Q: What is the Game Economics System?
A: How do I get the money? How do I spend them? (the money can be seen as anything that can be used for trade if the skill points can be used to upgrade a player's skills, then these points can be seen as money) - from the book <The Art of Game Design> by Jesse Schell
These days I started researching the economic systems in games and this is a YouTube video I watched to learn something basic about the game economic system. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrf1cou_yVo)
If the economy is used well in a game:
shape player's behaviour
change the pace of progression
offer difficult choices
create challenging puzzles
Diagram for the economic system:
Tap:
Adds new resources to the economy
could be:
enemies who drop experience when they died
a factory harvest wood
a regenerating health bar
rocks can split iron
taps can stimulate player's behaviour
if you want to encourage fighting, then let enemies drop booties
if you're going to enable people to explore the world, then put raw materials in the world
taps can change the flow of resources
affect how valuable and scarce the resource is
horror game: rare ammo supply
fast-paced shooting game: abundant ammo
will also affect the pace and balance of the game
bad design will bring bugs
Inventory:
holds resources that the player owns
could be:
Inventory
simple counter - health bar/ coin wallet
need to decide whether have an upper limit or not
give the player a maximum carry weight
force them to put everything in s small bag
Advantages of limiting the inventory:
can push players to make important decisions
prevent players get too much wealth
force them to use the resources and not to carry 1000 potions to the end of the game
Converter:
converts one resource into another
spending money in the shop to buy things
use raw materials to build better weapon
use experience points to level up
the cost of conversion will influence the game pace: if I know how many points to level up & how many points will the enemy drop, then I will know how many enemies to kill to level up
a great way to encourage decision-making in the player
in the shop, you need to carefully decide how much to spend
bad example:
Ghost of Tsushima:
has 13 types of materials but they mostly link to a specific upgrade
the player doesn't have to make decisions about how to use these materials (upgrading one gear doesn't affect upgrading another)
https://ghostoftsushima.fandom.com/wiki/Gold?file=Gold.jpg
good example:
Metro Exodus
only has 2 raw materials and many things to create using just these 2 materials
so players need to be smart and intentional while making decisions about what to build
Having a lot of supplies can encourage players to explore or make conversions much more
https://www.shacknews.com/article/109964/how-to-craft-ammo-and-items-in-metro-exodus
if you want to let players make good decisions: have fewer raw materials and many things can be built
What if players with stronger abilities and props return to the previous sections they just came from?
Cookie clicker
roguelike games with permanent progression
3 wise ways:
turning to a puzzle (factorial: Start from scratch by mining a small amount of coal and iron, convert it into various plates, and then use these new resources to build drills and furnaces - repeating the same process more efficiently)
games like Stardew Valley are fun: challenge payers to figure out how to be more efficient
create negative feedback loops: the output is used to balance the system to a default state
in Elden ring, the player needs more and more experience points to get to the next level and forcing the players to explore and fight with stronger enemies to get more points (image below)
the level- up system of Elden Ring from the video
slow down by implementing another economic entity
Drain
Drain:
Permanently removes resources from the economy
breakable weapons
health or units loss
paying taxes or feeding citizens
reduce the ammo count when shooting
the drain will send the player back to tap, but without getting stronger
slows the player's power growth
they have to spend time to make back the loss
drain can let players get on an act
a hunger value: make players find food (Subnautica) (image below)
https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/HUD?file=New_hud.jpg
crops that died over time: make players have better time management (Stardew Valley) (image below)
https://retrovolve.com/stardew-valley-16-tips-for-beginners/
weapons that will break after some time of usage: make players try more weapons and explore the world to find the alternatives(The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild) (image below)
https://game8.co/games/LoZ-BotW/archives/292543
The drain also represents risks:
in Elden Ring: experience will be lost when the player dies (acts a real-world danger)
in Death Stranding: taking a huge number of packages is tempting but it will increase the risk of falling and boxes can be destroyed, the player is at risk of losing everything
Drains can also bring a positive feedback loop:
accelerated in losing resources, not gaining them (Don't Starve)
when players lose money, they are less compatible with others (Monopoly)
Trader:
buys and sells resources with its own desires
different traders in different areas can have different prices (players can buy resources at a cheap price in some areas) (The Witcher 3)
have the same problem of a positive feedback loop of a player turning very rich
in moonlighter: when the player sells an object a lot, the price of this item will drop in the market
players can buy turnips on Sunday and sell them at different prices in Nook shop before they turn spoiled- a small stock market (animal cross) (image below)
https://www.polygon.com/animal-crossing-new-horizons-switch-acnh-guide/2020/3/20/21181835/selling-turnips-stalk-market
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