Bank Star VR
VerbundVolksbank OWL eG, headquartered in Paderborn, is one of the largest cooperative banks in North Rhine-Westphalia, with around 1,200 employees and 165,000 members. The bank not only promotes economic development but also actively supports education and the advancement of young talent. In cooperation with redPlant Realtime Studios, it developed a virtual reality game that playfully tests reaction speed and safe handling of money among potential trainees – an innovative approach to career orientation for the digital generation.
What is a Volksbank?
In the 19th century, many farmers, craftsmen, and small businesses suffered from social hardship and a lack of access to credit. Private moneylenders drove many into over-indebtedness. To support the middle class, social reformers Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen developed the cooperative idea of “self-help through mutual assistance.” They promoted the founding of credit associations – the foundation of cooperative banks. The community enabled individuals to help themselves, true to the motto: “What one person cannot achieve alone, many can achieve together.”
Attention financial experts!
Education and talent development are of great importance to VerbundVolksbank OWL, not least to attract dedicated young talent to its own ranks. Each year, the bank relies on new trainees and wants to reach them in a modern way while inspiring them for the banking profession. Together with redPlant Realtime Studios, a virtual reality game called Bank Star was created for the Meta Quest 3. Its premiere took place at my job OWL – the largest job fair in East Westphalia-Lippe.
With Bank Star, VerbundVolksbank OWL offers an immersive virtual reality experience specifically aimed at potential trainees. In a futuristic version of VerbundVolksbank Paderborn, you embark on an interactive quest to collect the cute yet clever bundles of cash that populate the immersive world – sometimes disappearing without a trace – making the experience exciting, playful, and informative all at once. But be careful when collecting! More money doesn’t always mean more value.
Staging
Ready for your next adventure? Then let’s go! Put on the VR headset and dive into the virtual world of Bank Star! You’ll find yourself right in the middle of a futuristic version of VerbundVolksbank Paderborn. And since time is money, you’re immediately at the heart of the action. But no rush: first, you’ll have the chance to get to know your new surroundings. Take your time, check out the high scores, and internalize your mission – then it’s game on!
Equipping
In addition to the VR headset that has already brought you into the world of Bank Star, you’ll need equipment to collect the many bundles of cash. Specially designed cash vacuums are provided for this purpose. Through the controllers, you’ll receive two vacuums so you can start your quest with both hands. You’ll also be randomly assigned a unique financial-themed player name, making you fully equipped for your mission.
Start Level
Now there’s no turning back. Your mission is to collect as many bundles of cash as possible within two minutes to reach the highest score. Unlike regular money, the cyber banknotes have a will of their own, which makes collecting them a challenge – these little energy bundles just won’t stand still. Their central role in the gameplay, combined with the cute faces that react to the player’s actions, make them the true stars of the game.
Always at the right time ...
Just collecting banknotes? Sounds too easy. And we wouldn’t need finance experts for that. Within the two minutes, you’ll go through changing phases in which only certain banknotes may be collected. Every correctly collected note earns you points equal to its value, while a wrong one will cost you accordingly! The notes appear randomly around you and disappear again after a short time. Quick reflexes and a sharp eye are key!
... the right collectible ...
The different shapes of the little bundles of cash not only give them their uniquely smart character but also help you distinguish them more easily. Their changing facial expressions don’t just add personality; they also signal when a bundle is perfectly targeted. To make sure you don’t miss anything, the cash bundles pop up in a stylish white-cloud spawn effect – and disappear just as spectacularly.
... or the golden guy
Regardless of the phase, a “small” gold bar will occasionally appear, rewarding you with plenty of extra points when collected. Since it sometimes hides, a unique sound will alert you to the golden little fellow. But act fast – it’s much quicker and more agile than its cash relatives.
Beat the high score
Cracked the high score? Then you’ll be showered with glitter and glamour confetti! Your current score is calculated in real time as you collect bundles of cash. Through the User Interface, you’ll always have an overview: How many points do you already have? How close are you to the high score? Everything live, everything direct.
Bank Star at the my job OWL
Bank Star premiered at my job OWL – the largest job fair in East Westphalia-Lippe. To go with it, VerbundVolksbank Paderborn launched a prize contest: anyone who cracked the daily high score could win not only a Nintendo Switch but also plenty of glory. The ranking was reset daily. For an extra twist, an integrated random system assigned each player one of about 400 finance-related usernames – from “AssetAllocator” to “YieldHunter.”
Command Center
The employees of VerbundVolksbank act as administrators of Bank Star and always maintain full control over gameplay. Through admin access, they can display special screens, actively intervene in the game, or perform administrative actions: for example, show the current high score list or reset it entirely to start a new session. If a player suddenly can’t continue, the running round can easily be stopped and restarted.
Nothing gets lost
For full control, both local and global scores are stored. Local scores are displayed directly in the game via the high score list and can be deleted by admins at any time, for example at the start of a new session. It can also be flexibly defined whether a session runs for one day or several days. All scores are also saved in a global ranking list, from which local high scores can be restored at any time.
From AssetAllocator to YieldHunter
So no one has to waste time coming up with the ultimate player name, 400 creative finance- and banking-related names were pre-created and integrated into the game. Each player is randomly assigned a name at the start, from “AssetAllocator” to “YieldHunter.” The admin team can reset the list of names at any time, allowing previously used names to go back into circulation.
From admin to small hacker
If the standard functions of the Command Center are ever not enough, VerbundVolksbank is well prepared: the high score list is stored in a human-readable JSON format and can be manually edited if needed. Entries can be corrected, added, or deleted. Player names can also be changed or reset at any time.
