[Arkdy]

Habitica already exists which tries to use video game leveling and such to help you develop better habits.

And I've been thinking about something similar that's specifically focused on budgeting. The premise is this:

1. Your bank account is represented as a treasure cave with piles of gold instead of stacks of cash.

2. Saving involves moving gold from the floor to treasure chests. This means that breaking into your savings would mean breaking into a virtual treasure chest, which would have a similar emotional weight to smashing a physical piggy bank.*

3. You have a virtual pet guarding it and recording your spending habits takes the form of talking to your pet at the end of the day.

* An alternate version is if saving means feeding a pet until it grows big enough to send it out into the world. This means that saving is more rewarding since you see a creature grow up, but I'm not sure how to make taking from your savings not be as harsh as killing a friend.

If this is directly integrated into an official bank's online banking then it creates a form of lock-in wherein switching banks also means abandoning your pet.