In the 1990s a group of Dundee-based game developers at DMA Design working on a project called Race'n'Chase had no idea what their finished game was going to look like.

Did they expect that it would become a global phenomenon, spawning multiple sequels and going onto become one of the most iconic video games ever produced?

'Absolutely not,' one of them, Russell Kay, tells This is Money.

Brian Baglow, another of the original creators says: 'There were three things that we were thinking. One: will this game never end? It was like four and a half years of development. Two: is it ever going to work? And that was right up until the end of development.

'And three: is it fun?'

Of course, it did end, it did work, the sales prove that it was most certainly fun. In 1997, Grand Theft Auto was born.

'I think it helped we were a bunch of Scottish kids making a game set in America,' Kay said, 'there was no allegiance to anything, it was just what we thought of America through television…and we threw in everything we could think of.'

Baglow agrees: 'I watched every crime caper, every Tarantino movie that existed at the time…and tried to make enough cultural touch points, trying to throw enough in there that it would strike a chord,' he said.

Strike a chord it did.

'A year [after launch] the game was still selling and sales were going up, and that was completely against the prevailing model at the time, which is you had a six-week window to push as many games as you could then it fell off a cliff,' Baglow said.

'It was word of mouth,' he added.

Grand Theft Auto is the fourth best selling game franchise ever according to Statista, behind only Tetris, Pokémon and Call of Duty, having sold a staggering 435million copies since it first launched.

The sixth main GTA title, Grand theft Auto VI, is pegged for an Autumn 2025 release after years of development, rumours and patient waiting from fans. 

It is fair to the say the franchise has come a long way since its earlier days. 

'GTA one and two were selling the sizzle, not the sausage. I think GTA three was very much selling the sausage,' Kay said. 

While Baglow and Kay are no longer involved with the development of GTA titles, the games are still developed largely in Scotland. 

GTA's developer, Rockstar Games, has an office in Dundee and is headquartered in Edinburgh.

Perhaps even less expected than the success seen by the GTA franchise, is that Baglow and Kay now find themselves swapping in-game sports cars and submachine guns for panels on personal finance.

Last week, the two were panellists at a 'game jam', where participants try to create a video game from scratch, hosted by Lloyds Bank and Scottish Widows.

The event was focused on how gamification features can be used to engage people with their finances.

According to Baglow and Kay, these features could be the key to promoting positive habits among savers.

'Every single child across the UK from the age of five upwards has access to a game, and we spend their entire education trying to dissuade them from gaming. 

'The reality is that games have a much larger role to play in our digital futures than just entertainment,' Baglow said.

He added: 'The tools and technologies from games are now being used in everything from virtual production for movies, to construction, manufacturing, design and healthcare. 

'We could be doing so much more with video games, but we tend to see them in this silo of being digital toys.

'We don't think they have any redeeming social, cultural or educational purposes and it's complete nonsense and it's an artificial construct because they're already being used in all of these different ways.'

Last year, Scottish Widows launched gamification features within its apps in a bid to boost better connect people with their finances, investing £100million in digital engagement and hiring gamification teams to do so.

Most recently, the firm have launched gamification features available for any users of its app, not just Scottish Widows customers.

Can gamification engage people with their finances?

Gamification isn't new, in fact, it has been used in a vast array of different businesses and sectors. In so many cases though, gamification been approached in the wrong way.

'It was corporate marketers who went, "oh, we can gamify anything", and tried to build engagement by giving people badges,' Baglow told This is Money.

'If you're just giving people meaningless rewards that don't have any connection to the activities they're undertaking, gamification doesn't work… it has to be done far more carefully.'

Baglow added: 'When it's done well, we know it can be one of the strongest ways of helping people to learn and engage and reinforce behaviours.

'If you have a fitness band or an Apple watch for walking and running, then you know how compelling it can be.'

Investing in such gamification features within financial services platforms can allow users to simulate different scenarios with their finances without suffering real-world consequences.

Baglow said: 'Unlike in any other medium within a game, you have agency, you get to make decisions and see what the outcomes of those decisions are.'

'This helps people understand the ramifications of what they're actually doing.'

On top of this, using gamification allows platforms to tailor their content to the experience that each unique user has, in a way that traditional platforms can't.

'Whether it's your first time going in or your 100th time going in, your banking app will treat you exactly the same,' Baglow said.

Why gamification of finances now?

The reason for the shift towards gamification comes largely as a result of the prevalence of smartphones in today's society, which offer technology at the fingertips of consumers at all times of day.

With high street banks also increasingly closing branches, banking is increasingly moving online. 

Much the same trend has been seen with investing and wealth management.

Baglow said: 'All of your services are being seen alongside one another: games, social media, music, streaming services and financial services as well. 

'The consumer expectations are changing and there are a lot of ways of making that experience more engaging.'

'Previously you would be sitting in front of a television,' Kay agreed, 'now that we're carrying these devices around, they're with us all the time.

With financial services available at the touch of a button, it is easier than ever for users to access financial services, but providers are forced not only to keep users engaged with their finances, but also to compete with countless other apps looking to steal their attention.

Baglow said: 'The one that probably gets the most headlines and coverage at the moment is TikTok. That algorithm is damn compelling.'

This is where gamification comes in, and financial firms are increasingly catching on.

'We're seeing a lot more financial services companies at game events,' Baglow said.

'It's not that gamification exists to just entertain people, but it's that you're there to hold them by the hand and take them through the application'

'When you go into a game you don't necessarily know what the goal is, but you know there will be one, whether it's a destination, whether it's a score, a bad guy, an enemy, or a mission. 

'You know that you will be told what the goal is and you will be given the tools and the skills you need to achieve it.'