EconMon 經濟獸 — HKDSE Economics RPG

A FireRed-style pixel RPG where every EconMon is one HKDSE Economics concept. Students catch EconMon by answering questions (bilingual EN / 繁中), level them up, evolve them, and challenge gym bosses. The player is 衫哥 (Sam Gor), 福伯's grandson, who loves Economics and new clothes. The screen fills the device automatically, with a 4:3 layout for iPads held sideways. New in v0.22: accessories and a wardrobe. Every shopkeeper now has a ✨ Accessories counter that sells that district's items: 5 head items (pineapple-bun hat, mortarboard, neon headphones, lion-dance head, salt-crystal crown), 3 back items (egg-waffle backpack, Star Ferry life-ring, Bauhinia cape), 5 trails (salt footprints, goldfish bubbles, Bauhinia petals, neon trail, coin steps) and 4 auras (stardust, neon ring, thunder, fireworks) for Sam Gor, plus EconMon shiny colours (the most expensive item, $3,200 per EconMon), EconMon hats, battle entrance effects and battle-card frames. Prices run from $150 to $3,200. A weekly limited shelf changes every Monday (the crown and fireworks are only sold there); themed bundles are 15% off; every Saturday one district has 20% off; START → ✨ Style is the wardrobe and collection book, where you equip items, sell them back for half price (a sunk-cost lesson) and earn titles at 5, 10 and 20 items. During a battle question the strip at the top now includes a small box showing both EconMon. v0.21: during a question the item buttons sit in a column on the right (💡 hint, ⏳ +10s, 📜 hint scroll, congee, ⏭ skip), so the question and options use the full width; the HP strip at the top shows each side on two rows. The Bag is rearranged into clear sections (hero card with coins and active effects, Items with counts and one-line descriptions, Repel items, Other, and a folded 'How do I earn coins?' tip). Three new shop items: 👟 Speed sneakers ($40, walk 50% faster until you change district), 🌟 Golden aura ($60, a golden glow around Sam Gor until you change district) and ⏭ Skip card ($35, skip a question; it counts as wrong, so your partner takes damage in battle). v0.20: a new opening and three language modes. The title screen is now the Map 1 pixel map of Hong Kong (ferry and plane moving, district markers blinking); choosing New Game plays a route journey: a gold marker travels Tai O → Sham Shui Po → Kwun Tong → Mong Kok → Yau Ma Tei → Shek Kip Mei → Hung Hom → Central and each district card pops up with its era and chapters, then the camera lands on Tai O (tap to skip). Settings (START → ⚙ Settings, or 🌐 Language on the title screen) switch between 中英對照 (bilingual, default), English (all dialogue, menus, signs, cards and battle text translated) and 中文 (Chinese only, with English exam terms kept). The game saves and reloads when you switch. v0.19: easier-to-read text and a new battle screen. Dialogue now shows the speaker in a name tag above the box, pages hold at most two lines (▼ and 1/3 show there is more), sources and notes move to a small footer line, English exam terms are blue and numbers bold, and long quest hints are checklists (☐ / ✔). Battles use a fixed command bar along the bottom (⚡CHARGE ✨SPELL 🌟ULTIMATE 🔄SWAP 🏃RUN, each with its cost and spell name), the enemy's next move is a bubble beside it, Insight is a row of ◆ on your card, and shields, reflect and damage-taken effects appear as status chips. Cards, sprites, the intent bubble and the command bar each get their own space on every screen shape, so nothing overlaps (checked on phone, tablet and desktop sizes). Spells now animate (an orb in your partner's colour, an impact burst, plus shield, heal, mirror or crack effects) and Ultimates play a 2-second cut-in with the concept name, light rays and a screen shake. During a question the battle shrinks to a one-line HP strip at the top. v0.18: all eight districts are rebuilt on tidy street grids where every building can be entered — each district has four buildings (home with 媽媽 to rest, gym with the boss inside, shop or landmark, mock exam hall where there is one), 29 new interiors with NPCs, and the office, computer-centre, market and Exchange Square encounter zones now sit inside their buildings; a yellow ▼ marks every entrance. Wild and trainer battles are now turn-based in a secondary-school playground: each turn pick ⚡CHARGE (answer a question; right = +1 Insight 💡, +2 for sort, order, diagram and DSE items, and you dodge the enemy), ✨SPELL (1💡, your partner’s Normal Spell named after its concept), 🌟ULTIMATE (3💡, type the concept keyword in English; a wrong keyword casts at half power, then a 2-question cooldown), 🔄SWAP or 🏃RUN. The enemy shows its next move (attack, charge-up ×1.5 or rest), so students decide when to answer to dodge and when to attack. Each battle type has its own spell effect: Striker and Glass cannon hit harder, Guardian and Bruiser add shields, Stamina and Balanced heal, Guardian can reflect. Gym bosses keep their step-by-step scoring points. Each Econ-dex card now lists both spells and has a Define-it box: type the definition with all the English keywords to earn 📝✓ and $5 the first time. All signs, trainers, encounter zones, hidden items, bus stops, ferries and fast-travel points were moved to the new layouts. New in v0.17: Central 中環 2016–17 (Ch.18–20), reached by cross-harbour bus from Hung Hom once the 海港徽章 is won — 15 EconMon on income inequality, GDP / GNI and national income statistics, new Lorenz-curve diagrams, and gym leader 政府統計師 程小姐 (統計徽章, title 中環統計員). v0.16 added Hung Hom 紅磡 2013 (Ch.16–17), reached by bus from Shek Kip Mei once the 干預徽章 is won — 10 EconMon on the inefficiency of government intervention and externalities, new deadweight-loss and externality diagrams, and gym leader 梁工 (海港徽章, title 維港守護者). v0.15 added 模擬試場 III, the third mock-exam hall (Ch.11–15), reached from Shek Kip Mei once the 干預徽章 is won — 25 original Paper-1 style items and 5 Paper-2 style items, five per chapter; pass 70% for the 政策分析師 Policy Analyst title. v0.14 added the PVP Battle Zone (boat from Tai O) with a ranked Dojo — Bronze 3 up to Challenger, BO5 promotions, a team of 6, one heal per battle, rank rewards — a 👁 costume preview in shops and an admin account for teachers (title screen → 🔑 管理員登入). Current version (v0.22): Tai O (Ch.1–2), Sham Shui Po (Ch.3–5), the Ch.1–5 mock exam hall, Kwun Tong (Ch.6–7), Mong Kok (Ch.8–10), the Ch.6–10 mock exam hall, Yau Ma Tei (Ch.11–12), Shek Kip Mei (Ch.13–15), the Ch.11–15 mock exam hall, Hung Hom (Ch.16–17), Central (Ch.18–20) and the PVP Battle Zone.

