We’re proud to announce The Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) has awarded Liquid Interactive Best Use of Gamification/Simulation for Learning Award for our recent project ESSI Money powered by Suncorp, developed in partnership with the Financial Basics Foundation.

The AITD Excellence Awards were held in Sydney on Friday night. The competition for these national awards was fierce - making this win particularly exciting for our team.

ESSI Money powered by Suncorp is a web-based, mobile responsive simulation designed to teach secondary school students the fundamentals of financial literacy. This award is significant because ESSI Money is one of our cornerstone projects, as this project was a redevelopment of the original game Liquid built 10 years ago.

Financial Basics Foundation’s vision that every young Australian has the knowledge, skills and confidence that will enable them to make informed financial choices and manage their finances was a key driver of the ESSI Money overhaul. It’s not often that games, particularly financial games designed for school students, stand the test of time. And for a game that is still being used 10 years after its initial release indicates some sort of positive influence.

Since its official launch in late March 2017, ESSI Money powered by Suncorp has been an immediate success, already doubling game play stats recorded last year, getting rave reviews from teachers, and it has students playing after hours and on weekends, proving we have developed something both sticky and educationally effective.