Frequently Asked Questions
Your rank in SmooLah is calculated based on a combination of the net worth (money), happiness and peace of mind you have accumulated as you progress in SmooLah’s virtual world.
The mini-games in each district increase your money, happiness and peace of mind. However, these games consume your energy in the game. As the game resets when any of these four objectives hit zero, you need to ensure you have sufficient money, happiness, peace of mind and energy in order to progress in the game.
Central District: Enrolling in school costs money and energy. After furthering your education in SmooLah’s virtual world, getting a job will increase your money and happiness, but further reduces your energy level.
Shopping District: Buying items in the shopping catalogue will help replenish your energy level. Experiment and think carefully about which items will raise your energy level. Items in the shopping catalogue have different prices; some items replenish a more-than-proportionate amount of energy over others. Alternatively, passing time in the game also allows you to regain some energy.
Financial District: Buying insurance costs money, energy and happiness but increases your peace of mind. Insurance protects you against unexpected situations like a car accident in the SmooLah virtual world. Buying stocks and bonds in the SmooLah virtual world also affects your wealth, energy, peace of mind and happiness.
SmooLah aims to improve youths’ (17-26 year old) financial literacy through a fun and interactive game to improve their financial awareness and knowledge. By progressing in the game, players will have to make critical decisions that mimic real-life personal finance decisions.
The game ends when you attain the role of CEO, the pinnacle of the working world. However, your progress will be reset to start-state if you hit zero for any of the 4 components (net worth, happiness, peace of mind, energy).
You can learn or reinforce your understanding of the fundamentals of personal finance that are important for your financial stability. If you’re not sure whether you are financially literate enough, Smoolah is the right game for you! Through playing the game, you would learn to manage your finances in the virtual world before putting your newfound knowledge to the test in real life!
The data collected from the game will be used for a research study to determine the long term effectiveness of a financial literacy program delivered by student-trainers from SMU, ITE or Polytechnics (funded by CITI Foundation).
To learn more, please visit this page https://skbi.smu.edu.sg/citi-smu/mobile-games on our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
The content of the game is geared towards youths aged between 15 and 30 but we welcome players of all ages to put their financial knowledge to the test.
Yes, you need an internet connection for your progress to be saved.
Some (usually older) devices do not support the AR features in SmooLah. We are working on this to increase the accessibility of SmooLah. Stay tuned for more updates!
You may contact us at cs_flya [at] smu.edu.sg. Your feedback will help us improve the gameplay experience for all users.