• Play: open index.html (GitHub Pages).
• Class mode: set window.ECONMON_API near the top of index.html to your Google Apps Script Web app URL (see GUIDE.md). Leave it empty for offline mode.
• Question bank: questions.csv. The game loads this file when it is served from the web; if the file is missing, it uses the copy embedded in index.html.

questions.csv columns

column	meaning
id	unique question id, e.g. oppcostra-03, oppcostra-S2 (scenario), flowray-D1 (diagram)
econmon	EconMon id; boss_… = gym boss steps; hard_… = DSE hard mode; pp1 / pp2 / pp3 and hard_pp1 / hard_pp2 / hard_pp3 = mock exam papers (the id encodes the chapter: pp3-13-14)
type	tf, mc, fill, sort, order, dse, diag
tag	scen scenario · dse · diag
diagram	for diag: circular_flow, demand_supply, price_ceiling, price_floor, unit_tax, ceiling_dwl, tax_dwl, neg_ext, pos_ext, lorenz or lorenz2
prompt_en / prompt_zh	question text. For fill-in: ____ for each blank in EN, ①② markers in ZH
options_en / options_zh	choices separated by | (MC 4 options; fill word bank; sort/diag bins; dse statements)
items_en / items_zh	cards for sort / order / diag, separated by | (order: in the correct order)
answer	tf T/F; mc A–D; fill: EN words |; sort/diag: bin number per item 1|2|1; dse: correct statement numbers 1|3|4; demand_supply: D:1;S:0 (1 = right, -1 = left)
hint_en / hint_zh, explain_en / explain_zh	hint (costs HP) and explanation

dialogue.csv

Every fixed line the characters say. Columns: id, where, original, text. Write your own version in text (leave blank to keep the original). In class mode the Dialogue sheet does the same (see GUIDE.md §F).

