The Fundamentals of Game Economy Design

Originally published on userwise.io

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Any mobile game professional worth their salt knows that the economy inside of a game has the power to make or break it. But it’s not just your experience with the industry that tells you how crucial the in-game economy is; it’s your experience as a person. With the real-world economy. 

Even without any mobile game exposure at all, we know that the real-world economy affects our careers, our families, and our trajectories. We know that it affects what we’re offered and what we’re buying, and we know that it affects, in one way or another, every experience we have. 

Since games are designed to be microcosms of life, we instinctively know that their economies will be just as far-reaching. Or that they should be. 

Why? Because, just like with our real-world economy, when an in-game economy is working optimally it isn’t just affecting one aspect of its players’ lives. It isn’t just leaving the game’s monetization tactics maximized or its players interested in buying. What it is doing is affecting everything -- leaving its audience enthralled from a holistic standpoint.

A well-balanced game economy challenges, excites, and fulfills. It provides players with the right amount of friction, and it provides them with the right amount of satisfaction. But most importantly? It keeps them coming back for more.

A strong game economy is integral to your game’s longevity. It’s a huge factor, a huge undertaking, but if you’re daunted -- don’t be. The process of getting it right is involved, but it’s not impossible. 

And that’s why I’m bringing you this Game Economy series.

I know how scary tinkering with a game economy can seem, so I decided to set out and remove its mask. To pull back the curtains and give you the full, 100% transparent tour. So you can get rid of that fear and start taking educated action.

I’ll break down the basics, walk you through the strategies, and give you the tips & tricks that the most successful games running today call their own. I’ll make the process not just possible, but doable for you, and I’ll show you that the ideal game economy is closer than you think.

Not convinced yet? I like you already.

Keep reading and let me prove you wrong.

The Context

Before we dive into the details, we need to make sure you have a handle on the basics -- and that’s where the context comes in. Listen up: as someone who’s genuinely invested in the success of a game, there should be nothing more important to you than nailing its backbone.

What is the backbone of your game? The economy. 

From how and when players are able to buy to what the in-game currency actually is, the minutiae of the economic foundation can be endless. But the most important thing to remember is that they’re all connected by one common goal:

Keep your players coming back.

That’s the singular aim of your economy, and as you work through the multitude of tasks and details, that’s what you should be constantly driving towards. Got it? Good. Let’s get back to those details.

What are they? Who’s in charge of managing them? Who decides their fate, who observes their successes and analyzes their problems, and who keeps their eyes open for different ways to improve? 

Just like the development of your game’s LiveOps, the development of your game’s economy requires cooperation -- in excess. There are tons of different moving parts, tons of different places for things to go wrong, and tons of different hands needed onboard at all times. All of that means that your team better be working together -- and they better be working together well. 

So let's take a look at the DNA of an ideal game economy team. If you already have an all-star team working on your game economy - feel free to skip ahead.

Meet the Team

Game Designers: In charge of all game mechanics and narratives, Game Designers are the directors who call the shots on how the game functions as a whole. But you already knew that. While larger games have specialized Game Economy Designers in-house to determine the details and practices of the economy, smaller games typically allocate these tasks to their general Designers -- so taking it upon yourself to dig deep, pull from the expertise of your team, and adjust as you grow your knowledge is crucial.

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Game Artists: These are the team members that produce the look and feel of your game, these are the experts that bring your economy decisions to (virtual) life -- making the environments worth being in, the items worth purchasing, and the challenges worth winning. The most ‘customer-facing’ role in your team, everything they do is for direct, tangible player consumption. And that means their intentions need to be absolutely aligned with the team’s.

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Game Programmers/QA: The masters of backend cohesion, your Game Programmers and QA people are responsible for making all of your choices, visions, and dreams reality. Working closely with them on all matters relating to the economy is a non-option; without their capabilities and insight, bugs would reign free. Within the state of your game’s economy there should always be a balancing act of trying new things and ensuring the tech’s quality is stable -- and that requires constant communication with your programmers.

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Project Managers & LiveOps Specialists: The brave souls in charge of keeping your game’s content, release schedule, analytics, and adjustments running smoothly at every interval, the Project Managers & LiveOps Specialists must be involved in the molding process of the economy. Why? Because everything they do is contingent on there being a sturdy, relevant, and aligned economic foundation -- so when that foundation is first built or subsequently adjusted, they better be in the know. (And also, since their strategies and offers will directly impact the fabric of the economy, the importance of constant communication goes both ways.)

Depending on the size of your game, the number of people who hold those roles will vary; while a big game will have a team of Game Economy Designers focused solely on designing economy-related systems, balancing numerical indicators, and working on monetization tactics, newer games might only have one general Game Designer attempting to build the economy from scratch. 

In both scenarios, knowledge is key. And as we know from our LiveOps Essentials series, the key to knowledge is planning.

Planning to learn is what gets you learning. Planning to accomplish is what gets you accomplishing. Planning to adjust, to be flexible where you need to be, and to keep an eye out for opportunities to improve is what gets you improving. So take that insight and lock it in.

Let’s come back to the goal we established early on. Keep players coming back. Since we’re planning to accomplish, pinpointing goals is an unmissable step -- so let’s get even more specific. How will you keep players coming back? Day 1 or Day 300, how will you keep them feeling like they’re learning -- and experiencing -- something new? By achieving these four sub-goals:

Seem interchangeable? Seem too similar, or too vague? Then it’s a good thing we still have the rest of the article to go -- hold onto your hats, because we’re about to break down the four steps to implementing a well-balanced game economy. And if you’re guessing that each step is oriented around a sub-goal, you’d be right on the money.

Step 1: Establish the Basics

Beginning our route to a well-balanced game economy, the first step necessitates that all good things come from a sturdy foundation. The sturdy foundation in this case? Knowing, in precise terms, what your basic game values are.

And then quantifying them.

If your eyes are already rolling back in your head, don’t worry -- I promised you simplicity, and that’s what you’re going to get. So let’s take a step back. The first thing to understand is that, in any game genre and in any game structure, your main resource is time.

Remember that spending time is a transaction.

Think about it like this: every time a player enters your game, a transaction occurs. The transaction? Your play session in exchange for their time. The more time they spend playing in the game, the more lucrative the transaction is; the more times they come back into the game and play, the more lucrative your relationship with that player is. 

The bottom line is, you want to keep them playing. So: time is the most sacred, and most important resource.

Knowing that, you need to compare all other game values to time. Maybe those game values are challenges, levels, and rewards; in all cases, you need to determine how long it should take the player to beat, conquer, or earn them. 

That’s where the method of quantifying comes in.

Once you understand how much time each goal your players are working towards demands, you’ll be positioned to finagle the right balance between difficulty and satisfaction. And what will that do? That will keep things interesting. (Yes, that was our first sub-goal call-out. Good eye.)

But in order to take on Step 1 with the confidence -- and acumen -- of someone who knows what they’re doing, you first need to do your homework. As in, you need to get to know your audience. Intimately. What are they after? What’s pulling them in? What energizes them, what annoys them, and what gets their hands reaching towards their virtual wallets?
 

Player Archetypes
 

To answer those hard-hitters, the secret is breaking your playerbase down. Into archetypes.

Take a look: