR to as much as 120 minutes for Prosperopolis.

Educators can select a game according to participants’ age, previous financial knowledge, group size, available time and intended competencies.

A complete educational session may include an introduction to the relevant concepts, explanation of rules, gameplay and a subsequent discussion.

However, the project does not establish a single mandatory sequence or intervention duration for implementing all six games.

Game design and experiential learning

The methodological manual explains the relationship between games, gamification and Game-Based Learning, emphasising active participation, decision-making, immediate feedback and the possibility of learning from unsuccessful actions.

From a methodological perspective, the strongest feature of AflaGame is that participants can explore economic decisions in an environment where losing money or making an unsuccessful investment does not create real financial consequences.

However, the educational value depends on the extent to which the simulated relationships accurately represent the financial concepts being taught and on the facilitator’s ability to connect the experience with real-life situations.

Distinctive methodological feature

AflaGame provides six different approaches to social and financial education within a common project.

This diversity creates opportunities to compare games in which financial concepts are mechanically integrated into player decisions with games where learning depends more heavily on questions, reflective prompts or facilitator-led discussion.

AflaGame was implemented through an Erasmus+ partnership involving six organisations from Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia and Poland.

The project combined international game-design workshops, prototype development, testing with intended users, iterative improvements and dissemination activities.

Implementation

• European consortium: IG Students Srl Impresa Sociale (Italy), Stichting Aflatoun International (Netherlands), Csoport-téka Egyesület (Hungary), Lietuvos Vaikų Fondas (Lithuania), Nadácia Otvorenej Spoločnosti (Slovakia) and Fundacja Nauka dla Środowiska (Poland).
• Official funding: The Italian National Agency for Youth approved the project under Erasmus+ KA220-YOU with a grant of EUR 187,631.
• Project development period: Partner documentation describes the educational project as taking place between 2022 and 2024.
• Shared educational framework: The partnership adopted Aflatoun’s social and financial education approach as the basis for the development of the game collection.
• International game-design training: In March 2023, representatives of the partner organisations attended a practical workshop in Hungary focusing on gamification, educational game design and the creation and testing of financial literacy games.
• Development of six games: The partnership produced SmartSpender!, Important Decisions, Aha! Money, Prosperopolis, You Are Enough! and AflaTOUR.
• Prototype testing: Partner communications describe testing processes involving young people, teachers and educational experts.
• Iterative improvement: Feedback from the intended users informed changes to rules, visual elements and the educational content of some prototypes.
• Testing in Slovakia: A school in Zlaté Moravce reports that an AflaGame board game was tested with its pupils towards the end of the 2022–2023 academic year.
• Public demonstration in Slovakia: The same school documents participation in a September 2023 event where the final game was presented and played.
• Additional Slovak testing: Project communications from November and December 2023 describe further testing, refinement and presentation of Important Decisions to students, teachers and education professionals.
• Hungarian multiplier event: A project communication reports that more than 90 participants representing over 20 organisations attended an event in Budapest in October 2023, where they were introduced to the project and had opportunities to play You Are Enough!.
• Teacher and professional dissemination: Project communications describe multiplier activities involving teachers and experts working in education and youth organisations.
• Final game documentation: The partnership published the AflaSet Manual, containing the descriptions, components and rules of all six games.
• Methodological manual: A separate publication addresses educational game design, gamification, Game-Based Learning, player motivation and the theoretical foundations of the project.
• Production resources: The game collection includes QR codes intended to give educators access to files for printing game components.
• Online learning: Aflatoun also lists an AflaGame online course intended to complement the manuals and support educators interested in using the resources.

Evaluation approach

The available evidence supports the existence of formative testing and iterative development.

The consortium reports that the games were tested, reviewed and modified following feedback from participants and educational professionals.

For example, communications concerning Important Decisions describe adjustments to mechanics and visual presentation following experiences with young users.

These activities provide evidence of a user-informed development process and contribute to the practical validation of the game materials.

Documented findings

• Game production: Six educational tabletop games were completed and documented.
• Practical implementation: Game testing with pupils and demonstrations involving teachers and other professionals are documented.
• Iterative design: Feedback informed revisions to components, mechanics and content.
• Educator interest: Project communications describe positive responses from professionals participating in dissemination events.
• Dissemination: Aflatoun continues to host the game manual and methodological resources.

Learning-outcome evidence

No sufficiently documented controlled evaluation demonstrating improvements in financial literacy, budgeting behaviour, savings or financial decision-making attributable to AflaSet gameplay was identified in the reviewed public sources.