mons.csv

Stats and rarity of every EconMon. Columns: id, name, chapter, tier, atk, def, hp. Change tier (basic / rare / epic / legendary) or atk / def / hp (1–100) to rebalance an EconMon; do not change id. Blank or invalid cells keep the built-in value. In class mode the Mons sheet does the same (see GUIDE.md §F).

Keep every field on one line and do not use | inside a text.

v0.23

• SPELL / ULTIMATE buttons now show expected damage (≈ −N HP; trainers show stamina bars). Gold marker on the enemy HP bar = SPELL, red tick = ULTIMATE.
• Party tab redesigned: summary line, collapsible “How stats work”, sort buttons, one card per EconMon (concept, HP, stats, moves with multipliers/effects, progress).
• Small-landscape battle buttons tightened.
• See ECONMON_AUDIT.md for the roster audit and design advice.

v0.24

• Grades: ATK / DEF / HP and the overall rating are shown as S, A, B, C, D, E (S ≥ 95, A ≥ 85, B ≥ 72, C ≥ 60, D ≥ 48, E below) on battle cards, Party cards, the starter choice and catch messages.
• Short ULTIMATE keywords: every EconMon's ULTIMATE keyword is now 1–2 words (e.g. opportunity cost, demand shift, MR = MC). The screen shows a clue and a letter mask. Exact = full power, one or two letters off = 80%, wrong = 50%. ULTIMATE base power adjusted for the new scoring.
• Battle text: messages are split into short lines and full pages; numbers stay with their units (≈ −24 HP); the battle rules are only shown in the first 3 wild battles; the concept duel is now a 2-option MC.
• Chapter mastery: when every EconMon in a chapter reaches Lv.3 you get $300 and that chapter's EconMon can follow you on the map (up to 3; START → Party → 🐾 Follow). All Lv.5 → $800, the title "Ch.N Master" and a gold glow under your followers. Progress is in START → Awards.
• 📒 Correction album (START → 📒 Album): wrong answers are saved automatically; tap 🔖 on any question to bookmark it. Filter by wrong / bookmarked / fixed and by chapter, see your answer next to the correct one with the explanation, and 🔁 Retry. Right on two different days removes the question.
• Question bank audit: 2,099 → 1,772 questions. All sort (matching) questions removed (12 gym steps replaced by MC), 7 weak questions deleted, 40 rewritten, 3 dated examples replaced. Details in QUESTION_AUDIT_v24.md.
• Class mode: if you imported a Questions sheet before, it still holds the old bank (with sort questions) and overrides this one. Run EconMon ▸ Import game content again, or delete the Questions sheet.

v0.25

• Learning Centre 學習中心 in all 8 districts (a cream building with a 「學」 sign). Inside, 鄧 Sir runs a short learning journey for every chapter (Ch.1–20, 104 stops). Each stop takes about 2 minutes: hook → guess first (你覺得呢？) → key idea → example → check → pick the best explanation. Get the guess right to take the ⏩ fast track. Each chapter ends with a concept chain, a 3-question exit ticket and a one-sentence explanation in your own words.
• Required first step: arriving in a new district, the goal line and 鄧 Sir point to the Learning Centre, and each gym leader asks you to finish that gym's chapters first. Badges you already hold are not affected.
• Rewards: 💰$150 and a 📘 mark per chapter; a first-try Check gives +1 XP to that stop's EconMon. Wrong Checks go into the 📒 correction album.
• Details, sources and open teacher items: LEARNING_CENTRE_v25.md. Journey content: learning_centre.json.
• On the web: learning.html shows all 20 journeys outside the game (chapter picker, play mode, notes view with answers). It reads learning_centre.json, so the game and the page share one copy of the content. The Study Desk (app.html) has a new Practise → Learn tab that shows this page.