Night of the Living Debt: the Zombie Game That Teaches Credit

The game is set in a world overrun by zombies, and the zombies are creditors. Players earn income by finding prizes and cashing them in, then choose how to spend it: college, a car, a pricier home, savings or a credit card. Every decision that involves credit creates a zombie that follows the player until the debt is paid. A rent zombie and a car-payment zombie turn up on schedule.

Its main lesson runs against the common advice to avoid cards entirely. In the game a credit card is how a player builds a positive credit history, as long as it is used regularly and paid on time. Overextending creates the same vulnerability it does in real life. The learning concepts are credit scores, credit reports, healthy credit card strategies, subprime lending, and saving and emergency funds.

The creators, University of Idaho Extension educators Luke Erickson and Lyle Hansen, describe it as the reverse of their earlier Credit Score Millionaire game, which shows directly how financial choices change credit scores and what they cost.

The Learning Games Lab at New Mexico State University developed the game for the Northwest Youth Financial Education program, a multistate partnership of Northwest Farm Credit Services, University of Idaho Extension and the extension systems of Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Montana. During development it was tested in classrooms and in the lab. It is designed for high school students, and it is described as suitable for adults curious about credit and debt as well.

As of November 2026 the game has its own website with a Play the Game page and a link to the iOS app. The site says the web version works on iPads and computers and does not run on phones, and that the app allows offline play. It credits New Mexico State University's Innovative Media Research and Extension unit and its Learning Games Lab, working with University of Idaho Extension, and says the web version received funding in 2024 from the Extension Foundation's USDA-NIFA New Technology for Ag Extension grant program.

The University of Idaho Extension page for the game describes an interactive game for teens, designed for iPad, with a printable evaluation, an instructor guide and talking points. The game also appears on the 2016 finalist list of the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge.