In the game, players manage college rental houses, facing common financial concepts such as credit, mortgages and budgets.

The game was produced by the Games for Entertainment and Learning, or GEL, Lab.

Spartan Villa is free on the Apple App Store for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Students began creating the game about a year ago, and Spartan Villa went live Sept. 14. As of Sept. 18, there were 800 downloads, said April Clobes, MSUFCU executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Clobes said the credit union is focused on helping students make proper financial decisions.
“We wanted to create a fun environment that would also help (students see) what it’s like in real life,” Clobes said. “This was a way to make it close to real life and still have fun.”

MSU alumnus Chad Fleming participated in the game’s creation, which he said was a valuable experience to add to his career in making video games.

“One of biggest things I’ve learned is making game play that’s fun for a wide audience,” Fleming said. “Especially with a subject like finance, (it) was a challenge to make the game enjoyable for a variety of people.”

Players expand and maintain their houses through various ways, such as paying bills on time, overseeing spending, distributing funds to the appropriate account and hosting social functions to bring in more residents.

Environmental economics and policy senior Jennifer Orletski said the game sounds beneficial to players, rather than playing noneducational games.

Brian Winn, associate professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media and co-director of the GEL Lab, managed the project, and said games including The Sims, Sims City and Tiny Tower gave the team inspiration in the making of Spartan Villa.

Winn said the goal was to make the game entertaining and engaging for players.

“(We wanted to) have something that has education embedded throughout the game (but) doesn’t feel like it is an educational game,” Winn said.