"Hero's Path" - Educational Web Game For Applicants

Objective

T-Bank created an interactive educational guide to help high school seniors and university applicants reduce anxiety and navigate the complex decision-making process of choosing a career and university path. The project combined career guidance, exam preparation support, and naturally integrated financial literacy education without aggressive promotion of the bank's products.

Solution

The game uses a board-game format with 16 stations guiding players through the university entrance journey, from career discovery to successful enrollment. Movement follows a classic dice-roll mechanic, but the experience is non-competitive — players don't race against anyone, only progress at their own pace. Each station unlocks educational content — articles, comics, interactive checklists, mini-tests, mini-games, and research pieces — all authored by educators, psychologists, and career consultants, with links to partner materials from universities and educational platforms. The starting station is a comic addressing indecision when classmates have already settled on a university. Later stations cover labor-market trends; a 'talking to parents' block with dialogue practices and a checklist; university/major selection criteria (accreditation, program, campus, dormitory) with questions for open-house days; exam (ЕГЭ) and portfolio preparation checklists with time-management tips and common-mistake breakdowns; an applicant's-finances block on budgeting for prep and admission costs; alternative paths if not admitted on a budget place (paid tuition, transfer, college, gap year); and first-year student life (balancing coursework and extracurriculars, whether to work). Game mechanics include obstacle characters ('Brain-Eater' and 'Fail-Saurus' monsters) that must be overcome, and T-Bank's financial products (education savings accounts, benefit calculators, budget planning tools) are woven into the narrative naturally. The tone is friendly and ironic, using meme-style illustrations to ease student stress. The web experience emphasizes work-life balance and reframes the Unified State Exam (ЕГЭ) as one milestone, not the entire journey.

Results

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