Jemon Golfin

DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal

Thesis Project Proposal

Project Name: [Cost-of-Living Simulation V. 2.0]
I. Introduction: The Big Issue

One of the biggest issues in our society today is the increasing cost of living. The

cost of food goes up, rent increases every year, and gas prices are rising. All

while most jobs pay an unlivable minimum wage and inflation makes the

occasional raise increases seem pointless. Because of this, many young adults

(18 - 30) struggle to successfully live on their own and end up staying at home

and living with their parents past the legal age of 18 because it is cheaper and

more manageable. How can an individual truly take risks and be successful in life

if they can’t even afford a place to live? This is an issue, an issue on the political,

economic, and social level that needs to be represented and addressed. We

need changes that will make the minimum wage a living wage with inflation being

controlled and prices for necessities being reasonable enough that young adults

can survive off a paycheck. Therefore, I am proposing the creation of a

simulation that accurately represents this struggle amongst young adults, while

also taking into consideration the economic and social factors that play a role in

everyone’s opportunity for success.

Jemon Golfin
DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal
II. The Simulation Game

A. The Purpose

This simulation has 3 key objectives:

● To accurately and inclusively represent the target subjects of this

study (young adults aged 18 - 30) and their possible, and potential,

struggles with obtaining financial stability, such as through

economic shortcomings or social disadvantages.

● To educate the target audience (lawmakers, business owners, etc.)

on the realistic issue of the increasing cost of living on the ability of

young adults to establish financial stability and the potential

struggles both economically and socially that this group of people

face on their journey to success.

● To promote the need and to push for positive economic and social

changes on a political scale that reduce the initial struggle for

young adults to obtain financial stability, and promote successful

independence through the passage of new bills or revoking of

old/current bills

B. The Economic View

One goal of the simulation is to display the economic struggles that young

adults face that prevent them from achieving financial stability and

independence before the age of 30. For this view, I will focus on a main

metropolitan area, Orlando, FL, and look at the economic laws and

structures that exist, such as minimum wage, inflation rate, average cost
Jemon Golfin
DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal
of rent, transportation expenses, food expenses, etc. These are equal

aspects that apply to everyone and are a good comparison for a person’s

ability to be financially successful.

C. The Social View

Another goal of the simulation is to show that economic structure isn’t the

only reason for the struggle for economic/financial independence that

young adults experience. While specific economic factors are common

and more equally experienced, many social factors may affect this

population unequally. These factors include race and ethnicity, as some

opportunities may not be equally available to some individuals due to race;

gender, as some jobs may not pay individuals equally due to gender;

disabilities, and others.

D. The 1990 vs. 2020 Face-Off

For this simulation, I decided to make it a comparison simulation between

the years of 1990 and 2020. I picked these years as 2020 was the year

closest to the start of the pandemic and would provide the most recent

non-COVID-affected data, and 1990 is a 30-year difference where there

have been many changes in cost, inflation, and laws that make achieving

financial success in these periods very different. Also, 30 years is a good

amount of time difference between when a current young adult is

struggling and when their parents were young adults struggling to achieve

financial stability.
Jemon Golfin
DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal
E. Scope

The simulation will be played through a period of a full year, split by weeks

(48 -52). During each week there will be mandatory tasks that the player

must complete, such as buying food, paying rent, paying utilities, and

transportation. Along with those, there will be optional and random tasks

that the player will have to respond to.

F. Narration

To add more playability and make this project more of a game, the game

will feature a small narrative story between a parent and their young adult

kid in which they compare their different periods of struggle to see if it was

harder for the parent to establish financial stability during their early adult

years than their child in their current young adult years or vice versa.

G. Surprise Events

To additionally represent the realistic economic struggles of young adults,

the game will feature many sporadic and surprising events that are

experienced often by this group of people. These events can include

sudden changes in gas or transportation prices, adjusted inflation, car

breaking down, being laid off, becoming sick, injury, and other incidents

that directly affect money management.

III.
Jemon Golfin
DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal
IV. Forms & Materials

This project will be all digital and will be produced through the use of programs,

such as Unity, as the main game engine to build the game; Photoshop, as the

main digital art program to create the UI elements and game art for the

simulation; Visual Studio Code, as the primary program for coding the game.