Likewise, the reviewed reports do not present complete pre-test/post-test datasets, validated instruments, participant sample sizes or statistical analyses for each game.

The programme’s wider educational rationale should not be interpreted as experimental evidence of the effectiveness of these six specific games.

Evidence classification

Game development: Six original games, each with documented rules and components.

Implementation: International workshops, prototype testing and dissemination involving young people and educators.

Formative evaluation: Participant and professional feedback used for game refinement.

Learning outcomes: No independently verified quantitative effectiveness results identified for the six games.

Long-term outcomes: No longitudinal assessment demonstrating sustained improvements in financial behaviour, savings or financial wellbeing was identified.

Methodological limitations

The project primarily reports activities, educational resources and descriptive experiences of the development and dissemination process.

The available reports do not consistently distinguish the number of participants involved in each game’s pilot testing, the duration of their exposure or the conditions under which the sessions were implemented.

It is therefore not possible to compare the effectiveness of the six games using the reviewed evidence.

In addition, the games differ substantially in their target age, mechanics and learning objectives. A positive experience with one game should not be generalised to the entire collection.

Future studies would benefit from validated financial literacy assessments, comparisons with equivalent non-game instruction, follow-up evaluations and detailed reporting of the specific game used.

Evidence status: Completed game collection and practical implementation documented; formative user feedback available; educational effectiveness not established through controlled outcome evidence.

AflaGame provides a collection of educational resources designed to help youth workers, teachers and other educators introduce financial literacy and social responsibility through physical tabletop games.

The main output is the AflaSet collection of six original games, accompanied by methodological documentation and online learning resources.

Available educational resources

• AflaSet Manual: A 28-page publication documenting all six games, including their learning objectives, target ages, participant numbers, durations, required components and playing instructions.
• SmartSpender!: A financial management game supported by mission cards, dilemma cards, routine cards, money, resource tokens and transaction tracking sheets.
• Important Decisions: A life-management game with a board, character cards, money and time tokens, activity cards, checklists and a dedicated facilitator’s role.
• Aha! Money: A financial education game based on board progression, challenges, questions and the accumulation of required resources.
• Prosperopolis: An economic simulation involving income, expenditure, savings, investment, borrowing, taxation and social responsibility.
• You Are Enough!: A cooperative self-development game using cards, a game board and Avatar Fact Sheets to encourage personal reflection and social interaction.
• AflaTOUR: A travel and resource-management game using European city cards, tourist cards, personal travel objectives, fuel markers and money.
• Individual Rulebooks: The AflaSet Manual includes separate instructions for preparing and playing each game.
• Printable Production Files: The manual includes QR codes intended to provide access to game components that educators can print and prepare for their own activities.
• AflaGame Methodological Manual: A separate publication introducing games, gamification, Game-Based Learning, player motivation, game types and theoretical principles relevant to educational game design.
• Debriefing Guidance: Important Decisions includes explicit discussion questions for evaluating players’ choices and connecting gameplay with real-life situations.
• Online Course: The official project page links to an AflaGame online course hosted by Informal Study. Its present operational accessibility was not confirmed during this review.
• Project Communications: Public reports describe game-design workshops, prototype testing and multiplier events involving young people, teachers and other professionals.

Availability and licensing

The Aflatoun International website remains operational and links to the principal AflaGame publications.

The AflaSet Manual explicitly encourages educators to print the game components and use them in educational sessions.

However, the reviewed documentation does not establish a single explicit Creative Commons licence covering all six games and their production files.

Users should therefore verify the applicable terms of reuse and adaptation before redistributing or modifying the materials.

Transferability

The six games offer educators different ways of introducing social and financial education, from short resource-management games to longer economic simulations.

They can be selected according to participants’ ages, financial knowledge, group size and available time.

Several games use ordinary tabletop materials, including dice, tokens, cards and paper trackers, supporting low-cost reproduction when the complete printable components are available.

The collection may be particularly useful in youth centres, schools, community programmes and financial education workshops.

Replicability assessment

AflaGame provides substantial game-level documentation, including rules and component lists for all six titles.

This makes it possible to analyse the principal mechanics and educational objectives without relying exclusively on general project descriptions.

Nevertheless, the current functionality of all six QR-linked production packages has not been independently verified.

The available materials also do not provide a complete evaluation protocol with standardised instruments and outcome datasets for reproducing an educational effectiveness study.