Fairplay
To ensure fair and balanced gameplay, some random mechanics follow firmly defined rules in the code: every bundle of cash disappears after exactly the same amount of time, each round always has the same number of bundles of each type, and the gold bar appears exactly twice per round. This way, everyone has the same chance to crack the high score. To avoid unnecessary frustration, there’s a small buffer during phase changes: in this transition period, players can collect both the old and the new type of banknotes without penalty.
Finance meets Cyberpunk
The level design was inspired by Tron and Cyberpunk. Tron is a 1982 Disney science fiction movie about a programmer pulled into a virtual world. Cyberpunk, on the other hand, is a dark sci-fi subgenre set in dystopian, technology-dominated cityscapes – often populated by hackers, criminals, and outsiders – adapted in films, games, and comics, most recently in the video game Cyberpunk 2077. For Bank Star, distinctive elements from both worlds were combined with banking content to create a unique, visually striking level design.
A tribute to Tron and Cyberpunk
In merging Tron and Cyberpunk, an aesthetic emerges that oscillates between digital purity and raw urban chaos. Geometrically clear, structured spaces meet dense, overloaded cityscapes full of neon light and technological overstimulation. Here you encounter a world that feels both clearly coded and chaotically fragmented – as if a futuristic dream had merged with the reality of a digital metropolis.
Light & depth
The style is defined by deep dark surfaces intersected with clearly defined, self-illuminating lines in various neon colors. This creates precise geometric and readable structures such as corridors, rooms, and objects. The forms are clearly outlined, often cubic or cylindrical, with only a few organic lines. Data streams pulse through precise architectural grids, the walls breathe data, and the air is heavy with signal noise.
Order & rebellion
Functional coolness collides with visual overload. While one derives order from algorithmic precision, the other rebels against any form of control – in this hybrid aesthetic, both are visible. Clear grids and logical structures merge with urban chaos. It’s a world between grid and alley, between flawless system and fragile cityscape – always in tension between strict control and disrupted chaos.
Futuristic down to the last corner
The futuristic world of Bank Star resembles an abstract reconstruction of VerbundVolksbank Paderborn’s lobby. For a fully immersive experience, the scenery was expanded with futuristic and dark skyscrapers rising into the sky beyond the branch’s glass façade. Moving fog obscures the depth of view, while small animations inside the building – such as a holographic receptionist – add liveliness.
Clear & immersive communication
What would a world be without personal communication? For a unified design language, the graphic User Interface was also designed in a coherent futuristic style, specifically optimized for an immersive VR experience. All relevant information is embedded in the virtual environment so the player never has to leave the world to access it. Clearly structured displays appear at defined points in the 3D space or directly on the player’s equipment.
Frequency waves penetrate the virtual space
A precisely tuned sound design is also part of an immersive VR experience. Here, action-packed background tracks are combined with pure gameplay-supporting sounds. To prevent players from having to keep constant eye contact with the user interface, targeted audio assets were integrated to provide feedback – for example, when the wrong banknote is collected. Most instructions come via announcements that clearly communicate game start and end, phase changes, and the specific banknotes to collect.
The Money People
Of course, we could have just let players collect boring banknotes, but the little bundles of cash – affectionately called Money People – give Bank Star its unique character and make the game more lively. The challenge was to give the factual banknotes a cute yet cheeky personality without elaborate character introductions. They had to capture the player’s attention right from the start while leaving a lasting impression.
The Vaccumat 2078
To collect the bundles of cash, two futuristic cyber vacuums are provided. To avoid any association with weapons, real handheld vacuum cleaners were analyzed in detail and adapted as templates for the cash vacuums. This way, any form of violence is avoided from the outset. The integrated display keeps players informed about the current phase – i.e., which bundle of cash they should vacuum up. Additionally, the devices feature a pointer for precise aiming.
Modular room concept
At VerbundVolksbank’s request, the lobby of the Paderborn branch was futuristically reconstructed in Bank Star. The focus was on making the layout and all assets as modular as possible. By using fewer but highly versatile 3D models and textures, both development time and computing resources were significantly reduced. The final 3D Meshes were designed on a 4.5 × 4.5 m grid and precisely assembled.
Let´s go Money People
To bring the Money People to life, a fully transferable rig and animations applicable to all three characters were used. However, textures had to be precisely tailored to the individual meshes. To change facial expressions, we relied on a technique called Sprite Based Face Animations. In this method, the faces are placed on a separate texture and fully replaced for each expression.
The voice from the depths of the off ...
Nothing is left to chance. Bank Star was created entirely in-house, including sound design. Although audio is not one of our core competencies, nearly all sounds were produced by our team. For the announcements, for example, an employee willingly stepped into the role of a professional voice actor. The distinctive deep tones were later added in post-production – proof of our team’s quality standards and versatility.
Meta Quest 3
For our VR experience, we deliberately chose the Meta Quest 3 – as Meta’s flagship, it is regularly updated with software upgrades. Its flexibility was a key factor: it runs both standalone and as a PC VR headset, making it perfect for development and trade fair use. Thanks to inside-out tracking, it works without external sensors – just put it on and go. The 2K resolution per eye also ensures a sharp, immersive image. Given the limited market for comparable headsets, the Meta Quest 3 is simply the best choice right now.
Features
Unity
The VR Game Bank Star was created using the versatile Engine Unity Pro.
Meta Quest 3
The VR Game was made for Meta Quest 3, a mixed-reality-headset.
Touch Plus Controller
The Touch-Plus Controllers are campatible with the Quest 3 and provide a precise position tracking.
3D Sound
The integrated 3D-sound completes the immersive VR experience.