V. Methodologies

A. UI

For this game, the UI will be designed in Unity for functionality. However,

buttons, backgrounds, and animations will all be done in

Photoshop/Illustrator and other programs, and then be imported into Unity.

B. Programming

For this game, it will primarily be coded in C# as it is both a primary coding

language for Unity, and it is the programming language that I am most

comfortable with.

C. Art Direction

For this game, I want to focus on a simple pixel art style for the buttons

and the character portraits. For events, I want to do small pixel animations

as well.

There will be 2 different artistic aesthetics: a retro theme to represent the

year of 1990 and a modern/internet theme to represent the year 2020.

D. Music
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DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal
As for music, the main goal is to source basic sounds from royalty-free

websites for action buttons, celebratory or negative events, and/or

background music.

VI. Public Interaction

When this project is complete, I want people to be able to experience it in two

ways.

First, I want people to play the game from a random perspective, where you are

given a character with random stats that you must then help to attempt to try and

survive the year. This will allow the player to try and understand the struggle that

someone different from them has to try and establish financial stability and will be

a great way to compare their struggles.

After the player completes the random playthrough, they will then be able to play

through a custom playthrough where they can choose stats for their player that

closely represent their situation to see if they can survive through their struggles.

If not, then maybe it can start a dialogue on the need for economic changes in

our society to give young adults a higher chance for success.

VII. Inspirations

A. Personal Inspiration

One of the many factors that contributed to the idea of this simulation was

my struggle with achieving economic/financial stability, which I have not

yet done. The ever-increasing price of rent of my apartment, mixed with

Jemon Golfin
DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal
the inability to find employment that pays well enough above minimum

wage, makes establishing a stable living when over half of that wage goes

to just rent alone. If this is a realistic issue I am experiencing now, then

there have to be others who are also experiencing this unfortunate reality.

B. Related Games & Projects

1. Spent

Spent is a free online simulation game in which your goal is to

financially survive 30 days without going below $0. This game

provides many realistic life scenarios, such as car breaking down or

being sick, that affect the money you make and the money you

must spend that simulates many situations of young adults.

This is a great starting block for what this project will become, a

realistic simulation, that will extend beyond just the scenarios that

create the difficulties, such as focusing on social factors that

influence economic success.

2. Luck Be A Landlord

Luck Be A Landlord is a simulation game in which you play as a

landlord needing to keep structure around their property but also

stay financially stable, through renovations and unfortunately,

raising rent.

This game is very beneficial to this project as it allows players to

understand a different view of a crucial financial situation, and

 Jemon Golfin
DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal
sometimes, rent prices and other necessity prices must rise as the

cost to maintain them also increases.

VIII. Production Timeline

A. Fall 2023

● 10/11/2023:

○ Game UI Designed

○ All economic factors assigned

○ All social factors assigned

○ All special events identified and assigned

○ Game coding starts: Intro Scene

● 11/01/2023:

○ Game Intro Scene programmed

○ First 4 In-Game Weeks programmed

● 12/04/2023:

○ Program Weeks 5 - 24

○ Start programming game sound system and importing

sounds

○ Work on programming Weeks 25 - 48/52

● 12/20/2023:

○ Complete programming Weeks 25 - 48/52

○ Continue programming game sound system and importing

sounds
Jemon Golfin
DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal
○ Start looking into art design options

● BIG GOAL: Complete all major coding and UI design by the end of

Fall 2023

● BIG GOAL: Complete required research on social and economic

regional laws, limitations, and factors

B. Spring 2024 (Starting January 3. 2024)

● 1/31/2024:

○ Design UI Buttons and Elements

○ Design UI Backgrounds

● 2/28/2024

○ Design UI Animations

● 3/23/2024

○ Import all art and UI elements into the game

○ Import narration

○ Start playtesting

● BIG GOAL:

○ Complete all art and animations, and final playtesting by the

end of March 2024

● April 2024 (until the day before the presentation):

○ Testing and bug fixes

Jemon Golfin
DIG 6524
Thesis Proposal
IX. Conclusion

My hope for this project is that it becomes a strong representation of both the

realistic modern struggles young adults deal with when trying to achieve financial

stability and independence and the need for changes to modern political and

economic laws that hinder the potential financial success of young adults.