Replicability status: High for rule-level documentation; physical reproduction requires verification of all printable production files; learning-outcome evaluation not independently reproducible from the reviewed materials.

Official resources:

• AflaGame – Official Project Page and Educational Resources
• AflaSet Manual – Six Educational Board Games
• AflaGame – Methodological Manual

AflaGame represents a valuable example of European Board Game-Based Learning focused on financial literacy, social responsibility and personal development.

Its principal methodological contribution lies in creating six different tabletop games within a shared educational framework, providing opportunities to compare how financial concepts can be introduced through different mechanics and player experiences.

The collection includes financial simulations, resource-management games, question-based activities and cooperative self-reflection.

Methodological strengths

1. Six distinct educational game designs. The project does not rely on a single game to address all its objectives. Instead, it offers different approaches suited to varying ages, group sizes, durations and competencies.
2. Financial concepts represented through game resources. SmartSpender!, Prosperopolis and AflaTOUR require participants to manage resources to achieve their objectives. Money, investments, spending, income and other economic variables influence the consequences of player decisions.
3. Meaningful opportunity costs. Important Decisions introduces a limited quantity of time alongside financial resources, requiring players to make choices between employment, education, charity, sport and leisure.
4. Recognition of different forms of success. Important Decisions awards achievements across several areas of life instead of identifying success exclusively through financial wealth. This creates opportunities to reflect on different personal priorities.
5. Representation of unequal starting conditions. The character-based mode of Important Decisions allows participants to begin with different resources, potentially supporting discussion of how life circumstances influence available opportunities.
6. Financial and social objectives combined. Prosperopolis requires both economic assets and social influence, providing a simplified representation of the relationship between financial success and social reputation.
7. Short strategic resource management. AflaTOUR introduces decisions about routes, fuel, passenger transport, income generation and spending in a relatively compact playing time.
8. Learning through consequences. Several games provide immediate feedback when participants select an investment, spend money, manage a resource or respond to an unexpected event.
9. Explicit reflection in Important Decisions. The game’s published debriefing questions encourage participants to interpret their strategies and connect their actions with realistic decisions concerning time, money and personal priorities.
10. Variety of social interaction. The collection includes competition, cooperation, negotiation, resource exchange and group discussion, providing opportunities to explore different interpersonal experiences.
11. Collaborative international development. Six European organisations contributed to creating and refining the games, combining different educational and cultural perspectives.
12. User-informed improvement. Project communications document changes to the games following feedback from pupils, teachers and educational experts.
13. Public methodological documentation. The project published complete descriptions of the games and a separate manual discussing educational game design and Game-Based Learning.

Methodological limitations

1. Uneven integration between educational objectives and game mechanics. The six games differ substantially in the extent to which financial knowledge is required to make meaningful decisions.

In AflaTOUR, players must manage fuel, transport opportunities and money to complete their itinerary. In Prosperopolis, financial transactions and decisions directly influence the game’s economic state.

By contrast, Aha! Money relies more heavily on dice movement and card-based challenges, where the educational contribution may depend primarily on the content of the tasks.

2. Simulation does not guarantee financial understanding. Representing money, investments, loans or savings through game components creates opportunities for learning, but participants may develop effective game strategies without fully understanding the corresponding real-world financial concepts.

Facilitated reflection and appropriate assessment are needed to examine conceptual transfer.

3. Simplification of economic systems. Game economies inevitably simplify income, expenditure, debt, investment and financial risk.

For example, Prosperopolis establishes specific wealth and social-point thresholds that are useful as game objectives but do not represent universally valid definitions of financial independence.

4. Different relationships between wealth and social responsibility. Several games encourage players to accumulate money while also rewarding social or environmentally responsible choices.

The educational interpretation of these relationships depends on how the resources are balanced and whether players experience meaningful trade-offs between competing priorities.

5. Potential reinforcement of overly individualised explanations of financial wellbeing. Financial outcomes depend not only on personal decisions but also on income, opportunity, employment conditions, household circumstances and wider economic structures.

Important Decisions partly addresses this issue through different starting conditions, but the broader collection should avoid implying that financial success is determined exclusively by individual behaviour.

6. Dependence on financial knowledge and facilitator competence. Some games require facilitators to administer transactions, verify answers and explain economic concepts.

Differences in educator preparation may therefore influence the quality and accuracy of the learning experience.

7. Inconsistent documentation of debriefing. Important Decisions includes a clear discussion procedure, while other games provide fewer explicit instructions for helping participants interpret their experiences.

The lack of a shared standardised debriefing framework may lead to differences between implementations.

8. Limited connection between self-awareness and financial decision-making in You Are Enough!. This game offers opportunities for personal reflection and constructive communication, but its direct financial education mechanics are less clearly established.

Its learning objectives should therefore be evaluated separately from those of the economic simulation games.

9. Possible rule and component inconsistencies. Some manuals contain minor differences between their stated player configurations and the number of components described.

For example, Aha! Money lists up to eight players but specifies six playing pieces. Such inconsistencies can complicate independent reproduction and should be clarified before widespread implementation.

10. Unverified effectiveness. The project documents the development and testing of games, but the reviewed sources do not provide controlled or statistically documented evidence of improvements in financial literacy, savings behaviour or economic decision-making attributable to gameplay.

11. Difficulty comparing the six interventions. The games differ in age range, duration, mechanics and intended outcomes. Their educational effects cannot be assumed to be equivalent.

Comparative research would require clearly defined target competencies, appropriate assessment instruments and consistent implementation protocols.

12. Incomplete verification of downloadable production files. Although the rules are published, the continued accessibility of all six QR-linked printable game packages remains to be confirmed.

Ludus Magnus assessment

AflaGame provides a particularly useful collection for analysing how financial education can be integrated into different types of board games.

Its six titles demonstrate a wide range of approaches, from conventional movement-based activities with educational questions to more integrated simulations involving resource management, trade-offs and economic planning.

From a methodological perspective, Important Decisions is especially interesting because it introduces time as a limited resource and allows players to prioritise different dimensions of life.

The opportunity to choose between work, education, charity, sport and leisure means that the game can support discussion about opportunity costs, personal priorities and the limitations of evaluating success exclusively through accumulated wealth.

The use of character cards with different initial resources also offers an opportunity to discuss unequal starting conditions, although the game’s representation of social inequality remains necessarily simplified.

Another noteworthy feature is its explicit debriefing. The discussion questions encourage players to move beyond calculating final scores and examine why they chose particular strategies and whether those decisions would be appropriate in real situations.

AflaTOUR provides a different strength. Its relatively short duration and resource-management mechanics connect financial planning with route optimisation and income-generating activities.

Players must decide how to use limited fuel, when to transport tourists, how to obtain money and which attractions to visit.

These choices are directly connected with the game’s objective, creating a relatively strong integration between financial management and gameplay.

Prosperopolis also offers meaningful financial decisions, although its longer duration and greater variety of economic variables may make it more demanding for inexperienced participants.

SmartSpender! incorporates income, expenditure and resource tracking, providing a practical context for discussing budgeting and saving.

Aha! Money represents a more conventional educational game design, in which dice-driven movement and card challenges organise the learning experience.

This approach can support engagement and knowledge reinforcement, but the degree of intrinsic educational integration is lower when answering questions is the main route through which financial concepts enter gameplay.

You Are Enough! occupies a different position within the collection because it primarily addresses self-awareness, competencies and personal development.

Its inclusion under a common financial education programme may be justified by the broader Aflatoun framework, but the game’s specific contribution to financial literacy would require clearer documentation or additional educational activities.

AflaGame also illustrates an interesting research opportunity: comparing purpose-designed financial education games with existing commercial board games that incorporate money, resource allocation, investment, negotiation or economic planning.

Such a comparison could establish whether the explicit educational content of AflaSet produces additional benefits beyond those generated by comparable recreational mechanics and appropriate pedagogical guidance.

The collection is also valuable because it allows comparisons between its own six game designs.

For example, research could examine whether games involving direct financial trade-offs produce different learning outcomes from games using knowledge questions, or whether the inclusion of structured debriefing improves the transfer of financial concepts to real-world scenarios.

Finally, the project demonstrates the importance of preserving accessible game components and assessment documentation after European funding ends.

The continued availability of the manuals is a positive result. Confirming the functionality of the individual printable production packages would further strengthen the project’s long-term educational transferability.

Transferable methodological lesson: Financial literacy can be addressed through different tabletop game mechanisms, but their educational value should be examined according to how directly financial concepts influence player decisions. Resource management, opportunity costs and strategic planning create opportunities for experiential learning, while question-based activities provide a different form of knowledge reinforcement. Structured reflection and rigorous evaluation are needed to establish whether these experiences improve financial understanding and behaviour.